Trip to Massachusetts

As you all probably know, My sister had a baby 3 weeks ago, Andrew Patrick. This past weekend was Andrew's baptism. Amy is Andrew's Godmother. Saturday morning at 4:23 Amy, Fiona, Dad and I loaded up the Trailblazer and got on the road. It was windy and rainy the entire drive. It was possibly the 7 worst hours of driving i have ever done. But we arrived all safe and sound in Mashpee, MA and were very happy to see Maureen, Mark, Mom, and of course, Andrew Patrick.

About an hour after we arrived, Christo, Becky, Sara & Samantha arrived. We then spent the afternoon hanging out with Maureen, Mark and Andrew. It was very nice.

For Dinner, we went to Mark's parent's house. Amy and Fiona and I stayed at the Osler's house overnight. On Sudnay morning, we went to the church for the batism service which was very nice. (The baby that Rev. Showalter is holding in the picture on the website is not Andrew.)

We then adjoined to Mark & Maureen's house for lunch. Mark grilled some home-made sausage. He had pepper sausage and mole sausage. (It is pronounced moe-lay and has nothing to do with the annoying critters that make tunnels in your backyard.)

We then watched the Eagles get demolished by the Jaguars. And then watche the New England Revolution beat the Chicago Fire to advance in the MLS playoffs.

Then the real fun began. At around 7:30, Chris called Taylor to see how her weekend was. She said that Mom & Dad's neighbor, Joe, left a message on Chris' answering machine saying that there was a loud noise coming from Mom & Dad's basement. We tried to figure out how to get Joe into my folk's house to figure out what the problem is. To no avail. so the next thing you know, it is 8:23 and Amy, Fiona, Mom, Dad and I are loaded up in the Trailblazer heading south. Needless to say we were not planning on driving home to pennsylvania at 8:30, and I can not for the life of me remember the last time I stayed up past 3:00 a.m., let alone driving at that hour. ALSO, let me remind you that sunday morning, we turned the clocks back, so not only was it 3:48 when we got home, but my mind and body was thinking it was 4:48. But we got home just fine. Fiona and Amy slept from Mashpee to Maiden Creek, and Mom and Dad stayed up with me the entire ride. I was glad that Amy slept because I knew that if I needed her to drive, it would be best if she had some rest. I was concerned that we would get to new Jersey and I would start getting really sleepy and I might need Amy to step in and take over.

We stoped once for gas and some Newman's Own coffee at McDonalds. The coffee kept me wide awake from Connecticut straight through to M0m & Dad's house. God Bless Paul Newman... is there anything he can't do?? Anyway, we got home and everything was fine... the sump pump was stuck in the "on" position. About 10 minutes after we realized everything was okay, i crashed out and went to sleep. I got up this morning and had some dunkin donuts, relaxed and then cam home to Lititz.

What an exciting weekend. We had a great time seeing everyone. I thought it was great that Andrew Patrick got to see all of his grand parents, aunts, uncles, and all but one of his cousins.

Maureen and Mark look really good and Andrew is just a little angel. Throughout the entire church service, and during the baptism itself, he did not make a peep.

Fun fact: He was the 30th baby to wear the McDevitt family baptismal gown. The baptismal gown is over 60 years old.

I am looking forward to our next trip to Massachusetts... I only hope that the drive to and fro are considerably less memorable.

It's CIDER TIME!!!

On a beautiful crisp fall day there is nothing more fun than pressing out some apple cider.

Larry called me on Thursday to tell me that he had picked a bunch of apples to make some cider, so on Sunday, Fiona and I met up with Dad up at Larry's house to make apple cider.

We got to Larry's house around 10:00 and 4 hours later we had 6 and a half gallons of fresh apple cider.

Fiona helped every step of the way. She would take the apples out of the wheelbarrow and into the kitchen where they were washed and cut by Larry. Then the quartered apples were brought out to the press. Fiona helped put the apples into the grinding mechanism and tried to turn the grinding wheel. (She usually got help from her dad or from her Pop-pop. As we were pressing the cider, she was very instrumental as the qualty-control department. Larry gave her a little plastic cup that she must have filled 4 or 5 times to drink the freshest possible apple cider there is. After we would press a couple of pecks, we would put the pomus into a bucket that Fiona helped carry to the compost pile.

She also helped as we bottled the cider holding the strainer so that no apple chunks or seeds got into the bottles.

It was a perfect day. Spending time with Fiona, Dad, and Larry making apple cider.

Here are some photos from the day.

peace






oh yeah, after the cider operations, we went back to mom & dad's house and watched the Eagles beat up the Cowboys. Awesome.

Reen and Mark and Andrew

Congratulations to Maureen and Mark on the birth of their son, Andrew.

I love Maureen and I love Mark.

I know that their family love will only grow with the birth of Andrew.

I love the name Andrew. There are about 30 Saints named Andrew, so I will focus only on St. Andrew the Apostle. He is the patron saint of fishermen. I think that is very appropriate considering Little Andrew will probably be a fisherman if he follows in his father and grandfathers' footsteps.