Weekend in Pittsburgh

This past weekend we took a family trip out to Pittsburgh to visit my niece Erin.  She is a freshman at Duquesne and most of Jean’s family made the trip out west to see her.  Jean’s parents went, her brother Mike and his family, her sister Kate and her family, as well as the five of us.

Abby, Jake, Emily, Michael, and Erin

The kids went out on Friday with the inlaws and Jean and I followed them out early Saturday morning.  The ride to Pittsburgh was quite eventful as Jean and I almost died on the trip out. Luckily we somehow escaped being sandwiched between an 18 wheeler (who never saw us) and the divider. It was easily my finest bit of driving.

We spent the day in Pittsburgh hanging down in the Stip District.  After that we ate at the Double Wide Grille, a barbecue joint built inside an old gas station with a car/gas station theme. It also happened to be a stop off on a very cool Santa Claus pub crawl. I’m guessing it was a little confusing for my four year old niece Haley as she tried to figure out where all of these Santa’s came from.

Emily, Hannah, and Brett

Jim and Haley at the Doublewide

We finished Saturday at the Duquesne-Penn State basketball game, which was played in the Consol Energy Arena which was right across the street from our hotel.  Sunday morning we had brunch at Primanti Brothers before heading home.

I have to admit, Primati Brothers was a bit of a let down for me.  I had the Pitts-burgher but I wasn’t overly impressed with it.  The fries were a bit of a letdown and I wasn’t a big fan of the bread either.  I generously gave it a 3 out of 5 rating.  It didn’t live up to all the hype.

Hannah, Brett, & Jim with a Fun Christmas Tree

Abby, Hannah, Haley, Brett, and Uncle Aaron

Mike and Jake with a Pub Crawl Santa and His Helpers

The one humbling part of the trip was when we were taking pictures of the Santas in the Double Wide.  They started asking if we could share them with them on either Facebook or Twitter.  They were giving us their info for both of the sites when one of the Santa’s in the crowd piped up, “nevermind, they’re probably still on MySpace.”  Do we look that old and out of touch?

The Cake Boss

The Cake Boss came to Pope John Paul so it was girl’s night out.  I would love to be able to tell you more about him but I’m really not familiar with the dude.  All I know is it wasn’t a cheap night for my wallet.

Jean took Abby and her Mom to check it out.  Dottie and her daughter Emily also went and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves.

Brett’s 1st Holy Communion

This weekend we celebrated Brett’s 1st Holy Communion. It was a beautiful day (for most part) and everything went off without a hitch. We invited family back to the house but when all was said and done, we still had close to 40 people for dinner. My sister Erin and her family came up from Virginia Beach and Jean’s sister Kate and her family were able to make it from Jersey.

 My sister Kate came over and took some pictures after the service and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. She brought the Wiz kids over with her and she was able to get all six of the grandkids together for a photo shoot. She took communion pictures for us and also managed to get a few pictures of all of my Mom’s grandchildren.

My niece Emily also had a big day as St. Eleanor’s celebrated confirmation that afternoon. It was a busy day for Jean’s parents as they fit in Brett’s service at 10 and then Emily’s at 2. They also had a grandnephew’s Communion on their agenda but they just stopped by to drop off a gift. If it was up to me, I would haven given them a free pass from Sunday’s mass.

One of the highlights of Brett’s service was watching Jake come out of retirement to fill in as an alter server. He was quietly minding his own business when Mrs. Mooney (the school principal) came over to ask if he would help out. He did a great job as always although he looked a little out of place because he was a lot bigger than the other alter servers.

My sister Kate took some great pictures of the family back at our house.  I ended up grabbing them off of her website (hope you don’t mind Kate?).  If you’re looking for a photographer who does a great job, check out her site.

Abby’s Birthday–Part Deux

We had Jean’s family over to celebrate Abby’s birthday on Sunday May 23rd.  We had a crazy week and it was the first chance we had to get the Wynne’s over to celebrate her big day.

We had Mike and Dot’s family along with Carole and Natalie.  Dinner was fantastic once again, although this time I’ll take the credit since I ended up grilling the burgers and dogs.    We also had a little striped bass that Gram and Pop brought back from Kate and Aaron’s house.

For whipping something together very last minute, it ended up being a nice way to wrap up our weekend.

Mother’s Day 2010

The Mothers Day Weekend was a busy one for us. Jake had a couple of games on Saturday, Brett had a baseball game, and Abby had a soccer tournament out in Neshaminy (which included two games Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning).

As always, my Mom took a crew of people down to Center City with her to take part in the Komen Race for the Cure, which she has walked in every year in memory of her sister Jackie, who we lost to breast cancer back in 1996 at the young age of 40. This year’s race took on an added significance because of my mother being diagnosed with breast cancer a little over a year ago. It’s been an emotional year for all of us, and my mom has been amazing in coming back from her double mastectomy last June. She’s back as good as she was before surgery and it’s almost to the point where you’ve forgotten how much she’s gone through.

Being the not so wonderful son, I committed to having Abby play in the tournament earlier in the spring without thinking about how important the day was to my mom. To compound things, if Abby’s team had won on Sunday morning, they would have played for the championship of the tournament at 1 pm. Luckily, they lost 3-0 and Abby and I were able to get home at the same time as everyone got back from the race. It’s one of the few times I wasn’t upset watching the Cheetahs lose.

Jean stayed home with the boys to get the house ready for guests because we were hosting everyone for brunch. Her morning consisted of running around getting all the food, which my mom had order earlier in the week, along with last minute prep around the house. Our fare consisted of chips and burritos from California Tortilla along with bagels and sandwiches from Barrister’s Bagels, both of which are located in the Target shopping center.

Brunch was fun and the list of guest ended up being pretty extensive: Mom, Kate, Casey, Jack and Mary Kay Gvodas, John and Nicole Gvodas (who is insanely pregnant right now), Mike and Dottie, Judy and Joy Glass, Alexandra, Sue Krimmel, and Joe Palombit (with Adrianna, Megan, and Ryan). It’s the first time we’ve had Joe over to the house, and we just celebrated our fourth anniversary of moving in.

By the time everything wrapped up around 4:30, we were whupped. We cleaned up and vegged out as a group by watching the movie The Blind Side as a family. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. It’s a nice real life story that leaves you feeling good about people.

Brett's Birthday–Part 1

Sunday we celebrated Brett’s 7th birthday a few days early because we would be in Florida on the actual day.  We started the morning with a quick trip to church, and from there we headed over to Legacy Karate for Brett’s “friend” party.  We rented the gym for a little over an hour and Brett had twelve of his best buddies there to do play some fun karate games.  Once we wrapped up, we went next door with the group of boys to have pizza at Bravo.

Later in the day, we had the Wynne clan over to celebrate his “family” party.  Dottie and her kids, Tom & Carole, Jim & Kim, and Gram & Pop were all able to make it, along with all the Grandkids except Michael, who had lacrosse tryouts.  The Haffey’s also came for dinner, so we had a full house for the little man’s birthday.  We ordered a couple of hoagies from Corropolese along with one of my favorite foods, Corropolese meat balls.  Jean had a nice spread put out for all to enjoy, and I think it’s safe to say that no one left hungry.

Jake and Erin Wynne

Erin, Abby, and Emily

Liam, Meghan, Natalie, and Nathan

The Squirrel Boys

Think Brett's Enjoying Himself?