Catching up with old friends and seeing the old house......

Visiting with friends was one of the things we had a struggle doing while on our vacation.  Both my kids had friends they wanted to see but didn't get to see and yet we did catch up with a few...These two young ladies were like family to us when we lived in New Jersey....My son's first friend is the lovely young woman in pink...All the birthday parties and celebrations of years gone by....So we were so glad to see them!

The other partner in crime from baby days on....We were glad to get together with this young man too...He was also out visiting at the same time...It's hard to believe how fast these children have grown up...I have enjoyed looking at some old photo's and in a future blog I will share some with them as little kids...

While I have made new friends in Utah I don't think any of them could take the place of my good friends from New Jersey...We spent all those baby days together...All the play group times...Walking the malls...and finding reasons to get together for lunch...Was so glad to be back with my friends even if it was for just a short time!

The old house looked pretty much the same... Some of the plants that I  planted are still growing...

The whole back yard is fenced in now....I don't know why that bothers me...My yard here is fenced in...But there was something about the kids running around the whole yard that was nice...Oh well....

We went out to breakfast with some of my husbands friends...Here are some of Sherlock's "Watson's"...As I would call them... the ones who love old cars as much as him and are always calling him when they need help fixing something...

I wonder when we will see these people again...Will these young teens meet again in college...Will their lives cross again someday down the road?  I hope so....
G.G.

Visiting with family on our vacation.....Some horrible photos.....

Part of our visit to New Jersey was stopping by the cemetery to see where my Father-in-Law's grave site is....When we told my husbands family we took photo's they all gave us a very weird look...Perhaps the genealogist in me doesn't see the issue...I'm always collecting photo's of tombstones....The kids have walked lots of cemeteries with me...The sad part was that the kids and I never got to say goodbye...My husband got to see his dad a month before he died...But the rest of us never got to really say goodbye....So in away this was our time to say goodbye...Even though I don't believe he is there... Or perhaps he was there, I think he was with us and we just couldn't see him..

We kind of joked about having these be our Christmas card photos....But this year we are going to have our family photo's taken so this really won't be it....These actually are pretty good photo's of us....The scary ones come next...

Pizza night with my husbands family...The only way to salvage the photo's was to make them black and white...There was terrible lighting and well you can see for yourself....I joked with my husband as we looked at them that perhaps the bright light behind them was his dad's spirit....Shining from the other side...Hey I'm here with you all what a great party....Get me my drink please! Oh Dear they don't want to hear that story...

This one is a little better. ..That will teach me to buy a new camera the day before I go on vacation and not know how it works....

It was interesting to see how much my kids have grown compared to their cousin...I wish we could have seen all the cousins together....Oh well...I also wish I had my mother in law stand....Not sure why everyone wanted her to sit....
I wonder if we will get another trip....or if this was the last one? 
G.G.

Throw Back Thursday....From Kindergarten to High School Senior in a blink of an eye!

Just yesterday I'm quiet sure I took this photo of my young son going off to Kindergarten....I was not happy that this day had arrived...He was...And look he has a graphic tee shirt on of his favorite thing trains!

Wait here it is.... he is a Senior in High School....And he still loves graphic tee shirts and his new love is animating....

In Kindergarten you go wait for the bus...You can just kind of see how much shorter he is compared to his dad who is holding up the umbrella...

Senior year you try to get a good photo of people who have just crawled out of bed at 6am and really don't want their photo taken....And no photos at the bus stop...It's too dark out anyways...He only has a few inches to go to be as tall as dad!

Yes I'm the shortest in the family.

They are both going to the same school...When he left for Kindergarten I took this photo of my daughter standing in the doorway looking so sad...Where is he going?  Now they are both off with lots of hard work ahead of them.  My son's favorite thing to do in Kindergarten was drawing...And his favorite thing to do as a Senior is drawing.  He is staying after school today to set up the art club.  He is vice president....I hope they both have a great year.  I know I'll have fun looking at the changes from child to young adult...It will be a fun thing to blog about this year.. Some days I'm so not ready for this step and others I'm so excited because I have this great son who I hope will have a very happy adult life...I think he feels the same way too.

Nana used to come every year when the kids were heading off to school....Now she is thousands of miles away...Miss you Nana.
G.G.

Somerville Cruise Night....A Walk Down Memory Lane.....

Friday afternoon on our vacation we spent the day walking the streets of Somerville New Jersey....So much has changed since I first walked down the streets of Somerville...But one things has not the Friday Night Old Car Cruise...

This is the town where I had my first job out of college...It wasn't my dream job of working for a Veterinarian office...But I was a Manager of a bank....I remember walking out of the bank one Friday night to get a sub from Subway and seeing the streets filled with these old cars....For a little country girl from Vermont it seemed strange...

This is the town where my husband and I met...He would come in to the bank on a Friday night...and talk about the beach and all his adventures....He had so much energy and it was fun to listen to him...It's always nice to have customers who are friendly... Our first date consisted of sitting on a bench and talking...watching the world go by...

Through the years we would walk the streets first as a newly wed couple...Then with the children...My husband could look at old cars and talk about old cars for hours on end....The kids and I get a little bored...We liked visiting the shops and getting ice cream...

One of my husbands friends owns a car like this so we had to take lots of photo's to show him....The one thing I've learned about old car projects is they are really never finished...There is something that always needs tweaking ....Parts to be changed out...seems you can work on old cars forever.....

Many of our favorite places are gone....There are lots of new restaurants and stores....

My son found another person to stand by....I wonder if the food is good?  We had another Pizza night this night...Just can't get enough of the New Jersey Pizza!

It's fun to listen to my husband talk about the cars he likes and doesn't like....It was great to just be able to walk down the streets and remember...How we met....our kids growing up....

It was nice to have time to walk,relax and not have to be anywhere....Make sure if you go on vacation that you don't pack it with so much to do that you don't get to enjoy...We also kept our cell phones off...In fact now that we are home my husband has started to shut his cell phone off more because there is always someone who needs him to do something and I think he liked the slow time of vacation....

I thought this comic store looked cool...I'm not sure my daughter really did though!

What I loved about Somerville was all the old buildings and houses....I'm glad we had such great weather on our trip and that we got time to see the Cruise Night.
G.G.

My Garden in August.....

August is here...It's my favorite month I love the cool mornings and then the hot afternoons.  I love the excitement of going back to school and I love the colors that come to my garden.  I went out and got some Mum plants for the garden.

Here are some of the Zinnia's that I planted.  In New Jersey I planted these in the garden between my house and our neighbor who lived in the house next to our yard.  She loved Zinnias.

I love the different colors that Mums come in...Hopefully these new plants will survive the winter and I'll have them for next year too.  Mums seem to be able to tolerate the hot summer months in Utah.

I love spending time in the garden in the morning...It brings a nice calm beginning to my day.

I was hoping to have a lot of Cosmos this year but for some reason they did not do well.  I only have a few flowers so far...

More Mum plants....and forks...Can't keep that cat out of my garden this year!

My outdoor Hen's and Chicks...I have taken a bunch of the chicks and planted them in the house to grow over the winter...Someday I want a big Hen's and Chick garden....

This field is being zoned for something...What a beautiful view...I wish they would have to put a park here or very small houses....I dread the day they start building in it....But at least for almost 4 years I have had this great view.

I realized as I was thinking about life...My garden of flowers may not feed my body....But it sure feeds my soul....How is your garden doing?
G.G.

To The Jersey Shore Or Bust!

After wandering the streets of our past we hopped into the rental car for an evening at the New Jersey Shore...I call it the beach...But in New Jersey it's called the Shore...I'm not sure why....But that's what they do....The traffic at the beginning of the trip did not look too bad.....But it got very slow and took a lot longer to drive down than we expected....

Off we go on our New Jersey highway adventure...Do we take the parkway or route 18....And why is it that my husband who has lived in New Jersey almost his entire life has decided that he doesn't remember which exit to take if he wants to take route 18???...We haven't been away that long!

Finally an hour or more later we are at our Parkway Exit...Number 98 for Point Pleasant and Manasquan New Jersey!

Our next food experience of the day.....Carlson's Corner's "Cheese With"....They actually call it a "Carlson burger"....But for those who spent their whole life going here they call it a "Cheese With"  It's a really good Cheese burger....you also have to get the fries too!  One thing they don't have that I love is Fry Sauce...That is not an east coast thing...My husband looks so very happy!

The nice thing was that the food was just like we remembered it....perhaps just a bit more expensive...This was our weekly trip in the summer...Almost every Saturday we would pack up our beach gear and drive down to Manasquan in the evening ...we would eat at Carlson's or Gee Gee's and then spend the late afternoon and into the night on the beach.... Having an ice cream cone before driving home.....It always felt like we had been away for days instead of hours.....That is something we wish we had in Utah a place to go that feels like you have left everything behind for days.....perhaps we just haven't looked hard enough..

By the time we finished eating the sun had gone down and it was time for Fire works...We walked down and found a nice spot by the water to watch.  The weather was perfect....

We also got to visit with old friends....I was glad that my husband had time to see his friends and talk about all their old New Jersey Shore adventures...Our boys also had a great time visiting and talking about boy things....and my daughter got time to just relax and enjoy....Thanks for the wonderful evening Brad and Sue!
G.G.

A walk in Raritan New Jersey.....

After our adventure at Dukes park we decided to walk the streets of our old home town Raritan New Jersey...

Our first stop was "As You Like it Ice Cream Shop"  where you can get the best milk shakes....Yes we traveled 2000 miles to get milk shakes that you can drink through a straw!  My family likes thin milk shakes...

When we lived in Raritan we would take walks almost weekly in the summer to the "As You Like It Ice Cream Shop"...Then after eating our ice cream we would walk around town...This is one of those places that the kids really miss..

As we walked down the streets of our old home town we looked in the windows of all the old stores we would visit and noticed all the changes...We even got a chance to have a photo taken with the Pope....

Walking past our favorite Chinese restaurant we met up with the local armed forces recruiter..

We visited the best Library in the world where you can keep books out late and not get fees....I bought a book from their book sale as I'm collecting books with ocean themes for our ocean themed living room...Then we walked past the EMS station...Cool old ambulance...The car is calling to my husband...

Then we went over the railroad tracks and past our old house...It looks very much like it did when we sold it...Some of my flowers are still growing...We visited with some old neighbors...

I was sad to see the yard all fenced in...I guess the new owner has dogs....Oh well...I have to say I love my new house with central air conditioning....I don't miss the hot sweaty nights in the old house....

We then crossed back over the railroad tracks and headed to Pizza Brothers...Our favorite New Jersey Pizza place.....

People in Utah just can't get pizza right....I realized one thing the pizza in New Jersey has this layer of grease on top of it that you just don't get in Utah.....I'm not sure why.....  I wonder did my husband ask for plain pizza or cheese pizza...In Utah you get this blank stare when you ask for a slice of plain pizza....

Can you see the layer of grease on this pizza....The perfection of Cheese and tomato sauce and the perfect crust???....Pure Pizza Bliss.....

There are all the secret ingredients to perfect pizza....someone out in Utah please figure this out....

What I have learned is sometimes the best places to get food are little places...Whenever we visit Raritan again we will have more Pizza Brothers Pizza....We ate so much food on this vacation....I still two weeks later do not feel very hungry....
G.G.