life Travel Weekend

Frequency > Length

February 3, 2026

I do not tend to take long trips to Philadelphia, but as the kids have gotten older and easy to travel with the frequency has been pretty decent!

(My parents really don’t love traveling so we’ve chosen to come to them for the most part, though they want to try to come at some point.)

I took G for the weekend and even though it was SOOO short (left our house 4:45 AM Saturday / home 7 PM Sunday!) it felt fun and meaningful to celebrate my niece’s bday with her! I think I’ve only been to one previous bday party, back when she lived in NC.

I chose to take just G because a) I knew the other kids had sports practices, esp A who has meets coming up; b) she’s the closest in age to Miriam and it just made sense that way; and c) we are all headed back to Philadelphia SOON. Plus this way the cost was lessened (2 plane tickets definitely beats 5, though they were pretty inexpensive).

For those not aware, my sister (Rebecca) is a DIY and home decor master.

She knits, sews, makes elaborate sourdough (milling her own grains), etc. And when I she does these things, I mean she does them at elite/expert level (at least it seems that way to me!). In typical Rebecca fashion we made a from-scratch smitten kitchen cake and homemade icing . . . decorated like this:

PIZZA CAKE!! She used this pic for decorating inspo.
from above view. Cheese is white chocolate shavings; pepperoni are fruit roll ups.

My main jobs were entertaining her and cutting the fruit roll ups into circles. G and M entertained themselves for hours while we did this — G was soooo happy to finally have a willing partner in pretend play. They were so well matched.

me on the couch- M smiling + G apparently very serious. ALSO THIS BLANKET SHE HAS IS AMAZING and I am very close to ordering one.

The party was at a pizza restaurant (Bertucci’s in Springfield, for the PHL locals) and so this cake was ON THEME. It was super cute – kids decorated their own pizzas and had fun.

We also fit in time to hang with my parents (just us because M had her friend’s party) and dinner out all together. It was super short, but I think for seeing family frequency beats length any time!!

It was coooollllld but it was not like we were hanging out outside.

ALSO it’s cold here too – all relative, but if you’re heard about the frozen iguanas I can vouch – this is a real thing.

spotted on a walk – paralyzed iguana.

In other news I am on call but it’s a rare ‘days only’ week which is totally different than the usual.

4 Comments

  • Reply Amy February 3, 2026 at 5:28 pm

    Mills her own grain? Incredible. That is next level! (Didn’t she used to own a yarn shop or something like that? I’m a knitter too and apparently have a lot of hobbies in common with your sister 😊)

    • Reply Sarah Hart-Unger February 3, 2026 at 6:51 pm

      She did, though not anymore! And yes. Her baked goods are amazing too. . .

  • Reply Theresa February 3, 2026 at 6:47 pm

    Sounds like super fun trip! On a side note, if your parents want to visit you, encourage them to do it sooner rather than later. My parents’ health challenges hit two years ago and traveling now is out of the question. Prior to that, they traveled frequently. It’s impossible to know when they won’t be up for travel any more.

  • Reply Gillian February 3, 2026 at 7:05 pm

    Frozen iguanas??!!! I don’t even know what to do with that…and I am from Arizona originally.

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