Friday, July 25, 2008

West Texas meets New York City

We have had a wonderful week with a collection of the Hodge family. My mom, her husband Joe, my Uncle Don & Aunt Phyliss, and Aunt Gayla arrived last Thursday from Lubbock for the New York/New Jersey experience. We took the Greyline bus tours all over the city on Saturday, attended church and hit the outlet malls on Sunday, Carmine's for dinner on Monday, a few went to the Yankee game on Tuesday night, most everyone visited Ellis Island & The Statue of Liberty on Wednesday and then we relaxed all day Thursday. During their visit we also did some serious home cooking! It was amazing! We had chicken and dumplings, spaghetti, pecan chicken, chicken fried steak, chocolate rolls and a few things in between! I think everyone really had a great time! Here is a glimpse of all the excitement!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

July - Part 1

We have had a busy few weeks and are headed for several more. It's summer time and it's what we do!!!

We spent the afternoon of July 4th at a family picnic. Our friends the Meyers and all the family came together for food, swimming & bocce ball. Chris even participated in the bocce ball. Maybe he can explain the rules - it reminded me of shuffle board except on grass. Anyway evidently its an Italian family tradition for picnics. Then that evening we headed to Hoboken for fireworks and BBQ at Jeff & Cindy Thompsons. We played Guesstures until the fireworks started over the city. It was a nice night - but the low clouds and smoke did not mix and eventually blacked out the show. I guess that's when a nice TV comes in handy. We watched the rest from the couch! Good times!

July 5th we had plans with our friends Nick & Sue Passaro. We had an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris in Hoboken. This was Chris & I's first visit to Ruth's Chris - we can't believe how long we have been missing something so good! It was a wonderful night of great food and fantastic conversation! We hope to do it again soon! Thanks Nick & Sue!





The next week we spent an evening in the city. I had to work late so Chris drove in to hang out with me. We made our first trip to the Seaport Village - just a few blocks from my office. The pictures are below. It is still so awesome to live basically in NYC!



This past weekend Chris performed his first wedding. He was excellent! We recieved many wonderful comments. It was a beautiful wedding and the dinner reception was so much fun! I even danced - which for those of you that know me is a big deal. Don't worry Chris got pictures of the whole night. Congratulations Chuck & Nikki!









This week my mom, Joe, Aunt Gayla, Aunt Phyliss & Uncle Don arrive so there will be more pictures to post soon.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!