April Report

April Fools - I don't know if I have ever explained the driving situation here in NJ, but due to lack of parking space only seniors can drive to school, as result Chayce drives to school but parks across the street in the city municipal building. The problem is the city put a four hour limit (without permit) on parking to discourage students from filling up their lot. So occasionally they ticket all the students who park there. To avoid tickets I typically drop Kim off at the truck on my way to work and she drives it home and then the boys take the bus home. Well on April 1st Kim and I drive into the lot and I immediately notice that every car has a ticket on it. My blood starts to boil because it has only been about an hour since Chayce would have arrived and we were well under the 4 hour limit. I grabbed the ticket and was about to march down to the police station (just across the parking lot) to argue, when I noticed that the ticket looked strange, well sure enough some student had photo-copied a ticket and put one on every car as an April fools day joke. You have to admit it was a great idea given that it is a stressful topic for all the students who park there. We saved the ticket and told Chayce he had a ticket to pay when he got home from school later that day.


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Spring Break was the week of April 5-11 this year. We didn't have anything big planned because we thought Bran would be playing baseball and that we wouldn't be able to go anywhere. Some of the families from our ward planned a last minute trip to Hershey and several families including us decided to go along. I called and invited some friends who moved to Pittsburgh 3 years ago to join us. The were able to so it ended up being a really fun couple of days for the kids. We ended up with a group of 31 teenagers and adults. Some of the families camped and the smart ones :) got hotels. Chayce did camp with his friends, he does like camping, and in spite of the rain on the last night he had a great time. Brandon in true prima donna form slept comfortably in the hotel with Mom and Dad.

The weather was nice the early part of the week but was threatening to rain and rain hard for the days we planned to be at Hershey. As it turned out the rain held off and we had a great day at the park, overcast but warm and nice. The adults just strolled around the park taking rides at our own pace and the kids traveled in a pack and got in lots of rides. The good thing about the threatened rain was that many of the people who had planned to come to the park canceled and the result was very short lines all day.

The highlight for our boys was spending time with there friends, especially Jake and Dan from Pittsburgh.

On the way out to Hersey we stopped at a few colleges and took tours so Chayce could start to determine what he wants to do for college. The whole process was exciting, depressing and incomprehensible for me. It was great to see the schools, it brought back memories, I get excited for Chayce and his future, but the idea of him leaving home anytime soon does not make me happy and is hard to get my arms around. It doesn't seem like I have had him long enough for him to be grown up and leaving home.

Early in the week he went to Fairleigh Dickinson. The good thing about this school was its location. If is probably 15 minutes from our house so he could live at home :). It is a good school and a beautiful campus. This building used to be a home for the Vanderbilt's believe it or not.


The next school he visited was Meulenberg located in Allentown, PA. Of all the schools we saw this was Chayces favorite (except the price, mine too). It is a small school [2,100 students, ave class size 17], the campus was fantastic, it had an Ivy League look and feel, very well equiped with all the facilities you would expect at a large University. It is also very well known for its pre-med program with a very high medschool placement record. It is only about a 1 1/2 hour drive from home so we could get Chayce home for a visit with ease, assuming he wants to.


In Allentown we also stopped by Lehigh Valley University and did our own tour (we will have to go back for a formal tour later). It is also very nice and has a good pre-med program.

The next day we went to Penn State Harrisburg. This is one of many satellite campuses for Penn State, we tried to get a tour of the main PSU campus, but they were all full so we will have to go back out another time. PSH would be an option if we lived near Harrisburg but I don't think it was high on Chayce's list.

After our visit to PSH we went to Hurshey and met up with our friends and had a great time.

The one downside of our trip was an emergency call from our next door neighbor informing us that some teenagers had broken into our house and were having a party. Luckily the police came and the kids scattered and never came back. We came home expecting the house to be pretty trashed and things stolen, but fortunately other than some minor messes they didn't do much. I guess I am going to have to improve the security system around here. We had one installed when we built the house but never activated it.

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Kim and Rob went into the the city for Dinner and Blue Man Group with a bunch of folks from work. We have now seen Blue Man three times (1-Vegas, 2-NYC) and while I do think it is a fun and entertaining show, three times is enough. It was a good choice for a large diverse group because just about everyone can find something to enjoy in the show.

We had dinner at a great restaurant called Buddakan. One of the things I have experienced as of late at several high-end NYC restaurants when I take a group of people to dinner is to do the Chef's tasting menu. It isn't cheap, but it is a great way to experience more of what a place has to offer. The idea is that rather then individuals ordering; the groups gets a variety of appetizers, salads, main courses and desserts, served family style for everyone to share. Every time we have done it the group has loved it and there has been a ton of food. I like it because I get to try several dishes at a place I won't likely return to. NYC and NJ have so many awesome places it doesn't make sense go to the same place more than once, it is more fun to explore something new.


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We finished the month with a heat wave. Temperatures close to 90. You won't find me complaining, I love it.

April Flashback

Springville, UT April 1995



Washington DC April 1999



Have a great May!