Jersey Girls Weekend 2010

Last week my sister Elise and I headed to NJ for our annual Jersey Girls Weekend with our childhood friend Kathren. Each year we pick a different location. Since we've added two more babies in the past year, we flew to NJ so that Madeline (Elise's daughter) and Caraline (Kathren's daughter) could have some fun together. They were born a few weeks apart and are around 10 months old. Andrew got dropped off in Utah along the way and had a blast with his Grandparents while I was gone.

Elise, Maddie, & I left for NJ on Thurs morning and came home late Sunday night. We are exhausted, but had a great time together! Most of our escapades revolved around food... since there is so much good food we have been missing- mostly pizza, bagels, and subs... which are so much better on the East Coast!!


Kath picked us up at the airport and after we settled in to our hotel we went back to her house and ordered lots of yummy thin crust NJ style pizza from Doria's in Summit. It was so good and we ate too much... and then after a few hours of playing we walked over to Magic Fountain for ice cream. The line is always super long (I didn't take this pic below) and full of teenagers, but the shakes were delish!


Later in the evening Elise introduced Madeline to Maui (Kathy's dog). Madeline wasn't sure what to make of Maui that night, so we got a lot of fun faces and squeals from her.



Caraline and Madeline also had a lot of fun playing together until it was bedtime!

Elise and I stayed at the Hilton Short Hills. We had a really comfy suite and loved the chocolates on our pillows every night when they turned down out beds.


Maddie loved the hotel too and slept like an angel almost all of the nights we were there!


On Friday morning Elise and I took turns using the Hilton health club to try and work off all the pizza we'd eaten the night before on the readmills... and then later in the day we met Kathren at the Millburn Deli (a high school favorite), for lunch.


The deli didn't disappoint. I could barely eat anything for the rest of the day. The people who work in the deli also made the trip worth it. I love New Jerseyans!


After lunch we headed to The Mall at Short Hills for some shopping. We attempted to find some replacement sandals for me, but were unsuccessful! We were disappointed to find that the Mrs. Fields had been driven out of the mall (such a disappointment!).

Maddie & Caraline loved their first Mall at Short Hills shopping trip. Hopefully a first of many trips together!


Elise found something cute for Maddie at Janie & Jack, so the shopping trip was deemed a success!


As we drove around, Elise kept the girls entertained in the back seat with toys and snacks.


Later in the afternoon after some chill time at Kathren's house, we went shopping in downtown Summit. We stopped for some treats at a new bakery called Brownie Bites and tried to visit the cute toy stores and baby clothing shops before the town closed for the night (at 6pm!).


The evening was spent filled with play time for Maddie & Caraline...


and a trip to the Broadway Diner for a dinner of chocolate chip pancakes (since the diner is home of the "world's best pancakes").



On Saturday Elise and I explored our hometown (Short Hills) with an early morning freezing cold jog. We started at our elementary school- Glenwood. They make such beautiful elementary schools in NJ. Going there brought back a lot of fun memories.


After Maddie was all bundled up we ran around the neighborhoods and checked out our favorite houses around town.


We ran by our old house and took a picture or two (this is what the house looked like last Spring)...


and by this point Maddie was sound asleep, so she didn't even get to enjoy the beautiful views! The pic Elise took of me makes me look like I need to go to the bathroom and my eyes are closed, so this one is of her instead :) (it's only a little bit more flattering).


The rest of Saturday was filled with shopping and chocolate tour around SoHo in Manhattan (see next post) and then on Sunday before we left to go home we got to go back to our old church for Sacrament Meeting. It was fun to see a few old friends and mostly a lot of new people.


After writing these posts, I am exhausted just thinking of everything we did in just a few short days... and am even more exhausted thinking about the long plane rides there and back.

They were definitely worth it though! The trip was so much fun and flew by way too fast! I am so grateful for the friendships that are able to continue to grow as we get to hang out and have a good time together.

I already can't wait for next year!