Modern Family/Heartwarming

Jay spends the whole second episode being unfavourably compared to Manny's clearly unsavoury biological father. At the end, he pays for a limo to take the family to Disneyland, but convinces Manny his father sent it so he won't know the man flaked on him again.
- Even better, the limo was the one he already paid for for his and Gloria's trip.
Claire and Phil's "wedding" on the Hawaii vacation.
Mitchell quitting his job when given an ultimatum by his jerk boss. "If Lily can stand up, so can I."
Mitchell being willing to immediately shave off his beard because Cam said he didn't like it, followed by a tender moment where Cam reassures Mitchell that he actually does like his beard and tells him not to get rid of it.
After Manny stops talking to him for firing a worker he likes, Jay tells him he can handle the screwing around of his employee, but not when it puts "his kid" in danger. Manny picks up on this and starts talking to him again.
- All three subplot endings in that episode are very sweet; there's also Claire letting Phil know he doesn't have to cover up his work troubles or feel less manly because of them, and Cameron rescues Lily from a racist commercial.
Luke's reason for picking Phil to stay with if he and Claire ever got divorced. Claire assumed it was because she wasn't as fun but it was really because Phil would need him more.
Cam accepting that Mitchell might have a son, complete with the Meaningful Echo of "I need to have my moment."
The Dunphy kids, recovering from walking in on their parents having sex, realize that at least it means Phil and Claire still love each other.
Claire blows up at Phil for always ignoring her suggestions. After finally learning what she's angry about, Phil brings out some pictures when they were first dating to show her what a loser he was, and all the ways she's changed him for the better.
Cam finds out that Mitchell had worried about him freaking out over being a parent, and leaving Mitchell and Lily. Mitchell makes it up to him by reading his own rough draft of Cam's idea for a story about adoption to help Lily acclimate to the idea, after which Lily claps when she hears the word, just like Cam's been trying to get her to do.
Jay meets Mitchell's other gay friends for the first time, and contrary to Mitchell's fears he fits in perfectly and the whole group has a blast.
Jay tearing up on discovering a poem he wrote about his mother as a kid, and then the whole ending scene where his emotional outburst prompts everyone to put aside all the bad feelings that have built up over the day.
Jay and Gloria find them selves saddled with a dog, which Manny instantly falls in love with. Jay says "no", drives the dog away to get rid of her...only to break at the last minute, bring her home, and place her in Manny's arms.
- Come next season... Jay's really attached to Stella as much as Manny is.
Phil takes every chance he gets to hold or grope Gloria up until "The One That Got Away", where he finally realizes how lucky he is to have Claire and catches her from falling into the pool instead of Gloria.
Mitchell getting over his anxiety about raising a boy after blowing up a birdhouse.
Phil making friends with his neighbor, after they hadn't met for years.
Alex, originally planning to give a rather degrading speech to her class in her middle school graduation, changes it at the last minute after Haley confesses her anxieties about doing well in school and, perhaps for the first time on the show, (in a way) geniunely compliments Alex.
"There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. You see, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun, and the realists? Well, without the dreamers, they might never get off the ground."
- To clarify, this comes from Cam, who has spent the whole episode trying to convince Mitchell (and later, Jay and Claire as well) that a story about he and his friends chucking a pumpkin across a football field actually happened, and gives this speech over a montage where the entire family tries to replicate it.
Jay arranging for the Dunphys' front yard to be covered with snow on the last day they can all be together until after Christmas.
Jay on being upset when Manny's biological father stops by and interrupts things: "Manny and I, we got our own thing. I mean, I know I'm not his real dad... I guess I just don't like the reminder."
Cam and Gloria spend an episode getting on each other's nerves over their attempts to "correct" each other's lives, but then realize that it's all due to their own insecurities, and get over it, resulting in them both making dinner in perfect sync, almost like a dance.
Phil is shell-shocked after learning that Haley had sex with Dylan, but this actually allows him to give the perfect response to it, followed by Haley tearfully saying in a confessional "I have a cool dad."
Mitchell's explanation of his participation in the flash mob: "This dance is my love letter to Cam."
Phil's attempts to have a memorable day with Alex, culminating in writing her initials on a diner's moon sign, in homage to Eugene Cernan.
Lily talking about one of her male toys having a boyfriend.
Lily not wanting to go onstage for her dance recital unless her grandpa Jay danced with her. Which he does.
- The field. Oh God, the moment in the field.

Mitch: I think I'm lying on a rock...
Cameron: I'm lying next to my rock.

- Finally getting to see Jay and Manny getting quiet one-on-one time doing father-son things. They plan out a whole day... making a model airplane together. And when they end up having to take care of Lily, they team up to do that together pretty well too. Not to mention the nice short scene of Jay, Manny, and Lily as grandfather, son, and granddaughter that includes some nice comedic and general chemistry between all three.
- Luke hid Haley's acceptance letter because he didn't want her to leave home.

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