Weekend in Pittsburgh

This past weekend we took a family trip out to Pittsburgh to visit my niece Erin.  She is a freshman at Duquesne and most of Jean’s family made the trip out west to see her.  Jean’s parents went, her brother Mike and his family, her sister Kate and her family, as well as the five of us.

Abby, Jake, Emily, Michael, and Erin

The kids went out on Friday with the inlaws and Jean and I followed them out early Saturday morning.  The ride to Pittsburgh was quite eventful as Jean and I almost died on the trip out. Luckily we somehow escaped being sandwiched between an 18 wheeler (who never saw us) and the divider. It was easily my finest bit of driving.

We spent the day in Pittsburgh hanging down in the Stip District.  After that we ate at the Double Wide Grille, a barbecue joint built inside an old gas station with a car/gas station theme. It also happened to be a stop off on a very cool Santa Claus pub crawl. I’m guessing it was a little confusing for my four year old niece Haley as she tried to figure out where all of these Santa’s came from.

Emily, Hannah, and Brett

Jim and Haley at the Doublewide

We finished Saturday at the Duquesne-Penn State basketball game, which was played in the Consol Energy Arena which was right across the street from our hotel.  Sunday morning we had brunch at Primanti Brothers before heading home.

I have to admit, Primati Brothers was a bit of a let down for me.  I had the Pitts-burgher but I wasn’t overly impressed with it.  The fries were a bit of a letdown and I wasn’t a big fan of the bread either.  I generously gave it a 3 out of 5 rating.  It didn’t live up to all the hype.

Hannah, Brett, & Jim with a Fun Christmas Tree

Abby, Hannah, Haley, Brett, and Uncle Aaron

Mike and Jake with a Pub Crawl Santa and His Helpers

The one humbling part of the trip was when we were taking pictures of the Santas in the Double Wide.  They started asking if we could share them with them on either Facebook or Twitter.  They were giving us their info for both of the sites when one of the Santa’s in the crowd piped up, “nevermind, they’re probably still on MySpace.”  Do we look that old and out of touch?

4th of July Bike Parade

This morning we took part in the 4th of July Bike Parade in South Ocean City.  I’m not really sure how long we’ve been doing it but it’s an annual event for us now and one I remember taking Jake to when he was a little dude.

Jake and Abby are official “too cool” to take part in it but Brett really looks forward to it.  This year’s list of riders were: Brett, Lucas, Hannah, Natalie, Aunt Jean, and Uncle Erin.  It was a tough one this year because it was really hot and humid.

Brett, Lucas, Natalie, Hannah, and Uncle Aaron

Memorial Day at the Noorigian’s

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to make the trip to see Kate and Aaron.  The kids were whupped from their day in the sun on Saturday and we struggled to get them out of bed and into the car.  We had a big day planned with the girls hanging on the beach while the boys went out on Aaron’s fishing boat.

We got there around 11 am and proceeded to go our separate ways.  Aaron had been out since 5:30 in the morning and had gotten a full day of fishing in before we even got there.  He met us at the dock and we hopped right on board.

Once we got out to sea, there were some mixed reactions.  Jake hopped right up, grabbed a rod, and started fishing.  Brett on the other hand was very apprehensive, he was struggling with moving around on the boat and focused on sitting down and checking things out.  I wasn’t sure if he was sea sick or not, but as time went on he got more and more comfortable.  By the end of the trip, he was bouncing around all over the boat.

On the other hand, I got greener and greener the longer we were parked.  I’ve been out in the ocean before with no problems, but at the time I was on much bigger boats.  The longer we stayed out there, the worse I felt. Luckily I was able to keep from puking, but needless to say I didn’t enjoy myself too much.   The fishing wasn’t too great; Jake ended up with our only catch of the day, a fluke that was about 1/2″ short of being a keeper.

Once we got back to shore, we had a nice evening hanging out at Kate and Aaron’s house. Kate made a nice little dinner and it was great spending some time with family.  Jake may have been a bit bored because he didn’t have anyone to hang out with, but everyone else seemed to really enjoy themselves.

We were supposed to leave first thing Monday morning so we could get home to handle our chores (which we had neglected the entire weekend) but after looking at the weather we decided to stay the rest of the day.  We went out to breakfast and poor little Haley ended up getting sick to her stomach, so Kate took her home.

Aaron ended up taking Brett, Hannah, Abby, and Jake out on the boat for a little more fishing and Jean and I ended up going to the beach by ourselves.  Talk about a great break for us.  We had a nice peaceful four hour window all to ourselves.

The kids had a good time fishing with Aaron, although Abby ended up going through the same thing as I did dealing with sea sickness.  Next time we’ll both be better prepared to go on the boat (we’ll make sure we’ve got some Dramamine).

Jean's 40th

Saturday night we celebrated Jean’s 40th Birthday.  The party was a surprise and it was held at Shearer Elegance in Linfield, a Victorian style bed and breakfast.

Some quick background on the party.  Jean had been going nuts over the past few weeks wondering what I was going to do to celebrate her 40th.  We went to dinner a few weeks ago at the Trappe and she cornered me on what I had planned.  Being put on the spot, I lied to her and told her I had a weekend planned for just the two of us in the beginning of March.  She didn’t seem impressed with that answer, especially when I told her it wasn’t a party.

Over the past few weeks, she had been grilling her friends, family, and even the kids to see if I had anything set up.  She even went so far as starting to plan a party with a few of her girlfriends (Jen Portela, Bridget McGuigan) who are also hitting the big 4-0 over the next few months.  They already knew I had a surprise party set up, but they ended up calling me about it to see how they should handle it to keep Jean from getting too far in her planning.

The party prep was pretty low key, which is one of the great things about getting an event catered; no house to clean, no food to prep.  I reserved  the night before we left on our trip to Africa, and my mom and I went to plan out the menu the first weekend after we returned.  The only things we needed to take care of on our own were the cake, which my mom ordered at Master’s Baker in West Chester, and the cocktails.

I took an extended lunch break on Thursday to head down to Delaware to pick up the booze.  My office is just over a half hour from the Delaware border, so I took a drive down to pick up the supplies.  After checking around the office, the consensus was to go to Total Wine, which is like a Home Depot of alcohol, with all every type of alcohol you can imagine piled up to the ceiling. 

I ended up saving a ton of money compared to buying supplies at home.  For example, we like a red wine called Ménage à Trois, which sells for $13 plus tax at our local state store.  I bought a case of 12 bottles for $96 without sales tax.  I bought 2 cases of it, so I saved $120 just on that one item alone. When all was said and done, I ended up buying 10 cases of beer and 4 cases of wine, so the trip was well worth it.

To get Jean to the party, we told her it was a surprise 65th Birthday Party for my Uncle Jack.  Luckily, Jean didn’t piece together that we went to his 60th birthday party in January of 2002, a few months after my step-father Phil died.   A few hours before the party Jean began to stress that we weren’t bring a present for the party, but I told her it was a “no present” party.  After a lot of deliberation, she relented and settled on just buying a card instead. 

I arranged to have Jean’s parents ”baby sit” the boys for us, which worked out great because they were able to get the boys to the party.  Abby was at a birthday party with one of her soccer teammates, which was a trip to see the Philadelphia Kixx play down in Philadelphia.  Abby ended up missing the surprise, but she got dropped off to the party a little after 10:30, which must have been quite a site for her to observe with all these grownups acting a little funny.

Guests were instructed to arrive for the party at 6:30 and I made it a point not to bring Jean until 7:15 just so we wouldn’t bump into any late stragglers. 

The surprise worked perfectly; Jean truly didn’t have a clue what hit her.  The look on her face was priceless, and that one moment made the whole event worthwhile.

 

I was amazed at how fantastic the response for the party was.  I invited 85 people, figuring that quite a few would have other things already planned; to my surprise 80 of them made it.  The two biggest surprises were Jean’s college roomate Kristen, who flew in from Houston just for the event, and her grade school buddy Connie who for whatever reason we haven’t seen in ages.  Jean choked up when she saw both of them for the first time.

Jean and Kristen

Nancy and Connie

Jake stuck around for until around 8:30; he did a great job of keeping himself occupied because there was no one his age to hang out with.  He was bored out of his mind following the surprise, and we didn’t keep him in misery too long.  Shortly after I gave my toast to Jean, my mom drove him over to my brother in law Mike’s house, which is where he spent the night.

Brett made out a little better; Jean’s sister Kate’s children were both at the party, so Brett got to run around with his cousin Hannah.  He wasn’t in a rush to leave the party, and he hung out an extra hour or so more than Jake before going back to Jean’s parents house to spend the night.  That was one of the best moves of the night, because I didn’t want to deal with him early Sunday morning.

The party ended a little after 11pm, at which point a nice sized group of people headed back to the house to keep on partying.  It was a relaxing way to end the night, and bedtime didn’t come until sometime after 2am.

 

Kate and Haley

 

Brett and Hannah

Soccer, Jewlery, Pizza, and Johnny Dangerously

Saturday was a busy day in the house, and we were all going in different directions.  It took some planning and a little bit of help from others to make it all happen, but we got it done.

It started with Brett’s soccer game at 8:30.  The Haffey’s stuck around until 10 the night before, so the little man was impossible to get out of bed for his game.  He was barely comatose as I tried to get his uniform onto him while he lay in his bed at 8:15.  He ate a yogurt bar in the car as his breakfast and struggled his way through the game.  He took one shot to the face early in the game which brought tears, followed by a shot below the belt a little later on.  Breakfast at McDonald’s following the game seemed to finally lift his spirits.

Jean missed Brett’s game because she had a spinning class to teach, and she went straight from the class to meet her friend Danielle Murphy for breakfast.

From there, we went to Abby’s CYO game at 12:00.  As soon as the game ended, Jean ran Abby over to Gran and Pop’s house and it was the last I saw of Jean until 9:30 that night.  Aunt Kate, Hannah, and Haley had come home for the weekend for Natalie’s birthday party, so they ended up taking Abby with them.  The first part of the party was at a jewelry shop in Exton, before heading back to Tom and Carole’s for pizza.

I took Jake and Brett to Jake’s game in Norristown, and from there we drove up to Tom and Carole’s house to celebrate Natalie’s birthday with the rest of the family.  After some pizza, ice cream, and cake it was after 7:30 and time to head home, but Jake and Abby managed to beg Tom and Carole for a sleepover with Nate and Natalie.  Leaving those two behind, Brett and I headed home and I enjoyed a riveting 20+ minute discussion on Anakin, Obi Wan, General Grevious, Yoda, and various other clones.

Jean had a busy day on her own.  After dropping Abby off at her mom’s, she went back to Sacred Heart to work the snack bar for a couple of hours with Dana Rosenblum.  Once they wrapped that up, Jean went home to clean up and then was right out the door to meet her Rosemont friends Mo and Lynne for dinner.

Once Jean got home, we ended up watching Johnny Dangerously together.  I forgot how much I enjoyed that movie (I’m guessing I hadn’t seen it in at least 15 years).  I wasn’t sure if Jean would enjoy it because she’s not a big fan of stupid humor, but it was a nice way to end the evening.  I love the guy that keeps butchering all of the English cursewords: “Sominabatch!  Farging icehalls!”

Labor Day Weekend-Aunt Kate & Uncle Aaron

Monday it was off to the beach and a trip to see Aunt Kate and Uncle Aaron. Jake and Abby didn’t start school until Wednesday, so we wanted to do something a little fun their last few days.

The trip started a little later than we were planning on. Monday morning we had to finish off the summer book reports (argh!), but once the yelling and screaming ended we had a great day on the beach. For some reason the ocean was really rough. We saw at least five different lifeguard rescues in the 3-1/2 hours we were on the beach. I don’t think I’d seen that many before in my entire life.

We had a nice cook out on the deck, with the highlight being fish that Aaron had caught earlier in the week. He grilled up some sea bass and some fluke, both of which were excellent.

We woke up on Tuesday morning, had a nice breakfast, and spent a couple of hours on the beach. It was really cool being on the beach the day after summer officially ended. There were barely any people on the beach, and we were able to park with no problem. As rough as the surf was on Monday, it was very placid Tuesday. We left the beach and had lunch at Surf Taco, which the kids love, before heading home.

Hannah had her first day of school on Wednesday, and the Wynne’s had been planning to travel up to see her get on the bus. They were going to have Brett for the day on Wednesday, so the asked if we could leave Brett at Hannah’s for the night, and they would bring him home the following morning.