gonna be camping...

We are leaving tomorrow(bright and really early) for our annual camping trip with Rich's family. This year we are going to Watkins Glen State Park... it is up on Seneca Lake. It should be fun, and I am looking forward to someplace different. We are going with Bob, Gretchen and the girls, Pop and Pat, Jen, Adam and the boys, Nancy and Rich, Richie and Jess. Robbie is too swamped working on his fellowship, but he will be missed!!! I am sure that I will have tons of photos to post and stories to tell when I get back. (just a little Janine tidbit- I have in my July 2008 folder for photos... over 650 pictures!!! just for the month of july this year and its not even over yet!!!)

Many HUGE thanks to Doug and Erica for watch Murphy while we are gone...

Guide Dog Foundation....

This past Saturday, the girls and I took a tour of the Guide Dog Foundation with Katie's Brownie troop. It is located in Smithtown... I have passed it a million times on Route 25 and knew where it was, because there is a small building located in the front. I was shocked to find out how HUGE the place really is... with multiple building and 5 acres of land, state of the art facilities for training, breeding, boarding, etc. You can find out more info by going to their website http://www.guidedog.org/ We walked through and saw the puppies... so so so cute.


Allison and her friend Lexie.

It was great, one of the volunteers brought out "Fern" for us to see up close and pet.
We also got a chance to walk through the kennel..


The grounds were beautiful and well maintained... here is our group (in the background) Katie decided to wait for me.

Here we watched a powerpoint (geared toward the children) about what the guide dogs do.

A wonderful tour followed by some Ben and Jerrys!

Congratulations Chrissy and Joe...

Friday night Rich's cousin Chrissy married her long-time boyfriend Joe! It was such a nice wedding at the Crest Hollow Country Club. She was married in the Garden and the cocktail hour was outside around the pool! Below is a photo of Rich's Aunt Jeanne escorted down the aisle by Rich's cousin Freddy and his son Kenny. Rich's Uncle Sonny and Chrissy.
Congratulations!!!
Nan and Rich having some fun :)

Pop and Pat...
Gretchen, Freddy, Richard and Nancy
Pam, Fred, Gretchen, Rich, Me, Nancy and Rich
. Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Sonny and Mom :)

fireworks....

OK... so these two first pics are just samples of the new lens... LOL.. I have been having so much fun with it.
Every year the Terryville FD has a family carnival in July. I have gone and been a part of the carnival every year since I am a child.... it is so much a part of my childhood, and although I don't like to take the girls (I don't trust the transient rides- and am not a huge fan of the big crowds) we take the girls every year over to Grandma Leute's. Grandma Leute lives directly behind the Terryville FD and her complex offers an excellent view of the fireworks show! We gathered this year with the Hoey's, Erica and Christopher, Mom, and Freddy and Pam. I took these pics in night mode.. and obviously need a tripod to get good night time pics! sorry for the blurryness!

The have fireworks on Wednesday and Saturday. We usually go on Saturday, however this year the Hoey's were going to be camping for the weekend and Katie had a sleepover party on Sat night, so we enjoyed the show on Wednesday night. The fireworks dont' kick off until about 10pm... so it a late night for the kiddies ( you can see how tired Christopher was in this pic!)

random "new lens" pics...

playing around with my new lens... we were at Jill's to hang out and celebrate Jeanette's birthday.
Allison showing off her dives!

Kathryn and the messy flying saucer!

playing a little catch up...

I realized this weekend, that I still had pictures in my point and shoot camera from the last day of school. I let Katie take my camera to school for the last day... it was interesting to see what she came home with! LOL. Here are just a few of the many that she took. :) Here is the Megan... during the bus ride. Allison and her Teacher Mrs. Breunig.
Katie and some of her classmates....(from left to right) Ciara, Courtney, Manaal, Katie, Megan, Nicole, and Jillian.
I guess this from the bus ride home.
Allison's Project (its a pic of her being sad.. .waving good bye to Minnesauke on the last day)

We met up with Jill, Chris and Natalie... These two pictures are from beach swimming lessons... they have lessons rain or shine. This particular day it was strange weather... it was sunny, then suddenly it was pouring! We were caught in the rain. THe girls LOVED it!

Garage Sales and Birthdays...

So... Yesterday we had our big multi-family garage sale! I am new to the whole garage sale world. I never had one before and really haven't ever been to one. It was quite an experience. I have spent the past few months looking through my house and garage, getting our "stuff" together to sell. I was then up at 5:30am to getting things set up. We borrowed tables from the firehouse (thanks to Richard for picking them up) and hung up signs (thanks to Gretchen for making some of them). We actually had quite a few people come through... a bunch came early, before we were even ready for them! We tried to be really organized, we color coded the tables... I had green table cloths, Jill had Blue, Gretchen had pink... and my father-in-law and Sara Snarr didn't have any :( What I found so funny is that we all looked through each others sale items... below you will see Emily with a stuffed dog she got from Jills tables. Katie, Allison, CHristopher, Natalie, Hannh, Megan, Hannah, Ava, Taylor and Emily all worked to make a lemonade stand. After a while, they actually gave up and went swimming for a few hours (thanks Karen for watching them in the pool!)

Hi Karen! You can see there was clothes layed out on plastic tableclothes along the walkway for everyone to look through...
From the walkway...
Allison and Ava
So at the end of the day I made enough money to pay for a new lens for my Digital Rebel! Rich and I were orignally going to split the profits... but since today was my birthday... he gave me his half and that completely covers the cost of the lens!!! YAY. The best part is that I will have it before our camping vacation to Seneca Lake!

Ruby Tuesdays...

I received a text from an old friend... Brian. He was in town, and informed me that he and some guys I graduated high school with were getting together for dinner and some drinks. It was really nice seeing everyone. I was glad I had my camera... from left to right... Mike Saidens, Mike Nelin, Eric Rienze, Coach Denamark, Greg Pinnavia, Brian Tarrant and me (looking like a need some lipstick!) I had the pleasure of meeting Gregs wife Jodi and his adorable daughter Alexis... as well as Mike Cardarelli and his wife and very cute daughter Samantha!

Sarah Hubbard Graduates...

On Saturday we attended Sarah's graduation party! Her cake was a beautiful tribute to her dad! Marlo and Benjamin...
Katie, Sydney, Benjamin and Allison...

The girls with Sarah and Cindy!
LOL... nice Giuffre!