post tax season adventure: massachusetts style

i'm posting two days in a row. this must be some kind of record. two weekends ago marked the first weekend without tax season since late january - YAY! let me tell you how happy life is again now that tax season is over. i think i forget every year how horrendous that 1/4-1/3 of the year is. however, tax season makes not tax season that much sweeter. typically we celebrate the end of tax season with a little trip - one year was NYC, the next was a staycation in which we redid the porch (oops, forget about relaxing!) and this year was a trip back to the north shore to visit all our friends that we so dearly miss. here are some highlights:

+ one of the first things we did was take beans to gordon for a walk. he loves it there. he practically drags us to the entrance to the woods and is a crazy man once he's inside. it makes our heart happy to know he's so happy. the best part is when we approach the turn in the path leading to the pond. as soon as we get there, beans takes off in a full out sprint and goes in the water, looks back at us to make sure we're coming and to make sure it's okay he's in there, and then jumps right in. gets us every time.

+after our walk: a target run. always a highlight. you try living without a target. it's not easy

+we then got to catch a bit of the women's lacrosse game, which was wonderful since many of my soccer players are lacrosse superstars. they even kicked serious roger williams butt, so it was that much more enjoyable, not to mention all the fantastic people we ran into at the game (old roommates, coachie, soccer players, etc.)!

+then we went to meet our friends for dinner...or so i thought! little did i know that our "dinner plans" were actually code for a surprise shower with all the wonderful women of pigeon cove chapel!! it was FABULOUS. there were just so many smiling, hugging people and my heart was happy. not to mention there was a beautiful diaper cake, fun games and tasty treats. thank you to all of you who were there and for my fabulous friend jamie dolan for putting it all together!

(diaper cake) 

(me and jamie - clearly the shower was a surprise...my hair is a disaster and i'm in the clothes i was walking around in the woods in!)

(a few of the guests...i'm realizing now we should have taken a group shot!)

+after the shower, ry and i got to spend some time chatting with the soon to be married chris & jamie. jamie is one of my oldest gordon friends, dating back to the san francisco days, and i love every minute i get to spend with her...and her hubs to be!

+sunday morning was obviously spent at pigeon cove chapel. great teaching. great fellowship. great hugs. it's just a place full of joy.

+sunday afternoon was spent out to lunch with two of our PCC favorites and their amazing 90 year old mother - this woman is a RIOT - most witty 90 year old i've ever met, that's for sure. lunch was full of good conversation, good food and good encouragement.  

+ following lunch we curled up in sweats and napped the afternoon away - my post tax season accountant needed to catch up on some sleep! what a perfectly timed rainy sunday!

+ the evening was a low key taco night with wonderful friends. perfect.

+ monday was spent working at gordon college - always a highlight. i love working there...it's just full of so many good people. i worked all day and then at the end of the day adrianne suckered me up to her office for a "meeting", which was really code for a surprise baby shower! it was so fun celebrating with  the whole development team. thanks to all of you who put this together!

so there you have it. a few  a lot of highlights from our trip. we had a great time. it's a place that we always leave feeling filled up with so much joy. there are so many people there that we love and care about and miss dearly. most definitely a great post-tax season trip!