After the last few days of school, we headed off to Long Island for a whirlwind weekend of events. I headed down with the family on Thursday to try to ease the pain of traveling on the kids. Daddy met up with us on Friday to partake in all of our adventures.
On Saturday morning, I had planned to run a race with Jen in Bayville. Back in April I fell down the subway stairs and landed square on my kneecap. Let's just say I can't run or walk without pain at the moment so my hopes of participating went down the drain. However, when I signed up, I also signed up Brian. As a good sport, he decided to run. Here are my boys before the race.
The starting line.
Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned. I can write this blog now in hindsight because the sting won't be as bad. The runners took off and Daddy looked great running. Papa and Grandma surprised us by showing up and we all lined up along the last stretch of road to the finish line. The kids were so excited and Connor wanted to run the last bit with his dad. Well, time started to tick by and the first guy finished in about 16 minutes. A couple more minutes ticked by and all of sudden my phone rings - I immediately knew it was not good news. It was Brian and he got lost on the race course. He missed the last left turn and was not happy to say the least. I ran to the car and picked him up back in town. Unhappy is an understatement. Brian wanted to go immediately home but I explained that the kids were still at the beach. I totally felt for his embarrassment but we had to go to the beach.
I
brought him back to the beach and unfortunately he had to answer twenty questions from the boys. Of course, Papa was having a great laugh. Brian walked away and called a couple people to vent while we amused the kids. There were still people milling around for a while until the medals were handed out and Connor really wanted to see daddy get a medal. Once everyone was gone, Papa in a very good natured way told the event coordinator what happened against all of our protests. Well, the coordinator thought it was hysterical and presented Brian with a Physically Challenged Medal. It was funny but let's just say salt in an open wound.
In an effort, to make the most out of the morning we headed to the luncheonette for breakfast and then across to a little farmers market. The kids danced and we started to take Brian's mind off the morning disaster. It was at this point and time that Brian decided he will do another race the next weekend somewhere in MA to redeem himself.
Look at everyone dancing.
Look at all of us in the center of town - enjoying a beautiful day.
We called over to Jen's house and decided to stop by just to say hi. We really hadn't talked much since the race didn't turn out as planned so we were very happy when she told us to stop by. All the kids got along so well and played together beautifully.
Emily got quite a kick out of Olivia and Ava.
Garrett was Ava's protector - seriously the holding hands was too cute.
The kids had so much fun with the girls and I can only hope we can do it again real soon. Sunday morning came quickly and we were headed off to NJ for
Luka's birthday party. Here we are ready to head off to the party.
The funny thing about the car trip is that we were going to skip going through Manhattan but heard on the radio it was all clear. Then, we get to Manhattan and there is the
Israeli and Colombian parades on two separate avenues = major delays. Well, we made it to the party a tiny bit late but we made it. When we got there, we were just in time to see the dinosaur expert explaining all the fossils. There was even ring toss and finding the dinosaur egg game.
Look at all the little dinosaurs.
Emily seems to enjoy parties as well - how cute is she all dressed up.
After the party, the
Bunetas invited us over for a little pizza party and the boys played kick ball and drove the jeep around the house until it was time for bed. Thus, it was time for our clan to head back to LI.
This is definitely my fault but on Monday we went to a very important event and how did I walk away with not one picture. Uncle Kevin graduated from law school - CONGRATULATIONS!!! There was a great ceremony at Lincoln Center followed by a fabulous meal at a little French bistro on the Upper West side. What a fantastic accomplishment and we are so
proud of Uncle Kevin. We won't see him all summer because he will be studying for the Bar exam but we are wishing him lots of Good Luck.
The kids did phenomenal with all the traveling and when we got home on Monday night, I don't think it was long before we were all asleep.
Track club got them running on the track and taught them lots of new games. Of course, the ice pop they got at the end of the session was always good motivation. They even would share some with Emily. One of their favorite games was called Drip Drip Drop. To explain simply, it is duck duck goose with a cup of water - notice how wet Garrett's shirt is at the end of the game. 
The last Saturday in June we ventured to the zoo which was lots of fun. The boys were able to spot all the animals but the highlight of the day was definitely the cougar. She was walking around her lair and it was so much fun to watch.
We really did sit there for quite some time.
Happily, we have had a great start to summer and are loving the beautiful weather. 
