Yankee Dental Congress 33 (wow, I realize this is a long read, but I really wanted to journal the whole thing , if you are in a hurry, just look at the pictures =0).)
This is as close as you are going to get to a picture of my haircut....for now =0).
Poor Brad, this is the only picture we have of him from the whole trip =0(.....This is what he was doing while we explored... I really do think he enjoyed himself though =0). I didn't know quite what to expect from our trip to Boston for a Dental Convention. I knew Brad would be busy in classes for most of the time, and Liv, Gwen and I would be up to our own devices. We had a perfect weekend. Thursday evening, we went picked Brad up at the office and caravanned down. Our family in one car, Brad's parents with Bridgette, Gary and Nora in their truck, and all the hygienists, assistants and front desk staff in one Yukon. We stopped at Panera Bread CO. for dinner (one of my favorites that we don't have in Bangor.....so I of coarse enjoyed it....it made me feel at home). Then, 4 hours later, we arrived at the Westin Waterfront. Liv was asleep on one of their couches, and Gwen was walking all around, exploring the new place, while we waited 45 minutes for the hotel staff to work out our room situation. A mix-up on their part left us with a room with no bed..... a huge flat screen TV....but no bed. Luckily everything was figured out, well almost everything (amidst the rearranging our stroller was lost along with Liv's shoes), and we got to bed in one piece =0). Gwen had a hard time falling asleep in the strange room, until I started singing to her, and she instantly stopped screaming, calmed down and went right to sleep, so sweet =0). The Westin was SO convenient and perfect for my situation because it was
attached to the convention center! It was literally a 3 minute walk from our room to the doors that led from our hotel right to an enclosed bridge over the road to the convention center.
Perfect!
Day 1. We met Brad after breakfast just to say "Hi", went back to our room to put Gwen down for a nap. Then Liv and I went Swimming with Gary, Nora, and Nana. Showered, and then met Brad back at his class to go to lunch. We all ate lunch together as a family, and then went to the children's corner at the convention. The children's corner consisted of a huge castle fascade with a bounce house and a blow-up obstacle course inside. The entertainment included face painting, and the most amazing balloon artist I have ever seen! Seriously, these balloon creations FAR exceeded anything I ever thought was possible. Liv LOVED it all. She played and played with Alexa, a 4 year-old whom she made friends with, in the bounce houses. She got her face painted 5 times, including: a unicorn, ice-cream cone, mermaid, and princess crown and eyeshadow. She had the balloon man make her Arial, and Cinderella, and Gwen got a monkey back pack. Gwen was content to explore, play with an empty juice bottle, color, walk up and down the stairs to the stage and run around with balloons. We played here for about 4 hours and then headed back to our room for naps. The girls woke up just in time to go out to dinner with the whole office. It was neat because the convention arranged for trolleys to come by every 15 minutes to shuttle people around town. So, we took a trolley to a great little fish house right on the water. We had great food. And plenty of it. The biggest surprise of the night was Gwen's meal. We ordered her a burger and fries off of the kids menu. It was literally the same size as Brad's 1/2 pound cheese burger, minus the cheese! I asked the bus boy (who didn't speak great english) about 5 times if it was really her burger, and I didn't quite believe him that it was..... I think it was the size of her head =0). Anyway, it was great food and great company =0).
Day 2, we woke up and hung out in our room until 9:00 and then put Gwen down for a nap while Liv and I went to check out the exhibit floor at the convention. Surprisingly this was probably my favorite part of the whole thing. I just told Liv to tell me when she wanted to look at one of the vendors. We looked at a lot of "movies" about teeth, ate chocolate, watched a group of river dancers, tried on dental masks, got tooth shaped squeeze balls, tooth rings, gold tooth pins, tooth brushes, tooth paste, more candy, masks, and even sugar cookies. Then we went to the Maine Dental Association booth and had some hot chocolate and fruit cups. Ironically, this was the most candy Liv ever gets in one sitting =0). I think part of the reason we had such a great weekend was my girls were both SO GOOD. Liv was a trooper, we did a ton of walking and like I said, we had no stroller, and she was SO cooperative, and Gwen slept right on schedule, and was GREAT hours beyond her bed time. What angels I have! After my date with Liv, we met Brad outside his morning class and got ready to go home. After we checked out of our hotel, we turned on Brad's dad's GPS (the coolest thing ever!) and it told us, in a very pleasant female Australian voice, just how to get to the bank, the CHEESECAKE FACTORY, and then home. Both of our girls were great on the 4 hour drive to and from Boston. Gwen was very patient, even though true to form, she waited until 5 minutes before we arrived at our destination to fall asleep (she really does this every time). And with Liv, we just had to tell her it was time for her to lay her head down and rest and she would reply, "OK Mommy, I'll try" then magically, seconds later, she was out cold =0). Here are the pictures from our perfect weekend =0). One of the pictures is of Gwen wearing Liv's monkey backpack/harnass. I think it is so cute that she had watched Liv wear it all day the day before, and so she knew exactly what to do with it. She put it on herself and was so proud of herself, she walked around with it like this all morning =0). Another picture is of Liv buckling a white fuzzy bear into her harnass, she got the bear from one of the vendors, and wanted to give him a ride =0).
">
">
