Matthew's Big New England Adventure

I have been wanting to blog about Matthew's first flight and visit with relatives, but the 300+ photos that Tony took of the trip was a little more daunting to look through than I anticipated. So here is the Executive Summary (Can you tell that Matthew's Mom is a Proposal Manager?)

• New States Visited: 5, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island (a brief stop to get Tony some Dunkin Donuts coffee), and New York. We drove about 750 miles. The longest drive was a 7 hour trip from Cape Cod to Maplewood, New Jersey (it should have been 5 1/2 hours but we made frequent stops).
• Relatives Visited: Matthew met 40 relatives for the first time. They were all family on my father's side. We enjoyed wonderful hospitality from all and had some delicious meals.
• Cannolis eaten by Varesics: 11 in all... My Uncle Michael and Cousin Doreen were kind enough to get some from the Italian bakeries, knowing that we cannot get good Cannolis in Houston? What is a cannoli you may ask?
• Number of photos of leaves that Tony took: 304
• Matthew's new nickname: Smiley. His cousin Stephen gave him that nickname because he enjoyed every new experience so much he had a huge smile on his face.
• How did Matthew do on his flight to and from Newark (3 hours each way): Matthew did fantastic. His fussing was kept to a minimum, even when we were on the tarmac waiting to take off for over an hour for the flight home. Matthew's Daddy did most of the fussing.

Matthew's idea for a Halloween costume

Dad here. While Maria and I were out to dinner last night celebrating our 2nd anniversary, Unkie Jude was babysitting. While Matthew was doing his usual walking around the house looking for stuff to play with, he found mommy's bicycle helmet and made up his mind what he wants to be for Halloween. Lucky for us, Unkie Jude was wise enough to grab the camera and take a picture. Our guess that Matthew wants to be either a hockey goalie or (heavens forbid) Jason from the "Friday the 13th" movie series. :-)



We're hoping that its something less sinister, like taking the game of peek-a-boo to a whole new level. Only time will tell...

Fall is Here!

A few days ago I passed by a church with hundreds of pumpkins displayed on the grounds. The next morning I stopped by with Matthew to take photos. I never got any photos of Matthew in the spring wildflowers, despite my desperate attempt to find some during our very dry season. It is more appropriate for me to take Matthew's photos in a field of pumpkins anyway... because I love the fall. Whether you love Autumn or not, you gotta love these photos.