Today Was THE Day

Today was the day Lily had been looking forward to ever since she convinced me, through a fairly well-written persuasive essay, that we should attempt a stop at Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ, to see the bakery featured in the TLC show, "Cake Boss."

Even though I had spent a few hours online last night, figuring and refiguring directions to Hoboken, we did get lost on the way there--twice. But that wasn't enough for me to abandon Lily's "lifelong" dream--we made it to Carlo's Bakery Way, 95 Washington Street. She wasn't disappointed. I had been quite stressed out about this endeavor with my three little kids in tow and no other adult to help keep them corralled. My kids are awesome. My kids are great. My kids are crazy and have no idea what dangers lurk in the traffic and congestion of a city.

I was surprised how well they did, even though we had to wait in line outside the bakery for an hour and then wait in the very cramped store for 45 minutes before our order was filled. We saw Mauro and Grace and . . . one of the other sisters whose name escapes me.
Lily ordered the chocolate mousse cake, and it was so delish. Micah and Hyrum ordered these big cookies with chocolate filling, but when we opened the box later, the clerk had forgotten to give them to us. Micah was disappointed until he ate his double chocolate cupcake and he seemed to drown his sorrows just fine. Hyrum sported a red mustache and Evie had bright red lipstick from their Fourth-of-July cupcakes and they couldn't have been happier. And Lily got a tshirt to forever remember her day.

All I can say is this: The clerks in the bakery, even though they messed up our order, were very efficient and patient with the commotion. I don't think I've ever paid $18 for six cupcakes, but it was worth it to make the memory, I suppose.

One of the things I'd been looking forward to most on this trip was driving across Manhattan to Long Island to hand deliver a package to our favorite missionary's mission office. This part of the drive, with my huge Suburban and four (ok, usually only three) disobedient kids made me extremely nervous, and not a whole lot really throws me for a loop in the worry department. As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. I drove straight there, no wrong turns, and the mission office is in the basement of a church building, so we could park in its parking lot without fighting the Suburban into a curbside spot. The two couples of senior missionaries working in the officelet us in, and they were so happy to see kids that they didn't care we were noisy or crazy or demanding drinks and candy. We even met a few of the young men who have been serving with Elder Denton--we saw pictures of him on their cameras as proof. That was cool for my little boys.

It was so exciting to see where Tucker is serving. We didn't attempt to find him, since he would have been so angry if we had, but Elder Shepard told me that he'd just hung up the phone with Elder Denton, who had been reporting their broken A/C unit--not ten minutes before we'd walked in. That was exciting (stupid, huh, to think it was exciting to talk to someone who'd just spoken with my son?). And Elder Shepard took our picture in front of the huge map of Long Island. I look about as harried as I felt, and Evie refused to cooperate on any level. That's Evie lately--ornery and two. Hyrum only turned around when offered candy.

I loved it there, and I would have stayed longer if there had been anything else for us to do or see, but since we were really a distraction to what the missionaries should have been doing, we began our 3-hour drive back to PA, where our final destination for the night was Lancaster, heart of Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch country.

And this is the part of the day that I would love to forget. All my stress and planning about driving in Hoboken and Queens, and the driving part of the day that was awful was the part that was supposed to be a piece of chocolate mousse cake. Road construction on Long Island delayed us an hour. Road construction on Staten Island delayed us 30 minutes. And a rolled over truck on the New Jersey Turnpike delayed us another hour. Our three-hour jaunt devolved into almost six hours in the car, with me frustrated and stuck and practically foaming at the mouth.. Luckily, Dr. Google located a Redbox somewhere in rural PA that saved my sanity and zombie-fied my kiddos into a trance.

By the time we finally arrived in Lancaster, all the Amish shops were closing and I couldn't bear the thought of shopping anyway.

That's okay. The Amish visit was just an afterthought. Today was THE day of the trip--cake and my missionary's package.

It was a good day. A Really Good Day.