Wore Out Our Welcome?

While I know that my parents will be sad to see us go back to Budapest tomorrow I know that a small part will be happy to see the backside of us. More specifically, my kids exhaust my parents.

My Dad has complained that this is not how grandparenting should be.
Grandpa: "Have you ever tried to cram a year's worth of Grandparenting into 3 weeks? This is not right. They should come over for dinner, stay for a couple of hours and then GO HOME. Maybe twice a week. I'm so F%&king tired."

I will say in all honesty that while I'm here I do the least amount of work possible. In the two weeks that I've been here, I've only had to bathe them once and I have not read a bedtime story in almost one month. I did have to "make" them breakfast almost every morning but pouring Froot Loops is not too difficult (my Mom has been working half days in the AM). Thanks to my parents for making these last two weeks in New York wicked fun.

On Thursday my Dad actually got annoyed with the Froot Loops for breakfast and made the kids Breakfast. I give him points for effort but it was like a scene out of a sitcom. He couldn't find the proper pans and utensils, he tried to use the stove burner that didn't work and took him 5 minutes to figure that out (including the call to my Mom at work to see if she knew about the burner problem), 5 more minutes to figure out why the toaster wasn't working...was it broke too...nope just not plugged in. I opted for a donut and read the paper while I laughed and enjoyed the show. On Friday he just took us out to Friendly's for breakfast.

We had a great time in Troy. My brother took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese twice (bonus for me...I only had to go one time), we went swimming at a friend's house, had some ice cream at Snowman's, visited lots of friends, made the rounds to our favorite restaurants and had two birthday parties. My cousin Madison turned 7 and my brother Frankie turned 22.

That reminds me, my Brother just bought his first house last month. Let me say that again: 21 years old and bought a house. When I was 21 I was happy enough just to be able to buy my own beer. Congrats Frankie!

Swimming Fun

Happy Birthday Uncle Frankie!

Happy Birthday Madison!

Good times with Good Great Awesome Friends. Special Thanks to Don Mooney and Velvet Kopach for basically never seeing their spouses before midnight almost every night.
One quick note: Going to get the Harry Potter book at midnight is infinitely more fun when you are working on your 2nd case of Budlight long necks.

Dan "Captain America" Kopach

Danny Brown, Donna & Billy Meyring (in from Boston just to visit) and "Aunt" Toni

Annette Mooney, the Hostess with the Mostest. Thanks for making brownies EVERY night.

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my wife. It's been 11 wonderful years. I love you more today than I did then.

This is our first anniversary apart (she's back to work in Budapest, I'm still vacationing in sunny Troy, NY). I can't wait to see you. I love you!

One Beer

Just a quick question for you. No reason, just curious.

Can I still truthfully say that I just had one beer if that beer was a 40 oz Budweiser?



On a totally unrelated note, having a good time in New York.

Linda goes to Disney World

Or, more specifically, to Walt Disney World Speedway. My mother-in-law is a long time NASCAR fan. At the speedway one can, for a modest fee, be a passenger in a real race car as it makes a couple of laps around the race track.

I know she was (not) sorry to miss the High School Musical Pep Rally at Disney MGM but she had a GREAT time. Check out some pictures:

Frank and Barbara go to Disney World

My parents really enjoyed their first trip to Disney World. Except for all the walking and the incredible heat.





My Dad got in to the Disney spirit and had his picture taken with many characters:

Mickey, of course

Goofy

Buzz Lightyear

And his favorite, Donald Duck, whom he danced with.

My favorite picture of my Dad was taken before we left for the park one day, where he showed us (once again) that he truly is color blind (for real, he is).

Me and my parents

VJ at Disney World

VJ had a great time as well. He did miss some things (he slept through the afternoon parade and he stayed home Thursday night) but there we lots of things he enjoyed.

His favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. We must have went on this ride at least 8 times.

We also got to meet the "real" Buzz Lightyear.
He got a kiss from Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty).
Anna was chosen to participate in Woody's Cowboy Camp. VJ was not pleased.
"I don't like Mommy to dance."
I think his most favorite character greeting was meeting Lightning McQueen and Mater at Disney MGM Studios. I watched and waited and when I saw the "handlers" coming down the street I pounced and scored us the 3rd position in line.

We then proceeded to totally hold up the line getting the pictures with Mater. Every time we got VJ to look at us, Mater would "talk" and he would look back at him.

Katie and Madison at Disney World

Despite living so far apart, Katie and Madison are good friends. Katie told everyone how we were going to Disney World and that she and her cousin Madison would be sharing a room. Madison is actually my first cousin, but Katie gets mad when I say that. Madison is HER cousin.

The girls had a great time together at Disney.

On Wednesday we got up early and went first thing to meet the Princesses (if you don't go early the minimum wait is an hour).

Katie and Madison enjoy some ice cream while waiting for the afternoon parade.

One of the most enjoyable days, for me, was Day 4. Anna and I took the girls back to the park in the evening. It was not as busy and not as hot. We were able to go on some more rides, saw the evening "Spectromagic" light parade and watched the fireworks.

Anna and the girls on Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride. Much more enjoyable then the first time we went on it (in the pouring rain).

We got a little wet riding Splash Mountain.

Vacation Part 2 - Disney World

The Players:

Disney Newbies:
Vito Salvaggio, Sr. - Our Hero
Catherine E. Salvaggio - The Daughter (6yrs old)
Vito Salvaggio, Jr. - The Son (3 yrs old)
Frank Salvaggio, Sr. - Grandpa
Barbara J. Salvaggio - Grandma
Madison E. Fredette - My Cousin (almost 7 yrs old)
Hayden P. McLaughlin - The Friend (4 yrs old)
Trevor McLaughlin - The Friend (2 yrs old)

Disney Veterans:
Anna P. Salvaggio - The Wife
Linda C. Price (Epcot only) - Grammy
Lisa Marie McLaughlin - Aunt LMU
Sean McLaughlin - The Friend

We had a terrific time at Disney World. I could go on and on and on about what we did each day. Instead I'll just hit the highlights (and will do some separate posts about individual events):
We spent most of our time in the Magic Kingdom. Our friends the McLaughlins timed their visit to coincide with ours, but after the first day we realized that trying to get 12 people moving in the same direction (after deciding what direction that should be) was too difficult so we only got together a couple of more times.

We rented a house that was only a couple of miles from Disney. The McLaughlins stayed with us the first night and then moved to a condo on Monday (it wasn't available on Sunday). It was nice to have a pool to relax in after a long, HOT day of walking around.





The plane ride to Orlando was Madison's first and she got to sit in the pilot's chair. My kids have flown all over and they have never been near the cockpit.






We spent most of our time at the Magic Kingdom but on Thursday we went to the Animal Kingdom and Friday to Disney MGM Studios.

All of our Disney photos can be found at our Kodak Gallery Site.

Vacation Part 1 - Houston

The first part of our week+ in Houston was not so much of a vacation. We had 4 doctors appointments and 4 dentists appointments. We did manage to have some fun. On Sunday, 7/1 we, along with our friends the McLaughlins, took the kids to their first baseball game. VJ was disappointed since he apparently thought that he would be playing.

Me: "Katie, did you like the baseball game?"
Katie: "Yes, except it was long and boring."

We spent the 4th of July at Renee and Marissa's house along with the McLaughlins and the Mahoneys, swimming and having burgers and hotdogs. I was a little slow to apply the bug spray and VJ got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

We basically spent the week visiting family and friends, shopping and visiting our favorite restaurants. I wish we had more time to see everyone that we didn't get a chance to.

Katie had an important milestone on our second day. She lost her first tooth. I can report that the tooth fairy does come to the Marriott.