This past weekend in Boston was more than I could ever hope for. Here is how our weekend got started. Well first of all, all week long I cleaned the house because who wants to come home to a dirty house? When when you have two living hurricanes named Isaiah and Nathanael who is able to keep their house clean? All week the days went like this...mommy cleans a room and moves to a new room which translates into ooh there is a new room for us to play in. So needless to say the house isn't exactly as clean as I would like it to be but it is decent. So on Friday I spent the morning packing for everybody and Alex worked a half day only to come home and pack things in the car for me. I will pack the luggage but he has to make the luggage fit. Haha. After everything was packed and we were all ready to go we left to have lunch at Ninety-Nine so we can be in the area of where we are supposed to meet the other two ladies going to Boston. We met up with them around 2:30 and got on the road. The trip down was pretty laid back and a fairly easy one until we got to this one toll and I went into the wrong lane and couldn't get to the lane I needed to be in but thankfully there was someone in this lane and he took my money and let me through. I went through an EZ pass lane instead of a cash lane. Well once I leave and began driving on this bridge I am trying to figure out where I am supposed to be but by this time the traffic was really busy because we were entering the heart of Boston. I nearly started having a heart attack when this nice car let me in his lane. He didn't so much let me in as much as I forced myself in that lane and to avoid hitting me he slowed down. North Easterners do not believe in letting you in so you have to force yourself in and that is the only way you will get in. I made it in the lane I was supposed to be in at the perfect time because as soon as I got in I was exiting at the place I was supposed to be at. Well we get to the street we are supposed to be at when I finally notice The Marriott (the hotel we are staying at) but can't figure where to park. (For those of you who don't know there is pretty much no where to park in Boston and in my personal opinion there is no need to have a vehicle unless you need to travel out of Boston.) I finally found this parking lot and Alex of course is frustrated with me because he sees a sign that says it is going to cost $8/hour to park in this garage but I didn't see it and went in anyway. I parked the car and was nearly sweating because I just felt a rush from the traffic. We get out of the car and decide to walk in to the hotel to find out where I need to go. The thing we didn't know is that this garage was attached to the hotel and when I asked them where to park he gave me two options. Option one was to park in the garage I was at and leave it there for $22/day or option two was to use the valet service the hotel offers for $30/day but I could come and go as I please with my vehicle. We chose option 1 because there was no way I was going to be driving in Boston. So it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. =) After checking into the hotel we return to the car to get the luggage and head for our room on the 11th floor. (I took pictures but I will have to post those later because I took those on a disposable camera.) After settling in we were ready to go figure out how I was going to get to the conference. The other ladies who were traveling with us decided to have dinner first and then we met up to go to the conference. We chose to use the T (the subway of Boston) to get there and Alex and the kids joined us to experience the T. Isaiah loved it and was so excited to see the train and actually ride it. We finally made it to the conference about 8:30ish so Alex and the boys waited in the bus station for us but the boys loved it because they were chasing each other around and they had a new area to play in. The conference was so neat but by the time it ended that first night I was ready to go to the hotel because I was tired. We find the T station to get back home but on the way home it was ridiculously crowded because a lot of women were on this and we were so crowded that when we got to our exit we were nearly trampled over. We made it home safely and finally around 12:30-1:00 am we all fell asleep.
Saturday
We wake up and start getting ready for the day only to hear the birthday boy singing to us. We picked him up and sang Happy Birthday to him. This is how the day went for him.
7:30 am Wake up and take a shower and wait for my brother to get showered and dressed. I want to see what the day has for me.
7:45 am Change clothes after getting drenched by my brother
8:00 am Head downstairs to eat Breakfast and Mrs. Marla gives me a birthday gift but I think my brother wants to use my gift.
8:30 am Say goodbye to mommy so she can go to her conference (Later I find out that Isaiah was devastated when I left and couldn't believe I had gone somewhere without him)
Aleida is speaking - During the time that I was gone for the first couple of sessions of the conference there was a speaker who was the actress of the weekend and she did this skit that basically summarized my life at the moment. I laughed at how this skit was the perfect description of what I was going through. The skit was basically about a woman who is losing her mind because of all the daily things she has going on in her life but the part the stuck out the most was when the woman in the skit remembered Isaiah 26:3. When this scripture was read I nearly wept because I needed to be reminded of this and it made me realize that I need to start memorizing more scriptures especially for those days that I feel like I am going to lose my mind. Isaiah 26:3 says You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. How wonderful is that? He trusts me with my beautiful boys the same boys that I say are making me lose my mind. As long as I put my mind on him he will give me that peace I need. I was so convicted and my heart broke because I was and still am guilty of not always keeping my mind on him.
1:30 pm Mommy comes home to have lunch with me
2:30 pm Mommy leaves back to the conference
Aleida speaks again -- During this portion of the conference the same woman mentioned above does another skit on how the tongue can spread fires. James 3:5b-6 Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. This skit just basically showed how such words can just set fires to another's spirit. I nearly broke again because more so lately have I been one to lash out in anger or hurt. I have been so discouraged these past couple of months with all the trials that we have encountered that there have been days that I say something to someone I love and immediately know I shouldn't have said it because the words I said crushed the other. This was a harsh reality for me and I realized I just don't want to ever say something to the point where it makes my children feel like they can't accomplish something because of something I said to them.
3:00 pm Isaiah needs naps but I don't need one because it is my birthday
5:30 pm Mommy gets home and is finished with the conference so now it is all about me
6:30 pm We leave to find a restaurant to eat at but it was such a long walk around the city that I finally fell asleep
7:30 pm We finally chose a restaurant and now we wait for our food
8:30 pm We see a Baskin Robbins and have to buy me a cake to celebrate and then find the T so we can get home because it was too long of a walk
9:00 pm We eat ice cream cake and it is so yummy
9:45 pm We went swimming because the pool didn't close until 11:00 pm
10:20 pm I want to go to bed so mommy and I get out of the pool
10:30 pm We head to the room so we can get another shower
11:00 pm Get a second wind
12:00 am Finally fall asleep
1:30 am Fire alarms go off so I need to see what is going on
2:30 am Finally go to sleep but for real this time
Sunday
Sunday morning Alex and I decide to get up around 8:00am because we were so exhausted from the day before. We knew we didn't have much time to do a lot that we wanted to do so we got ready for the day and repacked all of our things and got them in the car. When we were checking out of the hotel we filed some complaints/suggestions for the hotel and they in return gave us complimentary breakfasts so we made our way back upstairs to the restaurant and had breakfast. After we were done eating we decided to get the boys changed so we can start our outing. We ultimately decided to catch the T and we exited near Boston Common Park and walked the Freedom Trail - The Path to Independence where we got to see the State House, the burial ground of Paul Revere, the building where the Boston Tea Party began, Faneuil Hall, the Paul Revere home, the Old North Church, and we ended at the USS Constitution. It was such a fun experience and the walk was free so that was music to our ears. When we finished touring the USS Constitution we made our way back over a bridge and found the closest T to get back to the hotel so we can get our car. We wanted to avoid being charged for another day so we made our way back with an hour to spare. We left Boston and headed home and we finally made it back last night around 6:30 pm. The entire time we were walking Alex and I just kept telling each other how grateful we were to have that day to spend together. There was so much more we wanted to do but with the lack of funds and time we decided we would have to try to make it again at a later time before we move away from the Northeastern area. Well I know this was a long post but I hope you are blessed by reading this. Hope you are having a great day.
Benavides Family
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