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?

Christmas Day 2010

Christmas Day was a busy one at the Mac Shack. We spent the bulk of the day hosting and we were quite happy to do so. Brett was in our room right around 5 am saying he couldn’t sleep and … Continue reading →

Thanksgiving with the Giovinco’s–One Week Early

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  My mom and sister Kate are celebrating the actual holiday in Kansas, my brother Casey will be down in the Carolinas, and my sister Erin is having her … Continue reading →

Clam Bake Anyone?

We celebrated Independence Day the same way we have the past few years with a clam bake for dinner.  It’s a nice tradition we’ve had over the past six or seven summers (funny how quickly you lose track).

Usually the 4th of July starts off for us with the South Ocean City Bike Parade, in which the kids meet over at our Lady of Good Counsel on 40th Street and ride down to the playground on 52nd Street.  This year, the parade was pushed to the 5th because the 4th fell on Sunday.  Shockingly, the church expects to use their parking lot for parishioners on the day of worship.  Who knew?

We spent the afternoon hanging on the beach before heading back for a nice dinner of clams (we went with 500), lobster tails (we went with 10), some fresh sweet corn, and some Coronas.  Of course we had some chicken tenders for those little ones that aren’t up for seafood.  Dinner guests included my five, my sister Erin and her clan of five, my sister Kate, my niece Emily, and my Mom.  It was actually one of our smaller groups.

We capped the night off with some dessert and then the group headed down to the beach to catch some fireworks.  Being the party-pooper I am, I decided to catch them from the deck.  It’s not as sandy up there.

Dinner at Bucca Di Beppo

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Saturday night we went to Bucca Di Beppo for an early birthday dinner. Italian food is easily my favorite, and I love the way that Bucca serves everything family style. Veal Parmigiana was the number one item on my hit list, and Jake and I polished off a “Buca Sized” serving (serves 4-5) on our own.

We had a nice sized crowd of 16, with the Kansas crew still in town. It was the five of us, my mom, Jean’s parents, my sister Kate, the Kansas crew (Becky, Ashley, Terry, and Cindy) and my two younger cousins, Alex and Adrianna.

It was great seeing Adrianna at the dinner. She was a total surprise; I don’t think I’ve seen her in at least two years. The last time I bumped into her was at a CYO event following one of Jake’s games. It was great for my kids to see her because it’s been ages since they’ve seen her. It’s hard to believe that she’s almost 16. Good God, time flies by.

We ordered enough food to feed an army, especially if you get a peek at the amount of left overs sitting in my fridge. Once we finished dinner, I was toasted by my sister in Africa, sort of. She had written a toast for me, emailed it over to my mom, who in turn read it right off of her iPhone at the dinner table. Isn’t it neat how small technology has made the world?

On the ride home, I was telling Jean how nice the toast was, at which point Abby piped up by saying, “Jeez Dad, you looked like you were almost ready to cry.” I’m just glad I was able to pull off the “almost ready to cry look” as I was struggling to fight back the tears while my mom was reading.    

2009-The Year in Review

Now that 2009 is behind us, I thought I would take a few moments to review the year that just passed.

The year started with us off in Africa visiting Erin and her family in Tunisia. The trip began with us flying out of Philly early in the evening on Christmas Day and touching down in Tunis mid day on the 26th. We ended up staying with the Wisotzki’s through the New Year before heading home on January 5th.

How do I remember that day, you ask? It happened to be my 39th birthday, and a day the five of us will never forget. For those that don’t know the full story, click here. As cool as Paris is known to be, there isn’t much that’s cool about sleeping on the floor of Charles de Gaulle airport. 46+ hour trips home aren’t too much fun either.

February brought us a trip to Clearwater and a weekend in the Florida sun. Highlights included hanging on the Gulf, lounging by the pool, the Clearwater for Youth banquet, as well as a great father son outing at the Phillies game for Jake and I.

The summer memories were once again dominated by spending the summer down at the beach with Grandmom Phil. This year’s house was one to remember, with the house sitting on the second floor right on the beach. The view from the dining area of that beach house can’t be beat.

We were lucky to have Erin, Lucas, Noori, and Isa in the States for an extended stay. They made it for the last few weeks of the beach stay and then were able to get to spend some time in Limerick/Linfield. It was great to see them, although it was a bit of a bummer that Dorsey had to stay behind in Tunisia.

2009 was a year of milestone birthdays in our family.

• February saw the surprise 40th birthday party for Jean at Shearer Elegance.
• May saw Jake enter into the world of teenagers.
• June brought us my brother Casey’s 30th, which was kept very low key.
• July brought us Jean’s brother Jim’s 30th.
• August saw us celebrate my Mom’s 60th (which was July 19th), again at Shearer Elegance.
• Though not a birthday, Jim and Jean celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on August 6th

Some highlights from the kid’s year:

• Brett Graduated from Kindergarten
• Abby attended her first Junior High Dance
• Jake played his last season of little league baseball
• Both Jake and Abby achieved first honors on their report cards
• Brett lost both his front teeth in the build up to Christmas

Sadly, the year was also dominated by some pretty heavy news. We had some major health scares this year that we’ve had to work through. The word cancer has become one that we’ve started to become numb to as a family.

Around Mother’s Day, my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, albeit at a very early stage of the process. Needless to say, it came as a shock to us all. She made the brave decision to have a double mastectomy, with her surgery in June. She came through the surgery remarkably, and as we approach the end of the year it’s amazing how quickly she’s gotten to her full recovery.

In July, Jean’s close friend Sandy passed away at the age of 39 from cancer. Although Sandy had been fighting the disease for a while, her passing came as a shock to all. It was such a sobering feeling to see this young mother of four taken from her family at such an early age.

Our close friend Peggy was diagnosed with breast cancer later in the summer. It was such a shock when we heard the news, but after consulting with my Mom and Jean’s Mom, Peg decided to follow the same route the two of them took and went with radical surgery. As the year winds to a close, Peg is also very far along in her recovery and the cancer has disappeared. We were lucky enough to get to celebrate her 50th Birthday Party with her family in October.

The final scare came this fall when we found out that breast cancer had returned in Jean’s Mom. She first dealt with this when Jake was a baby and we were really upset with the news. She has managed to go through treatment taking radiation, and as the year winds to a close she is doing very well with a great long term prognosis.

To end this note on a positive vibe, 2009 is the year when Jean finished off her teaching certification. She completed her class work portion of her master’s degree back in the summer, and this fall consisted of her student teaching in two different capacities. She worked September and October teaching 1st grade at West Vincent Elementary and then spent the remainder of the semester teaching special ed at Owen J. Roberts Middle School.

It was a 2-1/2 year process from start to finish, and I’m so proud of the way Jean worked her way through it. There were so many sacrifice that she needed to make, but she found a way to get it all done. What an amazing lady I’m married to.

For those of you who made it to the end of this long rambling diatribe, thanks for following and I’ll do my best to try and keep you up to date in 2010.

Happy New Year to all of you out there, and I hope that 2010 brings good times and much happiness!

Jim

Post taken from TheMacShack