CT and Boston 2011 Part 1

Now that we're home I have uploaded all my vacation photos (some 400 photos - yikes!) and am now ready to post them. Don't worry, I'm not posting 400 photos. A lot of the photos I've ended up deleting or were photos of nature that belong in my "MK Photos" folder. I had to do a lot of "test" shots because starting on Friday at Boston I switched completely to manual mode. Before then I had normally shot on the one automatic setting (my camera has three) which allowed me to change some things like flash and darker or lighter. But I couldn't change the ISO or the F-stop or shutter speed or WB. On Friday at Boston I kept getting frustrated b/c the pictures weren't coming out the way I wanted. So I switched over to the "M". And actually it went quite well. And the pictures came out better than ever! Anyway onto the pictures.  Lets start at the very begining:

Driving There (7 1/2 hours)
Now, usually it's a 5 hour trip, but we had several stops including a long dinner stop plus we got stuck in a large amount of traffic in CT and at one point it took us 45 min. to go 15 miles.

Don't be fooled by this picture! Joey hates the car and was not happy for most of the trip.

Ben, Max and Rose were content for most of the trip watching TV.

John Paul was watching me upload the pictures and when he saw this one he said "Wow, I look drugged out!" lol!

Most years we can't see much of NYC but this time it was pretty clear and we got a clearish view of the skyline. (It was clearer than it is in the picture. The picture is slightly blurry b/c we were driving 60mp/h, the bridge was bumpy, and I took it through a dirty tinted window. :)

After 7 1/2 hours we arrived:

 The Spinny Chairs
Yes, yes, I know "spinny" is not exactly a word, but that's what we've always called these infamous chairs. Grandad and G have had these chairs for years, they have always been there. There's pictures of us sitting on them when me and Cecilia were babies.

Rose standing next to the "spinny" chairs.

Maybe a bit random, but someday I'll miss that couch.

The pictures describe themselves.

As to why I painted in yellow triangles, well lets just say Rosie's skirt flew up a bit to high and I had to cover it in something. But I had to post the pictures because her expressions are priceless!

Crabbing
Every year it seems we go crabbing at the West Wharf. Last year the West Wharf was closed due to construction on a hotel. But this year, although they are still working on the hotel, the Wharf was open.  

Grandad and G

Crabbing. The water in the tidal pool was warm enough to sit and splash in unlike the freezing ocean temperatures.

Joey LOVED the water. He had absolutely no fear and charged in. He loved splashing and playing in the water.

Daddy crabbing.

Part of the West Wharf

Benny loves digging and so the beach was heaven for him. He could dig as much as he wanted.

LaSalette Shrine
For anybody that doesn't know, the LaSalette Shrine is special to my dad because it's where the Steubenville East Conference was held every year for (I think) 12 or 13 years and my dad took the youth group to it every year. The first year I could go was the first year we actually went to Steubenville campus so nobody in our family besides my dad had ever been to the LaSalette shrine.

It's a beautiful, huge shrine and my dad wanted to show us around, unfortunatly we got there too late to look around Thursday night, but Friday morning we had a little bit of time to look around before heading off to Boston.

I asked Benny to give me a nice smile and this is what he gave me. Actually out of the three pictures I took this was the best. That should tell you something about his sanguine little personality!

On the Subway
The subway ride was Ben's and Rose's (and probably Joey's) favorite part of the day.

Notice Max and his evil twin in the background?

John Paul is so funny. He never smiles for real in front of the camera, instead he gives these hilarious faces!

Rose could not get over the fact that there were no seat belts. She was so excited about being allowed to stand. We were on the subway for a while and halfway through she started swinging on the pole. :)

This is Max. Crazy, wild, funny, and energetic.

Boston
We spent all Friday in Boston. I took way to many pictures. I'll will just post a few right now and perhaps later I'll make a new post with more about Boston. :)

And that is all I have time for tonight. I will have to do Part 2 sometime soon (hopefully) because I have yet more pictures of Boston plus pictures of our last two days in CT after Boston. :)
Love,
Mary Kate