August Highlights

August is winding down. I figured it was time to sit down and knock out another post before all the month’s details escape me.

We got to see Addie and her husband Adam at the beginning of the month when they came to town for a BTS concert at the Meadowlands. You may remember that I took Addie to a BTS concert for her 16th birthday and I feared the stadium would collapse under all the jumping fans. That experience did not deter Addie from attending the groups first tour since they all finished up their mandatory military service. She created stickers to exchange with other concert goers and created special concert jerseys to wear with Adam’s help.

The next weekend, Edie and got to see Addie and Adam again when we flew to Las Vegas for my sister’s wedding. I had never been to Las Vegas before and my first impression was that it was like Atlantic City on steroids. We took a direct flight from Philadelphia to Las Vegas Saturday and arrived at 1 p.m. That gave us enough time to check into Circus Circus, look around, shower, and head to the Chapel of the Flowers for the wedding. There we met Addie and my parents, and the other guests. It was a small, intimate event. My sister looked beautiful. It was a short but tasteful ceremony – no Elvis impersonators, and we took lots of pictures before heading to the reception.

On the way to the reception, Addie, Adam, Edie and I were all talking about our Mass options for the next day and what we were planning to do based on our flights. The Uber driver (whose wife was from Cleveland) said, “Are you figuring out where to go to church? Most people who come to Vegas aren’t worried about trying to get to church.” We laughed.

The reception was at a Mexican restaurant in Planet Hollywood and it served the most delicious guacamole I’ve ever had in my life. I couldn’t stop eating it. But the real highlight was how much I got hold my youngest niece. I

The next morning Edie and I walked to Mass at the Cathedral of the Guardian Angels. If you asked AI to generate an image of a Catholic church that embodied the 1960s, Las Vegas, and the Spirit of Vatican II, it would create something that looking like that church. But despite what the cab driver said, it was packed! We squeezed in the back row for what was actually a very lovely, and reverent Mass. The collection baskets had card readers so you could just tap your card and automatically donate $10.

After Mass we walked around studying the art and stained glass. An usher helpfully came over and pointed out that each stained glass window represented either one or two stations of the cross, and used a laser pointer to mark the roman numerals which we hadn’t noticed. While I’m not sure I consider the art sacred, I did really like the storytelling in the stained glass.

Edie and I ate lunch with my parents before spending time strolling around the Venetian, a casino styled after Venice. I was thinking about a gondolla ride, but at $35 per person for 10 minutes, I figured I’d wait until we can afford to all go back to Italy. We met my parents again for dinner, and then they dropped us at the airport. Our flight got home to Philly Monday morning at 6 a.m.

The men at home played a lot of XBox and Axis and Allies and thankfully Tony successfully dropped Teddy off at MDA camp on Sunday while I was studying the stained glass. I think Fulton was disappointed he could no longer attend, but he went along to drop-off and got to catch up with the counselors for a bit.

On Monday, after I napped off some jet lag, Tony and I headed out for dinner and a night away. Fulton was in the capable hands of one of his usual caregivers. We stayed at a small hotel just outside Ocean City in Somers Point. It was a short walk to one of our favorite Irish restaurants where we enjoyed a delicious meal before retiring to our room to watch a cheesy Nicholas Cage movie (Con Air) and get a solid nights sleep. The next morning, we went into Ocean City and enjoyed a few hours on the beach and boardwalk before heading home. It wasn’t a full Mama Papa week of respite, but it was still pretty great.

I picked Teddy up from camp on Friday and he had a lot of funny stories as usual. But what I found most amusing is that the counselors said he was more polite than Fulton. Say what???

He did come home with a cold, but thankfully with some sleep and a few days of nebulizer treatments he was fine. Which was good since he and Tony went to see a Joe Hisaishi, performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City as an early 16th birthday present. Hisaishi has scored nearly all of Hayao Miyazaki’s films which include Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro.

The trip actually fell on Tony’s 48th birthday, which was fine with Tony since he loves a good orchestra concert. Teddy had never been to NYC (while most of my kids went there for their 11th birthdays, Teddy instead went to a Chiefs vs Eagles football game). They looked around Times Square, the J.P Morgan library, St. Patricks Cathedral, and got what Teddy considered to be some of the best hamburgers ever.

This last weekend we took a trip to Cold Spring Village, our favorite historic village. I did not get a picture in the stocks this time and have been kicking myself ever since. We had our family Fantasy Football Draft Sunday night and I think we’re all overly confident in our teams’ performances. I’m looking to retake the championship after a dismal finish in last year’s league. The rest of the month has been chill, literally, with temperatures dipping just a bit as September approaches.

I hope your August is going well and if your family is already back to school – good luck and blessings for a new academic year!