Jon & Pam's Wedding

Saturday morning arrived with quite a surprise! No power in the building! I don't know about Pam but I probably would have been freaking out had it been my wedding in jeopardy. The weird thing was no power supply meant no water either. I went to take a shower in a pitch black bathroom only to find no water coming from the spout.

As far as I know, Pam and Jon went about their day as planned. But I think Jon was getting a lot of phone calls about the power issue.

We sat around in our pajamas most of the morning, waiting for the power to arrive. Once it did, we took the boys up for a swim to entertain them for the afternoon. Then we gave them naps and they were ready to go for the night.

It was really convenient to stay in the hotel where the wedding was held. We got all fancied up and went right downstairs for the festivities. The whole first floor had been transformed. One room set for dinner, another for the ceremony and another for hors'devores. It was beautiful.
While we were waiting Brody was drawn to the instrumentalists who were warming up for the ceremony. He stood there in awe for the longest time! They started playing children's songs just for him. He would sway his body every so slightly but mostly he just stood there watching. Brody dances but doesn't seem to have a sense of rhythm. I realized by the end of the night that we've just been playing the wrong kind of music. His his kind of music is jazz! He has rhythm but its flexible like jazz not predictable like hip hop. :)
We had to sit in the front row during the ceremony since I was doing a reading. Luke did awesome and sat still for the whole ceremony. Brody was fussy to begin with so Howie stood with him in the back.

After the ceremony we mingled in the "red room" with hors'devores.

Everyone moved back to the lobby for the first dance. Then into the room set for dinner. Dinner was amazing; multiple courses, fish, steak. Even the kids' chicken strips and macaroni was gourmet! Again, the boys loved the musicians. We were seated right next to the them. They were facinated. The singer even got down on Brody's level and was sining and dancing with him. It touches my heart when people make my kids feel special.


After dinner people hit the dance floor. Luke was the first one out there and he was in his element. I have never seen such a thing! He went to town and tore up the dance floor! He was entirely serious and acted like he knew exactly what he was doing. He started with twirls I'm sure he learned from the girls we've had at our house all year, that or the Backyardigans. He'd get down on his and stick his leg up in the air. He got down like he was doing the crab walk and then flipped his legs over and stood up. He was really trying to break dance! But I had never seen him try any of that before! We were all laughing hysterically! He was in the center of the dance floor with a circle around him while people cheered for him. I just couldn't believe it! Brody danced a little but mostly copied Luke's twirling. After awhile we headed upstairs to change their clothes but when we came back down they were too beat to dance another step. So we retired them for the night. Howie and I took turns partying and watching the kids. Here's Luke's hilarious video.

Rehearsal Dinner

Finally we are getting to the most important part of the trip..."Uncle Jon's Wedding."

Well, you have to rehearse the ceremony first.

Jon and Pam had asked me to do a reading as part of their ceremony so I got ready and headed downstairs. It was quite convenient to be staying in the same place that the wedding takes place.

I met some of the most important people in Jon and Pam's lives, practiced standing in my spot a couple of times, and then grabbed my family to catch a ride to dinner. Howie had been dressing the boys while we rehearsed. Boy did they look cute in their khaki shorts and button up shirts. Luke even picked his out all by himself!
This was one of those nights I was so glad we had the boys on our time zone. We left the hotel after 7:00. One of us would not have been able to attend dinner since this is Brody's bedtime. Although, Howie felt like he might as well have stayed home with them. He didn't feel like it went very well. He ate fast and then spent the night chasing them around. Props to him for doing all the chasing for the night!

We walked in and Luke ran straight for the piano. I thought, (and maybe even said out loud), "oh no." It was going to be difficult keeping Luke away from that and no one is going to want to hear a two year old's rendition of who knows what. Luckily, this piano had an off button! Praise God! He could play all night long and no one would care!
The boys usually eat until they are done. They don't sit an mingle like us adults.
Plus, when there is a lot of excitement there is not much eating to be done anyway. They didn't eat much and just wanted to run from table to table entertaining people, especially Luke. Take a look at the mischief he was into that night!
Despite all my talk about being who I am, a busy sweatshirt wearing semi-stay at home mom with two rambunctious toddlers, I wanted to appear like I wore heels everyday and had two refined, well behaved boys. Its true when they say having children humbles you. When I saw what Luke was doing, I was a little embarrassed. I just had to remind myself, we are who we are and though I expect my children to be polite, they are busy, creative little boys who don't differentiate between backyard and fine dining.

Like I've said before, Brody does not take to strangers. But he found a friend in Jason, Jon's groomsman. Brody sought him out to "pound it." It warms my heart to see Brody attach himself to someone like he did and have them pay him special attention.

Luke has no qualms about asking for what he wants. He yells from the back of the car his order at a drive through. When a waitress comes to our table, he'll make sure to get his needs met. It was no different here. Dessert was buffet style and Howie had made him a plate. Yes, a plate. When he was finished he wanted more. I don't remember how the whole thing went down but after asking me for more, he got down from his chair, saying something along the lines of, "I go ask the lady," and asked one of the waitresses for more cookies. She thought he was so cute and funny she went to the buffet table and got him one. He did this more than once. Then Howie even got him more! The kid housed more dessert than he did his meal! Oh well, how often do you get to celebrate a wedding anyway.

Friday in Philadelphia

When the boys woke up late Friday morning, I was pleasantly surprised that keeping them on West Coast time actually worked. I had hoped it would, but was doubtful. The Scobie clan got up early that morning to walk the city. Some of them went up to the Art Museum also dubbed "The Rocky Steps" and others went shopping. We would have liked to do both as well as spend time with them, but keeping the boys on a different time schedule was necessary for the more important fun things planned.

We all got ready, ate continental breakfast of fruit, yogurt and muffins, and hit the streets with our double wide stroller. The noon Scobie rendezvous was Reading Market, kind of an indoor Farmers Market. Also on the to-do list for the day was find a large reasonably priced frame for our wedding gift.

As we made our way to the Market we passed by a custom framing shop. That's a place I would normally stay away from. I thought custom framing was quite pricey. But we went in, I told him what I was looking for, and he said he'd make it for me within an hour for a decent price. YES! I was so happy to find something right downtown without having to search high and low. We grabbed a drink at Dunkin Donuts* next door and headed on our way.

*I was shocked how many Dunkin Donuts there were! We had one near us when I grew up but it went out of business. We don't see them often around here so I thought they were pretty much extinct. Nope. They are alive and well on the East Coast with one on every corner...almost like Starbucks here!

After coming to the end of the directions my dad gave me, we came to a corner and weren't sure which way to go. We knew we were close but do we go right or left from here? Howie is not afraid to ask the locals. Which I guess is good if men usually don't ask for directions. He stopped this big black guy (or tried anyway) and asked him if we was from around there. He said no as fast as Howie asked and kept walking, almost afraid to talk to Howie! So I got out my handy cell phone* to look up directions! Then this nice lady walking by saw us standing there staring at a cell phone and asked if she could help us find something. So I guess not everyone is afraid of tourists. She showed us the way and we were there in no time.

*I love my cell phone. It does so many things, like giving directions! Its quite a treat because I never get myself the good stuff. I felt pretty cool finding the way with my phone! Comes in handy when you are lost on a street corner in the middle of downtown Philadelphia!

We came in the side door and there everyone was at the candy counter! Dad and Jaci were excited to see the boys. They hadn't seen them since last summer. Luke got out of the stroller and gave them big hugs. We made our way through the maze up people to the back corner to change diapers* and then found a couple of tables to seat the whole clan for lunch.

*You have no idea how relieved it makes me when places like this have changing tables in the bathrooms! It is surprising how many places do not. And a public market like this is one that usually does not. Its not something you'd ever notice or care about until you are become a mom. I'm not one to voice a lot of opinions but this is a subject I feel like writing companies about! Either THANK YOU for having one because it made my day so much easier, or WHY DO YOU NOT HAVE ONE?! (Even some fast food restraunts don't!)

We all tried a famous Philly Cheese Steak. Even Brody! They'd just had breakfast so we let them have a few bites of our lunch but Brody obvious liked this sandwich! He stole it right out of my hands and went to town on it!


After lunch we attempted to explore the market but there were so many people and our double wide stroller practically took up the whole aisle. This would have been a good time for the baby pack but packing Brody from our hotel to the market would have been physically straining. So we just grabbed a quick fresh fruit smoothie* and called it quits.

*It was hard to give the boys good meals. There was no fridge in our room for food. We had the continental breakfast available and my mom and my brother went grocery shopping for things that didn't need to be refrigerated. But they still weren't eating right or well. I notice that Luke's eating habits affect his behavior: eat cruddy = act cruddy. By Fridy, he'd eaten pretty cruddy for 3 days; Bad snacks on the plane, a lot of fast food. And Friday he was acting pretty cruddy as well. So we tried to get good food in when we could. Fruit & veggie smoothie was one of them.

As we walked back to our hotel Howie spotted a sports paraphenelia store he wanted to check out. We enjoyed some nice cool air conditioning while he perused the store. He wanted a Philly's hat but was pretty excited to find a Niners hat for cheap. There was another tourist in there buying his team stuff on clearance. Guess the East Coast is the place to go for good deals on West Coast teams!

We got home to have feed teh kids some lunch, watch a little tv, and take naps before preparing for the rehearsal dinner.

Philadelphia Fun continued

Like I said, it is difficult to get Luke down for a nap after a short snooze. But it is pretty much impossible to get him down when we have people over. He loves to hang out and steal the show.

When we ran into our family I knew Luke wasn't going to be getting a nap. We stood in the hallway for awhile and visited and then everyone moved to the living room in our hotel room. This is my Dad's family from Wisconsin: his parent's and sisters.
We sat around and talked and played games. Luke makes friends so easily. He's only met my cousin Melissa and Aunt Deb once over a year ago. He went from person to person, playing and reading books.

Not to mention, he stands in the middle of the room and puts on a show. He dances and acts silly and loves the attention. Brody is much different. He's not fond of new people. He doesn't like anyone to hold him, sometimes even Grandma. He takes a lot longer to warm up.

Uncle Mike got down on the floor to play with the boys. He taught them how to fish.:)
Luke liked Uncle Mike so much. Later that night when Mike left to go to bed, Luke walked around the room asking, "Where's Mike?" I didn't even know he knew his name! I told him to go ask Aunt Pat. He walked over, said, "Excuse me," since she was playing a game, and asked, "Where's Mike?" She told him he went to bed and then let Luke call him on her cell phone. I don't know what they said, but that was so cute!
Thanks Uncle Mike!

Philadelphia Fun

When we got in that night my brother handed us an envelope. He and Pam had gotten us tickets to the Please Touch Museum, an awesome children's museum in the city. We had planned on going to the zoo on Thursday but I was glad he opted to get us indoor air conditioned museum tickets instead.

I was so thankful the boys slept late the next morning. Technically they went to bed before 10pm our time which isn't too bad. And normal wake up time is anywhere between 6 and 8 (9-11 East Coast). My fear was they'd automatically reset themselves and be up at 6am East Coast time. My master plan was to keep them on West Coast time for the duration of the trip so that we could all enjoy the late night events ahead of us. So far so good, although it was very tricky keeping track of both time schedules!

We got up late, called for a cab and headed out to the museum. I think Howie has watched too many Amazing Race shows with bad cab drivers, cause he wasn't too happy with ours. Granted, the guy didn't even acknowlege we told him where we were going, he was on the phone and just drove, and someone told us it was within walking distance and he was getting on the freeway, so we weren't sure what was going on.
But we got there, and it definitely was not within walking distance.

This place was really cool. I love going to Children's Museums. They are all full of fun creative things for kids to see and do. We walked in and this was the first thing that caught our eye. (Actually it was the bubble machine that Brody darted for, but that was only the gift shop.) Luke LOVES to climb in the car and "drive." He gets quite upset that he can't actually drive. We have to tell him that we don't make those rules, the police make those rules and they say he is safer in his carseat. This was the perfect place for him to drive! You can see they had a real car for the kids to climb in! This monorail was actually hanging over the edge of the second floor. You could safely get on it but when you looked out the windows you could see the "city" below. The lower floor was a whole little neighborhood: Barber shop, McDonald's on the corner, the mail truck driving through...this was a little house complete with a dog run for pets and an entrance to the grocery store next door.


After our shopping trip we headed into McDonald's to order up some chicken nuggets...to which this kid responded, "I don't think I have any of those."

We headed over to the "train station" which was a quiet hall with benches to have a snack. We toured the train area which was more for older kids interested in the history of trains. The only thing the boys liked doing in there was playing with the toy trains and running the slanted walkway. Further on down was a Alice in Wonderland section. There was a maze of walls and bushes to walk through, a hallway that got smaller and smaller as you walked it, and flamingos statues throughout that you could manuver as your croquette mallet!
There were a lot of good places for toddlers to play. Within the Alice in Wonderland section was a Nursery Rhyme play area. The boat in the middle moved up and down when you turned the wheel. The boys loved playing on that. Luke was at the helm saying, "arrr...I a pirate." (Which he says at home sometimes too. Where they get these things, I'm not sure.) The funny thing was, this other kid kept jumping off the bow as if he were walking the plank!
Both the boys LOVE music. They had a whole music section with a piano you could walk on,
and all kinds of instruments in the forest. This tree had insturments attached to strings. Each string you pulled made a different sound.
We bought a couple of hot dogs for lunch then headed back to the hotel for naps. Thanks for the fun day Jon and Pam!

We got a really cool cab driver on the way home who took us on a mini tour past the "Rocky Steps" and through the city. Both the boys were asleep in my lap before we got home. Moving them from cab to crib is almost impossible. Howie got Brody up successfully, but I didn't make it with Luke. Instead we watched my mom try to chase down the cab...we left a bag in the car. :/

We went back into the hotel and Luke wanted to take the stairs. I agreed while carrying the stroller since we are only on the second floor. We went up the main staircase but then you have to take one more short flight of stairs. He got to the top, pointed left and confidently said, "This way." Being the gullible mother that I am, I trusted that my two year old knew where he was going, afterall he'd done this before. We went up a flight, and another flight, and another flight, only to lead us to a dead end with a small door that lead us to the 3rd floor pool! We treked all the way back down that steep staircase, WITH the stroller and turned right instead of left, up another flight of stairs and found our way home.

There we bumped into all our family from Wisconsin who had just gotten in...