Philly Trip 2014 AFTERMATH

Mom noticed my messy car while I was visiting and she said that if I dropped by she would clean it!  I have the BEST MOM!  Before:

After:

BEST PARENTS EVER!!

The trip home to Ohio was uneventful.  The first thing I did when I got home was to change it up by dying my hair!  BOOM!  Raven haired beauty!

I then proceeded to spend the next few days recovering.  I had managed to get covered in bruises, cuts and bug bites on my trip to philly

Only 2 things have happened since my philly trip.  I got to play makeup with my bestie Mitch.  I may have created a monster because she totally outshines me in both of these pictures.  Yup, I'm friends with a freakin princess!!!

When I finally went back to work, I was working on some cataloging stuff and THIS!  This picture was on the back jacket of The Sexy Vegan Cookbook.  I couldn't have asked for anything better!!

PHEW!  All done Philly blogging.  I just started 2 more classes this week, so, until classes slow down, blogs will, once again, be few and far between as I'll just be working, sleeping or learning.  Sigh.

Philly Trip 2014 Days 5 and 6

Today was fairly uneventful.  We took a family picture.  It was a race against time.  You only have so much time to take successfully pictures before the youngest kids start squirming to run around.  As you can tell from mom and Joel's smiles, Henry was squirming right from the start.

Luckily we got a few good pictures:

right after family pictures I headed up to KOP to get dinner with my amazing friends Katie and Chris.  It was so much fun!  We talked, and laughed and caught up.

When I got home, Jeff, Ryan, Jaida and myself played ticket to ride:

It was really just Jaida vs myself, and in the end I managed to pull out a win!!

Before going to bed I forced Jaida to model with the bottle of Caladryl lotion that I'm pretty sure has been around since I was a child (at least 25 years old)

Day 6 was spent celebrating sushi-fest.  We went to an all you can eat buffet/sushi bar.  To say it was disappointing would be an understatement.  Still we got some good sibling pictures...

Right behind us, in the picture, is a fish pond.  Everyone had fun feeding the fisheys!

It was a solid ending to our family reunion!  2 random pictures left from day 6 are:

After spending every night girl-talking with my sister, I feel like we're closer than ever.  I had so much fun getting hugs and cuddles from my sweet nieces and nephews, and LOVED reconnecting with my brothers, sister-in-law Rachel, parents and extended family.  I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful, loving, all around AWESOME family!!  I miss them all already.

Philly Trip 2014 Day 4

Today was our family reunion day.  I got all fancied up.  While you can't see them, I have red heels on (note how I tower over mom!) and red lipstick:

Cousin Mara gave me an early Christmas present.  How cool is this?!!!

Before everyone arrived I played dolls with Forrest,

Hung out with Rachel and Darcy,

and took a picture of dads funny "Dads way/Highway" magnet, holding up Jaspers "Japer" sign:

Then it was time for the reunion!  I got selfies with Jeff,

cousin Mara

cousin Mara and her hubby Zach

Joel

Joel and Sydney

Joy and Grandma (It was a selfie, but I look like a total photobomber)

Jaida

and Sydney

There was a lot of family that I didn't even get selfies with!!

There was a ton of food

AND then a sunday bar at aunt Jessicas house!

The boys played croquet (can you guess which one was the first snake?  Hint:  He's all alone, no one wants to go near him)

One of my favorite things was Jasper and his Socktupus!!

At the end of the evening, I just had to kiss little Darcy's cheeks!  How could any Aunt resist those cute cheeks!

Darcy managed to get covered in animal cracker chocolate.  Uncle Joel helped clean her up:

Lol.  Tasty.