New England Trip for Reunion Weekend!

Over Memorial Day Weekend we headed back to New England for a 10 day vacation which included lots of time with family and friends. We kicked off the weekend with a BBQ at the Borish Home with fellow members of the Noble Class of 1997 (Melissa's high school friends). It was a blast to catch up with everyone, to celebrate two pregnancies, and to have all the kids run around the yard and play in the bouncy house. Here is a photo from the end of the night

(Alexis, Claire, Luke, Abby, Brandon)

We spent a lot of time on the farm with Melissa's family enjoying the company of Claire's grandparents, great grandparents, uncle & aunt, and her cousins. Claire's favorite part of the farm was the three sheep that her Papa had bought for her. She would command that we go see them with the simple instruction of "BAA BAA GO GO" and running to the door.

We also celebrated Memorial Day with two parades, the first one Melissa's nephew Tyler marched with the band in and the second one Melissa's grandfather (Papa to Claire) rode in. After the parades we packed up everyone and headed to have a picnic at HIlton Head Park.

We spent our 3rd wedding anniversary at the beach, walking the Marginal Way, enjoying lobster rolls and spending lots of time on the beach where Claire loved to chase birds, while yelling BIRDS and splashing through the tidal pools. It was so much fun that we returned the next day with my grandparents!

We were also lucky enough to have some time with Pete, Theresa Isabella, Martha, and Pascal at a BBQ at the Huang Home on Memorial Day evening and then Pete, Theresa, and Isabella introduced us to this great hole in the wall seafood place in Kittery on our anniversary. We enjoyed clam rolls, lobster rolls, calamari, lobster quesadilla and chowders.

(Claire and Isabella at dinner)

On Thursday we headed down to Boston to kick off reunion weekend at Simmons and MIT, but our first stop was the New England Aquarium. We had fun running around the giant fish tank and catching the sea lion show.

On Friday we headed out to Drumlin Farm by Walden Pond with Kerry, Grace, Jen, and Autumn. It was a blast watching the kids enjoy the chickens, sheep, pigs, cows, and goats!

Later that night we headed over to Simmons for tea in Dix Hall with the ladies and then to the Welcome Dinner with the whole crew. It was great to be back on campus and see all the changes that have occurred.

(Possibly the future generation of Dix Chics- Grace Fagan, Claire, and Autumn Shapiro)

On Saturday we spent the day at MIT, where Dave listened to lectures, Claire played in the kids area (Check out the face and arm paintings), we took a walk around the halls of MIT, toured the wind tunnel, and took part in the Tech Challenge Games (building paper air planes, building a contraption to launch angry birds, a Pi race were all part of the fun ). All in all it was a great day!

We capped off the weekend with brunch with the Simmons Ladies and their wonderful families! Hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we all roamed Boston together and now there is a future generation of strong girls that may go on to become strong Simmons Women (or MIT geeks)