Massachusetts Part 2

Day 3 , 4, 5

Saturday:
Today was the big day for Rachael and Neal. Their sealing was not until 2PM so the whole family (Mansius & Sheppard) plus a few friends went out to eat at a haunted hotel and restaurant. James and I got to sit near Grandma & Grandpa Sheppard, who are so much fun. The meal was great and it was fun getting to know Rachael's family. After lunch we headed over to the Boston Temple. It was so gorgeous! It was originally designed to be bigger but the church across the highway got upset because they didn't want it to be bigger than theirs. In the end they made the temple smaller but it is in a higher spot so it looks a lot better. And definitely much prettier. Though I think I'm partial.

We had set up for the reception the day before so we had a little bit of time between the wedding and the reception while others were putting on the finishing touches. I got the chance to just sit down and talk with Rachael, my new sister. It was nice to be able to get to know her. We have a lot in common and I can't wait to continue to get to know her. It's nice to have someone else crazy enough to marry into this crazy family. No, I'm really just kidding. This is a great family!! It's nice to see the family growing and to see more and more of my brothers and sisters getting married. The reception was beautiful. We had a ton of food which was really good. James and I were in charge of decorating the car and we had so much fun. We had little to work with so we had to get very creative. Unfortunately, we were not very sneaky and when we were discovered missing they knew what we were up too. Lots of fun! And yes they are Disney fans just like we are. James and I had a cake that had Micky and Minnie on them as well.

Sunday:
By this point almost everyone had headed home so it was just Mom, Dad, James and I left. With some time left over after church we decided to head over the the Lizzie Borden House. The Lizzie Bordon house is the location of the hatchet murders in 1892 which were never solved. The house is supposed to be haunted but not that day. It was an old house and it was interesting to see the style of homes that were built back in that day. No halls! There were times were you had to go through one room to get to another room. Here is Mom Mansius and I sitting in the spot where the father was murdered. Spooky!

Since New Bedford used to be a big whaling community we headed down to the museum and walked around the area, saw a movie on whaling, and looked at some of the old historic buildings in the area. It is really a beautiful area and lots of history.

Monday:
This was an amazing day! We headed over to Rhode Island to see some of the Newport Mansions. These homes were huge! I think my whole house could have fit in one, maybe two, of the bedrooms of some of these homes. Most of these homes were built during the late 1800s and were only summer homes to the families that owned them. We saw 3 out of 11 homes left in Newport, The Breakers, owned by the Vanderbilts, The Elmes, and Marble House, also owned by another one of the Vanderbilts. My favorite of the three was the Breakers. It was not only beautiful but it was a simpler than the rest of them. A lot of the other were so packed with decorations, like gold leafed walls, that I didn't like them. The Breakers home seemed a little bit more family oriented. Another one of my favorite parts of The Breakers was the kids play house. It was almost the size of a regular house. James is standing in front of in the picture to the right.

Sorry about the novel but it was a very packed weekend. We did a lot in a small amount of time. Mom and Dad Mansius were moving a week later so this was probably our last chance to get to Massachusetts for a while. We wanted to see as much of it as possible. We had a wonderful week with the family and are so excited for Rachael and Neal.