Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Mini-Vacation A Success

This past weekend we took a mini-vacation away from home for my brother-in-law's wedding. His wife has been a part of the family long enough that we've been calling her "aunt" before she actually was one.

So Friday we travelled north to Bethlehem, PA. Along the way we got lost only a little bit. Thankfully the GPS unit we borrowed from my dad worked well enough to get us back on track. Just not well enough for us to want to buy that particular model. We stopped at my sister-in-law's condo and dropped the kids off. I'm not sure who was more excited to be there, the kids or the in-laws. From there we went to our hotel room and checked in, changed for the rehearsal, and went across the river to the church on Lehigh's campus.

From there we hopped a few streets over to the dinner then back to the hotel. Dinner was nice and the kids were very well behaved. Yvonne and I got a nice night alone while the kids stayed with the in-laws. Amazing how much better you feel after sleeping in until seven. After getting ready we had a nice breakfast with a great view then did some shopping. We went to the "oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world." I was hoping the Moravian Book Shop would have more books, but there were more crafts than books. Oh well.

Then there was the neat toy store, the Aardvark Sports Shop, and the Heavenly Hedgehog ice cream shop (where Yvonne drooled over the hedgehogs). Then we picked up the kids, everyone got dressed, then headed to the wedding. Elizabeth and William were both awesome and did a great job of not crying or making a lot of noise. Elizabeth was a flower girl and did a perfect job walking down the aisle and posing for pictures.

After the ceremony and pictures, we headed to the reception at the Hotel Bethlehem (where we were also staying). Dinner was nice, but I missed part of it while I was setting up William's play pen to sleep in (poor guy crashed hard - so did Elizabeth). So I missed getting cake but Yvonne scored a cigar for me. Elizabeth had a "sleep-over" with Yvonne's aunt that night which meant she got to play in the morning. I managed to sneak out for a short run before cleaning up and loading the car. Then we were once again on the road back home.

Overall it was nice to see family again and Yvonne and I are both glad we're not getting married again. All that stressful happiness can get to you. We were both impressed (and grateful) at how the kids behaved and continually reinforced that (with toys, hugs, kisses, etc.). Photos will be coming soon.

3 comments:

1979 semi-finalist said...

Just when I get on the fence, thinking MAYBE I want kids, I come to your blog, read a post, and find out that 7am is called "sleeping in".

No thank you. I'm going back to the other side of the fence.

Neil Richard said...

AHAHA!! Kids are both the best and worst things to ever happen to you. But the best part is that the good always outweighs the bad. Elizabeth likes to get up around 6am (William would sleep until 8 if you let him). William gets into everything and causes trouble (Elizabeth is more behaved, but she's also older). Yes diapers are nasty. So is cleaning up vomit. And bandaging wounds is always scary. There are scary dreams so they wake you up in the middle of the night. Countless things that a bad about having kids.

And despite all of this, I love them. I'd do anything for them. And when times are good, it makes me feel like I'm living with an ideal family like the Cleavers or Keatons or Huxtables.

Besides, when they get older, won't they sleep in more?

1979 semi-finalist said...

yeah, when they get older you'll already be trained to get up early and they'll be grouchy teenagers that throw a shoe at you if you try to wake them up before noon on weekends. I'm not saying I ever did that...no, no, that's not at all what I'm saying...