Happy 10th Anniversary!

July 24, 1999

We were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Chittenango, NY.

Our reception was at Greystone Castle in Canastota, NY.

The day was a complete whirlwind, as most wedding days are.

I honestly don't remember a lot of it.

One of my most favorite details of the wedding, and very hard to forget, was that we had the Stan Colella Orchestra as our band.

Our first dance was, 'The Best is Yet to Come'.

Our cake was a small strawberry whip cream cake.

We used my grandparents (Lesko) cake topper from their wedding cake.

Our table centerpieces were individual wedding cakes.

I had all my flowers replicated from my Gramma Lesko's wedding photos too.

325 people were in attendance.

Steve was Brian's best man.

My Aunt Denise was my matron of honor.

My cousin Paula made the flower wreath around my head.

My mother picked out my dress, did the alterations, and made my veil.

My father gave me away.

I wore my Gramma Wilber's diamond pendant.

Luke, Patrick, Eric, Chad, Joey, and Keith stood up for Brian.

Laura, Rachel, Jenny, and Denise V. stood up for me.

Amanda and Angela were the cutest flower girls ever and Jake was our ring bearer.

Amy sang 'Old Irish Blessing', 'Higher Ground', 'All I Ask of  You', and 'Something That We Do' at the church.

Derek Day read from Khalil Gibran and  my aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff wrote and spoke a blessing together.

Grandpa Wilber gave a blessing before our dinner. 

Brian danced with his mom and I with my dad to 'I've Got the World on a String'

We danced and danced and danced.

We took the best trip of our life, for our honeymoon....

2 weeks out West with no plans, no reservations anywhere.

 Just maps, a car rental, some camping equipment and AAA books. 

It was adventurous, fun, and amazing.

July 24, 2009

A lot of things have changed in a mere 10 years.

We have lost 4 grandparents.

We lost 1 cat and 2 dogs.

We have gained 2 beautiful children.

We have owned 2 homes.

We changed vehicles 3 times.

We have gotten rid of Jet Skis, snowmobiles, and a boat.

Gave up a golf membership but gained SU and Yankee family season tickets.

We have had a few job changes as well.

We have traveled to places all through the country.

We have taken many many vacations.

We have gained family and friends, and lost family and friends.

We have created a new family for ourselves with new traditions.

We have replaced happy hour with little league, lacrosse, swimming lessons, and dance lessons.

We continue to learn about each other 

and adapt to the ever flowing changes life brings our way.

We are 10 years wiser but still consider ourselves rookies.

The ebb and flow of 10 years has had a natural flowing presence in our lives. 

It's not always easy. (In fact it's rarely easy.)

Sometimes it's perfect and sometimes it's not.

Sometimes it's happy and sometimes it's not.

but...

it's ours.

It's our 10 years. It's our history. It's our story together.

I wrote something in a shower card just recently and I stand by every word.

"Here’s to a lifetime of ups and downs but becoming closer in spite of them and because of them. Discovering love has many different faces through the years and learning to journey with it… not against it. Being each other’s best friend and treating each other as such. Learning that the words compromise, respect, trust, honesty, sacrifice and patience take on much more meaning than initially thought. Embarking on new realities… new ideals… new dreams.  Embracing and balancing your individuality as well as your togetherness equally. Finding out that sometimes silence and a willing ear is more comforting than words. That laughter and smiles should make up at least a small portion of everyday.

Accepting that even when things are not perfect it can still be happy. And realizing that perfection is just subjective perception.

Discovering that marriage is a marathon not a sprint. Conditioning your relationship with sincerity and generosity of all of the above factors (and many more) will give you the endurance of a lifetime."

Out of the mouth of Bethers

I was making dinner one night last week.

The kids were arguing about whether corn was a fruit or a vegetable.

I was ignoring it for the most part.

Sam was trying to tell Beth that corn was a vegetable and she was insistent that it was a fruit.

So Sam then asks me to give them the correct answer.

me - "Corn is a vegetable. Sorry Beth."

With in , ummm... I don't know 1 second or so, Beth straighten her shoulders, raised her chin, donned a very haughty expression, and simply stated with a sideways glance,

"Well, that's what the Japanese called it in the old days."

She simply refuses to be out done by anyone.

 

Buckets of Blueberries

Hafner's really misses the mark when it charges for picking blueberries.

Instead of weighing the buckets,

 they should really weigh the kids before and after the picking.

I am very sure that more went into their tummies than into the buckets.

That's why I love this place.

After the attendant gave us our buckets, she gave official permission for the kids to eat as many blueberries as they wanted to.  

They definitely took her up on her offer.

Beth's picking method was to eat 3, bucket 1. 

It was why we were there for almost 3 hours.

Sam was very methodical.

He did eat quite a bit but he was more motivated to fill his bucket first therefore beating Beth, in his mind!

The best find of the day was this little nest we found nestled in a blueberry bush.

Sam thought how lucky those little birds will be.... growing up in a blueberry bush.

It doesn't get any more perfect than that!

Here Fishy Fishy....

Fishing on the Seneca River.

Sam is swiftly on his way to catching every type of fish in NYS.

Beth holds her own rather well too.

Fishing with these kids is an obsession. 

They LOVE it!

A rock bass, I think?

Beth caught a few perch.

Sam has graduated to worming his own hooks.

He takes a tremendous amount of pride in it too!

(yuck! :)

Reeling in the fruits of his labor.

Here's how this went.

"Bri... I want to take your picture."

"Then take it."

"Don't you think you should be smiling?"

"No."

"I wish you would set a good example for Sam. 

He is starting not to let me take his picture anymore."

"I already told you, you could to take it."

"Will you smile?"

"I am smiling."

Now that's a smile!

Finally a beach day!

The last day of our holiday weekend was finally beautiful.

It was a beach day.

The kids got to wear their special bathing suits and be the hit of the beach!

In the morning, while Kristin and I were getting everything ready, the girls were prancing around the house in their matching bathing suits.

They were practicing some of their own poses developed by McKenna.

They also named themselves "The Chickmunks".

They also thought it was cute to name Sam "The Chick Magnet".

He doesn't think that is cute.

He hates it.

(So we won't mention it again.)

It took some heavy negotiating with Chickmunk management, (aka McKenna) for some photos.

Once she went to the others and disclosed my offer of ice cream, we had a deal.

But they were very specific with their terms.

I was under a time limit, limited to two locations, and they would get final word on poses.

It was a hard bargain but worth it!

(The photo above reminds me of the water skiing teams in the 50's and 60's!)

Parting shot of the Chickmunks.

McKenna, Beth, and Megan

JJ and Kristin

Sam and his "faux-hawk".

He preferred his time spent at the beach with some of the boys.

I didn't see him for most of the afternoon.

He was playing ball with the "big boys" and seemed to fit in just perfect.

But occasionally he would come back over and check on his subordinates and make sure they were digging the sand holes to his specifications. 

Beth thought it would be fun to flip Sam over.

What she wasn't counting on was Sam's payback plan!

Awww.... here's the one shot I got of all of them.

Brian and Joe were in a golf tournament in Thendara that day too.

And guess what?

They won!

They joined us on the beach later to "relax". 

:)

Thank you Johnstons, for helping us have another memorable 4th of July weekend.

Fourth of July Part 3

Big Moose.

We had a few hours to kill until fireworks.

(Actually we weren't even sure if there were going to be fireworks because of the weather, but tried to remain hopeful.)

So we decided to take a ride into Big Moose.

McKenna was with her Grandma J so we took Megan with us.

We meandered our way down the curvy road to Big Moose.

It's one of our favorite places in the Adirondacks.

We made a couple of stops and then went into the Glenmore.

(The Glenmore has a long history and is said to be haunted.)

A round of root beer.

(holiday... remember?)

Whispers and secrets.

I wish I could have known what she told him.

I have a feeling that he will get that look on his face several times during her life.

Trying their hand at darts and pool.

After the Glenmore we headed to the Big Moose Station.

Behind the restaurant was a train car.

We let the kids walk the tracks and climb.

 

We did end up having fireworks that night. We opted to watch Inlet's from Eagle Bay instead of going into Old Forge. (Again, because of the weather.)

We had a great time watching them on the beach.

I don't have any pictures from that.

It was Kristin's turn to bring her camera.