Epic Weekend Part 2: Philadelphia

Did you guys know that Philadelphia is right across the Delaware river from New Jersey? I didn’t. Now I do. Not surprisingly, since clearly I’m not up on my East Coast geography, I was caught a bit off guard by all the New Jersey accents I ran into in Philadelphia this past weekend.

In case you missed my last post, we just returned from a cross country trip to attend the wedding of one of our best friends. Here’s the story of our time in Philly.

We checked into our fancy-schmancy hotel and went to work feeding the kiddos and getting them to bed. Since Neala still has pretty bad reflux, she needs to sleep almost upright and our only option was to have her sleep in her carseat. We made a nice little nest for her with blankets in the bottom and she actually loved it. Rylan slept in the crib the hotel provided and we were able to elevate his head a little bit by putting a pillow under the mattress on one side. Of course, by about 2:00 a.m. he wiggled his way down to the bottom of the crib and ended up flat on his back, perpendicular to how he had originally started out. Oh well, silly little squirmy worm.

Since our little ones were still on mountain time, we were able to sleep until almost 10 a.m.! (Also, where do hotels buy their blackout curtians…seems like hotel rooms can be the darkest places on earth if you draw those bad boys shut!) We went out to breakfast and ran into the groom and his family. After breakfast, we went back to our room and fed the babies, as we do, every three hours or so. Then, they both fell asleep and stayed that way for a LONG time. Patrick went out to get his tux and I stayed with the babies. They slept and slept and slept!! And then it was time for dinner!

The monkeys, during nap one of two…I won’t bore you with the photo of the other nap, it looks the same but they’re not wearing their new Phillies bibs.

My mother in law kept the babies while we went to the rehearsal dinner which was at a lovely little Italian restaurant. The groom’s family rented a private room that was several floors above the actual restaurant and overlooked the city. Accessing it was a bit odd…we went up an elevator from the street level and to the restaurant, through the restaurant, and up into another elevator to the private room that was down a funny little hallway…whatever, the view was great, the company was great, and the food was great! And, best of all, I felt like a normal person: I did my hair, makeup, and was able to fit into a pre-pregnancy dress!!

View from the rehearsal dinner. Big city livin’.

That night we caught up with several of our friends from high school who traveled from near and far to join in the festivities. It was great to catch up, and again, to feel like a real person!

Our kiddos and mother in law were SOUND asleep when we returned, and we all slept great. The kids, again, were still on Mountain time and we slept until almost 9:30 the next morning! Yay! We headed out to breakfast and had a repeat performance of the nap the day before. Darn kids, they never sleep that well at home!

Patrick had man stuff to do all day since he was in the wedding (which apparently consisted mostly of eating sandwiches), so I just hung with the kids (while they slept like little angels) and had a few visitors since none of our friends had met the little worms yet.

Are you guys bored yet? I feel like this post is really long and we haven’t even gotten to the wedding yet. Well, I’ll forgive you if you’d like to take a break and come back later. Or not at all.

So…again, I got all gussied up (my hair looked weird, but whatever) and was able to wear a pre-pregnancy dress. Then the babysitter came. She was around 45, had a HUGE perm, a thick Jersey accent, and rhinestone studded sweatpants, I kid you not, rhinestone studded SWEATPANTS! But…she was fantastic with the kids and I found it all quite entertaining…so who cares. And, where can I get me some a those sweats?!

We headed up to the wedding ceremony on the 19th floor of our fancy-schmancy hotel after I said goodbye to the kids and wiped a few tears away (seriously…I cried. Don’t judge. This was the first time we’d left our precious little ones with anyone other than a family member). We sat near the back on the groom’s side, but a few moments before the grand entry of the wedding party, someone convinced us to sit right behind the family because there were several empty rows. So…we made a big commotion and moved up, way up…and I was in the aisle seat in the second row! I felt very exposed but did have just about the best view of anyone in the room!

The ceremony was lovely and I was so very happy to see one of my best friends marry his best friend. Adam and Margot are truly a match made in heaven and I’m so glad that Margot (or Mongs and we affectionately call her) is now officially part of the “Santa Fe crew.” (The “Santa Fe Crew” is not an actual thing, we’ve never called our group of friends that and I don’t suppose we ever will…except for in this blog post.).

The beautiful bride and groom. (photo courtsey Scott Berlin Photography)

And then it was time for cocktail hour. The hordes of people who attended the wedding all piled into elevators and headed to the second floor where there was an open bar and several appetizer stations. The food was amazing as was the room. We were on a balcony that overlooked the ballroom where we would later be dancing and dining. It was a beautiful space and I felt like the “new money” that they talk about in the Titanic movie. Ha. Thanks Leo and Kate.

The ballroom. Cocktails upstairs, dining and dancing downstairs. So fancy.

Oh my gosh! I’m married to a doctor!!

And isn’t he HANDSOME?!

Patrick with his mom…without her, we couldn’t have made this trip!

See, my hair is weird. Luckily I had a handsome date.

After an hour or two of cocktails and appetizers we headed downstairs and danced and ate the night away. There was a great live band that nailed every cover they attempted, the food was incredible and the company unbeatable. One of these days, I’ll write an entire post on our friend Carlo who should really be hired by some wedding company to make all weddings the most fun. We had a great time, so great in fact, that we had to extend the rhinestone sweatpant wearing babysitter an hour from our original planned time. It was SO worth it.

This is Carlo. If he’s not on the invite list for your wedding, he should be. He will make it so everyone has fun.

Packing up the next day, with sore feet and lots of good memories took quite a bit of effort, but after a lovely brunch hosted by the bride’s family, we headed to the airport. And more on that in the third installment of our cross country trip!

I would like to add the the bride and groom’s families who were incredibly hospitable and, believe it or not, the father of the bride is a twin!! Thank you Filstein and Dewey families for a wonderful weekend!