Trip Recap

Hello everyone, this is Morry. Rachel is talking to her parents so I have the job of recapping our trip to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Our flight from Austin to Philadelphia was fairly uneventful, thankfully. Noah was pretty antsy at the beginning but he ended up sleeping for the last 2/3 of the flight.

At my mom's house, Evan and Noah stayed in the same room as their cousin, Quin, who is also 3. We put Evan and Noah down first and we could hear Evan and Noah playing and laughing. My sister, Rachel, got Quin ready for bed and had him lay down in their bed to start. Then she read Quin the riot act about talking when she moved him to the bedroom with Evan and Noah. As soon as Quin was in bed, we heard Evan say "How old are you? How old are you?" and then we heard Quin say "shhhh!" It was funny. The boys didn't sleep for a long time.

The second day we went to Ruby's for lunch where they had trains going around the ceiling. Evan loved that and he and Quin had their played with their menus that turned into planes. They'd pretend to crash them into each other. Ruby's is a GREAT place for kids. That night my mom hosted a nice party for all of the guests for my dad's party (the reason we went to Philly). There was also an eventful time with a photographer who had zero clue about how to work with small children. He was sort of an embarrassment.

The next day was my dad's 75th birthday party. It was a very nice event and it was really nice to see all these people show up for my dad. My dad has made a very nice life for himself and that's great. The restaurant's food was good, but they were very slow to serve food. The party started at 6:30 but food did not start to be served until after 8pm. Luckily the room was fairly big and Evan and Quin ran around playing with each other. Also Aunt Fran and Uncle Scott were a BIG help playing with the boys. Uncle Ron got to meet the boys for the first time.

On the fourth day, we met downtown for brunch and then took a double decker bus tour of Philadelphia. Evan had seen a double decker bus tour in Garfield 2 and had really wanted to do it. Both boys loved it but eventually fell asleep on the ride. I found some of the things on the tour very interesting and I hadn't heard it before. That night Evan and Noah were playing with each other when they were supposed to be sleeping. I heard all this banging. I went up there and Evan told me he needed a diaper change. While I was changing his diaper, I asked him what the banging was. He said "nothing". I said it wasn't nothing, so he said he was clapping. I said he wasn't clapping because it was banging on the floor. His next excuse was that it was Lizzy. I can't believe he blamed the dog that was 1500 miles away. What a character!

The following day we took the boys to McDonald's as a sort of present for behaving so well. That night we put the boys down for bed and Rachel and I went to see Angels & Demons. The movie was very good.

Our last day in Philadelphia we went to see my mom's friend and my old boss and friend, Najib Nadi from the Villanova Computer Science department. It was really great geting to see him and I think the boys enjoyed being on a college campus. That night we went to see my friends Linda and Jeff, and their 3 little ones, Madison who is 5, and the twins, Luke and Ethan who are 15 months old. Evan and Noah loved playing with new toys and it was nice for me to be able to see my friends.

Thursday we rented a minivan, picked up my dad at the train station, and drove to Pittsburgh. The boys did very well on the trip. We only stopped once. We ate dinner at friends of mine, the Gordons. They have a little girl Rebecca who is now 8 and Dora who is 3. Again, I think the boys liked playing with new toys.

Friday saw us going to breakfast with my dad and my Aunt Eleanor. My Aunt Eleanor, who is 87, just looks wonderful. Noah played with her at breakfast. Then we went to the Carnegie Science Center. We saw a bunch of things that were great for kids including a massive miniature train set. Evan thought it was great. The Science Center is next to Heinz Field and Evan kept asking if that's where the Steelers and Roethlisberger played. Then we went to Rachel's cousin, Trent's house, for dinner. He has two boys that are 11 and a little girl who is 7. The boys, Taylor and Carter, play lacrosse. They had a little lacrosse stick that they showed Evan how to use. Evan thought he was one of the big kids. He loved playing with them. We couldn't get him away.

The next day, Saturday, we went to Aunt Eleanor's for lunch. My uncles Arnold and Dave and Uncle Dave's wife Estelle came over. Also my dad's cousin (my cousin too) Rita came over as well as Aunt Eleanor's daughter, Ann, and her husband Alan. Ann had dropped off toys for the boys to play with, plus Aunt Eleanor had bought some toys for Evan and Noah. Both boys were excellent. Later in the day we drove out to my friend from college, Katy's house. She and her husband, Rex, have two little boys - Aidan who is a month younger than Jamieson who will be 2 in August. They have a great house in a Pittsburgh suburb with a great basement and a nice pool. They cooked us dinner and then we went to Dairy Queen for dessert.

Our last day on the trip we met up with the Gordons again as well as my old bosses and friends Tom and Marianne Anderson. The restaurant was a great restaurant for the kids but it was a bit slow with service. Then we took Evan and Noah on the incline in Pittsburgh. Noah was so excited and kept yelling and pointing things as we went up and down. I think Evan thought it was really neat as well.

Today was my first day at my new job at TicketCity. I'm the new Development Director there. The first day went very well.

Rachel took the boys to the zoo and both boys fed the animals.

Until next time...

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