A Little of This and That in November

It's already taken me much too long to write up this month's update, so let's launch right in, shall we? Highlights from November included . . . 

Performing . . . at our annual piano recital. We had some firsts this time: Ian performed a couple of pieces, Max did not perform at all (he has given up the piano, and I am okay with it), and Addie and I performed the concerto she has been working on for many months (and spoiler, she auditioned for the high school's concerto night and was selected as one of the soloists!). I became a little emotional at the end of the recital as I talked about the joy that music can bring whether it's a long, complicated concerto or a short, simple song. I felt like a full range of abilities and ages and genres were represented at the recital, and it was really rewarding to see it all come together. 

Buying . . . a special present for Maxwell. I'll share more about it next month, but here's a little clue:

Earning . . . money. Clark got a little job taking care of some chickens for a week and a half. He loved going over every day to feed them, gather their eggs, and carry them around. He enjoyed it so much he probably would have done it for free, so imagine the thrill when he was paid $60 and also given a Swiss army knife that the owners had picked up on their vacation in Switzerland (plus some Swiss chocolate). Clark has been wanting a pocket knife for ages, so he hung onto that little knife for hours, taking it out of its box and admiring its multiple tools and then putting it safely away.

Feeling . . . quite moved by the primary program. For the third year in a row, I helped organize and carry out the primary program. It was maybe my favorite one. The Book of Mormon has been the course of study this year, so it was also the focus of the primary program. We used the additional verses of Book of Mormon stories to help transition between classes--the children sang a verse while the next class walked to the microphone. Each class focused on a different Book of Mormon prophet and shared what they learned from them and especially how their stories helped them follow Jesus' example of love and kindness. My favorite moment of the program was when one of the kids in the oldest class sang a verse to "I Find Jesus Here" and then all the primary children and teachers joined in on the chorus. 

Guiding . . . the kids to school. Clark is on the safety patrol this year, and he takes the job quite seriously. Besides his regular shift, he helped lead the way to school on Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day. We started off with breakfast at someone's house, and then Clark and a couple other safety patrol kids gathered everyone, held up their bright orange flags, and walked to school. Clark had a megaphone and everything. 

Voting . . . in the election. And since I'd rather not open up a political discussion here, that's all I will say. 

Touring . . . the Garff Ferrari dealership. The youth in our neighborhood got to look at (and even sit in!) a bunch of Ferraris. The CEO lives in our neighborhood and invited the teenagers to come and learn about having a career in business. 

Coughing . . . our way through the month. Most of us caught the most horrendous, awful, violent, lengthy cough. Aaron was the first one to get it on or around the 25th of October (I only know this date because I know he had the cough for Monster Mash), and he still had it at the end of November. He went to the pediatrician around week three of it, and he thought it was walking pneumonia and gave him an antibiotic. Sadly, the antibiotic did nothing for him. The cough came with no other symptoms, but we give our apologies if you spent any time with us during the month of November. 

Joining . . . jazz band. Max has not been in jazz band this year. It was the thing he loved most in junior high, but he didn't audition for it in high school because he wanted to see how he liked band in general before committing to something extra. But turns out, he still loves band. He loves it so much that he volunteered to be in the pit for the school musical (it was A Christmas Story, and, side note, we went and saw it, and I liked it so much more than the movie). Anyway, at the end of one of the pit rehearsals, the band teacher called Max over to him and asked, "Max, how would you like to be in jazz band?" Max said he would love to, and his teacher said, "Great! See you at 6:30 tomorrow morning!" And that was it--super chill and low-key; he didn't have to audition, and it has been the best addition to his life. (Oh, and did I mention that he actually played the bari sax for the musical?)

Playing . . . in the snow. We got a decent amount of snow on a morning when we didn't have anything going on. Silas wanted to play in it, and since I didn't have a good reason to say no, I got him all bundled up, and we went out in it together. We had the best time. We built a snowman and threw snowballs at each other (every time I threw a snowball at him, he fell down very dramatically). He jumped on the tramp and went down the slide and made snow angels. The snow was falling as we were playing, and I hope I remember it forever. I can't think of a time when I played in the snow like this with any of my other kids (probably because I always had a baby or toddler I needed to stay inside with), and I feel kind of guilty about that. (Oh, and the last photo is of Clark with the snowman he built--don't worry, he was wearing boots when the actual constructing was going on.)

Enjoying . . . good yarn and good food. My friend, Sarah, and I had a fun evening. We went to Handwork in downtown Salt Lake and made some yarn purchases. Then we went out to dinner at Felt where we discussed our fourth and final book of 2024, Finding Freedom by Erin French. The restaurant felt like an appropriate choice since it is locally owned (by someone in the neighborhood where I used to live) and specializes in local ingredients and seasonal dishes, and the book was by someone who opened her own restaurant in Maine. (Interesting side note: Even though I'm nearly 40, it was the first time I ate at a bar and had to show my ID.) 

Worrying . . . about nursery. For some reason, Silas has fallen out of love with nursery at church. Instead of looking forward to it, he dreads it. And not just on the day of, but the whole week leading up to it (in other words, all the time). On Monday, he asks me, "What day is it?" "Monday," I answer. "And then what day?" We go through all the days of the week this way until we finally get to Sunday, at which point he says, "I don't want to go to nursery." And then we have the same conversation the next day and the next until we've finally made it back around to Sunday again. Luckily, even though he is quite upset when we drop him off at nursery, he only cries for a couple minutes before having a grand time for the remainder of the hour. But then as soon as we pick him up, the cycle starts over again. I would maybe think there was something about nursery specifically except that this is literally how he is about everything that is new or unfamiliar or requires him to be away from his people. 

Cheering . . . at the BYU game. Bradley and Mike scored awesome seats at the BYU-Kansas game. Unfortunately, it ended up being the only home game that BYU lost during the entire season, so maybe they shouldn't be allowed to go to any more games? But they still had a really good time. 

Delving . . . into some good books. It was a good month of reading for me, if not in quantity at least in quality: 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston (I thought the ending was going to go a certain way, and when it didn't, I was disappointed, but I was still super into this book.)

Finding Freedom by Erin French (So good. One of my favorite reads this year. I would recommend if you like memoirs and resiliency and food.)

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (absolutely fascinating (but also horrific) subject matter)

Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs (I'm on a Little Women kick, so I was super interested in this biography, but it's hard to believe this once won the Newbery since I can't think of any 11-year-old girl it would appeal to now.)

Watching . . . some fun movies in the theater. Although we still haven't seen Wicked (probably the only people left who haven't), Mike and I went and saw Here (it has received horrible reviews, but I loved it). And the week of Thanksgiving, on a Wednesday morning, we took the whole family to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which felt like such a good way to kick off the holiday season. Highly recommend. 

Catching . . . an exclusive peek at Brandon Sanderson's secret lair. We are huge Brandon Sanderson fans (and when I say "we," I mean, "pretty much everyone but me"), so imagine Bradley's absolute delight and Maxwell's extreme jealousy when he was invited to spend a morning at Brandon Sanderson's home checking out his home theater, stained glass windows, and collector artifacts. It came about because the dad of one of Bradley's close friends has been working with Brandon Sanderson on Project Dragon Steel, and she snagged a personal invite to his house and asked if Bradley wanted to come, too. They didn't actually get to meet Brandon Sanderson, and they weren't allowed to take any photos (so you'll just have to take our word for it that this actually happened), but he had a really memorable time. 

Attending . . . Savior of the World. Some friends in our neighborhood had significant roles (Mary Magdalene and Thomas), and we hadn't seen this production in over twenty years (which meant none of our kids had seen it). Some of us loved it (me being one of those), and some thought it was boring. My favorite scene was with Thomas after all of the apostles have seen Jesus except for him. And my favorite song was "Come, Lord Jesus." I loved the way it was interspersed throughout the play. Oh, and I also loved the angels, which were in most scenes, looking down and observing. So clearly, I loved the whole production. 

Starting . . . new jobs. Aaron was hired as a math tutor at Mathnasium. His cousin, Addie, works there too, which is fun, even though they aren't currently working at the same times. Maxwell got a job as a sweeper at a nearby school. He had been watching the job listings for months, hoping for this particular school, so he was super excited to get it. 

Trying . . . to obliterate acne--the joys that come with being a teenager. We have a dermatologist we really trust, and at this point, she has seen most of our kids for one thing or another. She has been helping with both Max's and Aaron's acne. They're using different treatments, but we've already seen vast improvements for both of them. 

Finishing . . . my Thanksgiving sweater. I was not planning to make a sweater for Thanksgiving, but then the perfect shade of rust combined with just the right cardigan pattern, and I had to do it. Besides being perfect for Thanksgiving, it seems to just be an all-around good cardigan that I'll get a lot of use out of. I also finished a pair of socks for my sister for Christmas and sewed myself a new dress. 

Spending . . . Thanksgiving with family. I woke up early on Thanksgiving morning to go on a hike with Sonja. The mountain was virtually empty in spite of it being a beautiful day, and I came home energized. We finished all our food prep and then went to my parents' house for the rest of the day. All of my siblings were there with their families. It was a very full house; I looked outside soon after we had started eating and saw Aaron, Max, and Bradley huddled together at a picnic table because there literally wasn't room for them anywhere inside. The food was delicious (the green bean casserole was the surprising winner for me). After eating, some people played games while others went on a walk, took a nap, or watched football. We ended with pie before returning home. 

Cutting . . . down a Christmas tree. It had been three years since the last time we did this--long enough we'd pretty much forgotten how taxing it is to actually hike around and find a tree that meets all the rules. This time we had the Blodgetts along for company, which made it a million times better. We went to Providence Canyon and almost got scared off when the first thing we saw was a car limping down the canyon road. There had been a multi-car pileup because the road was so slick, and this particular car had been completely smashed in on both sides from two other cars sliding into it. Luckily, we didn't have any problems on the roads, but we did forget Silas' coat. We had snow pants, boots, mittens, and a hat for him, but no coat, so we had to get creative with a blanket. As far as the actual tree hunting went, it was a lot of hiking but pretty slim pickings, so we had to just take what we could find. The tree we ended up with was probably a good 14-feet tall, and we don't have vaulted ceilings, so we had to cut it down quite a bit once we got home. The Blodgetts found a tree as well, and we carried both of them down the mountain and to the waiting truck. We went to the cabin for dinner and games. Some of the kids stayed the night, and some of us went home, and it was a very fun Christmasy adventure.

Missing . . . Messiah. Mike was still deep into the above mentioned cough when it came time for the annual Messiah sing-in. He knew he would just be hacking away the entire time, disrupting the other concert-goers, and not be able to sing. So he opted not to go, and even though my cough was mostly gone by that time, I didn't feel like going downtown without him, so I stayed home too, and we gave our tickets to some friends. Aaron and Max went though, and I heard it was one of the best performances of Messiah the Johnson clan had ever been to.

Rushing . . . headlong into December. Christmas was hot on the heels of Thanksgiving this year. We didn't even have a chance to finish eating all the pie before the holiday parties, performances, and activities started. Hence, the reason why it has taken me so long to get this monthly update finished!

But now it's done, just in time for December's update to be late as well. Cheers!

Boston in the Fall with Maxwell

We took Aaron to Washington D.C. when he was fourteen. Those days exploring the city have become cherished memories, and we have been eagerly anticipating having a similar experience with Maxwell.

We asked him where he wanted to go, but he had no strong preferences. (This is true to form for him because he dislikes making decisions.) His only request was that it be somewhere with good food.

Without a clear direction from him, we thought about where we wanted to go. I have always wanted to see Boston, especially in October since New England autumns are legendary. It seemed like this might be the perfect chance to selfishly check off a place on my bucket list. 

But then we had another idea. Max has been taking French since he was in seventh grade, and so we thought it might be fun to go somewhere French speaking. France was out of the question because we couldn't leave our other kids long enough to make an overseas trip worth it. But maybe Montreal, Canada? Max's passport was still valid until early next year, so it was definitely be doable.

We were excited about the possibility for a couple of weeks. But then we started to look into the types of activities we could do there and discovered that Montreal is rich in Canadian history similar to the way, well, Boston is with American history.

We quickly realized we were way more interested in the historical sites in Boston than the historical sites in Montreal. So we scrapped Canada and reverted back to our original plan.

As our itinerary took shape, we knew we had made the right choice: Boston was going to offer the perfect combination of U.S. history, fall colors, and delicious food. It was a go.

Before I get into the details of what we did each day, I just have to say a big thank you to Mike's sister, Anne, who took our other kids while we were gone. Mike's mom and Mike's sister, Sonja, also pitched in to help. And our big kids really stepped up to help Silas not feel abandoned. Taking a trip like this with just one kid is truly such a gift, but it wouldn't be possible without willing helpers, and I'm so grateful. 

And now, a little day-by-day recap to provide a glimpse of what we did and to help us keep the memories:

Thursday, October 10th

We took a red eye to Boston on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Not going to lie, it was rough. I might be getting too old for red eyes. None of us slept more than 45 minutes total. Our first glimpse of Boston was through groggy, bleary eyes. 

We grabbed breakfast from Dunkin' Donuts while we were still in the airport. Nothing special, but it felt like the right thing to do since it was founded in Massachusetts (and honestly, I've never seen as many Dunkin' Donuts as we saw on this trip). 

We had hoped to be able to check in early at our hotel or get day use at a nearby one so that we could sleep for a couple of hours, shower, etc., but neither option worked out. So instead, we freshened up as much as we could in the airport bathroom, picked up our rental car, and headed out for the day. 

Max looked like he was about ready to keel over. He was not his usual spunky, chatty self, and I worried that he wasn't going to be able to enjoy the day at all in his condition. We actually ended up sleeping for probably 45 minutes after we had parked the car in the hopes that it would revive him.

We walked out onto the streets of Boston, and it was quite cold and blustery. We went to Tatte for breakfast. The space was warm and inviting, and everything looked amazing so we planned to return another day to try some more things. But as it turned out, we were all slightly disappointed with our food for one reason or another, so then going back didn't seem like much of a priority. 

Max was still shuffling along, mostly going through the motions without fully engaging. But then we bought tickets for a guided tour of the first section of the Freedom Trail, and our tour guide was fully committed to the colonial part. He was energetic, theatrical, and over-the-top, and Max perked up within minutes of setting off on the tour. 

We saw Boston Common, Massachusetts State House, the Granary Burying Ground, Old South Meeting House, Faneuil Hall, and more. Our tour guide was funny and entertaining. He even drew his sword to lead us across a busy intersection. This was such a great way to go through these historical sites, and we enjoyed it very much.

After that, we ventured off on our own. We walked all the way to the end of the Freedom Trail. We were going to tour the U.S.S. Constitution, but I had left my ID back in the car, so we had to hold off on that. Instead, we went to Bunker Hill. We climbed all the way to the top (294 steps). It wasn't the number of stairs so much as the tight spiral and narrow staircase that made me feel a little lightheaded. Max bounded his way up to the top, all traces of sleepiness completely gone. The view was great. When we got back to the bottom, all of our legs started shaking involuntarily. It was the weirdest feeling. We had to go find a park bench for a minute to let them chill out.

We headed back by way of Little Italy. By this time, it was mid-afternoon, and we were quite hungry. We went to Pizzeria Regina, but even though it was not peak lunchtime, there was still a long line along the side of the restaurant. We decided we could wait. There was something about standing in line for a solid half hour in the chilly weather, finally hearing our name called, and walking into the cozy, warm space that smelled amazing that just made that pizza some of the best of my life. I actually think this was my favorite meal of the trip, and it had everything to do with the lead up and anticipation. So good. 

We had one more food stop to make as we walked back to our hotel, and that was at Mike's Pastries. We had been seeing tons of tourists carrying around Mike's boxes tied with string, and we finally felt like we blended in once we had our own box in our hands. I am not a huge cannoli fan, so I wasn't wowed by them, but I did like the pistachio cookie that we also got. 

We finally made the long walk all the way back to our hotel (18,000 steps logged this day). A bed had never looked so good to us. We all crashed within minutes of walking into the room. We let ourselves sleep for about an hour before getting up again to finish the rest of the day. We wanted to be able to sleep that night.

Mike and I left Max to relax while we went in search of a yarn store. I had seen that Boston Fiber Company was nearby, and I wanted to check it out. It wasn't busy, and I ended up talking to the employee for quite awhile. I found out that she also went to BYU and that she was the dyer behind their Boston Fiber Company yarn. 

We got takeout for dinner (Dave's Hot Chicken) and then watched Saint Ralph before calling it a night. 

Friday, October 11th

We made our way out of Boston for the day's activities. We drove past Harvard before stopping at Bagelsaurus for breakfast. It was apparently the place to go since many bagels were already sold out for the day. It was probably the best cream cheese spread we've ever had, although it was laid on a little thick.

From there, we went to Lexington. It was a stunningly gorgeous fall day, and the leaves were popping with color.

We went on a guided tour of the historical sites in Lexington (the Lexington Battle Green, the Old Burying Ground, and the Old Belfry). In contrast to the guide we had the day before, this one was much more fact, rather than performance, based. He rattled off dates, numbers, names, and locations. He had a whole stack of binders in his pockets and satchel which he whipped out to show us maps or photos or more information. A lot of it went over our heads and we maybe zoned out just a little, but it was still entertaining in its own way.

Following Lexington, we went to Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott. This was one of the things I was looking forward to the most on this trip, and it did not disappoint. The tour was extremely well done. It started out in the schoolhouse, home to Bronson Alcott's School of Philosophy. We watched a short documentary, which went through the major events in the Alcotts' lives and showed some of the things we would shortly see in Orchard House. We were not allowed to take any photos or videos inside the home itself, but my favorite thing was all of the original artwork by May Alcott (Louisa's youngest sister) that adorned the walls, fireplaces, and tables. It was obvious that Orchard House was used as the model for the March home in the movie adaptations of Little Women, so it all felt really familiar, and I really loved every minute we spent there.

When we got back in the car, we decided to listen to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Even though it wasn't set in Massachusetts, it still felt appropriate for the autumn season in New England. This is the kind of thing we couldn't do if we were traveling with all of our kids, but with a 14-year-old who loves words and language and story, it was just the thing.

We made a stop at the Old North Bridge, but it was closed for construction in preparation for the 250th anniversary next year, so there wasn't much to see. 

We went to Walden's Pond next, and oh my goodness, what a beautiful, peaceful place! We walked the full perimeter of the pond, with the leaves crunching softly under our feet and the sunlight filtering gently overhead. Max made some comment about how he never understood what a "carpet of leaves" meant until he was walking through Walden Woods. 

We stopped at the site of Henry David Thoreau's little house and added a rock to the many cairns. I am sure Walden's Pond is beautiful at any time of year, but I can attest that it was especially nice on an October afternoon.

You might notice there was no mention of lunch during the day. We somehow skipped it, which seemed like a serious oversight given the fact that Max's one request for this trip was for "good food." Luckily we had reservations for dinner at Merchants Row, located in a 300-year-old inn. We started off the meal with crab cakes (one of the food highlights from the trip) and ended it with fallen chocolate cake and left fully satisfied. 

The 2019 Little Women finished off our pretty much perfect day.

Saturday, October 12th

I love visiting libraries in other cities, so we started out the morning at the Boston Public Library. The 19th-century architecture was so beautiful. The lobby has a mosaic ceiling with the names of famous Massachusetts residents (many of them authors). This opens up into a stunning stairwell guarded by a pair of lion statues and surrounded by large murals depicting various disciplines. We poked our heads into the impressive Bates Hall and then climbed the stairs to look at the religious murals of John Singer Sargent.

The library was close to Levain Bakery, something we all had been looking forward to. We loaded up on baked goods--enough to last us both Saturday and Sunday and be able to bring some home. And mmmm, heaven. As someone who tries chocolate chip cookies anywhere I can, these are hands down my favorite (and I feel like I can say that with confidence now that I've tried them in three different cities). We also stopped by Trader Joe's to stock up on groceries for Sunday and took everything back to our hotel. 

Next, we went to the USS Constitution (by way of an uber). I had remembered my ID this time, and we spent a good hour walking around the deck of the ship, climbing down into the cabin area, and reading up on the history. The USS Constitution is still a commissioned ship with an assigned captain and crew. We also walked through the USS Cassin Young, a World War II destroyer. 

We had hoped to do the middle third of the Freedom Trail with a tour guide, but when we went to Faneuil Hall, we found out that we actually needed to buy tickets all the way back at Boston Common. We no longer had enough time to go purchase the tickets and then come back in time for the last tour of the day. So that was a bit disappointing. However, while we were in Faneuil Hall, we happened to run into Mike's cousin, Mark, and his wife, Emily, who were also in New England for the weekend. So that was a fun little coincidence. 

It was lunchtime, and since our tour plans fell through, we figured we might as well stay where we were  and go to Quincy Market for a lobster roll and some clam chowder. I think I liked the lobster roll best out of the three of us, and the clam chowder was delicious. We finished off with some ice cream.

We did our own walking tour of the historical sites on the second part of the Freedom Trail, starting with Paul Revere's house. We walked past someone playing a glass harmonica, which was invented by Benjamin Franklin and Max somehow knew all about it.

Then we walked past the Old North Church, where the signal lanterns were lit for Paul Revere, and the Old South Meeting House. We didn't do tours of either of these buildings. I was also keeping my eye out for a Boston sweatshirt to buy as a souvenir. I finally settled on one I liked. Max had randomly been taking photos of souvenir shot glasses in every gift shop we'd been in over the last three days, so it seemed like a fitting souvenir for him to pick one out to take home (even though he would only be filling his with water). 

Once that was accomplished, we walked back to our hotel. We decided to just get take out for dinner. We ordered from Maggiano's, and I'm pretty sure this was Max's favorite food of the trip, so I kind of wish we had eaten it at the restaurant instead of out of takeout containers in our hotel room. Either way though, we enjoyed it very much.

In the evening, we had tickets to see Blue Man Group. We happened to be in Boston on a bit of a lull weekend between a lot of shows, so Blue Man Group was pretty much our only choice. It turned out to be providential because I don't think they would have been one of our top choices if we'd had other options, but Max absolutely loved them. They matched his sense of humor and were so entertaining. For my part, I was a little panicked when I saw ponchos on our chairs and realized that they were going to ask for lots of audience participation. Luckily, we were on the outer edge of the splash zone, and we never got asked to do anything. They made music in such unique and creative ways. The whole experience was a feast for the ears and eyes, and we all enjoyed it so much. The theater was a five-minute walk from our hotel, so we were back by 9:30.

Sunday, October 13th

Our last day in New England, and our plan was very simple: drive as far north as we could in the time we had left to see as many autumn leaves as possible. 

And that's exactly what we did. 

We timed our drive so we would end up in Derry, New Hampshire for church. But the parking lot was startlingly empty when we pulled in a couple of minutes before the hour. We talked to one other person, an actual member of the ward, who was just as surprised as we were. He said he had been out of town and must have missed the announcement that it was stake conference. 

I was actually pretty disappointed because I love going to other wards when we travel and feeling both far away and at home at the same time. But alas, this wasn't Utah so there wasn't another ward building just around the corner. That was our one and only shot at church, so we resigned ourselves to go to God's outdoor cathedral instead (not a bad tradeoff).

The drive itself was spectacular. Although we get lots of fall colors in Utah, the reds and oranges are definitely not the same. Plus, we have to go up in the canyon to get the full impact of colors whereas in New England, they were always surrounding us, even when we were on the freeway. 

We made a stop at Wagon Hill Farm in Durham, New Hampshire, which was said to be one of the prettiest locations in New England. However, as we traveled farther north, it seemed like we were no longer hitting the leaves at their peak, so I think we didn't see this little spot at its absolute best. It was still really pretty, just not super vibrant colors. The morning was cool and misty giving the whole setting an ethereal vibe, which I loved. Max's favorite part of this stop was a bench that was dedicated to a protest against the Olympic Oil Refinery in 1974. It seemed a bit random. 

We kept driving until we passed the border into Maine. This felt somewhat epic to us. I've always wanted to take a summer vacation to Maine, and even though this was only just a brief glimpse, it was so fun to be in the very northeast corner of the country.

We stopped at Lobster Point, Maine, and Max got to do what he does best: climb over rocks and patiently look into tide pools and just observe the world around him. Mike and I sat on a bench and watched his slow, careful exploration of the coast. We wondered if he would ever come back on his own or if we'd have to eventually break the spell. But then he found a live crab that had been stranded, so he brought it up to show us before taking it down to the water's edge and releasing it. 

And then it was finally time for us to turn around and head back towards Boston. We made one more stop along the way and did a short hike in Valley Lane Forest. We seemed to be the only people there, and it was quiet and beautiful and smelled amazing. A very fitting end to our time in New England. 

Spending these few days with Maxwell was such a gift. He was the best traveling companion: adventurous, grateful, and curious. He kept us entertained with his witty commentary and thoughtful insights. It was a treat to get to focus only on him and now get to keep these memories for always. There have already been so many times in the last few weeks when we'll see a reference to Boston or New England and just give each other a knowing smile because we've been there. Together.