Category: Family

Planning a Family Trip to Boston

This year, our 18 year wedding anniversary aligns with the kid having a couple days off school, so obviously I had to check to see if there were any cheap plane fares to ANYWHERE fun for a long week. I checked a dozen or so potential destinations before selecting Boston.

Why Boston? Well, it will be the fall so the foliage will most likely be beautiful. The price was right. It’s a pretty darn quick flight, at just 90 minutes each way. By flying in early in the morning and leaving later at night, we get to enjoy three full days and two nights in the city.

I’ve actually visited Boston previously for a work conference but had very limited time to go out and about. However, without even realizing it, on a happy coincidence I booked the exact same hotel that I stayed at previously! Our home base will the be the Boston Marriott Copley Place and we plan to do our exploring on foot or by public transportation instead of renting a car.

Here’s what is on our possible adventure list:

  • Food tasting tour – as much as I would absolutely love to do a guided food tasting tour with a company, they seem to run about $100 a person… so $300 for our group is just too much for us. We want to eat ALL the foods though, so I think we might do a self-guided food tasting tour. Maybe one day will be pizza and another cannoli? I’m not sure yet and need to do some research.

Some places that people on Threads have suggested we visit: Galleria Umberto, Bova’s Bakery, Monica’s Trattoria, Pagliuca’s, Sail Loft, Formaggio Kitchen (for a picnic to take to a park), dumplings in Chinatown, Faneuil Hall’s Quincy Market, Clear Flour Bakery, Union Square Donuts, Harvest (for burgers), Eastern Edge Food Hall, Bowmarket Somerville. So it looks like I have some googling to do.

  • Walk Around – Copley Square Farmers’ Market, Boston Public Garden, Newbury Street, Beacon Hill, etc… it will be peak fall foliage time, so all the walking and exploring will be on the plan.
  • Shopping – There’s lots of fun stores to check out around Copley Square, so we will probably poke our heads into anything that looks interesting. The Boston Open Market sounds cool with over 50 artisan vendors. Last time I was in Boston, I also went to a Goodwill that was ginormous (1010 Harrison Ave), so we will probably stop by there too.
  • Segway Tour? – I did a Segway tour back in 2017 when I was in San Francisco for a conference and have wanted to do one with Travis and Jack ever since. There are a couple Segway tour options in Boston, but I’m not sure if we will feel too rushed to schedule one on this trip.

So, it’s pretty clear I still have a bunch of research left to do for our October trip. Or, it could just be all lobster rolls and waterfront strolls…

If you have recommendations of places to see, stores to shop, or food to eat, please let me know!

Jack’s First Day of 9th Grade

And just like that, Jack has started high school!

This year, I actually was not planning to blog about Jack’s first day of school. However, when I told him that high school was probably a good cut off for it, he said ABSOLUTELY NOT and wanted me to continue sharing. So, here we go… back to school and the start of high school!

If he looks taller than our end-of-school post in June, it’s because he shot up 2 more inches over the summer, bringing him to a height of 5’9” so far. Which is officially 2 inches taller than me (and he’s quite smug about it). Of course, we’re expecting him to continue growing like a weed, as Travis is 6’4” and Jack currently eats like a never-ending pit.

Jack also got his braces off at the beginning of the summer. Oh and yes, his hair is wet in the photo because high school starts SO DANG EARLY! His bus comes before 7am, which seems completely inhumane.

One cool thing about starting high school, is that it is the first time he’s able to choose his path/focus/electives, so this year looks quite STEM heavy with classes in Business Communications & Keyboarding, Honors Geometry, Exploring Computer Science, and Honors Conceptional Physics.

As always, I’m hoping that he finds *his people* with making friends and just overall high school success. Also, I’d REALLY like to not hear from the high school principal this year. At all. For any reason.  

So, fingers crossed for an awesome year!

What Should I Add to My ‘Teenage Boy Independence’ List?

My awesome kiddo is 14 years old and almost out of school for the summer, so now is a perfect time to do a little ‘Independence’ training. I refuse to raise a butthole who uses weaponized incompetence on their partner, friends or families in the future… so I’m doing my part by making sure I don’t release a manchild into the wild.

Our Current Summer Plans

First off, YES my kid will have plenty of time to be a kid. I am fully on board with what we call ‘gremlin time’ at home – curl up on the couch in your comfies and play all the videogames and watch all the TV you want!

However, on workdays he also gets a daily chore list each morning. We’ve been doing this for the past few years and it works out great for us. I write a list each morning and he completes the tasks sometime during the day. It is usually 4-5 tasks and past chores have included: emptying the dishwasher, cleaning his room, purging old toys, taking out the trash, vacuuming, etc. I also include more ‘fun’ chores like: read for 20 minutes, create art with something, try to teach the dog a trick, etc.

Other stuff he does over the summer: local library activities (last year had a cool pottery day), a couple half-day, week-long video game programing classes at the local community college, and being a ‘mommy’s helper’ to my siblings with their smaller kids a couple times each month. On these days, he don’t have to do chores.

This year, Jack is planning to try out for the cross country team in high school, so I’m planning to have him join me on my workouts and also assign him regular runs to help him add on some mileage.

Okay, so now that you know our ‘normal routine’ let’s get to my question:

What Life Skills Should a Teenager Know How to Do?

This summer I really want to add on a couple independent life skills to his typical chore list. Here’s a couple that I’ve thought of:

  • Laundry – Jack has his own laundry basket in his room and will tell me when he’s getting low on clean clothes. I think this summer I’m going to put him in charge of his own laundry from start to finish. This is an important life skill for college and when he’s on his own… and also takes something off my plate. Win, win!
  • Bake a Weekly Dessert – He can be in charge of making one homemade dessert each week to have on hand for snacking. Current favorites include homemade rice Krispie treats (made with peanut butter chocolate cereal) and brownies. He can 100% take on the task of deciding on a baked good, making it and cleaning up after himself. It encourages him to find recipes, follow them with the appropriate measurements, etc. And maybe he’ll even get the baking bug and start finding some fun/interesting recipes!

I’d love to know, what independent life skills have you tasked your kids and teenagers with? By adding a little bit at a time, I’m hoping for a fully formed human being by time he goes out into the world!