Coop and I are back in Texas! It’s amazing.

I’ll be honest – I really was a little sad to leave Boston for the summer, and I already miss certain things and people and whatnot… But man. Life is just so so so good in Texas. Backyards, warm weather, parking lots, Chick fil a, my peeps… Although, we are missing Jordan BIG TIME. He’s been swamped with finals and packing up our apartment for the summer. Poor guy.

We had Chris and Amy’s Couples Shower this past weekend. It was a perfect evening with so many wonderful friends… I didn’t want it to end! And oh my goodness – we have the most creative friends EVER. Check it.

Since we were here for Christmas, FOUR of our sweet friends have welcomed precious babies into the world. So there was a lot of baby passing around going on. Pretty wonderful stuff.

These two grilled up some tasty burgers

Chris and Amy! And Ella presenting them with her and Elli’s “special sandwich” :)

I love taking pictures of these two for their wedding slideshow :)

The hostesses

When Jordan and I went to Newport a few weeks ago, Jordan’s lovely family (Nana, Papa, Aunt Berniece and Na-Na) came to hang with Cooper while we had a weekend to ourselves. So sweet, right?? It felt so good to leave town knowing that our boy would be loved on by so many wonderful people. They stayed a few days before and after our Newport trip so they could explore Boston. My only regret is that I didn’t take hardly any pictures!! They had most of their adventures while we were gone, so I’m hoping they at least took some :)

Then my mom came to visit! We celebrated a friend’s first birthday party in Scituate, MA, and the home it was at was literally on the beach!! It was so fun to see a different part of this area (and try to convince myself it wasn’t freezing cold in May).

We walked around Harvard Square during Mayfair – a fun festival with live music and street performers and whatnot. So that was fun to see!

Ahhh Boston Gardens. It’s always so beautiful here. But in the spring?? Oh.My.Goodness. It was magical, guys!!

We fed the ducks… Actually, Cooper ate the bread and Mimi and I fed the ducks ;)

You might recognize this precious family from a few months ago.

Here are some of my favorites from our session. Spring has officially sprung!!

It’s so sad to see all these second year peeps moving onto their next stage of life. But I’m sure glad I get to take their pictures here in Boston before they peace out.
Here they are, folks. Trendy, adorable, and so so so in love.

I had to showcase their goofyness, too.

It really kind of blows my mind when I think about the time we met the Dormos. We lived in Texas and were visiting Boston for ASW (admitted students weekend), and I was still pretty hesitant with this whole moving-to-Boston thing. One of the nights we were in Boston, a lot of the different clubs through HBS were having little hang outs, and we stopped by the Christian Fellowship social. That’s where we met the Dormos, and I immediately felt at ease after talking to them. God definitely used these peeps to get me more excited about HBS.

And look how cute they are. Oh my.

Guys I’m on a roll. Three posts in one day??! Can you tell I’m avoiding unpacking my bag and doing laundry, or what?

Every year, Newport Ball happens. It’s a super fun weekend for the RCs (required curriculum aka first year students) at HBS in Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is a darling little town right on the coast, and we stayed in a Bed and Breakfast right off the town square. Jordan’s mom, aunt, and grandma (party!!) all came to hang with Cooper for the weekend while we were gone. Aren’t they amazing?

We drove into Newport, got ready for the ball, and headed to the venue where the ball took place. Jordan, Sarah, and their executive team arrived early for a little tour of the place, so I got to ride on their coattails and take pretty pictures of the sunset before everyone else arrived.

These guys.

I sure do love these ladies!

Jordan wore his Paw-Paw Ray’s tie clip. Pretty snazzy.

The next morning, we toured one of the Newport Mansions. This was their backyard… whaaaat?! It was pretty unbelievable. Although, I’m not gonna lie… All I could think about was Downton Abbey :)

Saturday night we had a clam bake – horseshoe, washers, bean bag toss (which people call cornhole up here??) and lobster! No clams though… never figured that one out.

It was SUCH a fun weekend – definitely a once in a lifetime kind of trip. I’m so thankful we have family to love on our Coop while we were gone, and send us pictures of him eating ice cream and whatnot :)

Get ready for some randomness.

This was taken a few weeks ago, but it was such a happy day. It was one of the sunniest, warmest days we’ve had in a while, and nearly every kiddo was at the park on campus. Oh happy day!

This was April 15 -  Boston Marathon. We were at mile 24, watching so many hard-working, dedicated runners accomplish their dream. Who knew it would turn into such a devastating day.

Coop and the twins getting their match on. How cute are these turquoise toddlers??

more sweet friends on campus.

The Texas Club hosted a Texas Chili Cookoff… it was so fun to be outside and enjoy the sunshine with our friends! Poor Coop was about 2 hours past his nap so I kept giving him cookies, like any good mom would do.

I’m a little behind on this post, since the Hamiltons left literally a week ago… but better late than never, right??

My sister’s family bravely came to visit us in Boston the same week of the Boston Marathon bombing. The fact that they came made me feel so loved, considering the weird state Boston was in. It was their first time to fly with their 3-month-old, Molly. She did awesome, and was such a champ the whole weekend!

They flew into town Thursday, and late Thursday night was when there was a shooting at MIT (which is about 2 miles from where we live). We went to bed not knowing the shooting was related to the bombing, but nonetheless, it was a weird night. Throughout the night, I heard siren after siren go by our apartment. I mean, literally hundreds of emergency vehicles. In my half-asleep stupor, I didn’t think to get up and watch the news at 3 a.m., but I knew something was going on. We all woke up Friday to learn that bombers were on the loose and all of Boston was in lock down until concluded the man hunt. Welcome to Boston, Jen, Stu & Molly.

Even though it was a little scary knowing that all the police were doing a door-to-door search nearly 3 miles from us, we weren’t complaining too much because we got to spend a lot of time staring at my sweet niece. Man, she’s cute.

Although trucks are Cooper’s main love in life, he was still pretty fond of Molly. It’s so fun to think about all the cousin adventures these two will have some day!

This girl has one sweet smile. And at the drop of a hat, she’ll stick out that bottom lip and I can’t help but laugh (or take a picture, obviously).

Ohhh sweet Molly cuddles.

As we were nearing the end of lockdown Friday, our fire alarm started going off. Seriously? I mean, I’ll admit I was a little bit excited that we got to go outside and all, but still… a little crazy. There was, in fact, a fire on the 11th floor. Jen & Stu are seriously troopers. As we were standing outside, probably 20 police cars sped by us and men with guns were running by us. When we got back up to the apartment, we turned the news on to find out that they found the bomber, and he was a few miles down the road hiding in a boat. SO BASICALLY the time we probably shouldn’t have been outside, we most definitely were. Drama drama drama. And Molly was eating dinner… no big deal.

We started off Saturday with a bang and went to the Samuel Adams Brewery tour. The actual tour part was under construction, so we basically went to go drink free beer at 10 a.m. with our kids. We try to keep it classy around here, guys.

Then we went to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play the Royals. It was pretty inspiring, being around so many people with crazy Boston pride. Everyone was so nice and smiley, and proud to be a part of this city.

We ate at Mr. Bartley’s burgers in Harvard Square for dinner. Seriously delicious burgers.

We finished up the night walking around Harvard undergrad, and Harvard Business School. These dads take strolling pretty seriously :)

Stuart had a good point about our weekend. He said, “you know, in a few years we wont sit around talking about a certain park we went to in Boston. But we most definitely talk about the time we were on lockdown and a bomber was found a few miles from where we were while we were standing outside because of a fire.” (Imagine that being said in his British accent… it’ll sound a lot cooler). It’s true though! We loved sharing those crazy memories with these peeps.

It’s a bittersweet place here at HBS. All of the second-year families have one foot out the door and will be making a new place their home. I know that at the end of our time here in Boston, I’ll be wanting some photos of our family to capture this special place and time in our lives, and I’m so happy I get to do that for other families as well.

You might recognize this sweet family from my last post – Cooper & Elliott’s birthday party.

Are you kidding me?! Elliott takes cute to a whole new level!

A few months ago, Jenny (Elliott’s momma) and I were talking birthdays, and the idea of a joint birthday party came up. Of course our boys love all the same things – cars, trains, tractors, etc., so that made it easy. The more we talked about it, the more fun it got (and the crazier we got, of course). I think our husbands appreciated us having each other as well :) The sad part is that these guys are moving in TWO weeks, because Allen is a second year at HBS and they’re peacing out. Sad day. But I’m super thankful we got to make some good memories with them this year!

Guys, I’m about to post a lot of pictures.

The invites:

Here are the birthday boys and their families

Setting everything up got a little crazy… I was quickly reminded of Cooper’s First Birthday Party, when I had my family in town, along with my sweet in-laws, and a few friends who all help set up. Needless to say, Jenny and I were maybe running around towards the end trying to make sure we had time to get home and change out of our rained-on homeless-looking attire. It all came together :)

We had the party in McCullough Hall – a dorm lounge on campus. I guess when you have a party at HBS, there’s bound to be a portrait of someone above the fireplace – Mr. McCullough, everyone.

After about cupcake number 5 (give or take 10), it was a little tricky to get a family pic :)

Sarah was “the fun aunt” and pushed Coop all around the room. Not an easy task, my friends. And the bottom left cracks.me.up. Cooper and Elliott have a funny little friendship :) Sharing is hard, guys!!

Here were a few signs indicating the party was over. And Cooper was officially over-served.

A big thanks to all of our sweet friends who came and celebrated with us!! We loved making memories with all of you.