Vacation Day 2: Goin' Coastal

Michael and I are official country music fans thanks to Amanda and Scott Roth. For our birthday/Christmas presents we decided to purchase tickets for each other to attend the Goin' Coastal Tour at Giants Stadium featuring Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington, Zac Brown Band, and Kenny Chesney. We could not wait for this day to arrive and when it did I only have three words to describe it:

SO. MUCH. FUN.

We headed out bright and early to participate in the true tailgating experience. The parking lot opened at 10:30---concert started at 4:30! Mandy and Scott pulled together quite a successful tailgate. They remembered to bring EVERYTHING. We had music, great food, the perfect tent to give us some shade, and even games to occupy us as we waited for the concert to start.

We were one of the first cars to arrive. The hardest part was to pick our parking space because we could park ANYWHERE!

We had so much fun catching up together. I even got a chance to brush up on my beer pong skills. It's been WAY TOO LONG!







Other people got to squeeze a power nap in before heading to the show....




Other notes about the tailgating:

• Someone built and brought their own Tiki Bar to the tailgate--complete with sand!
• We noted a BIG man wearing overalls and boots---I don't think he he had anything else on!;
• Michael ROCKS at the beanbag toss game....who knew?!?!?
  

The concert was A-MAZING. We missed Uncle Kracker (but he came out later for a duet with Kenny), Billy Currington was great and Zac Brown could have played forever---I wouldn't have minded one bit. Kenny Chesney sang old songs and new, followed by duets with Zac Brown Band including "Knee Deep" and songs by other artists like "The Joker" by Steve Miller Band and "Runnin' Down a Dream" by Tom Petty.

Zac Brown

Kenny Chesney came in on a swing!

When we first got to our seats, we saw a girl walking up the steps to go to the bathroom---it turned out it was the wife of Mike's friend from Queensbury! Small world! We always try to meet up with them in NY and it never works out----seems we have more luck when it is unplanned!

While we were enjoying ourselves at the concert, Mikey spent the day with Grandma and "Bob". He helped Grandma water her flowers, he swam in the pool, played with the doggie next door, and then went to Jenkinson's Boardwalk in Point Pleasant for rides and ice cream.

I texted my Mom at one point and said we were having so much fun. Mom's response was "Not as much fun as we are!".

Everyone had a wonderful day!

Vacation Day 1: Sesame Place

August 12, 2011: Temperatures in the low 80s with no humidity and no clouds. A gorgeous day for sun, friends and ELMO!!

My high school "crew" went. All ten of us--5 adults and 5 kids. Mikey had come down with a cold and was up WAAAY past his bedtime the night before so we weren't sure how the day was going to roll. It went great!

We arrived at 10:00 when the park opened (only took 40 minutes from Manalapan) and stayed until 5:00pm (Erin made it with Jimmy until 7 and the Tolska family stayed until it closed at 8!).

Highlights of the day were the parade and "Elmo's World" show. I cannot imagine what was going through the kids' heads as they saw their favorite Sesame Street character inches away from them. It must be so confusing and exciting all at the same time! (I do know what was going through my head since right before the show started Mikey peed through his swim diaper and through my shorts and down my legs. Awesome ......)

Kaylie and Mady participating in the parade!

Mikey was mesmerized!

Mikey LOVED the train ride. He rode it 10 times in a row!

The water park area (which was a majority of the park) was a tad overwhelming for Mikey, as he insisted on being held by Mommy the whole time.

Notes for next year by Mommy & Daddy: Plan on going during the middle of the week to hopefully avoid the crazy crowds that we experienced on a Friday (definitely avoid a weekend trip!) OR try to visit in spring or fall.

Heading to New Jersey....

Boy do we have A LOT to do today (or should I say, I have a lot to do today) to get ready for our week long trip to New Jersey! We have so many fun things to look forward to over the new few week: Sesame Place, Zac Brown Band/Kenny Chesney concert at Giants Stadium, the beach, the rides, visiting with friends and family.....the list goes on and on!

Many exciting Kodak moments ahead! Hooray for summer!

Cars 2

Daddy has been working A LOT. We try to eat dinner together on a night when Daddy is home but this week Daddy has been very busy with interviews for the new company. Since Daddy worked all day on Saturday, we declared Sunday, August 7 as "Family Day".

It was a rainy, gloomy summer day so we decided it would be fun to take Mikey to his first movie in the theater. He LOVES his Cars DVD so we chose to see Cars 2. We picked the 10:55 show (the only showing of Cars 2 that day). Good thing we got there early because a lot of other people had the same idea---the movie was sold out! Because it was a morning showtime and that Mikey was under 3, he was FREE (they assumed that he would sit on our lap)!

We walked into the theater and chose our seats. Mikey insisted on having his own seat. The only difficult part was that Daddy had to hold Mikeys seat down with his legs since he was too light! We offered him the booster seat (which we thought would weight the seat down---but it was made of plastic) but he insisted on sitting by himself.








It felt like one of my first movie experiences with Michael---Mikey held my hand throughout the movie. (Have I mentioned how much I love this cuddly kid?!?!?)

Mikey sat for the WHOLE movie. He was in awe. There was a 5 minute cartoon sketch with the Toy Story characters (Mikey's other favorite Disney movie) and then the Cars movie began. He thought he was in heaven. He pointed out every "Car!", "Truck!", and "Roller!" that he saw on the screen. Mikey loved every minute.

And when the movie was over he kept saying "More Cars! More cars! More cars!"

He proved me wrong. I thought he was too young to go to the movies. That night we called both sets of grandparents and Mikey proudly told all of them "I saw the movie cars".

"Time to make the pizza"

Tonight was pizza night in the Scialabba house! The whole family participated in the pizza making process.

Anyone hungry?

(You can tell where Mikey concentrated the cheese. I snapped this shot before we evened it out!)

I can't wait to print these pictures out for our Italian grandparents! They are going to LOVE this post!

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Weekend Trip to Hawley, PA

This past weekend we visited my Grandma and Grandpa Tulumello in Pennsylvania. We battled through some rough weather heading out there but we arrived safe and sound....and just in time for dinner!

Mikey went through another round of teething over the course of the weekend----his right ear was red, he was clingy to Mommy, had little to no appetite, and was pretty grumpy. He told us he had a "boo-boo" and pointed to the back of his mouth which pretty much took all the guesswork out of what else could be bothering him. It was pretty disappointing since we were able to hang out at the toddler pool on Saturday ALONE (the place was empty!) and Mikey couldn't enjoy himself in the water like he usually does.

Sunday he came around but it was too late and we needed to head back to MA so Michael could go to work on Monday.

Despite the teething, we had a great visit with Great-Grandma Anne, Great-Grandpa Armand, Grandpa "BOB" and Grandma Anita. We were able to celebrate "Bob's" birthday which was nice, too!

Here are some shots from the weekend:

Driving with "Bob"

Relaxing watching Toy Story 3 in the car on the way home

ADDENDUM: My father has always made it known that he wanted his grandchildren to call him "Bob". Well, after almost 2 1/2 years, his request has been granted by his grandson. Whenever I refer to my father to Mikey, I use "Grandpa Bob" since he also has "Grandpa Fred". Mikey has dropped the Grandpa part and continues to call my Dad "Bob" in this funny voice. Dad loves it so we'll stick with it.....for now.