A Pennsylvania Visit

There are not many perks to being unemployed, but I have discovered some. One of those perks is having a flexible schedule that allowed me to fly to Pennsylvania this past weekend and spend some time with my family. Rob had to stay in Indiana and be our breadwinner (ie. he went to class), but I flew to PA on Friday morning and stayed until Wednesday morning.

Part of the reason I went was because it was Sister's Beach Weekend. As some of you know, my mom is the youngest of five children - three sisters and a brother - so years ago the sisters started a tradition of going to the beach in New Jersey together for a weekend every fall. As their children grew up they expanded the weekend to allow any of my female cousins to come along as soon as they turned 40. Since there is such an age range among the siblings I have a handful of cousins who fit those requirements. Clearly, I am not one of them.

Considering that I am only 25 and also considering that my aunts will potentially be "ancient" by the time I'm 40 my mom asked if the 40 rule could be renegotiated. They decided that it could be, allowed me to come this year, and then next year the sisters will open it up to the rest of my female cousins who aren't 40 yet. Sweet! This rule also includes all the in-laws from my guy cousins so we're talking about 14 or 15 people here. This year there were nine of us and boy, did we have fun! My aunts and my mom are great people all around, but when we get everyone together it is hilarious. Particularly when the Loaded Questions game comes out... :)

On Friday mom took a half day off school and picked me up from the Philadelphia airport and we drove down to Cape May where everyone else was already together. The rest of the weekend was spent laughing, reading, sitting by the pool (when the sun shone!), shopping, playing games, talking, and going out to dinner. It was so fun for me to be included into the Sisters Beach Weekend "club" and I felt so welcomed and loved.

Mom and I outside the restaurant on Friday evening

Everyone sitting by the pool on Saturday afternoon. For October, it was a nice day. This is a very typical scene from when my family gets together - everyone reading by the pool or the ocean!

We ate dinner Saturday night at a restaurant where someone my Aunt Millie knows knows the owner. (That's how we got the wine Aunt Mill is holding - we're a little too Mennonite to buy it ourselves!)

Pictured from left to right: Carol Jean (married to my mom's brother Bud), Joan (my mom's next oldest sister), Tut (that's her nickname, my mom's oldest sister), my mom, Kristal (Tut's oldest daughter), Heather (married to Tut's youngest son Kendall), me, Mill (my mom's middle sister), and Lynda (married to Tut's oldest son Kyle). What a great looking group!

Sunset over Cape May, located at the very end of New Jersey

Mom, Mill, Heather, and I walked the beach Sunday morning. It was so foggy you can barely see the fishermen on the point behind us

By lunchtime the fog was gone so we sat by the pool again until it was time to go

Mom planned the trip so after we left the beach on Sunday I could still spend some time at their house in PA until Wednesday. Even though I missed Rob terribly, it was good to be in my childhood home. There is something so special about going back to the place that holds the most memories from my life. It is such a peaceful place for me to be and I really love it there. I spent some time with my dad running errands (hooray for Wawa coffee!) and talking with him, making dinner one evening, and shopping with my mom. Mom also asked if I could come into her 4th grade classroom on Tuesday and teach a writing lesson. She said since I was a "real" writer her kids would really like to hear from me. Thankfully she told me what to teach - how to vary the way sentences start when writing a personal narrative so they don't all start with "I" - and gave me the material. I had a great time being in her classroom with her and meeting all her sweet kids. I don't think teaching 4th grade is in my future, but it was fun to visit and do one lesson.

Me with two of the boys from mom's class. They were working hard on an assignment I gave them :)

Mom helping out some of the kiddos with the assignment. She is such a great teacher -- it was so neat to see her in action

It was really wonderful to fly into Indy this morning and have Rob there waiting for me, but it was also wonderful to be in my other home for a few days and be spoiled by my family. My cousin Heather wrote us all an email after the beach weekend saying how she mentioned to the woman next to her on the plane that she had just spent the weekend with her in-laws at the beach. The woman was incredulous that a family could do that and actually enjoy themselves. To us it's normal, but when I hear something like that I'm reminded that a family who gets along, respects each other, and loves so deeply is more of an abnormality in this day and age. Sadly so. I am truly thankful for my family near and far!