Martineau visit, six flags, and a random scary looking snapping turtle

My big brother Jared, his wife Michelle and their cute daughter came out to visit us in the beginning of June. It was so nice to have family come out here to see where we live and hang out with us!

Jared and Michelle were pretty hungry by the time they arrived so we went to dinner at cafe belo (a delicious Brazilian restaurant around the corner from us.) I love rodizio and i love this restaurant. There are a few restaurants nearby whose competition has driven down the price for the all you can eat rodizio to ~ $8. It is fantastic.

Anyways, there happens to be this particular waiter at cafe belo (one of the guys who brings meat around to your table- i don't know what they are called) that I find very intimidating. He just always seems so serious and stern... well apparently he is not always like that because on this particular night he was singing to my niece in portugese, trying to feed her and asking us all about her. I could not believe it... it was hilarious.

I don't know what it is (other than the fact that she is so dang cute) but she generated all kinds of attention everywhere we went. Strangers were friendly and going out of their way to talk to us... did I mention we live in Boston. Hello!?

We did a bunch of sightseeing with them around the city and then decided to go to six flags on Saturday. Erik had a soccer game that morning in Weston so we went there first. Sadly, I haven't taken any pictures of his soccer games though he has been playing with this league for quite some time now. I did however get this picture:

This is a huge snapping turtle which is apparently a natural species here in Massachusetts (I had no idea). When we arrived at the field this turtle was in the goal so we got some serious entertainment watching the soccer players and ref try to get it off of the field. Apparently these turtles are pretty dangerous (as the local high school track coach informed us) but the ref finally managed to drag it by its tail off of the field without getting bit. We saw 3 of these monsters around the field and they are nasty. You should have heard this thing hiss! Apparently they come from the neighboring swamp.

After the soccer game we had a picnic lunch before heading into six flags. We had never been before and it was a lot of fun. We had a great time going on the rides and hanging out in the water park.


Afterwards we drove past Smith so Jared and Michelle could see where I went to college and then we ate dinner at our favorite place ever in Amherst- The Hanger. They've got the best boneless chicken wings ever and I still think that it's worth it to drive 2 hrs just to get some.. they are soo good!


Thanks again for coming you guys- we had such a great time hanging out with you!!!