Summer on the East Coast

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 : )

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 : )

Morgan's intro to "Sorry"

eating crabs

***** Funland *****

Nature Hike with scavenger hunt & bug catchers

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...

Rachel & Alex

Christine, Jo & Jake

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.

with Dave & Emily at Dandelion

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!

making stepping stones with Nana

Aunt Wendy

Proof that P-Pop kayaked!

Maybe next year Dean

more crabs! yes please!

Dean cracking everyone up about hairy Uncle Darren

on way to airport : )