Even though I haven't been up to New England visiting my family on Father's Day Weekend for over ten years, this one was very important to me. Father's Day Weekend is typically pretty busy for me, with Crystal Spring's NJ Food & Beerfest happening on Saturday. Last year during Father's Day Weekend, I had Beerfest on Saturday, officiated a wedding for my friends Sarah & Tyler on Sunday at The Sussex County Fairgrounds Conservatory, and then golfed for DPD's Catholic Charities annual golf outing. This year, I didn't have a wedding to officiate, and one of my colleagues was able to take my spot golfing. This opened me right up to try and visit my family on Father's Day. Once I had a good feeling that everything was looking like lining up well, Thursday afternoon after my Pet Of The Week I called Padre to tell him. I said "well Padre, good news and bad news. The first part is that 60% of Dad's surveyed that we've been talking about during our Father's Day tidbit fun facts on the radio all week, say that they would rather get to see and spend time with their kids instead of getting gifts. Another survey funnily enough explained that most parents would spend over $1100.00 a year to get more peace and quiet. Ironically my whole life Padre has always said that is what he wants. I told him the good news and bad news was that I was going to be driving up on Father's Day, so he would get to see me, the bad news being that he wouldn't be getting peace and quiet.
My parents were excited after I told them about my upcoming visit thus spoiling the surprise. I had planned on visiting and surprising them for the last couple of months, but then as we got closer, figured they would rather know and be able to plan everything out a little more. They did have fun keeping my visit close to their vests. Madre only told one coworker in confidence, Padre only told a couple of his buddies at Bog Iron Brewery on Friday afternoon. The goal at that point was to simply be with my parents, and then surprise the rest of our wonderful family. Every year on Father's Day, Arnold's Gymnastic Academy puts on a show with all of the kids who go to their gym. The coaches and kids all do a great job working very hard for many hours and months putting this altogether. My late sister Zannie loved doing this every year, even though she was working so much that meant we weren't able to see much of her going into late May and June. Even though I am in Jersey, she would always send me pictures of her kids she coached, so proud of their growth and progress.
My weekend started with another fun grilling adventure, my Cape Cod Cafe from Brockton, Massachusetts frozen pizza came out to absolute delicious perfection yet again. Crisp well done edges are the way to go because despite being a thin crust bar pie size, the toppings are tremendous. The toppings can also then become quite heavy, making the pizza a little floppy and less enjoyable unless you nail it to perfection. Once you do, it's great! I also had fun seeing some cute snapping turtles nearby. Well to be fair, I found the snapping turtles absolutely adorable as long as they were a safe distance away from me in a little pond.
Saturday I was then off to Crystal Springs NJ Food & Beer Festival. Every year I have so much fun going with my friends and then meeting many new ones too. The weather definitely led to this fun event being a little less crowded than usual. For us that meant even shorter lines and more fun. I had so much fun hanging out with besties Carrie, Christine, Chris, Brad, Damian, Artie, Margie, Jessica and Anthony. We had a wonderful time taking all in with yummy food and beverages.
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Saturday morning, I also Swiffered my floors and washed my oven with two sponges again! Believe it or not, there was still some white residue left on my oven everywhere I sprayed the oven remover cleaner last weekend. I was a little annoyed since I washed it with two sponges last weekend, only to have my smoke detector go off again Sunday afternoon when running it with both my slider door open and the vent fan above my oven. I am not giving up on this one yet! Four sponges later, the battle is on even if I'm definitely on the losing end of it so far.
Sunday morning I was on the road by 8am, making my way up from Vernon, New Jersey to Mansfield, Massachusetts. The weather was decent and the roads were fine. I made it up in 3 hours and 55 minutes! That's really about the best you can do without traffic and going the speed limit. On a holiday like Father's Day I was happy with that result!
One by one, my Aunts, Uncles and wonderful cousins started showing up to our house. It helped me feel so much better knowing that even if I couldn't have made it up, my parents weren't going to be alone on this day and that event. It was fun and rewarding seeing all of my family's jaws dropping when one by one I was able to surprise and see them. Arnold's Gymnastics did such a wonderful tribute to my sister Zannie that we will always appreciate. Suzanne's new foundation they helped started is already raising scholarship money to help kids be able to keep doing gymnastics. We all know this would make her very proud. Arnold's made a beautiful nice poster of Zannie, and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers I know she would have loved. It was an extremely hard and painful day with lots of tears, but I'm grateful to be together with my family during it.
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I was even able to enjoy a beautiful Monday with Madre and Padre, the weather was better than predicted. We had a nice time together for Monday Lunch Bunch, and then relaxing in the backyard together. It was very nice, and peaceful. Monday morning I was able to go to Zannie's gravesite, then see Grammy, then Gillette Stadium, all before going to Lunch Bunch with my parents.
Tuesday I made my way back up and it was basically 5 hours of driving through the rain. Not fun and it wore me out a little bit last night and today. That drive is still worth it though to see my family.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. This Saturday late morning I'll be at ShopRite Of Sussex for our annual Summer Stuff The Bus, because we know Hunger Never Takes Vacations. The need for food is so huge right here with families in Sussex County, it's a very important and rewarding thing we get to do.