The LaGreca Family

Flash Back

The day was Saturday, October 4, 2003.  A beautiful afternoon in San Diego. At the time, Joe did NOT have an iPhone, but he did have a Palm Pilot and thank goodness he had a reminder on his calendar. (At 4pm, the Palm says: “My Wedding” - I love it!)

I am not sure what was better: the fact that Joe had his Palm Pilot blocked off for our wedding OR Paul Sisson’s classsic “Best Man” speech when he said “This is a record. Joe LaGreca hasn’t checked his email for at LEAST 3 hours!”  Everyone was laughing!

Our wedding was one of the best days of my life.  I remember it like it was yesterday and every time I think about it, I smile.

Fast Forward to the Present Day

Saturday, October 4, 2008 (exactly 5 years later). Another beautiful day in San Diego (I know, it’s beautiful nearly everyday, but give me a break - it goes well with the story).

Joe and I dropped Roscoe and Nicholas off at the LaGreca’s house in the afternoon and headed up to Carlsbad.  But, just before leaving the LaGreca’s, we had to take a few pictures (I know, I am obsessed with the camera!)

First shot - Our Entire Family (and yes, Roscoe is a BIG part of our family!)

Then, Joe and I had to get out our “Mickey Ears” from our honeymoon….just a few fun shots.

Nicholas was in on the action,

We checked into our Bed & Breakfast (Pelican Cove) around 3pm and relaxed for a bit (I took a little nap and it felt GREAT!)  At 5pm, we headed over to Sur La Table, a gormet culinary store with a culinary program in the back. We have had a gift card for this place for almost 2 years and we FINALLY scheduled a class. Thank you MILLER!  It was a FANTASTIC gift….and once we finally got around to booking it, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Joe studies

Joe prepares

Joe eats

I got one picture with me…thanks to one of the girls in the class.  (That’s our instructor on the right).  Joe and I had such a great time. I am not sure that it beats our 3rd annivesary (Walt Disney World and a Western Caribbean cruise), but it was GREAT fun!  We both LOVED it and can’t wait to do it again.

After the class, we did a little shopping (we got 15% off in the store, so OF COURSE we had to buy something). ha ha….I am such a chic, huh?

We headed back up the B&B and got ready to walk down to the beach (2 blocks away).  Just before heading out, Joe handed me a little, wrapped box with a tiny little bow….and, I handed him a card (in an envelope).  You are not going to believe what was in the box (I couldn’t believe it!)  Check it out!

It’s a brand new ring!  A custom made ring.  On the left is Joe’s birthstone (Aquamarine), on the right is my birthstone (Peridot) and in the middle is NCL’s birthstone (Tourmaline).  I burst into tears when I saw the ring and realized what it represent.  What an amazing gift! I had no idea he would do something like this.  I felt so special and I couldn’t stop looking at the ring.  I love it.  (I guess since the ring is full, we can’t have the 6 kids that Joe wants….no more room for stones…sorry honey.)

We ended our anniversary by walking down to the ocean…and dancing to our wedding song “Con Te Partiro” by Andrea Bocelli on the sand, in the light of the moon shining on the water.

Before we fell asleep, we talked about all we have done in 5 years (really, it’s been 10.5 years that we have been together).  We feel so blessed to live the life we do.  And to know that our love for each other created another person…..truly amazing!

Joe - thanks for a fantastic anniversary weekend, the most beautiful ring, five years of laughter & fun, and the cutest human alarm clock in the world!  I love all of it and I love you!

It has officially begun.  All our babies are turning ONE!  How in the heck does that happen!?!

This past Saturday was the party we have been talking about for 9 months.  We got 11 babies together (the mom group that I am part of) and threw a little First Birthday Bash!  I asked Joe’s dad to come for a bit and take some pictures.  Here is the link to his ALBUM. (I also took some pictures - here is the link to MY ALBUM)

Julia running…Nicholas chasing (they both loved the balloons!)

Each family took a picture with their little “birthday” baby. Here is our picture. It came out pretty good! Yah! We have a family picture!

There is nothing like a Costco cake..you can’t find a better deal!!!

AND, for fun - does anyone remember this gathering? Out of the 9 babies below - 7 of them were at the big birthday bash we had.  Can you match the baby on the couch with the baby in Mom’s arms below?

Here is the group- Mom & Baby.

On Sunday, we went to a family/friend gathering for Erik Jr’s Birthday (the baby in the middle of the group picture above.

He had MAD cake skills. Check this out!

He didn’t mess around….but he sure got MESSY!

Meanwhile, Nicholas found the pool full of ice:

And the blow-up sword:

It’s only been a week since my last post - yet, I have pictures dating back two weeks ago!  I got behind.  There are a bunch of new pictures in the “Sept NCL Album” - here are a few highlights:

While cousin Mary and Grant were in town from Buffalo - we did lots of stuff (in only 4 days). One morning was breakfast over at Joe’s parents.  Nicholas had fun with Grandpa:

At breakfast, Grandma teases NCL with a grape…he looks like a little bird!

The Buffalo gang stops to pose for a nice picture with the boy:

Mommy (and Daddy) take NCL to swim lessons!

Life on the wild side (aka. The Nicholas norm)

One Saturday morning, we thought it would be a good idea to do something as a family..and yes, that includes Roscoe (poor guy, it’s really not fair that dogs aren’t allowed most places..we have such a good dog, and we have to leave him home.)  Not this time…I know I have mentioned this before - but we have this awesome beach that is for DOGS! Roscoe doesn’t go very far (away from us) but he does enjoy himself. Nicholas thought it was GREAT!

I love this picture….

Nicholas really enjoyed watching all the dogs.  We are raising a “dog person” - I love it!

Take a look at some of the other pictures from Dog Beach.

**I am sure you are all DYING to know how the past week went, right? (..anyone saying, “why would I care about the last week? What is she talking about?)  Well, I started my new job and Joe had Nicholas for 5 days…ALLLLL day long.  And we live to tell.  My job is good. By Friday afternoon, my brain HURT! So much information in a week - I have a lot to learn about the “semiconductor industry.”  But it was good. The people are nice…I like where I sit (my cube is probably 4 times the size of my last one at HSBC). And I have a brand new 3lb laptop, and a brand new Blackberry (not a fan of the BB so far - I like my iPhone a million times better..but, it’s nice that I won’t have to take work calls on my personal phone - and I get all my work email immediately).

Joe did great with NCL. He stayed busy every single day..in fact, I didn’t even see them for lunch ONE time!  That worked out well, because I got free lunch from work 4 out of the 5 days!  Gotta love it!

Here we go, into week #2.  It’s 8:30pm..which means, bed time.  We are both exhausted! It was a busy week, and it went right into a busy weekend (went to a wedding on Saturday, will post about that later).

Until next time…..have a great week everyone!

Have you ever heard, “Over Promise — Under Deliver” ?  Or, you might have heard the oppoisite, since this is what everyone strives for…”Under Promise — Over Deliver”?

Let me explain….in my last post, I said “Nicholas is going to meet Mickey..and we hoped to get a picture of it.”  That was a pretty BIG promise, right?  I really didn’t think it would be too much….I mean, gosh, we were going to Disneyland for the ENTIRE day…we had lots of hours to find, meet and photo Mickey, right?  Well, above, I did say “under deliver” - which means, I didn’t totally fail.  I sort of had a plan B, just in case the original promise didn’t work out.  And check this out, my Plan B was the 1st picture we took yesterday morning…before leaving San Diego.  As promised (sort of), here is the picture of Nicholas with Mickey Mouse:

I am sorry if the “Mickey Photos” disappoint you.  I was slightly bummed that we didn’t get to meet Mickey this trip..but it’s OK, we had a FANTASTIC time and Nicholas was a tropper!  The day started very bad.  Nicholas was not himself.  Not happy in the morning, crying in the car on the way out. He is fighting a cold and I have a feeling he just wanted me to hold him.

Once we got to Disneyland, he was totally fine.  He is a great little traveler. We are so lucky.

Ok - so here is a quick run down.  First of all, we LOVE Julie Yeh!  Our dear friend (from our SF days) that works at Disney - got us in for free.  Thank you! Thank you!  What a fantastic gift :)  A million thanks.

And - holy cow!  We couldn’t believe how fast the day went.  We had so many things we wanted to do with the boy, but we didn’t have time for everything.  We spent a little time in California Adventure.  The boy’s first ride was the new Toy Story Mania game - OH so fun!  You have to try it.

Then, we saw Chip (or Dale, we aren’t sure which).  We ran over to get a family picture.  You can guess how Nicholas reacted. He wasn’t as excited as we were:

He held onto Joe’s chain like he was about to fall…he was a bit scared.  It’s ok, we didn’t force it. A few pictures and we walked away.

After eating lunch at CA Adventure - we spotted Pluto. I was more excited about him because Nicholas has a Pluto in his room..I felt like this was working up towards Mickey Mouse (little did I know that there wouldn’t be a Mickey Mouse opportunity this time).

Isn’t Pluto so cute?  And, Nicholas “thought” about it this time….

And, I think we got a little TOO close…

That was it for CA Adventure….and actually, that was it for character pictures. We headed over to Disneyland and didn’t see ANY characters while we were there.   (But it’s ok, because we stayed really busy and had such a great time).

We did get a family picture at the castle.  And, you will notice that Nicholas has his first pair of Mickey ears. The same ears I had when I was a kid.  I was so excited about this.  What a treat to buy for my own child..

This isn’t considered “baby torture” right?  It’s pure love….I swear!

We did a few more things…here and there.  Nicholas took 2 naps in his stroller (thank goodness).  And, we ended our afternoon/evening with 2 favorites.  Pirates of the Carribean and the Jungle Cruise.  The lady at Pirates was trying to get Nicholas to make a hook…I think?

And that was it….it was over minutes after it starts (that’s what it felt like!)  On Friday night, I couldn’t even go to sleep…I honestly felt like it was Christmas Eve (as a kid)..you know how you are so excited for something to come, and you don’t feel like you are tired.  I have dreamed about taking my children to Disneyland for years!  What a joy to take Nicholas for the first time. I know he won’t remember anything, and that is TOTALLY fine with me….Joe and I will remember.  And we will look back at the pictures often and smile.

We didn’t leave the park without doing a little shopping…of course!

As you know, Disney has buttons for special people.  Joe and I have a “Wedding” button from 2003 (Walt Disney World) and we have the “Anniversary” button from 2006 (WDW again!)…so, we HAD to get Nicholas the “1st time” button (you don’t have to buy them….you just ask, and they give it to you…I love Disney.)

Julie bought Nicholas the T-shirt. Love it!  And, Nicholas has his own Ears…with his name, of course

Once again, Thank You Julie! Good thing you live close…because we still have 100 things left on our list of things to show Nicholas at Disneyland….hopefully it won’t be another 10 months before we make it up there.