Off to See the Phamily

On Friday we piled in the car for what should have been a three hour drive to Philadelphia. Why were we heading up to Philly for the weekend? Honor and the children arrived from Michigan this week and a welcoming party, and par-tay, was in order. Our route up I-95 took five hours. Needless to say we came home via an alternate route.

Clara was pretty good on the drive, but had a little more difficulty with staying in her car seat than our last trip. She's mobile now and didn't like being constrained for so long. One quick stop to give her a bottle was required. We arrived in one piece.

The welcome we received could best be described as exuberant. Delainey didn't remember us, we last saw her at nine months old, and Chase questioned a little, but both quickly accepted the three of us. Neither was very sure of our names. At one point, to get my attention, Chase called to me, "Hey! Big guy!" Clara was "Baby" to Delainey.

Highlights of the weekend include:

• Being introduced to the greatest gaming system in the world, the Nintendo Wii. The cow game rules.
• Playing "Marco Polo" in the pool with Matthew, Andrew, and Braden.
• The new-to-us board game Pirates.
• A trip to their local Wegmans, which was nice but not as nice as the one near us.
• Fathers' Day: a touching card from Kristin and Clara, getting to sleep in until 9am (cue Caleb, "Oh my golly gosh."), German Pancake for breakfast and pot roast with mashed potatoes for dinner, all washed down with some Killer Bunnies.
• Meeting Julie & Josh, parents of JJ, in the foyer at church. JJ is six days younger than Clara. Julie is the same height as Kristin; Josh, the same as I.
• Driving home via Gettysburg - exactly a three hour drive. I'm swearing off I-95.
• Getting to hang out with our new northerly neighbors for what will hopefully be the first of many weekends together.