A Weekend in Philly

Where's Clara?


Out


Braden,
Uncle Oliver &
Clara

This weekend we drove up to Philly for Andrew's ordination. It's strange having a nephew hit twelve years old. I remember holding him when he was one month old, right before I entered the MTC and now he's passing the sacrament. Insane.

We left midday on Saturday and had a pretty smooth ride up. Clara was in a pretty good mood and played "Where's Clara?" with her blanket then conked out for a nap. We made really good time by taking the back road route after we crossed the Susquehanna River. We took a slight detour and headed over to Braden's football game. In my mind, youth sports are about learning team work, developing coordination, and the treats at the end of the game. I've come to learn that some people take youth football very seriously. Here we were, in November, a cold day, and a ton of boys less than ten years old were running plays and to top it all off there were ... wait for it ... wait for it ... cheerleaders! I was shocked. Little girls in full cheer uniforms doing simple cheers with an insane cheer mother leading them on. Call me a freak, but I don't get it. There was even a little girl around 4 years old cheering. And get this: there are other sets of cheerleaders for the older boys. These were the junior cheerleaders. Regardless, it was fun to see Braden play and he even caught an interception at the end of the game!

My mother and father, as well as Honor's mother and father, were in town for the weekend, and we met up with the mothers at the game. It was good to see my mom, it's been a while since we've seen her, and we had her ride in our car so we could visit on the way back to Matt & Honor's house. This was our first time to their new house. They have an amazing deck and yard and just the right number of bedrooms. Andrew vacated his room for us and we greatly enjoyed sleeping in his room. (They just bought an incredible bed for Andrew. We both slept very well.)

It was so good to see Andrew, Braden, Chase, and Delainey. Andrew has definitely changed the most. He's starting to get some good height and his feet indicate that he's got a good bit more in him. We passed the time playing games, eating all the food for their play kitchen (okay, Clara did), and playing the Wii (the single greatest console ever invented). We had a good time at church on Sunday and enjoyed seeing Josh and JJ. After church Honor cooked an amazing meal for everyone previously mentioned AND my Uncle Kurt and Aunt Linda, who came up from DC for the afternoon.

We realized that we don't have that many pictures of Clara with both my parents, so we set about to get some. Clara refused to sit still. We only got one that is worth using and even in this one you can't see her face. Such is the life of Clara.
As we were heading out the door on Sunday evening, I caught one last picture of Clara, Kristin, and my mom. Of the 10 or so shots I fired off in quick succession, I feel like the one at the right tells the best story. Yes, Clara is holding my mother's cell phone. Yes, she is obsessed with it. Yes, she would pitch a fit if you tried to take it from her. Yes, she is her grandmother's grandchild.