*primeras visitas!

Ben's parents were here last weekend for a short visit. SO encouraging and comforting to have family here. Seriously I feel like we've moved abroad - it's just so far away.

The girls were so incredibly excited to have them here!  They talked about it a ton beforehand, wondering when they'd arrive. We didn't send Vera to school that morning, which was good - it turned out to be a pretty big snowstorm and there was no school the next day either.  Ben spent an hour trying to get on the freeway that morning to pick them up at the airport - he ended up coming home and they took the train - toting his surfboard the whole way :)

Showing them everything in their room: 

The first day the storm was still blowing and so we decided to spend the day inside at the MFA.  It was an adventure just getting to the train station and on the train!  I don't think anyone expected as much snow as we got.

lunch in the museum cafeteria:

These are out of order, but too hard to fix.  This was our last night at an Italian place in the North End.  It was a bit of a gamble as I googled "best italian in north end" and went with one that looked like it had sincere reviews.  It was called Terra Mia - really delicious and quaint and we had a perfect little table in the window.  This plain ol' spaghetti you see here was de.li.cious. I ate a bit of it myself before bed that night :)

Saturday we walked around Cambridge and Harvard.  Ben and I went to have a beer at a tavern and Mike, Rosie and the girls went to a Peets to have a snack and read some new stories they'd bought.  How sweet is this one?

It was a beautiful crisp and clear day - here we are next to the Charles River.

Edie after taking a dive in the mud. Poor baby had it from head to toe :(

on the Harvard campus:

This was actually our first night. We still don't really know the area that well and with the snowstorm and high tides/flooding along the coastline it was hard to know where to go eat. Mike especially loves seafood, so we went to a random place mentioned in a local tourist brochure. It was such a winner!!! Basically a super fresh fish market that has restaurant space.  Everyone was more than happy with their meal :)

my crabcake sandwich:

*:)