Happy 4th of July!

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm almost a week late, but better late than never, right?!? Since A was still out in Colorado, I decided to visit my brother Matt and his wife Robin. They live outside of Philadelphia and I figured, what a great place to spend the 4th! After a very long drive, including one instance of me getting on one particular highway going the wrong way (you can't take me anywhere... rather... I can't take me anywhere...), I finally made it to their house on Thursday evening. My reward was a trip to Ikea. Oh man do I love that store. It's like a playground for adults complete with Swedish meatballs and sticky buns. Mr. Ikea CEO, please please please open a store in western NY, ok? Thanks.

On Friday, my mom and dad arrived for a visit too and we spent the day eating junk food and playing Matt's new Wii. Can I just say that thing is AWESOME?? But the funniest thing I think I've ever seen was my mom trying to put at golf. It was a cross between swinging a bat and tennis racket, but at no time did it ever resemble anything similar to a golf swing. Oh well, she tried.

On Saturday (are you all enjoying my recap by the way?? I know my mom is:), we drove into Philly and went to the Constitution Center. Very appropriate, huh?

When we got there, we found out there were some extra things going on because it was a holiday weekend. There were all these people outside that were dressed in period clothing and demonstrating different things, like how to load a rifle.

From the second floor of the center, we also had a great view of Independence Hall.

There was also a really cool room that had life size statues of all the men who signed the Constitution. Here we have Matt and Robin posing with... um... some bronze guy who signed the Constitution.

And here is my dad, next to three bronze guys who signed the Constitution...

And here is Benjamin Franklin! Yay! I got one!

At least I think that's Ben Franklin.... It is Ben Franklin... right?

Anyway, moving right along. After "learning" and be "enriched" at the Constitution Center, we went over to the Franklin Institute (maybe I should have paid more attention to ol' Ben at the Center since we were heading to his Institute...) We had tickets to see the Pirate exhibit. Arrrrr maties! I wanted to make my brother walk the plank, but apparently that's all just a legend and there were no planks. If you were an annoying pirate they just threw you overboard. I wonder what they did with annoying brothers... hmmm....

After taking off our eye patches and stowing away our peg legs, we headed over to Dave and Buster's for dinner. If you've never been to a Dave and Buster's I insist you drive to the closest one immediately. That's it, walk away from the computer and get in you car... I'll wait till you get back. Back so soon? Great! On with my story. Dave and Buster's is an arcade/restaurant/pool hall/funnest place to eat dinner on earth. (Ok, is funnest really a word because I spelled it funest and my spell check picked it up...) Just for the record, I beat my dad TWICE at air hockey. I RULE!!!! AND I VOTE DEMOCRAT!!! (Right now my dad is rolling his eyes and wondering where he went wrong with me...) I don't have any pictures from Dave and Buster's because I was too busy WINNING all the games! Ha!

Again, moving right along. A's dad joined us. He had just gotten home earlier in the day from London. He was there on business... living the life we all wish we had... staying in 5 star hotels and eating at Michelin rated restaurants... sigh. I'm sure going from that to eating in an arcade was a bit of culture shock! :) But it was a nice dinner and we all had fun together. I left early Sunday morning to get home to see my hubby (who got home Saturday night). We'll see everyone again soon. Next month actually. We're all renting a beach house in RI together for a week in August. Can't wait! Maybe there will be air hockey tables:)

One last picture for all the animal lovers. Here is my niece kitty Mia.