No cross country road trip this year. We tried the condensed version
this summer, visiting family in Maryland and North Carolina, and even
enjoyed two days in Philly for just Ed and myself. It was truly a
whirlwind, but we were so thankful and happy for not only ourselves to
visit family, but for the boys to reunite with their cousins and
grandparents. Poor Ed had to work the whole while, but took advantage of
being east to plan some face-to-face meetings. We wish we could have
seen more friends, but time was just not on our side this visit : (
First
it was Maryland for a couple days. We were happy to see Marc, Donna,
Mariah & Luke one evening (I even got Mariah to give me a ride in
her pick up truck!) It was great to hear in detail what was going on
with them and see the kids who are no longer "kids" any more... Mariah
and Donna, we look forward to seeing you both in just a few weeks!
We
also had a chance to see Tita Tisset, Tito Mark, Tita Jo, Petey and
little baby Jake, whom we had never met in person. It was great to
squeeze his rolls in person : )
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| Baby Jake & Tita Tisset |
Next,
we were off to Bethany Beach, DE with Ed's brothers, their families and
Lola and Papa Bobby. I think the kids spent more time in the home's
elevator than on the beach, but they had a great time playing games,
staying up late, going putt putt, eating ice cream daily, going on a
nature hike, kayaking on the canal, and of course, frequenting the much
anticipated Funland in Rehoboth. Unfortunately, a 24-hour bug also
decided to stay at our place as it slowly made it's way around to nearly
everyone that week and the following week. Despite the illness, we had a
great time. It was especially fun playing Catch Phrase and the
Concentration game, listening to the kids sing karaoke (you go Elana!)
and foot races on the beach. If only Jenna and Jill and I could've
finished that darn 1500 piece puzzle before we left -- we were so
close!
On one particular night, Dean melted my heart when
he was racing me on the sand (at his request). After he fell just short
of the finish line, I stopped and leaned down to him, fully expecting
him to be crying -- and he looked up at me and said, "Oh mommy, I love
the way of you." Such a sweetie! Another funny thing he did was take
advantage of a defenseless Uncle Steve who was buried in sand one
afternoon. Just an hour earlier, Steve had taken Dean into the ocean
waves against his will, so when Dean found Steve buried, he stepped on
his head a few times, yelling "I don't like going in the water!" That
should show you, Uncle Steve : )
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| Morgan's intro to "Sorry" |
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| eating crabs |
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| ***** Funland ***** |
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| Nature Hike with scavenger hunt & bug catchers |
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| karaoke |
The
day after returning from the beach, Linda and Bobby had arranged an
extended family portrait since everyone was in town. It was a great
chance to see even more family...
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| Rachel & Alex |
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| Christine, Jo & Jake |
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| Ed & his mom perfecting the lechon |
The
next chapter of our trip took Ed and I to Philly for 2 days while the
kids hung back with Lola. (Little did we know just hours after leaving
that both Morgan and Lola would get struck by the 24-hour bug -- sorry
for that Lola : (
Meanwhile, Ed and I had a nice time
in Philly. Even though he had full days of trainings and meetings, we
were able to meet up with our friends Emily & Dave for dinner one
night and some of Ed's coworkers for happy hour the other night. It was
great to see Emily and Dave and catch up on life. There's nothing like
old friends. It was great to just pick up where we left off : ) It was
also nice to meet some of the people I've heard Ed talk about from work,
as well as see a few of the sights of Philly. I did a lot of walking
around, shopping (thanks for the Antrho spree, Ed) and worked out at the
gym while Ed was at the office. We also had a nice dinner after happy
hour, followed by a trip to Reading Market the next day where we picked
up famous subs from Tommy Dinic's to take back to Maryland.
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| with Dave & Emily at Dandelion |
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| Reading Market |
The
last night in Maryland, we met up with Rich, Jill & the kids at the
Rio -- yes, the same one where Ed and I met 20 years ago -- but it has
developed so much. The kids played on the playground there, rode the
carousel, as well as the train, and then had more ice cream before
saying our goodbyes.
Then
it was off to our next stop: North Carolina. We made it down to Nana
and P-Pop's by the early afternoon and spent the week making stepping
stones with Nana, going for walks, visiting Great Nana and Greatdaddy,
kayaking with 4 generations (I mean how many people can say they've gone
kayaking with their 90 year old grandfather???), checking out Uncle
George's train collection, launching rockets with cousin Jonas and Uncle
Darren as seen
here,
eating yummmmmmy crabs and going bowling. It was funny to see how
differently the kids bowled -- Morgan would run away to look back at the
scoring screen vs. watching the actual pins go down. Dean would just
run up and push the ball down the ramp with little interest in how many
fell. Ironically, he was only one point away from a Turkey! We also had a
very nice dinner at Greenville's newest restaurant, Wasabi 88. My mom
couldn't believe how much sushi Morgan could pack in : ) We'll
definitely be going back there on our next visit. During the week, we
also played a lot of games. Morgan is now very into "war" and it was so
funny to see both Morgan and Dean playing with my old doll house
furniture that my mom had kept for that grandaughter that never came : )
Funny how I still remember all that stuff so well. The boys also
enjoyed a ride in P-Pop's Triumph as well as making some fabric houses
with Nana. The whole visit, it was awesome to just hang with family and
catch up. Thanks Darren and Annie for coming up so we could all spend
more time together. It was great to see all the boys play together and I
especially like how Dean observed that Uncle Darren had a "beard on his
arm" while sitting next to him at the dinner table : ) Thanks mom for
having your house in chaos for a while and we're glad we didn't get
anyone sick! It was certainly a summer to remember and now we are back,
gearing up for school to start just next week. Yikes!
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| making stepping stones with Nana |
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| Aunt Wendy |
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| Proof that P-Pop kayaked! |
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| Maybe next year Dean |
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| more crabs! yes please! |
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| Dean cracking everyone up about hairy Uncle Darren |
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| on way to airport : ) |
