Philly Trip 2014 Day 3

Day 3 started out with a disturbing note found on the bathroom floor.  The note itself wasn't so bad but the creepy red lettering on blue background kinda creeped me out:

We dropped Syd and Jasper off at school and then Henry drove us to mom and dad's house:

We took a sibling picture (oldest on left to youngest on right).  Rachel, the master photographer, managed to get a picture with all of our eyes closed...I'm impressed!

...but she made up for it with this awesomeness:

After pics, we (Jeff, Rachel, Forrest, Darcy, Jaida, Ivy, Henry, Joel, Grandpa/Dad, and myself) headed off to Storybook Land.  Dad splurged and bought us all tickets.  The first ride for most of the kids was a baby ferris wheel.  2 of the kids cuddled with grandpa (everyone loves grandpa!)  My first ride was similar to a teacup ride with Joel and Ivy:

Next, Ivy practically dragged us to the "horsey" ride:

Than we tried to do some kid wrangling for pictures.  I did not manage a good picture, but there were a few.

The pictures were with everyone sans Darcy, who was just chilling in the stroller

Next was the Dragon ride.  Grandpa was with Henry, I had Ivy, Jeff had Forrest and Joel was so muscular he had to sit alone (also we ran out of kids)

Forrest than found his FAVORITE ride.  He first went with his mom

And then begged Grandpa to go with him!

We then took a quick photo break.  First Henry (who just kinda hung there):

Next was Forrest:

Jeff and Jaida:

and Joel and Jeannette:

and finally Ivy posing in front of one of the signs designed to make sure the kids are the right size for the ride

Next came the old-timey car ride with grandpa, Jeff, and various nieces and nephews

Forrest and Ivy were excited to go ride the Bubbles roller coaster.  Forrest was vewy bwave, but Ivy did not enjoy it as much, even though she rode with strong uncle Joely.

We then took a "trip" through the Alice in wonderland cave:

After trippin, we went to the picnic tables and had a HUGE lunch that grandpa had prepared.  There were sandwiches, chips, grapes, soda, and, dad even went out of his way to make me a hamburger and cheese since I'm avoiding carbs right now.

After lunch the kids found a slide.  They enjoyed sliding down into grandpa's waiting arms...even Jeff and Joel got in on it:

We then all piled on a choo-choo train that took us around the park.

Forrest saw the roller coaster and wanted to go again (specifically 3 more times)

As mentioned before, Forrest loved the beanstalk bounce, so we did that a few more times too

The last Spinny ride we went on was the RockinTug (insert dirty joke).  After that ride everyone was looking a bit seasick, so no more major spinny rides.

Joel and Forrest took it easy by milking a fake cow

We finished our day with a nice relaxing hay ride.

We burried Forrest in the hay.  It was so adorable that I had to get a video.  Please note that Jeff is instigating hay throwing:

Before we left, Joel bought us funnel cake.  So much yum!  Everyone shared the funnel cake while grandpa watched the kids:

Ivy and Forrest were dancing rather adorably:

So, I did what any good aunt would do, and recorded a video:

I'm so thankful that Dad convinced me to go.  It was SUCH a wonderful day.

Philly Trip 2014 Day 2

Today is my Philly day.  I bought a train ticket and headed into Philadelphia to meetup with my old co-workers.

I got to view the new MDWCG building (which was AMAZING) and see all of my coworkers.  It was so nice.  I miss that office sometimes.  It was like working with family.  I went out to lunch with (from left to right) Lisa K., <myself>, Jackie, and Marcus.  I forgot how beautiful down town Philly is!

Here's another picture of Jackie and Lisa!

When my coworkers went back to work, I decided to walk around the city.  I saw this on a trash can

And dropped by my old (rat infested) apartment on 17th and Race

Since I was near by, I walked down to see how far along the construction of Philadelphia Mormon Temple had progressed.  I was surprised at how nice it looked!!

While I was wandering around, BOOM! Awesome artwork!!

Since Joel was downtown, he picked me up and we hung out.  Look how handsome my baby brother is!

And then, in true Jeannette fashion, SELFIES!

In the evening, I went out with Jaida (+kids) and Aunt Jessie for pizza...and I got this cute shot of my cousin and nephew!

By the end of the day I wondered where the day had gone!!  The week was going so quickly!!

Philly Trip 2014 Day 1

After weeks of excitement about our family reunion, I finally set out.  The drive home was quick and fun.  It's always exciting to see this sign:

I took a break on the trip from Cleveland to Philly to tour the BWP bat factory.  I must have past the "Tour BWP Bats" sign 20-30 times over the many years I've been making this trip.  It was finally time to stop!!

Look, even their parking signs are bats!!!!

The first thing I did when I got to Philly was drop my stuff at Jaida's house and take a selfie (be warned, many selfies to follow).

Jaida and I then went over to mom and dad's house.  This is where I learned how much baby Henry loves his grandpa.  Anytime Grandpa is around, Henry runs to him and just wants to cuddle and hang out.  He has eyes for no one but Grandpa.

Aunt Jessie made a huge dinner for the family (sans Jeff/Rachel/Forrest/Darcy, who hadn't flown in yet)

Henry's favorite part of Dinner was the cookies

Jaida then told me a secret:  The only way to get Henry to cuddle with you is to let him see technology.  I used this secret to my advantage:  SELFIES!!!

Sydney didn't want to be out done by her baby brother (and she was not out done).  MOAR SELFIES!!

I spent the rest of the evening reading to the kids and then spending some quality girl time with my sister talking about everything (she's the greatest!!)  By the end of the day I was so exhausted I passed out mighty quick.

Movies, Girls Brunch, Work and Jokes

Over the past couple of weeks I've been kept crazy busy with work, school and friends!  The one thing I cannot seem to let fall by the wayside is my addiction to moves.  In the past few weeks I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy twice and  Let's be Cops.  I can't help it!  The seats at the AMC Westwood are amazingly comfortable, and the prices are so reasonable!

I've been trying to go to the gym more often, and, to encourage myself, I've been taking cute selfies:

A patron made me this cute piece of artwork recently.  I don't feel too special as he makes similar pieces for all of the OPL librarians, but, it was really sweet!

A week or 2 ago, I met up with my lady friend Amber.  It was so nice to catch up!  I missed SO much in her life, as we hadn't seen each other in well over 6 months.  We met at Jack Flaps in Ohio City.  The food was PHENOMENAL!!  Amber got a PB&J french toast:

While I got eggs and bacon.  OH MY GOSH!  LOOK AT THAT BACON.  It was sooooo good. 

Finally, I saw a great joke on reddit so I texted it to Dad, which ended up devolving into a conversation in German. 

I'm so excited for next week.  I work for the next 4 days, but after that, I'm off for a whole week and will be spending said week in Philly with the family!  YAY for family reunions!