This Year's Brino Reunion

On July 9th we packed up the car and headed to New York for Mike's mother's family reunion, and it couldn't have been a more gorgeous day to spend on Sacandaga Lake. There was an abundance of amazing food, the kids had fun at the beach, and it was just nice to spend some time visiting with family that we haven't seen in a long time.

Every year at the reunion, after the sun goes down, they have a bonfire on the beach and light fire works. I WISH I got the picture of this year's bonfire, but I was too busy running away from the beach to take pictures. The combination of a 15 foot high pile of wood, too much wind, too much gasoline applied to said pile of wood, and one tree that was too close to the fire.... well, made this bonfire session a little crazy. If I close my eyes I can still see the flames catching the tree on fire, and a bunch of Brinos running away and retreating from the crazy flames and embers that were spreading across where everyone was sitting! The next thing I see is someone running to get garbage cans to fill up at the lake to douse the flames. Well thank goodness it worked. Vince had a minor casualty with a hole burned in his shirt from an ember, and between that and Zoë jumping 10 feet when the first firework went off, well we knew it was time to go home. But will we be back next year?! I hope so!! It was a great time.....

Vince was able to spend time with his cousins Noelle and Andrew, Aunt Lisa, Uncle Neal, and Nonna and Pop-Pop.

Zoë, Nonna, and wind

Just a bit of the family....

Neal and Mike kept watch at the shore

Vince played at the beach all day

The kids had fun with a piñata!

Zoë and Aunt Perina share a secret

Uncle Tony became our babysitter for the morning, he and Zoë spent some good couch time together so we could all go to breakfast. We thought she would sleep for a while but come to find out we were barely out of the driveway when she woke up... but Uncle Tony took good care of her for us...

Then it was off to Lake George for a couple of days to relax. Vince played his first ever game of mini golf, he got a hole in one!

We got to help celebrate Neal's birthday with a nice dinner on the Lake

Noelle and Zoë got matching dresses from Nonna on their last trip to Italy, we did take a few shots but I thought this one was the cutest, with Nonna and Pop-Pop in the back.

Zoë liked Aunt Lisa's "paddy cakes on steroids"..... super fast, got a cute pic

Riding around Lake George on steamboat Mini Ha-Ha

Vince Memories - Part I

I wanted to take a few minutes to write down some of the great memories that I have of Vince. For some reason, I feel like he's growing up so fast, and that if I don't write some of these memories down now, they'll be gone forever. Some of them are very recent, some of them are much older.

Here's Part I.

For almost a year after we moved to Braintree, I would take Vince to daycare on the T. It was about a 40 minute ride each way, and I would have him sit next to me for the ride. In the mornings, Lisa would ride halfway with us, and on the way home we were on our own. This was a really special time for us, since I could give him my focused attention for nearly 1 1/2 hours a day. There were no distractions, like a pile of dirty dishes to clean, so it was just us interacting with each other. Here are some of my favorite memories from those trips:

- I would typically take 3-4 books with me each day, and we would read them on the way there and the way back. That much time reading to him really cemented his love of books. We had so many books in heavy rotation, I can't even remember all of the ones that we read.
- I came to learn where so many pieces of construction equipment (diggers, loaders, bulldozers, etc.) that could be seen from when the T runs above ground. Whichever side of the train we were on, I knew when something was coming up that I could point out to Vince. This was great during those rides when he wanted to look out the window. He would get so excited when he saw a bulldozer or digger, he would point and shout. There is also an ambulance depot that he was excited to see.
- Vince picked up the name of some of the T stops from the announcements. The one that always seemed to stick in his mind was North Quincy. Whenever I asked him what the next stop was, no matter where we were, he would say "North Quincy!" So one day we're riding home, and I'm chatting with some of the people around us as Vince is doing cute things. So after we leave the JFK stop, which is the one before North Quincy, I asked Vince: "What's the next stop?" With all of the people around us, he shouted "North Quincy!" All of the people were totally shocked that this 1 1/2 year old had memorized the subway stops!
- My favorite memory on the T was when Vince was about a year and a half old. He was sitting next to me, and on the other side of him was an attractive woman in her early 20s. Vince was standing and babbling something to her, and she was nodding and smiling at him. Next thing, he turns to me and gives me a hug, then turns to her and gives her a hug! She hugged him back and said "Oh, he's the cutest!" The first thing I thought was: "If he's getting away with this now, he's going to be a big headache as a teenager."

to be cont'd.....

Zoë turns 1!

My baby is one year old, and we've been celebrating since the dual party on June 18th.

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Mike brought home a small ice cream cake for all of us to share on Zoë's actual birthday... we got excited at the prospect of being able to watch her make a huge mess with her piece of cake. Cutting a big piece and putting it in front of her, wouldn't you know it.... that little girl gobbled up the whole thing and practically licked her fingers and her high chair table after the cake was gone!

We kept the cake at arms length so she wouldn't burn herself... Vince helped blow the candle out

On our mini vacation to Lake George last week, Nonna and cousin Noelle helped open some presents

It's been an amazing year with our little girl, and I can't say enough how special it is to have a daughter.... we look forward to what the second year brings

Braintree's 4th of July

Our town celebrates the fourth of July on the weekend before; with what we have just found out to be a pretty darn good parade.... followed by a carnival at the high school, and some late night fireworks. My mom was still in town visiting from Vince and Zoë's dual birthday party so she was able to join us for the festivities. We made our way to the town square and planted ourselves down on a good sidewalk space, and waited for the fun to begin. The kids got spoiled by my mom, who visited the various roaming toy carts... buying all sorts of holiday and non holiday goodies for Vince and Zoë. My favorite was Vince's July 4th hat.

Nothing like getting free stuff!

yeah, life is pretty good when you get candy and presents thrown at you from crazy looking clowns

Here we are on one of the carnival rides Vince actually enjoyed.

Mike wasn't so lucky with the ride he took Vince on (I'll spare the pictures). It was a smaller version of the viking boat that you've probably seen, rocking up and down on both sides. Well, Vince freaked on that one... as I sat and watched them go up and down, every time they were up he would scream bloody murder and have the most frightened look on his face. It broke my heart to see him! I had to look away... Mike just put up his hands and went with it. poor kid, I'm sure we've scarred him on that one. Of course my mom was a nervous wreck while watching all of this too, and commenced barking at me for allowing all of this to happen. It stirred up the old story of when she and I went on a similar Viking boat ride at the Days of Verdugo Fair.... although that one was regular sized. We got on the boat-at the very end (I wanted to make sure to be the highest when it swung in the air)... and as it started, and got higher and higher, my mom started freaking out-screaming at the ride conductor to stop the ride because she was convinced I was going to fall out of the ride. We'd swing up.. then every time we swung down she'd take the opportunity to yell at the conductor! Talk about embarrassing..... I'll never forget that day.

Some super fun slides we went down!

Grandma and Zoë got some cuddle time