I took 3 vacation days and spent a fabulous, long weekend in New Jersey last Thursday morning through Monday evening. As I have mentioned, I prefer early, early flights and so I took the 6:50 AM and arrived in PHL just a few minutes after 8 AM.  Most of you know, it is a flight that is just over an hour.  Dad picked me up early Thursday morning and I am not surprised that we were matching in serious bright yellow shirts, you couldn’t miss us!

At least once a year, I make a trip to the Jersey shore, usually Ocean City or Atlantic City. We stopped at Dunkin Dounts and before I knew it we were on the beach relaxing and sharing stories, recalling family vacations, while sun bathing and enjoying the ocean. We ate a Manco & Manco’s pizza, got Kohr brothers ice cream – Mom and I shared a cone with jimmies. And we were home in time to shower and enjoy dinner with family. As you know, I plan out almost every minute of my trips so that I can see everyone and do everything – this trip was no exception.

And sometimes I like to be a bit spontaneous too.  I had an idea and went with it! I spent Friday morning at Archer & Greiner, Mom’s work, where she introduced me to some new people, I chatted with Benner for a while about the excitement of Katie’s wedding and had typical coffee talk with the Archer ladies.  I worked there for 2 summers+ in ’05-’06 as a marketing intern during college so it was nice to see some old colleagues too.

Then, a pedicure, lunch, got changed and Maureen picked me up for our 90 minute drive to our own little college reunion with the GAP girls! 7 of us had planned this for months and June 29th finally came.  We met at the Red Hawk diner on Montclair State University’s campus and got to meet the first baby of our group, Heather & Tim’s beautiful daughter, Shayn.  We had some great photo ops, sat and reminisced in the student center where we spent countless hours from 2002-2006.  Things felt smaller and we had to talk about how we were once a really big deal here.  😉 We had about a 3 hour catching-up session at Houlihan’s where we talked about jobs, family, marriage, homes, travel, babies and of course old times.  Man, have our conversations evolved!  The 3 hours together were priceless and we vowed to keep this summer reunion tradition going.

Diana, Maureen, Casey, Colleen, Kim, Marisa & Heather

Saturday morning Dad, Mom and I walked to their favorite Barrington breakfast spot where we ate eggs and I ran into my old softball coach, Mr. Scharlet. Mom and I make a quick dash for Lord & Taylor, another old place of employment, (I have to make a trip there every time I am home). I quickly snatched up a dress for an upcoming shower, a new Navy blazer and a long pink skirt that I wore to my meeting in DC on Friday. We rushed home, I did my messy bun up-do and were out the door to get Kevin and Dana for Katie and Brian’s wedding.

Their wedding was beyond beautiful and so much fun. Katie really spent time on every detail and the elegance and personal touches were evident. Kevin, Dana and I had the chance to talk for hours and it was perfect to discuss their upcoming wedding too. We had a delicious dinner, 5 courses I believe… danced to the amazing live band, saw fireworks outside of Tavistock and took some great photos with the gorgeous bride.

Sunday was spent with family at their campground.  Mom, Dad and I spent the afternoon in the pool and relaxing with all of my cousins and their kids.  I had a blast in the pool and on the “Lilly pads” with Emma, Justin, Julia, Sam and Matt. I love those kids so much and will take every chance I can to play with them. It was a hot day but a lot of fun and so great to see my cousins at their summer vacation spot.  It is absolutely perfect there!

Sunday night was dinner with Kevin, Granny and my parents at my favorite restaurant – Tutti Toscani, our rehearsal dinner venue.  Again, I  make it here almost every trip to NJ too. Another rehearsal was going on that evening too. After that I had 2 hours that flew by at the Rail with Ashley, Jamie and Heller.  We were catching up, discussed upcoming trips, plans, our houses and just life in general.

Wheeew!  Monday amounted to a quick morning run through Haddon Heights, Dad showing me some of the ins and outs of his business, lunch at PJs with M&D and then Dad dropped me off at the airport– Dunkin’ Donuts again, GAP clearance rack in the airport shopping and off on the plane I went.

Looking forward to the next 5 trips I have planned between July and the end of the year!