Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful Memorial Day weekend we had! Andrew was home for three days, we had perfect weather and we had great company - the Arcaras came to visit us from Buffalo. Uncle John, Aunt Tina and Joy arrived on Friday evening and left yesterday. It was just a relaxing, much-needed visit to catch up with them and enjoy each other's company for 3 days. The kids had a blast having guests all weekend!

Saturday morning was the pre-planned obligatory outing for Uncle John and Andrew: cheese steaks in Philadelphia! Now anyone who knows anything about Philadelphia knows that the two most famous "dueling" cheese steak places in south Philly - Pat's and Geno's - have their definite followings. Either you like one or the other and you must know the proper verbiage to order so as not to seem like a tourist. Well, our two guys practiced their technique and then headed downtown to buy a steak at each and split each one. The winner by a margin: Pat's King of Steaks :).

The lines for each place were long, winding and not afraid to run into a little traffic. Yes, you were literally standing in an intersection while waiting on line. Whatever it takes, right?

This outing is equivalent to visiting the Anchor Bar for wings in Buffalo so Uncle John now feels that he can cross this one off of his bucket list :). Good times, guys!

Later that day, we had Andrew and Joy's cousin, Jeff, and his fiancee Becky over for a barbarque. Jeff and Becky recently got engaged and it was our first time meeting her. What a good time we had, she is so nice and we are so happy to welcome her to the family!

Abby gets dressed for the occasion in her festive outfit that the Arcaras brought for her :)

The newly-engaged couple!

Jeff...

Me and Nate. The boys were "red, white and cool" in their festive tee shirts from Nana :).

'Ole blue eyes....

Banjamin brings his Legos everywhere...something to do once he got bored with playing in the sandbox. Apparently Miss Abby knows that she is on camera :)

Abigail in the swing...

The next day was a busy, albeit fun, one. We started out with church, then shopping for the ladies while the guys prepared for their big rocket launch later that afternoon, the much-awaited rocket launch and finally ice cream at the farm. Phew, it was a hot and busy day and luckily everyone slept late the next morning!

Andrew and Uncle John rocketeering together :)

And the launching starts. Our friends the Kriebels also came for the experience. The ladies sat with the babies on a blanket while the big kids and men shot off some major rockets. No joke, you'll see....

Finally, ice cream at Merrymead Farm. YUM! Joy, Aunt Tina and I took the kids while the men played with their toys (aka rockets) for a while longer. this place was packed and I ordered cones for both kids. Uh, not the smartest move, mess-wise. But they loved it, even though Nate seemed to think you should bite a hole in the cone and eat from the bottom up. Thank God for Joy who went back inside to get some bowls for the cones to be placed in or else we would have had a really big mess!

The Arcaras pulled this Cars puzzle out of their magic hat :) and it was just for Nate. Well, this was his first "big boy puzzle" so he was overjoyed when he was able to do it with only minor assistance. We have done it about 10 times today already - ha ha!

Abby in another festive tank top while big brother Benjamin slips her a taste of his ice cream pie. No, we are not very strict with the hundreds of food rules out there for babies...and the kids have no allergies so it doesn't seem to be a problem!

Happy Memorial Day!!