Back to Philly, again

So a lot of people probably didn't realize it, but Rhi and Benner were back in Philadelphia this past weekend. It was a last minute trip, and a whirlwind one at that. We weren't even in town for a full 40 hours, really. But the purpose of our trip was to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of Grandmom and Grandpop Benner. What a remarkable accomplishment! This milestone has us thinking about how you measure 50 years...we'll post more on that later.

Here's a run down of the weekend:
Mike's Aunt Marge picked us up from the airport on Friday and to our delight had a philly soft pretzel and some after dinner candy that Rhi enjoys waiting for us. She is so thoughtful, and man was that pretzel good! Aunt Marge was one of the few people that knew we were coming into town and we tried to keep it a secret as much as possible. From the airport, Will and Aunt Marge took us to the Benner family hang out McShea's where we met up with Ray and Barb (Benner's parents) and brothers Ray and Chris. We enjoyed a gourmet and quite satisfying meal. Mc Shea's is actually owned by a chef who always wanted to open an Irish pub and if you get the chance to hit it up, you should.

We spent the night at Greg and Trish's house-- Greg you will recall was Benner's best man. Tirsh is expecting and it was so exciting for Rhianwen to see her baby bump! (Can you guess who is writing this blog post?) It was so nice to catch up and weren't feeling entirely jet lagged until the next morning when we woke up early to meet Rhi's parents for coffee. It was a brief visit but it was nice to spend time talking face to face. Gwenyth shared about a delightful little 3 year old at her church that she simply adores which was fun to hear about. Rhi had a nice little walk around Borders with her dad and we all got to catch up for a bit before stopping by the Lozano's to say hello. It's amazing how big the kids are getting and we always feel at home at Naylors Run Rd. But it was only a matter of time before they had to run off to celebrate baby Matthew's 2nd birthday.

We got there early and surprised Vince and Janet and got to spend some special time with Matthew while they set up for the party. Then we hid upstairs while everyone trickled in. Few minutes later we emerged and the smile on Benner's grandmom's face (Babe) was priceless. Matthew is such a big little guy and has such hilarious mannerisms that kept us constantly entertained. We can hardly believe that he is already 2 years old and are glad we got to be a part of the celebration.

We left the party to go get ready for the reason we flew in in the first place: To celebrate GM and GP Benner. A party was held at Evviva in Narberth and we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. It has a mix of classic and eclectic art and is really a one of a kind place. All of the immediate family were there and a photographer was busy at work to document it. Rhianwen enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with her three girl cousins: Maddie, Regan and Savannah who are all such sweet, fun and clever girls. The food was excellent and we all got to hear GM and GP's kids reminisce about their childhood. Grandmom and Grandpop Benner have seen a lot in their day. And they've worked tremendously hard-- year after year--in order to build their business and provide for their family. Their work ethic is defined discipline, commitment and perseverance and is to be admired. They have stood by each other through it all, and they are still each other's most precious friend. Grandpop read aloud a sweet poem he wrote for his bride of 50 years and the family showered the couple with gifts. It was a great night.

And no one forgot that the very next day was Savannah's birthday. She was celebrated with a birthday cake of her own, which you'll notice in the pictures. yum.

We work up at 4 am the next morning so that Rhianwen could fly home and spend the day with her friend Christine who was visiting LA. Details to come!




Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Much apologies to our friends that we didn't get to see. We didn't tell you we were in town because there just wasn't enough time. But hey, you can always come out and visit us!