Roar To The Shore 2008

This past weekend we headed down to Wildwood, NJ for Joseph's first bike rally (well, as a participant anyway!). James and Sandy went too, and we were all kid-free for the weekend. I think the last time that happened was when we went to Villa Roma for vacation before Juli was born. It's been a while!

Joseph and James rode their bikes down on Friday afternoon and Sandy & I met them down there that night... at just about the same time as Hurricane Hanna arrived! Luckily, it wasn't a wash-out though. It did rain pretty hard for a bit on Friday night and then off and on on Saturday until a downpour for a few hours in the afternoon/early evening. After that, the skies cleared up and Saturday night and Sunday were beautiful!

Joseph entertaining himself with his "Crain-com" while we waited out the rain

Me, looking overly excited to be sitting on the bike, LOL

James & Sandy

My curly Wildwood hair...

Gotta love the humidity there!

Rubber Duck Boardwalk Ride
James in front, Joseph behind him
Joseph
The Boardwalk ride went out onto the streets too.
Joseph is in front now and James behind him.

Excuse me sir, I think you have something on your head!

Gearing up for the ride home

Eyes on the road

Checkin' out some hot chicks in the car next to them!

Happy Father's Day!

James and Sandy came over tonight with the girls for a Father's Day BBQ. Katie, Juli and Livi had a great time playing on the slide and swing set while the grown-ups snacked on some yummy BBQ food. Joseph and I made pulled pork for the first time and it was so good! I can't wait to have some of the leftovers, :-).

Katie trying to go under Juli to get over to the 'drive'

Livi could do it easily since she's smaller.

Success! Livi takes the wheel!

Monkey girl!

My camera died since I hadn't charged it after the concert last night so I don't have too many pictures, :-(.

Fruit Cakes!

I think that would be a good way to describe the thousands of people (us included) standing in the pouring rain waiting for Jimmy Buffett!

For Father's Day, Sandy and I got James and Joseph tickets to the Jimmy Buffett concert at Citizen's Bank Park. We were lucky to get 17th row seats and they were awesome! G Love & Special Sauce, a Philly band, opened for Jimmy. Then right before he was going to come on stage a huge thunder/lightning storm rolled in and SOAKED us!

We were all holding out for Jimmy to come on stage but they finally made an announcement for everyone on the field to take cover on the mezzanine level "for your own safety" so we had to trek up there and then everyone was packed in like sardines until the storm blew over. After the heaviest part of the storm moved out, we made it back to our seats and the show went on. It was well worth the wait!!! :-)

G Love & Special Sauce with J.B. taking it in (blue shirt on the right).
He was dancing too but I missed that pic.

Aloha! James reluctantly put on his lei. Once it was on though, he was in Margaritaville mode, :-).

Before the monsoon came...

Hey, don't worry Jimmy, we've got stage security covered!

Beach balls were flying around everywhere... Joseph getting in on the beach ball action

Then came the rain...
I wish I could have taken more pics of how hard it was raining but the camera would have been ruined. It rained about 1" in an hour!
James "waiting for a bus" on the mezzanine.
(Some crabby old hag was complaining about everyone just standing there and said that - as if we had any where to go!)

Soaked...
There was not a single dry spot on either of us!

Finally... Jimmy took the stage!

Jimmy visited the USS Harry Truman, based out of Norfolk, VA in Dubai a few months ago. Tonight they were at the concert so he played "Son of a son of a sailor" in their honor.


The Phillie Phanatic even stopped by to rock out with Jimmy!

At the end of the show, there was a big fireworks display!

I have some other videos to upload too but I'm having a problem playing them to figure out what's what so I'll have to add them later! For more pics, check out James and Sandy's blog.

Happy 90th Aunt Ida!

Sandy, Marie and I went to Aunt Ida's 90th birthday party in Brooklyn. I didn't take too many pictures because I didn't feel like snapping pics (imagine that! LOL). But Sandy took a lot of good ones if you want to check them out.

Aunt Ida tearin' up the dance floor! I hope I'll still be up on the dance floor when I'm 90. God bless her! :-)Also, Happy 5th Anniversary to James and Sandy! Ironically, the first song the DJ played at the party was their wedding song. :-)

And... Happy 25th Anniversary to Father Guy! Unfortunately we won't be able to make it to the dinner his congregation is hosting in his honor because we'll be in Myrtle Beach but we definitely would've been there otherwise! They had a cake yesterday to celebrate since so many out-of-towners were there who might not be able to make it to the church's celebration.

Vroooooom!

This past weekend Joseph and James completed their motorcycle course so they have officially 'joined the club'. Joseph and John went to upstate NY yesterday to pick up Joseph's new motorcycle. Joseph said "When we started seeing signs for Montreal, we knew we were way up there!" LOL It took them about 5 hours each way. Katie saw it this morning and thought it was pretty cool. She couldn't wait to sit on it and 'ride' it.

Hey, doesn't she know - "No helmet, no ride!"

Snow Bunnies

About an hour after Joseph got home on Tuesday night I wound up sick and have been since so I've just been a ball of fun since then, LOL. I'm feeling much better now but not yet 100%. On Friday, Joseph, Maddie and Katie went to play with Uncle James, Juli and Livi in the snow while I tried to get some rest so I could feel better. Word on the street is that Juli started a snow ball fight by scooping up a bunch of snow and putting it in Uncle Joseph's face. From there on out, I think there was a "war". They had a great time!

Giant snowball, anyone?

Juli with her ammo

Livi and Uncle James joining in the fun

The man behind the lens, :-)

Joseph's new "baby"

AHHHHH, what are they doing to me???

Tasty Snack

Ready for the beach? Not quite... LOL

Livi and Katie manning their "fort"

Hey Kate, let's sit out here and enjoy this beautiful weather!

Relaxing in the snow

New Year's Day Brunch

Our annual ring-in-the-new-year event!

The Mottola Bunch

Chris, Karen, Chrissy, Two Mom-Mom, John

The Moms

Hairdresser Shop:
Katie curling Poppy's hair
(after she said his other hair fell out)

Uncle John straightening Katie's hair

Supermarket Time: Katie, Maddie and Aunt Chrissy playing "shopping"

The Cashier

Uncle Chris crashed... too much NYE partying?

I told Maddie to smile and this is what I got!
So I told her it was going on the blog just like that!!!

Uncle John jammin' Guitar Hero

His adoring fan, lol

Aunt Chrissy checking out the blog

Coffee Klatch

Oh, look... Maddie CAN smile!