• personal

    well, that’s a wrap

    Summer is all done. It went way too fast (especially since I worked almost every weekend this summer so I missed a lot of beach time).

    We had a great weekend- went out east on Saturday to Greenport (Coronet for lunch and yummy chocolate milkshakes which the boys demolished in 3 seconds flat and even Timmy liked, the duck store, the carousel) and then to the outlets in Riverhead for some boys clothes and shoes. Sunday and Monday at the beach where the weather was perfection but the flies were miserable. We stuck it out and stayed down there (and got eaten alive) but we had to suck the last seconds out of the summer.

    Last before school pictures of the boys. We took a little fieldtrip to planting fields for some shots there. Can’t show you all of them as some might be xmas card material. Hope everyone had a great end of summer. Now it’s back to working every weekend for me until Christmas!

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  • personal,  travel

    the bridgehampton classic

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    So totally out of our realm of normal, but so fun and so great, and so glad we did it. My cousin-in-law Alex rides horses and is quite accomplished (not to mention just a great, sweet, beautiful person too). She and her horse Coastal rode in the Bridgehampton Classic this week in a few events. We went out on Thursday (her first day) to watch her jump competition.

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    She is so sweet and just dotes on the boys and asked them to help her get Coastal washed and ready for their event. They were more than excited to meet him and give him a bath. They had a lot of fun with the hose! After the horse sneezing incident (scroll down to the 3rd to last picture in the post) with their race horse, Timmy was more than happy to see the horse from a far distance. Far enough where there would be no snot.

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    After he was all clean and dry, it was time for Alex and Coastal to get dressed. We followed her over to the ring where her event was held. Watched all the riders/trainers/owners "walk the course". By now, the nervousness had really set in for Alex. The horse (who is 25 years old by the way) looked like he was about 5 seconds from dozing off. Alex said he always looks this way before an event- I thought maybe he was just saving up his energy for the jumping-I wasn’t so far off. We met up with John’s cousin Kevin who also is so good to the boys. Timmy really loved him and was willing to visit the horse upclose as long as Kevin was holding him.

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    Alex went 16th and did awesome! A totally clean ride (none of the rails knocked down- don’t I sound like I know what I’m talking about??!) and damn, that horse can fly!! He came out all kinds of pissed off and we heard Alex yelling "git" at him once or twice, but whatever it was- it worked. He was sooooo fast and jumped so high and it was so exciting to watch. Alex rocked and came in first place!!!! So glad we were there to see it and take pictures.

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    Doesn’t she look so proud?

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    See how great Alex is? She gave the boys a little ride on Coastal (who was a good, good boy and very sweet- especially if you had some treats) and they can’t wait to do it again. Timmy was in charge of carrying the first place ribbon. Eventually he relented and fed the horse one treat. He liked it but didn’t love the slobber so much. Must be residuals from the snot thing.

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    We all went out to dinner at Cliff’s Rendezvous (the same owner/food as the Elbow Room) and had a great night. Didn’t get home til around 10:30ish, Timmy passed out in the car around 10 and everyone had a great, great time.

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    I can’t wait to go to my next horse show. Oh, and Alex and Coastal got 2nd place on Friday, and 7th out of 72 on Saturday. But she told me Coastal had the fastest time on Saturday, but knocked down one rail on a jump. Not bad for a 25 year old guy, huh?

    Took way more pictures than what’s posted above. If you’d like to see them all, check out the album on the left on the top of the blog.

  • occassions & parties

    the tri 50th anniversary

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    There is no way this couple looks old enough to be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, right??! So, they were like, what…twelve when they got married?

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    They were a fabulous couple and had a wonderful family. The grandkids were all so sweet and good and nice and with one not even one year old and one going off to college- quite a spread between them. All the parents of these great kids were super nice and welcoming and just a pleasure to work with for a few hours in the afternoon.

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    The mass was lovely and the party was intimate (just the family) and fun (with the pool). Thanks for letting me share in your special day, Tri family! Hope you enjoy the pictures. All of them are in an album on the left.

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  • personal

    can’t believe it’s happened already

    I fit into their shoes.

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    Yup, those are my feet in there. Scary, huh?

    Lots of pictures coming up in the next few days: the 50th anniversary, my boys at Planting Fields, the Irish cousins, doing a shoot of the boys tommorrow, plus today we went to the Bridgehampton Classic (horse show) to see our cousin Alex compete. It was awesome!!! So stay tuned…

  • personal

    a visit with friends!

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    Our yearly visit with our very good friends all the way from Michigan. They come in every summer for a week (Maureen’s mom still lives in NY) and we always get our designated day, which usually includes the beach. It’s always a concern seeing if the boys fall back into being friends (there are a few anxious comments on both sides before the visit), but it was like they haven’t been apart for a year. They just picked up where they left off last year. And they still all call eachother "best friends". They haven’t lived in the same town since the boys were about 3.5 years old, but they have always called Connor their best friend. Love that. We had a great time spending the day down at the beach, dinner here and a sleepover for the big ones. Poor Katie wanted to stay the night here too- next year! The boys all stayed up until 11:30pm after an exhausting day in the sun and ocean and pool (still don’t know how they did that) and slept til around 8am. So they were all a bit crabby the next day and snippy cause they were all sad they had to say goodbye again. We went over to the park for a few pictures (of course) and some running around. The goodbyes were teary and sad, but that’s the way it is between friends.

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    How gorgeous is my god-daughter?? Her hair is awesome! Img_0782b

    We put the extra seat in my van and jammed all 6 kids in there. The picture is just as much of a mess as the car was! It was so funny seeing all of them in there together. Img_0790b Img_5091b  Img_5081b

    The typical boy rivalry we saw between them all last year seems to have faded significantly and they had a blast hanging out together, talking about school and sports, and trips, and games, and everything. Katie and Timmy REALLY hit it off this time- they are old enough to play together instead of fighting over toys. The two little ones played til 10pm and wanted to keep going. Awesome.

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    Connor is now goalie on his travel ice hockey team and we MUST get up there to see him play. Hopefully this year. He was the BEST photography subject- so cooperative. Good thing they don’t live here- that poor kid would be so sick of me too. Did a little mini shoot for Maureen and the kids. Nothing major, just for fun. Like me, she’s not in many pictures either since she is always behind her camera.

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    On the way home from the beach, we stopped by Jennifer’s (it’s on the way) on a whim. The boys all got a kick out of seeing eachother. It took a while for them to realize that they all had been the best of buddies from aged 3 months on when we met at Gymboree. Jen hauled out the scrapbook and we looked at all the shots of Connor, Beau and Jack & Patrick, and then the shots of the whole playgroup. They ran around for a few minutes like the old friends they are. So awesome.

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    Love the self portrait! Miss you tons, Cool Mo Z!! (that’s John’s nickname for Maureen- so dosen’t fit her at all). March, ok?!!

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    All the pix are in an album on the left.