Welcome Colton Timothy!

Blessed!

Today I became an aunt for the 26th time! The first time was in 1988. On my side of the family of me and my 3 siblings, there are 13 grandchildren. Dave is one of 7 children and there are 16 on his side.

It was a little bittersweet because Colton Timothy will be the last of the grandkids on my side and is the only one who didn't have my mom here to greet him - although I'm sure she had her hand in him arriving ;) Colton is greeted by his brothers - Billy (7) and twins Anthony & Dominick (5) - they will give each other a run for their money...

Happy 17th Birthday Conor (and 15th Birthday to Robby!)

Conor,

Wow, it really does seem like yesterday that I was sitting in the doctor's office, 7 days overdue, and he said "Well, I'm going to put you in (finally!)". At this point, the doctor already knew you were over 9 lbs and more than ready to be born - although you didn't think so and were quite content to stay put. You always did like to snuggle!

At this time of the night on November 19, 1991, I was sitting in my hospital bed, holding a 9 lb 6 oz bundle that looked like he had gone 9 rounds with Joe Frazier. Bruised and red faced, there was no doubt you belonged to us.

Through the years, you have been my funny, singing, sweet, athletic little boy. Always the one with the quick wit. Enjoy the time sweetie, it goes by much too quickly - remember as you've always been told - you're a good kid.

Love always, Mom

P.S. Happy 15th Birthday to my nephew Robby - what a great 2nd birthday present you were to Conor and a cool thing to share forever!

I LOVE Babies!

We are anxiously anticipating our new nephew's arrival! My brother and his wife are expecting their 4th child - their 4th boy. He is due on November 28th, but the doctor has promised to induce by November 24th if Gina doesn't go sooner. Hannah said today that Gina looks like she is going to hatch! Honestly, she isn't very big normally, so she looks like she swallowed a beachball!

Anyway, we cannot wait for him to arrive! Since November is our birthday month, we are hoping he will come tomorrow for Dave's birthday, or Wednesday and share his birthday with his two other cousins, Conor & Robby!

Hurry Cole - you have a welcoming committee waiting!

The 2008 NYC Marathon

After making many lists and checking them twice, we discovered that Dave would have to leave Long Island via the LIRR on the 4:09 AM train (or as Paul said - the "butt-crack" of dawn). This meant the 4 adults setting all of the cell phones for 3:20, 3:25 and 3:30 - just in case! Even with getting the "fall back" hour for daylight savings time, I think Dave only got about 6 hours of sleep.

He left on the train at 4:09 and headed to Penn Station, where we decided he would take the #1 train directly to South Ferry, rather than another train to the Public Library and ride the bus. He ended up getting to Staten Island at 6:15 am - for a 10:00 am start. It was 40 degrees at that point. When I spoke with him at 7:30 he said he was sitting with 1000 other people all dressed up in trash bags to keep warm. It was a hard start to the day for him.

We headed out on the train at 10:00 am and ended up on 75th about 1/2 hour before he got to mile 17.5. We were easy to spot with our cool t-shirts - the whole big yellow bunch of us.

As we plotted our next watching spot, we headed toward Central Park. After buying cinnamon nuts, cashmere scarves and hoodies from street vendors (it was sunny, but still only 45!), we say some people cheering in the park. We walked up and found Dave at mile 23! (pic at right). He spotted the girls standing on a guard rail yelling his name!

After realizing he would easily finish before we could get to the end of the race, we decided to cut across Central Park (which is much bigger than one would think!) After trying to figure out if we should take this path or that path, we realized that 1. It is the prettiest park around, and 2. We may or may not have been part of a Law and Order episode. The kids were spotting sights from Home Alone, Elf and 27 Dresses. Led by their pied piper uncle - yes, the Lt. Col. - we finally found our way past the end.

Dave was waiting for us at Central Park W and 81st St. - along with 2000 other people. Conor spotted him first and we got to take a picture with him! He finished in 3:54:33 - 11004th place out of 37880 runners - top 29%!

All 5 of us (Emily, Dave, Hannah, Jill, Conor) - minus the LI branch of our family!

The great NYC weekend! Marathon Time - 3:54:33

Last Thursday we left after work for NYC - well, Long Island actually. We loaded the van with the 5 of us and our niece, Tess, who is 4 months older than Emily and drove the 415 miles east.

On Friday, we visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island - that was about all of the history the kids could stand. We headed uptown to the Marathon Expo to pick up Dave's packet and get some healthy snacks to hold us over until dinner. Kristi & Kyle headed back to LI so Kyle could get some trick or treating in, while the rest of us stayed with Paul & Katherine to visit Times Square, Rockefeller Center and Grand Central. It was Halloween, so the city was a bit freakier than normal :)

Saturday, the girls wanted to shop and I wanted to go to the beach, so we did both. Roosevelt Field Mall is really nice, a lot of the same stores they have here, but some new ones too! We visited Jones Beach and played some beach soccer and hung out. It was a beautiful day - about 68 degrees - too cold to swim, but just right to hang out.

Sunday was RACE DAY! We found out late Saturday night that Dave would have to get up at 3:30 am (the buttcrack of dawn) to catch the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, then a subway to South Ferry to catch the Staten Island Ferry. He made it to Staten Island by 6:15 - the race started at 10:00 am. (live and learn...)


More about Race day later - it deserves a post all on it's own!