Nicholas...

Even though school has been in session 2 weeks now, I thought I would share Nick's first day of school photo....Michael and Nick are in 2 different buildings/locations now....And with Michael being in 8th grade, I didn't think he would appreciate me standing at the bus stop with him taking a photo....I will get an updated photo of Michael, but for now, it's Nick on his 1st day of 4th grade....

Just an update...

I know I've been talking alot of Hurrican Irene that blew through the area last week, but once again my great state of Pennsylvania has been inundated with rain the past how many days.....it seems like it's been raining for days and days (which it has actually)...but with all the rain, we were getting flooding...than yesterday, this line of heavy thunderstorms and heavy rain came south to north is the straightest of lines and flooded, for the most part, the entire central area of PA from North to South....anyone who lives in the eastern part of the state (that would be us)...cannot cross this one river (the Susquehanna) which means if you live in the east, you cannot go west and if you live west you cannot go east. Towns have been evacuated, colleges closed and sent home students, 125year old bridges just washed away and bison at an animal park have drowned.

Steve and Coletta were planning on taking the camper up to Penn State this weekend for a HUGE football weekend...yeah, well, they can't get there. That river from above...can't cross it. The major highway they need to drive on was shut down and all alternates around have also been shut down. They are bumming as they have, along with many other's, have been planning this weeked for months and months..

I am very, very greatful that we were not in that line of heavy, heavy rain. (we narrowly escaped it). Anyways...just wanted to let you know about the crazy Sept. that we have had so far...Crazy and Wet!!! Hope yours is fairing better...

Labor Day Weekend and Father's Day (down under)

It is a long weekend for us here in the US. Labor Day weekend is upon us-which means the unofficial end of summer and the beginning of a new school year for kids and colleges. Our boys already began this past Thursday...an 8th and 4th grader...will have to add photos later as I am on Mike's work laptop at Tri-boro and photos are on my laptop at home. And yes we are at Tri-boro for the weekend. Not a gorgeous weekend, but no rain so far, just a bit overcast. Boys are just leaving to go fishing. I am making homemade waffles this morning. And than we have a picnic this afternoon and Mike kicks off his "fantasy football" league today with a bunch of guys that Derek knows and that Mike has known for years and years. So it is a good weekend...

Wishing my dad down under a great, big Happy Father's Day!!! (US Fathers day was back in June)..saw the photos of your luncheon and of course wish I was there!...only in spirit...hope you had a great day with your Family Mick!!! Cheers mate!

Long weekend....

Just wanted to let my friends know that we made it through the hurricane ok....we had alot of wind and rain---fortunately, she--Hurrican Irene--wasn't quite as strong as they said as it lost some steam as it moved north, but it was enough to be extremely paranoid that our trees were going to go down...many, many other trees did go down and block roads and take down power lines, but fortunately, we were spared...Lots of sticks and leaves, but nothing major...we did lose power on Sunday for a few hours and that got tricky as we have 2 sump pumps in the basement that pump water out that would come in to the basement if we didn't have them...Many people have lots and lots of water in their basements....So, overall, we did good...I am exhausted as I hardly slept Saturday night because I was terrified a tornado was going to come our way. (as they were popping up everywhere)...needless to say, I am ready for bed...so I am signing off right now..just wanted to let you know we are all ok!!

A rainy, rainy weekend.....

I sit here on a Friday night....L.Michael is sleeping over at a friends...Nick and Dad are down at Tri-boro for the night and I have the house to myself!....L.Michael has his 1st football scrimmage tomorrow morning...and we are hoping to get it in before the rain comes....we are in the path Hurrican Irene...of course the storm will have a mind of it's own and could completely turn and go out into the Atlantic....but it doesn't seem to be doing that---at this moment anyways....so I have gone to the grocery store to get a supply of water and food that we can eat in the event that our electricity is gone....we are due to get wind and lots of rain...and they are evacuating towns and cities up and down the east coast....airports are shutting down and NYC has suspened their mass transit for Sunday. So they are anticipating the worst, hoping for the best...I am just hoping and praying that none of the huge trees in our back yard come crashing down onto our house. That would not be good!...

Other than Hurrican Irene....the boys begin school this coming Thursday...I can't believe their summer vacation is coming to an end!! Michael is heading into 8th grade and Nicholas is heading into 4th grade...I will head back to my job/school about mid-October...as I said above, Michael is playing Middle School football this year and Nicholas is signing up to play ice hockey...(we are supposed to have a meeting/picnic tomorrow afternoon--not sure this will happen re: Hurricane Irene)...so..that is what is happening right now...will update with what happens re: hurricane and Michael's 1st football game.....

Our visit to OCMD...

This past week we headed down to OCMD...we left our driveway aout 520am and arrived in plenty of time to have a whole day on the beach and for Mike to get a game of golf in with Steve, Chris and Tyler....We were only planning on staying until Wed. night, be we crashed at Steve and Coletta's condo for an extra night and came home late Thurs. night...that was enough beach for me...we did have a good time and the boys are beach rats now....as you will see, we rented a pontoon boat one day and had a fantastic time with just the adults. 4 hours of being on the water and laughing and just having a good time. Out to dinner for some good seafood and clamming and crabbing and our few days at the beach was complete.....enjoy!
Baby Chase on the beach...

This was Chase's home while on the beach...to keep him out of the sun...

Evelyn was burying Michael's legs in the sand and I found it amusing how she stood there with her hand on the shovel!

Steve and the kids had many people stop and look at their castle...

The kids were trying to crab right near the condo...no such luck...

A beautiful sunset from the deck of the condo....saw many of these this week...

Clams and Coors.....(the clams were the ones that Mike and his brother found while out on the pontoon boat)Self portrait of Jen and I...

Another self of Jess and myself....

Steve caught this huge horseshoe crab in his clamming rake!...scary thing is we were all walking in this same water!

I had the girls show me their "girls"!!!

The brother's trying to clam...

Coletta and Jen...

A view of the bay from the boat.

At Seacrets..(Leanne you and H2 were at this club)....we docked the boat and came in for a drink than went back out on the boat....

The view from above looking out at the seating area.....

All the girls....

Looking off the side of the boat at the crabs...

Chris and Jen.....

The happy baby Chase!!

The loving couple......

The 3 brothers....

Another lovely sunset....

Uncle Chris keeping an eye on his niece and nephews....(with drink in his hand-albeit empty)

All of the cousins......

Chris, Jen and baby Chase....

Chase's 1st time in the ocean!!

I had taken a photo just like this years ago....of course the kids looked so very different, so I wanted another to compare the 2..

More of China Mike

Took China Mike mini-golfing and I would have to say this was the 1st thing that he was not too good at. (almost everything else he did or tried for 1st time, he did rather well)..but, we had a nice time and we were glad we went.

Using Joe and Jen's pool at night!....here they were trying to pull Nick into 2 pieces!