Philly with the Fam

It was Mary Ellen's big 70th birthday party last Saturday night. So I wanted to make it to that to see the fam. I took the train from Providence to Philadelphia where my dad and MJ picked me up at the 30th street station, a nice old fashioned station, and we headed to the dinner party. Callan was with his Nana and we all met at this French restaraunt for some French cuisine to celebrate. By all, I mean Mary Ellen's children- Missy (with her husband and two kids), Jamie (with his wife and two kids) and MJ with my dad and Cal and I, and then a bunch of her friends. We were some of the first people there so we sat down at a table with some of Mary Ellen's friends there and made conversation. And of course my Dad introduces himself and says so "are you all the retired models?" When he knows perfectly well they are retired teachers like Mary Ellen. They stared at him at first then laughed...funny, my Dad the jokester. Then someone else comes in and has flowers for Mary Ellen, but I guess since she was not there yet, he goes to grab them and says "oh you shouldn't have..." Anyways, I was at the kids table with Mj's nieces about 13 years old, Laura and Denali and her nephews about 10 years old, Ryan and Griffin and of course callan who will be 8 in May. It was a good time. Mary Ellen picked out a special dinner menu and had Prosecco, an Italian champagne like drink, that I introduced her to when we ate in NYC in little Italy, which I was introduced to in Tuscany, Italy with Lenore Horowitz last may. Well, trying to keep it short, here are some pictures of the Cousins back at Mary Ellens house in Haddonfield, just about 15 minutes from Philly.
The boys- exercising vigorously (their fingers)




Now Mj, Cal and Dad are here in DC with me until Saturday, then they head back up the coast to NJ and then home. My friend Matt, from Spain, is coming on Friday to visit me too. It has been a great week or so of seeing people and catching up. Matt is a Senior at USF and we studied together last semester. He is going to NYC for his spring break and coming down via train to see me for a day!! Yay!
Here is a pic of him!

By the by, he is just a friend!!