Marcoccia Family Visit 2010

We spent the last 2 and a half weeks back east visiting Gary’s Family in New York. It was such a great time and we all loved every second of it. Especially Ellie and Owen because they were spoiled to the core by Bada and Papa and their Aunts. We packed in lots of fun with apple picking, a trip to the Adirondack Mountains, Farmland, Pumpkin Land, Ithaca Farmers Market, hike to Taughannock Falls and abundant parties at Bada and Papa’s house. Gary and I even got two more dates in while we were there. It was so nice to have a continuous conversation with him without any interruptions. Funny how little things like that slip through the cracks when raising up a family. We were also able to enjoy beautiful weather and the fall colors by the time we left the trees were popping with color.

Ellie had a huge milestone while we were there. She is officially potty trained!!!! It took a morning spent in the bathroom right before a big family party, but I was one determined Momma. She is a “big girl” now and very proud of her new accomplishment. Owen had a milestone as well he is sitting up on his own. Gary and Papa helped him work on this one day while the rest of us played in a corn maze. His longest stretch has been 10 minutes so far but he is doing well with it and loves his new perspective.

We flew in and out of Baltimore so we could have a direct flight with out any layovers. It’s a 5 hour drive from Papa and Bada’s house. I must say Ellie and Owen are good travelers. 5 hours in a car, 2 hours in an airport, 4 hours on an airplane, and 1 hour drive home. They were so good and when they did cry I couldn’t blame them because I would have like to have cried myself.

I have 266 pictures on my camera card and I even missed getting out the camera on a few occasions.   So needless to say there are a lot of photos to share…

I’ll start with our visit to ADK

The little ADK cottage

lovin' the Grandparents

Round Pond Hike

Kevin at Round Pond (He has grown a foot since we saw him last Feb)

"Sweet Tea" victims

Ellie at the cornmaze

Kevin being a good sport for the camera

Sitting all by himself

Love Ellie's new "smile for the camera" face

Playing by the Ausable River

Ballerina

Wild Women

Hike to Taughannock Falls near Ithaca, NY

Holding Owen's hand

Holding Daddy's hand

Pumpkin Land….

picking out a pumpkin for Bada and Papa

Ellie and Friends

Pumpkin Land had a funny way of feeding the goats

Farm Land…

Ellie was in love with the bunnies

Papa, Daddy, and Owen

get along little pony

A Date? What’s That?

That’s right people we had a night out! I think the last time we went out sans kids was for the holiday dinner with Avantlink co-workers last December. Technically Owen tagged along with us in my belly.  At any rate thanks to my parents we escaped for a few hours. What did we do you ask? Well first we filled our bellies with good food at Shabu on Main Street in Park City. Good sushi and dim sum. Then we wandered over to Deer Valley for some music. Not just any music our favorite music. These two brothers have taken over our air waves here at home and our little ipod is always set to a good old mix of  rootsy tunes and Gary can never go to bed at night without listening and watching them jam on youtube. So we did a little Avett Brother pirating of our own take a looksee…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gExABUiBNGw[/youtube]

and of course here’s another one for you as well

Now, I know that Gary and I talk a lot about the Avett Brothers. Gary more then me (seriously it’s like he has a little school girl crush or something). But after witnessing them live I can honestly say I fell in love with them all over again. These guys sent chills down my spine they were so passionate and fun to watch.  The bass player was a hoot and in my book any band with a cello player kicks butt. Here is what another person said about these guys “Man. People, if I haven’t convinced you yet, if you take one single thing away from ever reading this blog, if you can allow me to give you just the slightest bit of unsolicited advice, please do yourself the biggest favor ever and go see these guys live.” My sentiments exactly.

Moving on to Saturday… After playing musical beds that night. My Dad had the Maiden Voyage in our new-to-us tent trailer, Mom was on the futon, Ellie started out in her bed moved to the futon, Gary started out in our bed moved to Ellie’s bed, I stayed in my bed, and Owen dear sweet little Owen went from crib to my bed to crib to my bed to crib to my bed. Whew! Once we got our wits about us in the morning Mom and I took the kids and headed to Midway for their Swiss Days/Labor Day celebration. Oh man it was wall to wall people in that little town. We tried our best to walk through the park and see what was new in the craft booths but half way through we threw in the flags and headed out to find food and call for the Calvary (Dad) to come get us. I know Swiss Days gets crowded but this year was exceptional. So we came home and put our feet up for a while then gathered ourselves up for some more Labor Day small town fun at the Francis Rodeo.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci_IqeC3x84[/youtube]

and then there was this maylay… ridiculous I tell you ridiculous

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W1kSPS6SWo[/youtube]

After the rodeo we ventured back home for some more musical beds.

We said good bye to Mom and Dad Sunday morning. Gary went to DV for some bike riding and I stayed home with the kids and worked on a sewing project. Not much to speak of on Sunday.

But on Monday we found this in the ground under all those nice potato plants. Nice work Gary!

And we caught Owen doing this…

Next up is a trip back to the Marcoccia homestead. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Summer Time Momments

It has been cold in Timberlakes. Fall is knocking at our door. I’ve been telling it to go away. I’m not done with my summer yet, but the leaves are starting to change just a little, the sun is setting earlier, and the nights are getting colder. *sigh*

Anyway, I have neglected to share some pictures from this last month. Some good ones. We went to Alta with Jen and Zak last month to view the last gasp of the wildflowers. It was a great day. Got home a little later then expected, but we got to see some beauty and it was lovely. It was also fun to watch Ellie and Zak “hike” all over the place they were on a mission. Not really sure what the mission was and I don’t think they knew what their mission was either but they were having a good time following the little trail and exploring. Ellie picked out her outfit that day and when we got out of the car some people commented on how adorable she was. I just smiled and said thanks. Then I turned around and saw that she is pretty adorable. With the hat and glasses she looked to me like an old lady in retirement years all ready for her cruise or something.  A- dor-a-ble

and here are what some of the flowers looked like…

Next up Owen, Ellie, and I visited the Wasatch Co Fair. It was a brief visit since it was a sweltering day and well the Fair was well lets just say it was typical for Heber, I digress. The high light and the reason I’m even mentioning it was that we found Soda Pop the Clown and she does an incredible job at painting faces. She turned Ellie into a beautiful butterfly for the day. It was so funny when she showed Ellie herself in the mirror she was a little stunned I think and wasn’t quiet sure what to make of it she didn’t really smile or react in any way but she wouldn’t stop staring at herself or let go of the mirror. When we came home she finally started to smile about it and she had to go in the bathroom and stare at herself some more. I was afraid of what was going to happen with time when it started to smear and wear off but she eventually asked to have it washed off. Oh my though she truly thought she was a butterfly for a little while.

A few mornings ago I walked out on the porch to see what Ellie was up to outside and found this scene

She didn’t know I was there. She was deep into what ever was going on with that crayon and her little book, not sure if it was a list she was making, a picture she was drawing, or some thoughts she was recording, but it was a nice little moment.

And Owen, well he has had some moments this month as well a few firsts. Like getting in the bouncy seat, eating cereal, giggling over his sisters silly antics, and his first cold.

I have to put this one up because he is so stinking cute in his new hat from Bada and Papa

yep stinking cute

More Birthday Fun

Much like Ellie’s Birthday the fun just keeps on rolling. I meant to put up videos with the post yesterday, but with my foggy head due to Owen’s post summer cold sleep schedule I forgot. So, here you go:

and one last one for good measure of Ellie reading to her baby

On Monday her true Birth Day. We invited our neighbors Zak and Jen to join us at the splash pad. Ellie and Zak had a ball sans the scrapes and bruises from slips and falls. Ellie is timid around the water in true girly form not wanting to get water in her face. Zak showed her how its done by charging through the fountains and sticking his face right in it no matter how cold it was. Boy vs. Girl through and through. We topped off the afternoon by visiting the bounce houses at the PCMR. Their favorite hands down. Pure three year old bliss.

I’ve been thinking about the last year with Ellie as I’ve been waiting for pictures and videos to download for this post and I have to say She takes my breath away. She is so smart, beautiful, innocent, and loving. I don’t think I’ve shared how she comes up to us randomly and tells us how she loves us. “I wob you” is how it comes out. I get tingles every time. At night when we are settling for bed if you lay down with her she snuggles right up and hugs and it is so wonderful. She makes my life so much more rich and I am a luck Momma.

Utah’s Special Holiday

Utah has a special little holiday on the 24th of July every year. They call it “Pioneer Day” or the “Days of 47”. It’s all in the name of celebrating the heritage of Utah and the pioneers that settled the area in 1847, which eventually lead to statehood later on. Funny I always thought it was  to celebrate statehood until a few years ago when I was corrected by my “out-of-state” friends who pointed out that Utah didn’t become a state until much later then 1847. At any rate, it’s a funny little holiday that makes this big state of ours feel like a little down home country town.  We were able to celebrate it in true form with my parents and my brother’s family in the small town of Amalga last weekend.

Amalga put on a good fried chicken dinner Friday night at the town park and fireworks later that night. Grandma and Grandpa’s neighbor Tad invited us down to his patch of land at the “river bottoms” to view the fire works. Once Dad got us parked in the right place we had a great view of the fireworks over a bend in the Bear river. Wish I had taken my camera for that one. The following morning we went back to the park to attend a pancake, ham & eggs breakfast. After the breakfast the youngsters in the town put together a sweet little fair including bounce houses and little homemade games such as Plunko, go fish, ring toss, etc. Ellie and her cousins had a blast soaking it all up and playing their little hearts out.

I see London I see France I see Ellies underpants

After all the game time fun we gathered up the kids and sent them off with Gary and Grandpa to ride in Grandpa’s shinny 67′ Chevy Malibu for the town parade. Grandpa had just got the Chev all “cherried” up with a nice wax and such so it was a perfect addition to the wee parade. Look close at the pics you can see the by standers reflections off that slick black Malibu. The parade was precious to say the least so fun and small and neighborly. There was a ton of candy tossed about on the roadside. Our family filled up a gallon size baggie full of salt water taffy.

After the parade we came home to Grandma and Grandpa’s for some R&R. Later in the evening we lit off some of the fireworks Jon, my brother, brought. It was Ellie and Owen’s first firework experience as they usually can’t seem to stay up late enough. But the cousins kept us alert. Owen let out a few cries and Ellie didn’t quite know what to make of it. She sat on the blanket for a little bit then ran to Grandma and finally ended up in Grandpa’s lap trying to ignore the pops and sparkles and find a comfortable place.  All while the McKenney cousins were hooting and hollering for more.

We all had a great time and Gary and I were impressed with Amalga’s little holiday and happy we were able to join in a true small town celebration. The evening ended with a bit of a sour note as my Mom was feeling progressively sicker and sicker. Finally she had Dad drive her down to the emergency room where they found that her gallbladder was filled with little stones and one was already trying to be passed. So my poor mother who is still recuperating from knee surgery had to go through two procedures one to remove the stone and one to remove the gallbladder. She is home now and all is well, and that better be it for her 60 year maintenance.

We are on a Roll

Owen has been practicing his rolling like a mad man and holding his head up high.

He is also working on his communication. Getting the “thppts” down pretty good.