When Haley's boyfriend comes over, Phil has no problem trying to awkwardly bond with the kid, forcing him to go wait in his car for Haley.  Claire gets pissed that Phil never exerted that kind of effort to bond with her father.  Insisting he's friends with Jay, Phil heads over there and the two are extremely awkward and quiet.  Jay lets Phil help him build his model airplane and the two take it out to fly.  Jay won't let Phil fly, but he'll let him help with "thread the needle," a trick where Phil has to stand as far away as possible and hold up a hulahoop that Jay makes the plane fly through.  Only problem is he nails him in the face with the plane... on purpose.
 
Cameron drags the incredibly snobby Mitchell to Costco, a store he initially hates.  However, after discovering they carry a paper shreedder he wanted and sell diapers for cheap enough he wants to buy multiple years worth, and then a shed to keep them in, Mitchell is clearly sold.  Mitchell then joins the rest of the family.

When Alex keeps standing up to Claire and refusing to wear a dress to the wedding, Gloria wants to bond with her granddaughter (yeah, weird to call her that), and takes her out to lunch and then dress shopping.  We find out Alex doesn't want to wear dresses because that's Haley's thing and Haley is the pretty one, she's the smart one.  Gloria convinces her she can be both.

Meanwhile, Manny is supposed to bond with Luke, but can't seem to relate to the kid who's jumping around naked on the trampoline with a box on his head.  Instead he beonds with his sister Claire (yeah, even weirder to call her that), as the two of them discuss her problems with Alex.

At the end of the epiosde, Claire is infuriated at Jay for being so mean to Phil.  Jay admits he doesn't like Phil because he tries too hard, but Claire forces him to tell Phil he likes him and be nice.  Soon the two of them are hugging and before you know it, Cameron, Manny and Haley's boyfriend join the mix.