Suburban Odyssey

It’s Early!

Upon arrival at Grandma’s, the ladies head to the park, and I head to the liquor store to grab a bottle of champagne for the big Mother’s Day celebration (it isn’t Mother’s Day without Mimosas, of course).  I also sneak over to the Hallmark store to grab some Mother’s Day cards.  Not a good idea at 4pm on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.  But it had to be done.  I spend a solid 20 minutes in line.  Ugh.

I get home and Michele presents Beth with a special early Mother’s Day gift.  Her very own bottle of Firefly!

Grandma has a Chili’s right around the corner from her house.  Our family loves Chili’s.  A lot.  I make the executive decision that we’re going to Chili’s for dinner.  Of course, I ignore the advice of my beautiful (and smart) wife to call ahead and get our names on the waiting list for a table. “It’s early,” I say.  It’s 5 p.m. on a Saturday night…the night before Mother’s Day.  Yeah.  Early.  Sure.

We get to Chili’s at around 5:30, and there are people waiting outside.  Not good.  We are placed at the bottom of the waiting list: 25 minutes.  Not terrible.  We use the time for some photos:

Beth braids Cady’s hair:

Note the logo on the teddy bear that Cady is doting on. Just sayin’.

Finally, we’re seated, Presidente margaritas & beers are served, and all is right with the world.

Again, note that Cady is wearing her favorite VT sweatshirt. Dad is clearly teaching her well

We order some chips & salsa for the table, and they bring us two bowls.  One is placed between Beth and me, and the other is placed in front of Michele, Grandma, and Cady. You decide which one is which after about 15 minutes.  Again, recall that one of these is just inches from my fingers. These pictures were taken at the same time.

Our waitress is on top of things.  She gives Juju an empty cup to play with, which frees up Mom and Dad for maximum eating & drinking. Needless to say, her tip reflects this.

Dinner is served, and the camera is put away.  It goes without saying that  there are 6 happy people, and at least one (me) who eats WAY too much.  Did I mention how much I (we) love Chili’s?

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Road Trip, Unplugged

Destination #5: Back to Grandma’s, Flemington, NJ. Approximately 200 mi.

10:22 a.m. EDT: Time of Departure (38 minutes ahead of ETD)

Weather Conditions: 77°F, sunny

Traffic Conditions: Moderate

Soundtrack:  None

Budget: No change.

Gas: ¾ of a tank

10:37 a.m. Cady “reads” her books to her “children”. She does a remarkable job remembering the story to Rino-Mani, which is a Spanish story. She translates as well as Mom and Dad do, anyway.

10:40 a.m. Enter Maryland. Cady is busy turning people into witches with her “magic wand”, which is made of magic markers. She asks if she can sleep with her wand tonight. At least she has a good imagination.

10:52 a.m. The unfathomable happens. Cadence asks to watch Chrysanthemum again, and as I try to turn it on, nothing happens. To our horror, some sort of fuse seems to have been blown in the power outlets. We think it must be because we tried to charge the computer into the adapter yesterday. So, we are kicking it old school today: no movies, no backseat-soundtrack. Just good old-fashioned family fun. I don’t think a sing-along is far off.

11:15 a.m. We hit Saturday morning traffic, inexplicably, just south of Baltimore. Turns out it is due to an accident.

11:37 a.m. Two minutes after we pass the accident and start moving, we hit stopped traffic again, waiting to enter the tunnel. And this is supposed to be the quick, easy leg of the trip. Uggh.

11:40 a.m. Whole car is listening to Cady’s Mix, rocking out to Rihanna’s “Please Don’t Stop the Music”, despite the traffic.

12:34 p.m. Enter Delaware. Finally. Those traffic jams have us over 30 minutes behind where we should be. Craig enjoys a bag of Snyder’s pretzels, thanks to Brady.

12:42 p.m. Cadence is doing a great job entertaining herself in the backseat. Unfortunately, this means that she’s talking non-stop.  I think I miss the DVD player more than she does.

12:56 p.m. Enter Pennsylvania. Craig, forgetting my dairy restrictions, suggests stopping at Pat’s (a Philly institution) for a cheesesteak. I give him the evil eye, but consider inciting an allergic reaction in my seventh-month-old daughter for this. We ultimately scrap the idea.

1:04 p.m. We pass the Philly airport, and Cady says, “Mom, I love airports.” Unfortunately, we don’t see any planes taking off.

1:09 p.m. We decide that the next time we take a road trip, we’ll take another route on the way back. Different scenery.

1:18 p.m. Cady starts threatening to pee her pants. We were hoping to not have to stop, but it’s not going to happen.

1:37 p.m. Get off at Exit 37 after Philly for potty/feeding break. So close, yet so far. Quick stop at the most tricked out Burger King I’ve ever seen. They’ve got a rockin’ playplace with TVs playing kid videos, as well as wired computers for their older guests. Weird. Craig gets me a Coke for $1.06.

1:52 p.m. We’re back on the road…only to hit more traffic. Don’t these people know it’s Saturday? This one is due to a motorcycle gang who’s decided to pull off to the side of the road for a mini-party.

2:07 p.m. Enter New Jersey. Cady claims she’s going to take a nap for the rest of the ride, but she keeps opening her eyes and asking questions. She truly has been in wonderful spirits for the whole ride. As we cross the state line, we see this cool car…

2:18 p.m. Cady starts making silly noises and faces to make Juju laugh. Juju thinks her sister is absolutely hilarious, and she produces big belly laughs for the next ten minutes. Amazing little people, these two.

Click here to see the hilarity for yourself.

2:35 p.m. We drive up to Grandma’s, where we’ll spend the next two nights, and celebrate Mother’s Day.

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