The Stockholm Family: New Jersey Trip

Well, we're back and we made it in one piece. The whole reason for this short visit was for a surprise birthday party for one of Mark's old Coastie buddies. His wife had been planning it for months. Unfortunately, it started snowing Friday afternoon and it didn't stop until Saturday afternoon (the party was planned for 3pm on Saturday). Needless to say, after 2 1/2 feet of snow, the surprise party was cancelled.

But the trip wasn't in vain. We were snowed in at Ellie and Bryan's house until Sunday afternoon, which gave us a really nice chance to visit and hang out with them. Mark and Bryan made a snow fort (Fort B.M.), which I am sure will be around until April, with all the snow they piled up. Ellie and I buried the boys in a snow drift, which was great fun for all (except when Mark got a load of snow down his coat!

Sunday we headed back up to my mom's house to see some of the family. Monica, Christopher, Elizabeth, Grandma and Uncle Mark all came over for an impromptu Super Bowl party. Though mom didn't win any money on her football pool, we all had a good time trying to watch the commercials in between laughs and hollers. Monday we headed into the city for a little NY time and then we got news that more snow was on the way! Aaron and Nadia stopped over that evening and we got to tell old stories about growing up at Grandma's house and sneaking across town to ride dirt bikes. :)

Luckily for us, we have friends who work for Continental, so we were able to get on an earlier flight out of Newark on Tuesday before they shut the whole place down due to snow! We got a connecting flight in Cleveland and got back to TX without too much trouble.

We're heading back up north in May for my cousin's wedding, so hopefully we'll be able to spend a little more time with everyone.
Here are a few shots from the weekend:

Fast cab in the city...