This and that...

It is SNOWING! Yikes - luckily it isn't sticking, but still... It is supposed to be 60 by the weekend, no wonder we are all getting sick!

Since we are leaving for NYC tomorrow - it is time to get packed up! We've been talking to Paul & Kristi (in the pic on the left with Dave in Nags Head, NC last year!) almost daily and the only thing we've determined is that we will go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and Hannah HAS to go to the American Girl Store - oh and that Paul will drive Dave to the Staten Island Ferry at 5:30 am on Sunday (what a great brother!)

Since traveling has been on my mind, here are some pictures from our most recent "vacation" - March to the

Grand Canyon.(they just made me feel warmer on a day like today!)

Well, time to make some lists on what we have to pack! Say a small prayer that whatever "car trouble kibosh" someone has put upon us goes away and we make it the 420 miles safely to NYC!

It's FALL!

A good friend of mine recently reminded me that I need to post more often - so here it is (I really promise this time!) (Also - Happy 16th Birthday to my niece Katie!)

(Pumkins: Dave, Hannah, Emily, Conor-
P.S. Dave and Conor were too busy sneaking out of the room to watch Criminal Minds to fully plan the carving of their pumpkins!)

Ahh...leaves are changing, pumpkins are being carved, our small town is holding trick-or-treat the Saturday BEFORE Halloween(as is usual, heaven forbid the kids wander out 'in the dark'...) - it MUST be fall...

I find it amusing that I've spent the last 18 years trying to develop, maintain and beat family traditions into my children, often to be rebuffed, or have them grudgingly come along. Now that Emily is in college and is often working when the rest of us are doing "fun things", she has taken it upon herself to be the "official family scheduler of all things that are - or may have once been-our family traditions" - this includes making it mandatory that everyone clear their schedule on her day off so we can ALL carve pumpkins together - even if it happens at 9:30 on a school night. Of course, where else would we get these kinds of "happy family pictures" - yes they were mugging for the camera...

Our other family outing this month was to take a trip to Linesville, PA to the spillway- this was after a trip to "Peter's Pumpkin Patch" - a locally owned pumpkin farm where my mom and dad have taken the grandkids for years. so the kids wanted to make sure they kept that tradition up. We bought 18 pumpkins and headed north to "feed the fish" - this is a place where my parents have taken me and my brother and sisters since we were small. It is a carp spillway on Pymatuming Lake - you toss bread and the fish literally climb over each other to get to it - and it's FREE! (watch this video!)

(photo: Conor, my Dad, nieces Katie & Liz, Hannah and Emily, my sister in law Gina - 8 months pregnant, and me! In front are Gina/Bill's boys, Billy and twins Anthony & Dominick - 8 1/2 of the 12 1/2 grandkids present)

Our next "family trip" will be this coming week, when we head to NYC for the ING New York City Marathon. This will be Dave's 4th marathon and has been on his short list of runs he wanted to do. Unfortunately, it is a lottery system - you enter your name in February and in May, they let you know if you are in - he wasn't. The good news is, he is friends with a girl at the running store and she was able to get him a vendor's entry from ASICS - which are the shoes he wears anyway, so they should sponsor him. It's been a long training season for him, and I'll be glad when it's over. I think the marathons are too much for him and would rather he do the shorter runs. The kids have never been to the marathons, so this will be a first for them. The girls are looking forward to shopping - Dave wants to see the Statue of Liberty. We will stay with Dave's brother Paul and his family on Long Island during our trip.

That is about it for October - next month is "birthday month" - Dave will be 47 on Nov. 17th and Conor will be 17 on Nov. 19th. AND we will have a new baby -well, not me, but my brother, which is even better because I don't have to wake up in the middle of the night - we know it's a boy - probably Nicholas - he is due Nov. 28th, but I would bet money he comes before that.

(Dave, helping Conor with his tie before the Homecoming Dance)