Lots of Pictures - Dial-Uppers, Beware!
I'm back from my trip to New Jersey. It was great, and I have much babbling and many pictures to share. Feel free to skip this if you don't think 2-year-olds are cute.
Tuesday
I woke up around 6AM, and Matt dropped me off at the airport on his way to work. I drank coffee and knitted at the gate, waiting for my 10:30 flight. My sister-in-law Jenny showed up at the gate after her Houston flight landed, and we boarded the NYC-bound flight together. I have pretty bad motion sickness (although I didn't remember it being this bad last time I flew), so it took my stomach about an hour to recover from take-off enough to knit with Jenny. And even then, I was still nauseated, but I figured better knitting with nausea than just sitting there bored with nausea. On approach to JFK, I endured a very turbulent landing quite unsuccessfully, having to make use of the air-sickness bag for the first time ever. Afterward, Jenny and I disembarked, collected our luggage and made our way to the car rental place before my brother and nephew arrived (they had a direct Houston-JFK flight on a different airline). Unfortunately, Budget refused to rent to Jenny on her debit card, and using my credit card meant an extra $115 per day since I'm not yet 25 years old. So we scrapped that idea, met John and Eddy at their baggage claim and called our aunt to get transportation suggestions. We ended up riding the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, then the NJ Path Trains to Harrison, NJ, neither of which were very nice on my already-queasy stomach. Our aunts and uncle picked us up in Harrison and drove us to Granma's house. When we got there, I gave Eddy the quilt I made for him (my very first quilt). He especially liked pointing out and naming all the different animals in the jungle print.
For a more detailed post about the quilt, click here.
After that, we ordered pizza for dinner. Then John and Jenny dropped off my aunts at their house, so we could borrow one of their cars for the week since the rental car fell through. And of course, as soon as they left, Eddy made the most disgusting thing in his diaper, which I had to clean up. It's a good thing Granma's lost her sense of smell. This incredibly long day ended around 11PM, eastern time.
Wednesday
Jenny had to get up really early to go on a tour of a residency hospital about an hour away, but the rest of us slept a little longer before going to The Stack for brunch. After we ate, we drove over to my Aunt Pat's work, where we had arranged to pick up a coworker's spare carseat for Eddy to use temporarily. And of course, while we were there, she had to show off her great-nephew to all her coworkers. Afterward, we went grocery shopping and got back to Granma's house at the same time as Jenny. After naps all around, we had chicken and dumplings for dinner. My Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob came over to visit for a bit and watch Eddy do goofy things...
like crawling under Granma's chair...
and using Granpa's old walking stick as a stick-horse.
After Pat and Bob left, we all eventually went to bed around 11PM.
Thursday
After waking up, we eased into the day with crossword puzzles and catching up with Granma. We let Eddy run off some of his energy on Granma's deck.
I love this picture of Eddy tickling me (the photographer), with Jenny looking over his shoulder.
Linda and Bill (my dad's cousin and her husband) came over to visit over lunch. Jenny and I drove to Montclair, NJ in hopes of finding a couple yarn shops. For some unknown reason, they were both closed in the middle of the afternoon, so we checked out Gimme Jimmy's Cookies across the street, where I had my first canoli and Jen had some apple pie, both accompanied by white chocolate mochas. Then we walked down the street to waste time at a used book store we went to a few years ago on another visit. We also checked out Terra Tea Salon and Fair Trade Eco Market, a tea cafe that also sold lots of crafty stuff made from recycled materials, and Beans, a coffee/tea/accessories store. And by the time we made it back around, the yarn shop was open again. We spent an hour or more drooling and fondling.
We got back to Granma's house in time to help grill burgers for dinners and do some more visiting and crosswording. John and Jenny went on a slurpee run later (there are no 7-11s in Houston, so Jenny has to get her slurpee fix whenever possible). Eddy ran around naked after his bath and peed on Granma's carpet. He likes to press random buttons on any electronics within reach, and he accidentally awoke the Roomba vaccuum cleaner. He ran away screaming, "No, no, no, no, no, no!" Everyone else went to bed at reasonable times, but John and I stayed up until 2AM talking; that's what always happens when we get together.
Friday
John and I slept in until 10ish to make up for the night before. Then Granma ran to Dunkin' Donuts for bagels and Jenny made eggs.
My brother carried Eddy around in a towel-sling after his bath.
Granma's neighbor Kathy came over to give Eddy some toy cars her son had outgrown. My Aunts Pam and Tote came over in the afternoon for an early dinner at Mr Bruno's, an Italian restaurant in Lyndhurst.
Eddy was all fancied up for his father's birthday, but we took another shirt to the restaurant for spaghetti consumption.
After dinner, we went back to Granma's house, where we met Pat and Bob, plus Bob's mom Ethel and sister Sue. They had all come over to celebrate John's (4/27) and Pat's and Pam's (4/26) birthdays.
Whoever ordered the ice cream cake had everyone's names listed on it, alphabetically you may notice.
Eddy was being a goober and decided to climb into one of Granma's baskets for some reason...
and play hide-and-seek under Granma's dining table...
and put the same basket on his head.
We all had a grand old time visiting and eating cake and drinking coffee. Afterward everyone else left, John, Jenny, Eddy and I accompanied Pam and Tote back to their house so we could print out our airline tickets from their computer. Unfortunately, on the way there, I got a call saying our flight was cancelled and they had rebooked me on a later flight. However, since Jenny needed to get back to Houston, this new flight was too late for her to make a connecting flight. So after much frustration and swearing at American Airlines' voice-operated phone service, she finally managed to find a flight out of Newark airport instead of JFK. John and Eddy were, of course, unaffected since they were flying on a different airline. We finally got things ironed out, tickets printed and back to Granma's around 1AM.
Saturday
We woke up fairly early to have time to visit with Granma before our van arrived to take us to the airport.
Eddy and his Great-Granma watched Spongebob together.
The van came around 10AM to pick up John, Eddy and me. Jenny's flight was in the afternoon and Newark is much closer to Granma's, so Pam and Tote were going to give her a ride. We arrived at JFK, checked John's and Eddy's luggage, and ate some lunch before parting ways. I rode the air train to my terminal, checked my bag and found my gate. My flight was four and a half hours after John's and Eddy's, so I waited around, knitting, drinking coffee and such. The flight home was much better than the one there. Maybe it was less turbulent, maybe it was because I concentrated on relaxing my entire body and just swaying with the motion of the plane, but for whatever reason, I got through take-off and the flight without the slightest hint of nausea (thanks anyway for the dramamine, John). The landing was a little rocky, but nothing compared to Tuesday's flight. I met Matt at baggage claim, and we went to TGIFriday's in Grand Prairie to meet Matt's band friends for dinner. They were actually surprised we came and completely understood when we bailed after eating so I could go home and sleep. It was about 11PM, central time, when we got back to Denton and I passed out without unpacking anything.
A very exciting week, lots of fun and visiting with people I hadn't seen in three and a half years. I hope it's not that long before I get to do it again.
Tuesday
I woke up around 6AM, and Matt dropped me off at the airport on his way to work. I drank coffee and knitted at the gate, waiting for my 10:30 flight. My sister-in-law Jenny showed up at the gate after her Houston flight landed, and we boarded the NYC-bound flight together. I have pretty bad motion sickness (although I didn't remember it being this bad last time I flew), so it took my stomach about an hour to recover from take-off enough to knit with Jenny. And even then, I was still nauseated, but I figured better knitting with nausea than just sitting there bored with nausea. On approach to JFK, I endured a very turbulent landing quite unsuccessfully, having to make use of the air-sickness bag for the first time ever. Afterward, Jenny and I disembarked, collected our luggage and made our way to the car rental place before my brother and nephew arrived (they had a direct Houston-JFK flight on a different airline). Unfortunately, Budget refused to rent to Jenny on her debit card, and using my credit card meant an extra $115 per day since I'm not yet 25 years old. So we scrapped that idea, met John and Eddy at their baggage claim and called our aunt to get transportation suggestions. We ended up riding the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, then the NJ Path Trains to Harrison, NJ, neither of which were very nice on my already-queasy stomach. Our aunts and uncle picked us up in Harrison and drove us to Granma's house. When we got there, I gave Eddy the quilt I made for him (my very first quilt). He especially liked pointing out and naming all the different animals in the jungle print.
For a more detailed post about the quilt, click here.
After that, we ordered pizza for dinner. Then John and Jenny dropped off my aunts at their house, so we could borrow one of their cars for the week since the rental car fell through. And of course, as soon as they left, Eddy made the most disgusting thing in his diaper, which I had to clean up. It's a good thing Granma's lost her sense of smell. This incredibly long day ended around 11PM, eastern time.
Wednesday
Jenny had to get up really early to go on a tour of a residency hospital about an hour away, but the rest of us slept a little longer before going to The Stack for brunch. After we ate, we drove over to my Aunt Pat's work, where we had arranged to pick up a coworker's spare carseat for Eddy to use temporarily. And of course, while we were there, she had to show off her great-nephew to all her coworkers. Afterward, we went grocery shopping and got back to Granma's house at the same time as Jenny. After naps all around, we had chicken and dumplings for dinner. My Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob came over to visit for a bit and watch Eddy do goofy things...
like crawling under Granma's chair...
and using Granpa's old walking stick as a stick-horse.
After Pat and Bob left, we all eventually went to bed around 11PM.
Thursday
After waking up, we eased into the day with crossword puzzles and catching up with Granma. We let Eddy run off some of his energy on Granma's deck.
I love this picture of Eddy tickling me (the photographer), with Jenny looking over his shoulder.
Linda and Bill (my dad's cousin and her husband) came over to visit over lunch. Jenny and I drove to Montclair, NJ in hopes of finding a couple yarn shops. For some unknown reason, they were both closed in the middle of the afternoon, so we checked out Gimme Jimmy's Cookies across the street, where I had my first canoli and Jen had some apple pie, both accompanied by white chocolate mochas. Then we walked down the street to waste time at a used book store we went to a few years ago on another visit. We also checked out Terra Tea Salon and Fair Trade Eco Market, a tea cafe that also sold lots of crafty stuff made from recycled materials, and Beans, a coffee/tea/accessories store. And by the time we made it back around, the yarn shop was open again. We spent an hour or more drooling and fondling.
We got back to Granma's house in time to help grill burgers for dinners and do some more visiting and crosswording. John and Jenny went on a slurpee run later (there are no 7-11s in Houston, so Jenny has to get her slurpee fix whenever possible). Eddy ran around naked after his bath and peed on Granma's carpet. He likes to press random buttons on any electronics within reach, and he accidentally awoke the Roomba vaccuum cleaner. He ran away screaming, "No, no, no, no, no, no!" Everyone else went to bed at reasonable times, but John and I stayed up until 2AM talking; that's what always happens when we get together.
Friday
John and I slept in until 10ish to make up for the night before. Then Granma ran to Dunkin' Donuts for bagels and Jenny made eggs.
My brother carried Eddy around in a towel-sling after his bath.
Granma's neighbor Kathy came over to give Eddy some toy cars her son had outgrown. My Aunts Pam and Tote came over in the afternoon for an early dinner at Mr Bruno's, an Italian restaurant in Lyndhurst.
Eddy was all fancied up for his father's birthday, but we took another shirt to the restaurant for spaghetti consumption.
After dinner, we went back to Granma's house, where we met Pat and Bob, plus Bob's mom Ethel and sister Sue. They had all come over to celebrate John's (4/27) and Pat's and Pam's (4/26) birthdays.
Whoever ordered the ice cream cake had everyone's names listed on it, alphabetically you may notice.
Eddy was being a goober and decided to climb into one of Granma's baskets for some reason...
and play hide-and-seek under Granma's dining table...
and put the same basket on his head.
We all had a grand old time visiting and eating cake and drinking coffee. Afterward everyone else left, John, Jenny, Eddy and I accompanied Pam and Tote back to their house so we could print out our airline tickets from their computer. Unfortunately, on the way there, I got a call saying our flight was cancelled and they had rebooked me on a later flight. However, since Jenny needed to get back to Houston, this new flight was too late for her to make a connecting flight. So after much frustration and swearing at American Airlines' voice-operated phone service, she finally managed to find a flight out of Newark airport instead of JFK. John and Eddy were, of course, unaffected since they were flying on a different airline. We finally got things ironed out, tickets printed and back to Granma's around 1AM.
Saturday
We woke up fairly early to have time to visit with Granma before our van arrived to take us to the airport.
Eddy and his Great-Granma watched Spongebob together.
The van came around 10AM to pick up John, Eddy and me. Jenny's flight was in the afternoon and Newark is much closer to Granma's, so Pam and Tote were going to give her a ride. We arrived at JFK, checked John's and Eddy's luggage, and ate some lunch before parting ways. I rode the air train to my terminal, checked my bag and found my gate. My flight was four and a half hours after John's and Eddy's, so I waited around, knitting, drinking coffee and such. The flight home was much better than the one there. Maybe it was less turbulent, maybe it was because I concentrated on relaxing my entire body and just swaying with the motion of the plane, but for whatever reason, I got through take-off and the flight without the slightest hint of nausea (thanks anyway for the dramamine, John). The landing was a little rocky, but nothing compared to Tuesday's flight. I met Matt at baggage claim, and we went to TGIFriday's in Grand Prairie to meet Matt's band friends for dinner. They were actually surprised we came and completely understood when we bailed after eating so I could go home and sleep. It was about 11PM, central time, when we got back to Denton and I passed out without unpacking anything.
A very exciting week, lots of fun and visiting with people I hadn't seen in three and a half years. I hope it's not that long before I get to do it again.