Friday, July 30, 2010

Another trip to RI, unexpectedly!

I think I might have mentioned a few posts ago that Todd's maternal grandmother, Nanna Brennan, passed away in early July, a few days after we returned from the beach. We knew we all wanted to try our best to make it up there for the funeral and to spend some time with Todd's family, but we weren't sure about the timing of it all. And even though it was for a sad occassion, it was certainly nice to be able to spend time with everyone while we were there and especially for Riley and Annie to visit with their cousins Eric, Jo and Cori from Chicago and Kendra and Brennan who live in MA.

Grandma and Grandpa Buckley picked us up at the airport and we had a yummy lunch at Chello's (lobster rolls- double yum!) and then they let us take their car for the few days we were there, which was really very generous of them :)
We ate a ton of food- I had forgotten the Italian tradition of bringing lots and lots of food over for the grieving family....and oh, the food! So, so good....I ate so much...and remarkable still managed to lose 3 lbs while I was there- don't ask- I have NO idea!

AND- I was there for the birth of baby Maya Rose and was able to visit her the next day!

But, it was sad to come back...even though the girls and I knew we would be back in just a few weeks for the real vacation this time!!

We got some great pictures of everyone...enjoy!

Annie with Great-Grandma Hildebrand
All of us except for Don and Irene

The Hildebrand clan!

Siblings!
Dress up! Jo, Kendra and Cori (with red hair!!!)
The girl cousins- Annie is playing dress up, too!
Nannie and Annie at the beach

We went to Watch Hill one night and walked to Nappa Tree Point- we were not dressed for swimming but some children (mine) got very, very wet. And then someone stole Riley's favorite flip flops- she was very upset!

Riley and Cori rode the carousel- Jo is too old now!


Sunday, July 25, 2010

Maya is here!!

Welcome to the world little Maya Rose!


Born July 12, 2010




I was lucky enough to be in RI when Maya was born- Karen promised me that she would have her while I was there and she totally came through! Although not the birth experience that she wanted, everyone is doing fine now, a few weeks later.

I visited Karen, Carl and Maya in the hospital the day after she was born and took the video and some pics. The girls and I are going back in August to spend some more time with her and Grandma and Grandpa Buckley- we are really looking forward to it!

Carl and his girls!

Sophie and Grandma Buckley




The new Melchar family!

My two nieces- LOVE them! Sophie wouldn't stop looking at me- Carl couldn't get a pic with her, but I love this one!



Friday, July 23, 2010

More pics

Just a few more pictures from our Myrtle Beach trip...

Annie and Riley on July 4th

Getting an airbrush tattoo- cost me $10...it came off the next day! I bought a pack of 40 tattoos later for a $1 and three weeks later they are still on!


Love this face!

The girls on the boardwalk...right after this we got ice cream and Annie made a huge mess on her pretty dress!
Me and Annie at dinner...I had scallops and they were some of the best ones I have ever had!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Myrtle Beach

So, we returned from our trip to RI in June and had a few weeks of normalcy. I was on summer break, so that meant Fridays off, which was really nice because Riley had them off, too. Since we all had a long weekend over the 4th of July, we decided to make a kind of spontaneous trip to Myrtle Beach which is about 4 hours from us.
I found a nice little hotel right on the beach, thanks to Shay, that had a seperate bedroom for me and Todd and the girls slept in a little living room on a matress on the floor. I was quite shocked that Annie slept like that with Riley- the first night we got there really late so they were both exhausted and went right to sleep. The other two nights took a little more work, but they both slept through the night until about 8 the next day, so no complaints from me at all!
We went to the beach and pool each day and had a lot of fun. The girls were great, the weather was perfect and we all had a lot of fun! The only hard part was waiting to hear about Todd's grandmother, Nanna, who had a stroke right before we left. She held on until we made it back home, but we spent some time worrying about what was going on in RI....enjoy the many pictures!


I love this one!











Girls on their bed!
More to come!!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Old friends!

One last installment of the June trip to RI:

Facebook is such a wonderful thing! I have reconnected with so many friends, some I thought I would never, never hear from again- friends from elementary and middle school, high school, college, friends who I used to work with, even friends of Todd since he is a butt and refuses to get on FB! Anyway, one of those friends learned that the girls and I were coming to RI and wanted to get together while we were there, and we did and it was so much fun!


Jackie was one of the first people I met when we moved to Little Compton when I was 9 years old. She lived in our neighborhood for a few years until she moved, but still in town, and we went to the same school until high school, when she went off to Bishop Connelly and I went to Stang. We stayed in touch some through high school, and then nothing until she found me on FB about a year ago!!


My sister Karen actually saw her mom one day at the hospital in Fall River, a few months before Riley was born because Jackie was having her own little girl....so she has a 6 year old just like me!


We met at the old playground in LC and the girls had fun playing and Karen, Sophie and Grams came too, and we got some cute pictures. It turns out the Jackie and I actually cloned ourselves- her daughter looks exactly like Jackie did as a young girl, much like Riley looks just like me!!

Riley and Ashley

Sophie and Annie on the double slide


Our clones!

The LC girls- it has been almost 20 years!!!!

Me and Jackie!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Life

Shoot- I was on such a roll...guess that is how it is with this blog lately. When I have time I get into a zone and write almost every day. But then life gets in the way and the blog suffers. That is how it should be, though...with us living our lives...I can record all of the details some other time.

Anyway, lots and lots to update on. I think when I last left, I was trying to get up all of the pics from our trip to RI in early June. Since then we have also had a vacation to Myrtle Beach, I went to Minneapolis for 4 days sans Todd and the girls and then had another unexpected trip back to RI. Now, we are home for a few weeks and then another, even longer trip to RI. Oh, and somewhere in there we lost a dear family member, Nanna Brennan, and another was born....my new little niece Maya Rose, who I had the honor of spending time with only a few hours after she was born!

So, while I gather my thoughts and figure out how to get this all down, here are just a few random pics from the last few weeks.


Girls coloring with chalk on a hot day after playing in the sprinkler




All squeaky clean after baths!