Boston '08 - Mangum Reunion

Last night we flew home from our Mangum Family Reunion, held in Boston this year. To put it in the fairly accurate words of Jake, "IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME, DUDE!". We had so much fun, it is hard to figure out how to blog a semi-short (ok, not really short at all!) recap of all the fun.

RIDING THE AIRPORT SHUTTLE BUS TO THE TERMINAL

THE PLANE RIDE

It was Jake's first plane ride, and the first that Hayley could remember, but everyone did great. We left about 5:30 am on Saturday, and the kids were all so excited, there was no sleeping on the way to the airport or on the planes.

Everyone had a backpack for the plane and helped carry a suitcase into the airport. I wish I had a picture of them all in the line, following Don into the terminal carrying their suitcases, but alas, my hands were full of luggage too. But believe me, it was CUTE! We did cause a few people some early morning chuckles. To add to the fun of the plane ride, we had 2 special people on our plane who actually traded seats to sit closer to us...there is nothing like a grandparents love!
















THE HOUSE
24 people in 1 house...that better be one big house! Rachel found a fabulous house to rent for the week in Plymouth, literally just steps (and I mean STEPS!) away from the coast. We had so much fun all together.

Grammy and Grandaddy climbing the steps back up to the house from the beach.

THE BEACH
The beach was one of everyone's favorite things from this trip. It was so relaxing and fun. There were races into the cold water, burying people in the sand, skipping rocks into the ocean, building of many sand castles, as well as competitions of strong sand structures of all shapes and sizes (including one that I think was kin to Jabba the Hut, thanks to some of the decorative seaweed!), boogy boarding, reading and walking on the beach. Some of us got some strange marked sunburns, thanks to spotty spray-on sunscreen, but even that wasn't too bad. I posted some of our favorite beach pic's below:







THE TEMPLE
Sunday we were able to go to see the Boston LDS Temple and walk around the beautiful grounds. Don's parents worked on the dedication of this temple in 2000 and there were a lot of special experiences they shared with us. We got a couple of great pictures of the family, but I think the best part was when David, Michael's older cousin, told all the cousins about his experience of being at the dedication of the temple when he was 8. The kids were spellbound as he talked, and it was such a sweet feeling. Of course after David finished, we were all entertained as 3 yr old cousin Max jumped up and proceeded to tell us his story of a scary creature. Max has definitely inherited his dad's funny storytelling ability!




PLIMOTH PLANTATION AND THE MAYFLOWER II
We couldn't stay in Plymouth and not go see Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower ship. It was so interesting to go to the old English village and the Wampanoag Homesite and learn of the different stories.

The Wampanoag were dressed in traditional deerskin clothing, cooking stew over the fire and telling stories and answering questions in the wetu (houses) we were able to go into. Max and Jake really liked the cooking stick inside the house, and asked the chief if they could limbo with it. Nice...




The 1627 English Village staff was dressed of clothes of that time and stayed in character the whole time. They answered questions we had, but in their own words. The kids were able to play games with characters of the village, pound corn into flour, etc. I think the favorite area of most of the boys was the house with all the cannons in it. They would have stayed there hours playing on the cannons.







The Mayflower II is a recreation of the original Mayflower ship. It was fun to see the massive ropes and climb onto different parts of the boat.




Plymouth Rock was actually closed, under construction but we did get a shot of Jake on a Plymouth Rock...

THE HINGHAM WARD REUNION
Monday night our awesome family friends, the Zellers, had an open house for the Mangum gang and so many of the oldtimers from the ward came out. It was great to see and chat with people. The kids had a blast playing with new friends and we had fun seeing the kids we used to teach in the youth program all grown up and married with kids of their own. Thanks for a great night Zellers!




THE RED SOX GAME
We had to go to Fenway and see our Red Sox play while we were there. The minute tickets went on sale online months ago, we had multiple computers going in at least 3 different states, trying to buy tickets. It was nuts, but it paid off and we got enough seats for the game. We had a lot of fun during Wednesday's day game, sitting all together, wearing our Boston/Mangum 08 reunion t-shirts, eating all sorts of great Fenway food and cheering as the Red Sox whooped up on the Twins, 18 to 5. It was GREAT!






QUINCY MARKET AND FANEUIL HALL
After the game ended, we hopped on the subway and made our way to Quincy Market for dinner. Quincy Market is a fun place to eat and really get a "taste" of downtown Boston. Faneuil Hall is right outside the market and for you history buffs, is the spot where Samuel Adams and many others made speeches and encouraged independence from Great Britain. There are fun shops all around the marketplace and meeting hall to visit.




THE FREEDOM TRAIL AND MORE...
Friday we took the subway back into the city for more great site-seeing. We were originally going to do the Duck Boat Tours, but they were sold out so we decided to head off to the Freedom Trail. We followed the Trail through Boston, visiting Paul Revere's house (the oldest house in America!), as well as the Old North Church where Revere started his famous ride to warn that the "British were coming!"










And of course, we had to visit Little Italy and go to our favorite shop, Mike's Pastry's. It is always a madhouse in the little shop (it reminds me of a Seinfeld episode actually!) But they really do make the best cannoli's in the world at Mike's! And good news, they are now online at http://www.mikespastry.com/ - YUM!


THE SUBWAY
When we were in the city, we took the T (the subway train) everywhere. My kids thought it was great, until we got on during rush hour after the game. That was one packed train. They loved to stand up and hold onto the poles. Jake and I even got to start a Subway fight between an old Italian Jewish lady and a young man. We had gotten onto the packed train after a long day in the city and I was loaded down with a backpack and holding a sleepy Jake. The lady saw me and my SIL w/her son and she got out of her seat and started yelling at the men around to have some manners and get up and let the ladies with the babies sit. Some people moved, but this one guy just started yelling back at her that he paid for his ticket too and could sit anywhere. Then another lady got involved, saying it was about courtesy not money. Whew... finally the train stopped again and moved some of the people around. In the meantime, Jake totally fell asleep during the tirade and the little lady sat back down next to me & proceeded to show me pictures of her grandson and her family. Don was down near the other guy, who was muttering some things that weren't so nice. It was quite an experience :)






LOBSTERS
What is New England without a good ole' fashion Lobster Boil? Rachel found a place that sold fresh, live lobsters, and the fun began. Trevor and his cousin Myles named their lobsters Larry and Larry Jr and carried them around alive for a while, chasing the other kids. Trevor would even kiss his lobster - gross! "What, it was in water!" was Trevor's response to the statement it probably wasn't very clean to be kissing. Soon it was time to say good-bye to the Larry Lobster family and they hopped in the pots for a nice warm steam bath. After turning bright red, they were ready for eating. Cracking the lobsters is always fun and messy, but we all had great plastic lobster bibs that were pretty styling (with instruction on how to eat a lobster printed on the bibs for any newcomers!). Trevor discovered he didn't really like the taste of lobster but Don and Michael enjoyed it!






GIRLS DAY OUT
A fun tradition that was started at the last reunion was a girls day out luncheon and activity. While the girls go play, the dad's and kids usually go to McDonald's and go bowling, so they have a lot of fun too. This year Hayley was old enough to join us girls and we had a blast. We went to a real girly restaurant called Strawberry Fair. It had strawberry everything, from different foods to the decor all over the cute shop. We even had strawberry shortcake for dessert. Afterwards we went to one of my absolute favorite stores, The Christmas Tree Shop. It is a fun store in New England that has great buys and fun decorating items. Hayley loved it too :)



CLOSING CEREMONIES AND COMING HOME
It is always hard to come home after having so much fun together with family. We end the reunions with a closing ceremony where fun individual awards are given out. For example, Hayley won the award for "Most Pink" and got some Pink Calamine Lotion to bring home, Michael won the award for "Biggest Sports Fan" or something like that, and got a Boston Red Sox Pennant for his room, etc. It is a fun way to end a great week together.