Sweet Alana

We love coming in to the Burgh, but leaving can be torture when you have an adorable, sweet niece like Alana. Gosh, we miss her so much.

You'd think my parents never get to see her (they watch her every weekday), because every chance they get, she is in their arms. Pictured above are two occasions where Grams and Gramps are calming her from crying - they have the magic touch.

Like Ava, Alana and Val were pals. Alana tried to crawl under Val's legs and followed her all around the house. Val reciprocated her love by licking Alana until she needed a bath.

We bathed her and hugged her and squeezed her because we love her so much. Can't wait to see her soon!

Bub B B - Bubbles

My Aunt Marilyn is a speech pathologist and works with young children. She has tons of techniques she uses for speech therapy. For fun, we pulled out the bubbles and tried to teach Alana to say, "Bubbles." The video doesn't capture her signing and saying it, but she sure was close. Nevertheless, she enjoyed popping them and we obviously enjoyed watching her.

At Last, JINXED No More!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, so tracking back to my first visit to the Iron City back in 2002, I had quite a record as it relates to my attendance at professional sporting events involving Philadelphia teams vs. Pittsburgh teams (let's leave it to Phillies vs. Pirates games for now). Yes, my record was 0- and let's just say A LOT. It got to the point that I was concerned and Bill-Billy-Bill always wanted me to come in just about every weekend to help the lowly Bucs get a win.

Well, on Saturday, April 26, 2008, the Phillies FINALLY beat the Pirates in Pittsburgh with me in attendance. Yes, THE PHILLIES FINALLY WON and the jinx was broken. Hallelujah!

(Makes me sad that Jessie is wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins hat -- I mean, come on, the Penguins?!!)

Happy 87th Birthday Gram

My Grandma turned 87 and we celebrated in Pittsburgh this past weekend. Jessa and John hosted a BBQ in honor of Grandma. John was the man by the grill and Jessa put together a memorable gift for our Grandma - all the grandkids wrote a favorite memory about Grams accompanied with favorite pictures of all of us.

Here are Brian and my memories.

BRIAN'S:
First time I met your grandparents was when Julie and I took a trip up to visit them when we had just started dating. It was a great experience -- my mom was living at the time and we spent a couple of days with your grandparents and then hurried back to celebrate my mom's birthday. I remember telling her this story and she laughed.

Julie had told her grandparents that we would be visiting and to prepare a list because we were coming up to do work. Boy, when we arrived did we have a list! Garden, weed, till, prune, put down black plastic in garden, cut bushes, plant veggies, etc. Well, your grandma had asked if we could trim the 75 yards or so of Forsythia bushes that lined the driveway and that hadn't been trimmed for quite some time. It was July, it was hot and these things were overgrown. So, being the urbanized guy that I am I posed a simple question, "Happy to help. Where's the electric hedge trimmer?" Your grandma looked at me like I had nine heads, handed me a pair of hand pruners and said , "Oh, Brian, we don't have a hedge trimmer, we trim the Forsythia bushes by hand." I remember turning to Julie and saying, "Is she serious? She can't be serious!" Well several hours later and after working through approximately 3-4 bouts of heat exhaustion/stoke, we finished trimming those damn Forsythia bushes by hand.

MINE:
Jessa and I went on a whirlwind trip in the summer of 95 with Grandma and Grandpa. I believe we visited 5 to 6 colleges and places where Grandma grew up. We drove from Pittsburgh to all over the mid west. We had a wonderful time visiting everything, everyone and spending time with Grams & Gramps. And after many hours in a car, there are things you pick up on and remember very vividly.

Grams would point out "skylines" throughout the entire trip - trying to get us to pay attention and appreciate what was out there. Even when you could barely see the skyline, she would say, "Girls, look how beautiful that skyline is?" From cityscape to countryside, Jessa and I got to appreciate every skyline you could see. It kind of became a little joke between Jessa and I, but to this day, every time I see a city Skyline or a beautiful sunset, I think of Grams pointing them out to us on that trip.

Happy Birthday Grams!

Avunc George

Everyone has someone in their family that everyone wants to be around. For me, it's my Uncle George - AKA Avunc George (kind of an inside joke between the two of us). He is just one of those people that make us so happy when we're with him and everyone loves being around him.

I wrote a paper about him back when I was in middle school. It was about him fighting in Vietnam and how he had to eject out of a fighter jet to save his life. I couldn't even imagine what that was like, but back then I thought it was cool (today it freaks me out). You could say he is a risk taker or a man of adventure. He is a dreamer...but always making his dreams a reality. Everything from starting an organic grocery store back before the days of Whole Foods, buying a sail boat and living in the Caribbean, getting his PhD and working for the United Nations, to traveling around the world promoting world peace. When I describe him to people who don't know him, I call him the "Peace Maker" or the "Humanitarian." He makes me very proud. I have links to two of his important efforts on the side of this blog: The International Day of Peace Vigil & the Friends of Danang. You should check them out and participate in some way.

I love getting to see him when I'm in Pittsburgh. He's a loving, caring, and wonderful man who loves his family so much and we love him too.

Visiting Katie, Andy, & AJ

A few weeks ago Brian and I visited Katie, Andy, & AJ. Above are some pictures from the day. Katie is one of my sorority sisters and lives in Philadelphia. It was a few days before AJ's first birthday and as you can see he is already walking around, giggling, and keeping Katie & Andy busy. We had a lot of fun with them and can't wait to visit again.

Wal, Wal, Wal

Ava, Bob, and Mary visited this afternoon. As always, Ava can't wait to see Val and vice versa. She walked into the house screaming, "Wal, Wal, Wal!" That's how she says Val. They are best friends.