The Happiest Place on Earth

Jodi:  No, we're not talking about Cleveland, you sillies!  We're talking about Main Street, USA.  A humble little town with a homey, classic Italian restaurant, quaint little shops, a bakery, an ice cream shop, and oh yeah, a huge forced-perspective Castle at the end.  We love Disney World.

Randy and I went to Disney together for the first time on our honeymoon, almost six (!!!) years ago.

This time we went with Mom, Dad, Bryan and Ashley, for a much-needed, but always too short, long weekend trip.

We were really lucky that even though it was Orlando in the summer, we had some great thunderstorms that cooled things off.

One of the great things about Randy in Disney is that he's like a little kid.  Every time he goes on a ride, it's like it is his first time on it.  Here we are on the Jungle Cruise, and Randy's paying attention like we are really going on a boat ride through the Amazon.

Randy loves the characters.  When we were there on our honeymoon, we were walking down the main street in Hollywood Studios.  Out of nowhere, Randy gasped loudly and ran off.  By the time I caught up to him, he was already next in line to meet Chip and Dale.

He was mad at me because I wouldn't let him go stand in line to meet Goofy.  We had things to do and the line was long.  Besides, this was the first character we saw.  Everyone knows you don't wait in line for the first character you see, right?

...But he cheered right up for the Pirates of the Caribbean.

They were threatening to shut down Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride due to the rain, but we lucked out and got on it before the rain got too bad.

Randy has a good time on every ride :)

A secret dream of mine is to take a River Boat cruise down the Mississippi so I can pretend I'm Mark Twain.  A couple of years ago, I saw the family on "Little People, Big World" go on the cruise and I was totally jealous.  I looked up the river boat they took and found out they don't offer those cruises any more.  So until the boat company start answering my letters and e-mails, we will have to make do with the Liberty Belle.

Hold the phone!  I just googled river boat cruises down the Mississippi and found this article.  Future vacation?  I think so!

I'm not sure what Randy is doing here.  Demonstrating how wide the life preserver benches are?

It was a nice little cruise around Tom Sawyer Island, and even though it started to rain.  It was nice and relaxing in a sea of summer theme park craziness.  Maybe I'm getting old, or maybe it was just really hot and crowded.  In the summertime, it's nice to go on the less popular rides, the things maybe you haven't done before, or haven't done in a long time and then hit the roller coasters and such when it's cooled off a little and all the little kids are in bed.

I like going on the carousel, and there was no line.  Doesn't Randy look thrilled?

Here I am afraid that the carousel horses will come to life and lift right off the carousel to join a fox hunt and a horse race.  Just kidding.

Who doesn't love the tea cups?  I love everything about them.  Tea, cups, teapots, doormice...

Then we ran over to Epcot to have dinner with the family, and we saw.............

It was the best day ever!

Would you believe we had to stand in line to get our picture taken with shrubbery?  Totally worth it.

Then we turned towards the World Showcase and saw this:

If you haven't been to Disney lately, you can go on an adventure to save the world from Dr. Doofenschmirtz!  An Agent P mission?  Sign us up!  I think we were the only ones without kids who did this, but it was still fun.  You pick a country in the World Showcase, and they give you a flip phone which you use to communicate with Carl and Major Monogram to get your mission.  We chose Mexico for two reasons, 1.  We had dinner reservations there, and 2.  We're lazy.

Randy:  We didn't choose South Africa because we're against Apartheid.

Jodi:  That's reason number 3.

Major Monogram gives you a mission, you carry it out, he gives you another mission, you complete that, etc., etc.  The missions are actually integrated into each country.  In Germany, Dr. D is actually in a cuckoo clock wearing lederhosen.

At the end of the mission, Carl tells you where to drop off your flip phone.  We dropped ours off just as the texts starting coming in (on my iPhone, not the Agent P flip phone) from Bryan that our dinner reservations were in 5 minutes.  Agent J and Agent R had successfully completed their mission and were all ready to turn back into mild mannered Jodi and Randy for dinner.

We had dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel which is new since last Randy and I were there.  We've eaten at The San Angel Inn many times over the years and liked it a lot.  La Hacienda is even better, and if you get reservations for close to 8pm, you can watch the fireworks from your table!  Randy got the pork tenderloin with mole sauce (it was so yummy, I tried it!) and Mom, Ashley and I got the Pollo al Pastor.  It was the perfect combination of spicy, sweet and savory.  A little bit of sour cream makes it less spicy, but brings out all the flavors.  Sooooo good!  I like spice, but I don't like too much spice, or spice for the sake of spice.  If there is no other flavor to my food, why eat calories I can't taste?  That's just my philosophy.  Randy disagrees.  He actually challenged our wonderful waitress to bring out a salsa too hot for him.  They're not on the menu, but if you like hot, ask for them.

Just a shout out to our great waitress.  She not only put up with our crazy family, but smiled and recommended a great tea.  Red tea, have you tried it?

They play the music for the fireworks inside the restaurant, so you don't miss anything.  Disney sure has the experience down.

Then we all went back to the hotel and soaked our feet.  Bryan's idea was a good one, and we filled the bathtub with hot water and stuck our tootsies in.  Mom had some shampoo, and just as Bryan said, "I don't trust you enough to let you do that..." Mom put in a huge triple squirt of soap.  The bubbles were overflowing the tub, and Ashley and I had them stocked up to the level of our heads.

Too bad we don't have any pictures of that!

The family that soaks together, stays together.

It's the Small Things

Randy and I were watching the closing ceremonies of the Olympics last night.  Did you all watch them?  I thought they were awesome.  Best opening and closing Olympic ceremonies I think I have ever seen.  I even liked the reunion of the Spice Girls.  I heard there was a lot more than what I saw...  the Who played?  George Michael played more than one song??  What the heck, NBC?  

Well, a funny thing happened as we lazily lounged after a day of hard labor on our family room renovation.  I started to sing.  That in and of itself is pretty funny, because I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but the funny part is that when I sang, Keller climbed up on my collar bone and vigorously head-butted me.  Ouch!  He rubbed his face against my face, he wiped his little wet kitty nose all over my face.  He licked my nose.  He buried my mouth in his cheek.  

I'm not sure if he liked my singing or was trying to shut me up, but I couldn't help it, I kept singing.  Then Eric Idle came out and sang Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and I whistled too, through his fur.  I got cat hair in my mouth, but I didn't care.  I mean how often do you get to sing along with Eric Idle at the Olympics?  Keller starting crying a frustrated little squeal.  Once again, I'm not sure if he thought I was calling him and he was thinking, "but I'm right HERE!" or if he was frustrated that I wouldn't shut up.  

And when the song ended, Keller did the cutest thing I have ever seen him do.  Completely tuckered out, he put his little cheek up against my cheek and fell asleep.  Out.  Cold.

Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics.  I couldn't move to get my camera and Randy was asleep too.  All I could do was reach for my first generation horrible-picture-taking phone and snap a couple hoping to get some with Keller and me actually in them.

Then I started to pretend to be asleep too, because I thought it looked kind of weird with my eyes open behind Keller's furry little head.  Like one of those pictures where you're looking for something creepy in a sunny, ordinary room, only to see a freaky face staring back out at you from behind a pillow.  But less freaky and less hidden.

I couldn't move and wake him up.  It was like holding a sleeping baby.  So adorable.

Anyone else have any sweet little moments lately?  Have any feline music critics?  Didja love the Spice Girls reunion as much as I did?  Who else squealed in delight when they saw all those Mary Poppinses come down from the sky during the opening ceremonies?  C'mon, you know you did.

P.S.  All the songs from the closing ceremonies should be on iTunes soon, uncut.

4th of July Cherry Hill Not Asbury Park

Randy:  For those keeping score at home... the title of this blog is "4th of July," and yet the date of this blog  post is August something. We're behind. I blame myself entirely. If I actually helped Jodi write these things, we'd probably be in the same season.

Now, the difficult thing... remember what the heck we did back then. I'll have to write underneath each of these pictures. If I am wrong or mis-remembering what happened... it doesn't really matter. Why? You weren't there. HA!

Jodi made two pies for the BBQ at my parents' house. I had asked her not to make me a birthday cake. Oh, did I mention that my birthday is July 6th?  You're all jerks!  None of you wished me a "Happy Birthday!"  Maybe some of you did.  I don't know who reads this.  But if you're from a foreign country... you didn't wish me a happy birthday.  And yes, that does upset me.  I let you into my life, and now, I realize that this is a one-sided relationship.  If you sent me a card, thank you.  If you got me a present, thank you very much.  If you sent me an email, you're a lazy bum.  Just kidding.  That's probably more than what I'd have done for you.  If you didn't wish me a happy birthday, please understand... unless you're Jodi, my parents, or my brother, I have no idea what half of the year you were born.

What was I talking about? Oh, the desserts that Jodi made.  If you haven't read in previous blogs (shame on you), I am training for a marathon.  So, I asked Jodi not to make me a cake because she goes to such great effort, and I don't really want cake.  Plus, its so freakin' hot, let's have something a little like Jodi's brother... cooler and fruitier!  HA!  I'm on a roll tonight.  I apologize for that comment.  That was unnecessarily wrong. 

Anyway, it's hot and cakes require ovens and I won't eat it.  Hence, no cake.  Phew.  She made pudding pies... vanilla pudding with strawberries, blueberries and nectarines, and a peanut butter pie with whipped cream (both of which I actually ate).  Yummy. 

Below is Denali the Dog. I call him Little Alice Cooper because of his black fur under the eyes... and Alice Cooper is awesome... and so is the dog.  His dogs traits include licking noses and pooping.

This is one of the most important parts of the day. That's me holding Z, my brother and one of my best buddies, Adam.

This guy is one of my favorite guys because he's just different.  Why is this the most important part of the day?

He and his girlfriend, Susan, had a son, Dominic.  That's a very nice Jewish name.  Anyway, they wanted (crap! I just remembered this part) to invite us to their son's first birthday.  It just occurred to me that I have no idea when it was... and I'm pretty sure we missed it.  Now, I feel terrible.  Dagnabit. Now, I'm gonna feel bad for the rest of this post.  Dang.

I have to apologize to them tomorrow.  And I need to buy Dominic something cool.

So, Susan sent me an email to ask for our address.  And her email came up with Adam's last name.  As soon as I saw it, I accused them of being married.  She denied it.

At this moment, Adam admitted he was secretly married.

That's my dad returning D's daughter (Z's sister). That makes Z D's son. Not sure how good you are with family trees.

I got a great idea to recreate the lift scene in Dirty Dancing to entertain D.  That might sound like a joke... I was actually doing that.  Dirty Dancing is a mutual favorite movie of mine and D's.

Z has never seen Dirty Dancing, and posed like a super hero, which he is very good at.

It was a good time had by all.

If you need me... I'm gonna go back to feeling shame for missing my buddy's kid's first birthday. 

Mom's Surprise 60th Birthday and Retirement Party

You may have suspected from reading this post (or know because you were there), we recently celebrated my mom's 60th birthday and retirement from teaching elementary school.  And it was a surprise.  A surprise my dad, Bryan and I have been planning for months, but was probably in the back of our heads for over a year.  

Mom and Dad put a pool in their back yard since last summer.  My dad has gone hog wild on this pool, also putting in things like a tiki bar and a screened-in gazebo for when the weather is not so nice.  The result is sort of like Disney meets Jimmy Buffet meets the south western United States.  Yes, there is a kokopelli on top of the mini rock waterfall, and no, you can't see the back side of water.  

When I was first thinking about this party for mom, the back yard didn't come to mind as the best place to host what should be a pretty classy shindig, but as the pool was put in and the other pieces came together, there was no better place to have it.  The problem was:  now that Mom was retired, how would we get her out of the house long enough to set up the party without her being suspicious?  That's where the Hotel DuPont came in.

When we were planning Megan's bridal shower back in February or March, my friend told me about the Green Room at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware.  They host a pretty fabulous tea there at 3pm every day.  My first thought was, I can't afford to have a shower there, but I could take the moms for a special tea!  My mom and my MIL, Joni, have birthdays just days apart.  So I called Joni and asked if she would like to go for her birthday, and also disclosed that while this was a birthday present to both of them, it would be perfect timing to get Mom out of the house so the party could get set up.  Also, with the Hotel DuPont being as special as it was, I hoped it would throw Mom off that this WAS her party.  So I made the reservation on the spot and called mom after work and told her I was taking her and Joni for tea.

Luckily Grandma, my dad's mom, was able to swing it to be in town during Mom's birthday, so I added her to the reservation later.  Her birthday is in September.  Happy Birthday, Moms!

Joni and Grandma

Mom and I love everything about tea.  The china, the little sandwiches...  Ever since she would play with me with my little tea set when I was little (it was an actual china tea set, just smaller for little hands), tea became the epitome of how a lady should behave in my head.  When I was like 5 or 6, she threw a little tea party for me and my friends and we used her special strawberry tea set.  When I was older, maybe 12 or 13, she took me out for high tea at a fancy hotel while we were vacationing in Canada.  She and my bridesmaids threw me a tea themed bridal shower when Randy and I got married.  We love Alice in Wonderland with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare...  Mary Poppins with the tea party on the ceiling...  Love it!  I could not wait for this tea, and I think she was pretty excited too.

Look at this room.  Can you imagine a more perfect place to have tea with the ladies?

Everything was so good.  We each got our own pot of tea, here is the menu.  All four of us got the chamomile, and it was great.  First they bring out five silver dollar-sized open-faced sandwiches.  There was a cucumber, a turkey and tomato, egg salad, chicken salad and lox.  Then they bring out scones with cream and your own little pot of jam.  The last course was my absolute favorite and you can see it in the picture below:

Lemon mousse pyramids with chocolate on the bottom, blueberry whipped cream boats, vanilla cake with chocolate and raspberry layers, blueberry and raspberry american flags, almond paste cookies dipped in chocolate and my favorite, tiny individual key lime pies.  It was like I had died and gone to heaven.  My brain was on how-do-I-make-this-dessert-at-home overload.

If you ever get a chance to do tea at the Hotel DuPont, DO IT!  The moms loved it so much, they were talking about taking the boys with us for tea at Christmastime.  Oh and do the Valet Parking.  It's worth the money to not have to worry about parking your car, and it makes you feel like you belong there.  ...Even if your car is a mess, like mine always is.

So a funny thing happened on the way home.  We couldn't find 95 N to hop back to Philly, and the GPS on my iPhone chose that moment to stop working.  So it took us a little while to get going, but I made up the time on the highways home.  I had timed it perfectly, getting Mom home actually a little early, when she announced we HAD to stop on the way home for potato salad.  Since I had been a little overzealous with my speed, I conceded and stopped off at Wegmans.  My fatal flaw was letting her go in by herself while Grandma and I sat in the car and called home to let them know our ETA.  20 minutes later, Grandma turned to me and said, "You better go in there and drag her out!"

Mom was at the checkout with a belt full of groceries.  If you're anything like me, you go into the store for one thing, and end up picking up 4 or 5 things you forgot you needed.  If you're like my mom, you go in for one thing and fill your cart!

So we get her in the car and as we're driving home, Mom looks into the back yard and says, "There's a lot of people at our house!"

"No, Mom, that's just our family, the neighbors are having a party."

She believed me!  We pulled into the driveway and she says, "Their music is really loud!  That's not like them."

"I know, isn't it crazy how loud it is?"

I thought for sure we were busted, when I turned around and she was gone.  I was trying to take her through the gate to the backyard for the big surprise, when she disappeared into the house, directly up the stairs.  I called after her and she replied, "I have to go to the bathroom!"

Bryan, Dad, Randy and I sat in the kitchen for 5, 10, then 15 minutes when Randy said, "She's going to come downstairs in her bathing suit, just watch.  She's getting changed."

Well gosh darn it if he wasn't right.  She came down in her suit, and we're all just standing there staring at her, not knowing what to say.  I was the first to speak.

"Mom, do you want me to get you a cover up?"

Randy, Bryan and Mom.  I'd say she was pretty surprised.
 

Randy and his brother, Jason.  Look out, girls!  Jason is single!

Ashley and our little cousin, Katie

Z, D, and Lily

Z, you may remember him from such gems as Wolverine Bakes a Cake 

Ashley, Aunt Donna and awesome Cousin Treva

Bryan and his friend, Kyle.  Kyle is showing off the awesome paper plates I found at the dollar store!

Nan and Aunt Jane.  Nan, Dan and Donna came in a few days early to help and hid at my house.

Mom and Dad's long-time friends from when they were at Penn State

Awww, Lily and John

Kelly, Uncle Dan and Mom

Look, Randy is as good with D's kids as I am

Dad and our neighbor of 30+ years, Joe

Joe and Joanne.  Joanne taught me how to ride a bike.

Our neighbors across the street, they used to babysit me when I was little

Our neighbors through the backyard, who also used to babysit me.  Their son and I were best friends when we were toddlers.

Me and Dad - so relieved the party was pulled off!

Our neighbors to the side

Dad's college roommate and good friend, with his daughter and her boyfriend.  He used to work with D's dad.  Small world, huh?

His sister and very good friend of Mom's and Dad's

Our cousins and Penn State friends and family - Kevin is shielding his head so I don't drop a house on him.  Long story.

Uncle Sean brewed Mom her own special beer!

Cousins of Dad's, long-time friends of Mom and Dad in all the way from Texas!  and Grandma in her cute button shirt

One of our littlest cousins, Matthew

Bryan was in charge of food, and got a hand from Joni and Ashley, and our gourmet chef cousins, Mary and Treva.  We had a spread of the best food imaginable.  But as you know, you can have rockin' food, the most fun location, the best music, but what makes a party are the special people who come.

Thank you everyone for making Mom's birthday party the best one yet!

P.S.  If I didn't put your name down under your picture, it's not because I don't know who you are.  It's because I respect that not everyone is ok with having their name and picture on the internet, and we are so glad you could make it!!!