Salem photo dump

Last week my sister and I met up in Boston for a Salem Sisters Trip. We've never done this before and I think this was the first time I've ever planned a plane vacation without kids! It was so much fun and I'm already trying to figure out our next one. 100% recommend. 

We met at the airport after both of us arrived on red eyes and planned to see as much of Boston in one day as we could. We walked 10 miles and saw The Freedom Trail, Boston Commons, and the Boston Tea Party harbor. 

The very weird Martin Luther King Jr statue

So many cemetaries

Take that, England!

Kings Chapel

Make Way for Ducklings!

Then we took the weirdest Uber ever to Salem. After we got into our Airbnb we went to dinner and found the Witch Trials Memorial

The next day we saw The Custom House where Nathanial Hawthorne conceived of The Scarlet Letter

And toured The House of Seven Gables. I hadn't given much thought to Hawthorne before this trip and now I'm kind of obsessed. He was petty AF

So glad I brought my witch hat!

How many nails are in this door? Shoutout to Melanie, the weirdest tour guide ever

I loved all of the old houses and the coastal paint jobs

At the Peabody Essex Museau

Witch Board (aka Ouija) Museum. This was fascinating and the owner was SO PASSIONATE about witch boards

The original printing plate for the Parker Brothers Ouija Boards

Witch House! We had the greatest tour guide for this tour. We learned so much about the Witch Trials and all the nuances that contributed to how it happened. Fascinating and also really scary

The Ropes Mansion, aka Allison's house from Hocus Pocus

Bewitched!

Proctor's Ledge, where the victims of the Witch Trials were hanged

I've decided that from now on, I will always visit the library on vacation

The Torture Museum. Did not like it here. Couldn't get through it fast enough. My grimace is not performative

We made our own brooms!

And got tattoos

And had our auras read. How crazy is it that these two pictures were taken one right after the other? Apparently my sister's means she's empathic, community minded and spiritually connected, and mine means I'm "results driven" and ambitious. I think she literally called me a "girl boss" (insert skull emoji here)

Another thing I'm always doing now, after I learned it was a thing in Philadelphia, is buying a t-shirt from the fire station. In Salem they had an actual t-shirt vending machine! It was a cool souvenir that was a little different, especially in a tourist town. 

My sister's tattoo. It was from a gravestone she liked in Boston. Sassy little guy 

We also got witch pictures taken. Now I'm on the hunt for my own witch outfit and cape so I can dress like this whenever I want to

 

The Satanic Temple. When in Rome and all that. This was cooler than I'd expected, and not even remotely as uncomfortable as the Torture Museum

I need more neon lights in my life, I think. 

Our last day was super stormy (enough that some of the locals were saying things like "I think this is going to turn into a hurricane") We narrowly avoided death by flying furniture on more than one occasion and made friends in the shop we ducked into for safety. These are the smiles of girls who survived. 

 

Sydney turned 16!

 I blogged about my pregnancy and now that baby is 16. That feels so huge in this space and I'm so grateful for this little time capsule, even if my posts are getting less frequent and my stories a little less "isn't this precious." For your reference, this is the same person who drove us to school this morning: 

This girl. She is such a delight. I rarely get a picture anymore that's not of her not flipping the bird (sorry :/ ) She's so quick and witty that no one will ever win a verbal sparring match with her, and in the words of her second grade teacher that still ring true "She's always saying things that are so funny, but you know you shouldn't be laughing at them." She is also thoughtful and sweet and silly and so much fun to hang out with. She makes the best playlists and loves America (in a liberal way.) She is constantly surprising us with random new skills she's learned; handstands, sign language, driving a stick shift, the list goes on and on. I'm constantly in awe of how eloquently she speaks her mind and how she is able to stand up for herself without hesitation. One of her teachers recently asked her where she found the confidence of a six-foot man and I don't know if I've ever heard a more on-the-nose description. She gives me so much hope for the future. 

She hosted a small party for her birthday and it was so fun to watch these girls together. They went to a trampoline park (drove themselves!) and then came home to swim and grill. Her best friend made her cake and they all made sure that her pictures were perfectly composed and executed. It was exactly the party that Sydney wanted and everyone went home and she was in her pajamas snuggling her puppy by 8:00. We followed that up the next morning with traditional birthday donuts and then she spent the day at the zoo with her boyfriend friend. She'll get her license in a couple weeks and is angling for a new curfew since apparently her current curfew is "for 15 year old bacons." 

It's hard to believe that I only have a few more years with her in the house (because she is VERY quick to remind us that her plans include moving far away) and only a few more weeks of spending the mornings with her on the drive to school. I am not naive to what a gift it is to have kids that are such a joy to be around. 

Our First Strongman Competition

I don't have the words to describe how amazing this experience was. Both of us were nervous, and excited, and nervous. We both agreed that we were just doing it for fun and it was fine if we bombed it, and we both knew we didn't mean it. I wasn't sure how Averson would do with the overwhelm of crowds and being the center of attention and I wasn't sure how I would do if I got trounced by all of the other women competing. Spoiler Alert: It was fucking awesome. Maybe one of my top core memories. 

We got energy drinks. It might've been a mistake or it might've been the greatest decision ever. Averson on energy drinks is HILARIOUS

Battle scars from the Atlas Stone! 

She took second place!! And she won one of the events (the truck push, which was INTENSE)

First! I got moved down from the Masters (aka "senior") division 

For this event, you had to run three heavy objects from the line to the back of the truck, then run around the front and push the truck to the line. Averson completed the entire event in a minute! 

Atlas Stone. We'd never even tried this event and both of us were worried. Averson was so nervous they couldn't even practice it ahead of time. And then they went out and fucking killed it with the heavier option! I was so proud and maybe cried a little. 

The third event was an overhead lift. I wasn't too worried about it because it's pretty close to CrossFit (but not the same) and the weight was heavy, but not impossible. I realized during my heat that the crowd was getting louder and I heard the announcer talking about "pink shoes." Afterwards, both judges were laughing and high-fived me and a few people from the crowd came over to congratulate me. Turns out I defaulted to my CrossFit muscle memory and repped out the lifts WAY faster than typical. Oops :P 

 

13!

 I was not prepared for how aggressively this birthday would hit. I am now solidly the parent of teenagers, and my baby has transitioned from being an actual baby to being this amazing little human with the most incredible brain. This year has not been easy for any of us, most of all Averson, and while I feel nostalgic about their babyhood (man, they were a fun Little) I am blown away by their grit, their tenacity, and their perspective and I feel so honored to be a part of their process. Blogger loaded the pictures in a weird way, but I also kind of feel like that's fitting. Happy Birthday, Averson. I'm just obsessed with your little brain and I can't wait to see what the next year brings < 3