Anna Grows

So there you are....riding down the road, staring out the window while sucking your thumb and holding your kitty pillow, when you see it. There is your name on top of a water tower for everyone to see while driving down I-75! It may not be the same as seeing your name in lights in Las Vegas, but it is pretty exciting for an almost 3-year old to see her name on a water tower. Thus began a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa in Ohio. After the water tower sighting, Anna and her parents stopped to have some lunch with Great-Grandpa (who also has a birthday coming up on September 12 - he will be 97). After lunch, the group arrived at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Joe and Anna served as migrant workers in Grandpa's garden where they harvested a bumper crop of tom atoes. Grandma is still not sure what to do with them all. Saturday was spent at the Franke Park Children's Zoo in Fort Wayne, IN (which by the way is a fantastic zoo). Anna had a great time reading the map, riding t...

The summer is flying by and would not be complete without a visit to Long Island to visit Joe's family. For Anna, this means some quality time with her aunts who are happy to entertain her (or in many cases Anna entertains them). The purpose for the trip was to attend a Fagella extended family picnic on Staten Island. We were able to take a few extra days to enjoy some quality New York time, which usually translates into several good meals. We began the trip early Saturday morning with the threat of rain hanging over us. We expected traffic to be o.k.; however we hit a major snag in Maryland. Apparently the American Motorcycle Association was having a motorcycle rally in Maryland and one of the rallying points happened to be the one rest area we stopped at. Fortunately, we had some good luck on our side and managed to be the last car that made it out of the rest area before thousands of motorcycles hit I-95 (incidently, is a rest stop really a good place for a rallying point, expec...