Soccer

Sydney ended her soccer season today and has really enjoyed her time on this team. She scored a goal today as well and was so proud of herself. This has been a great season and Sydney has really improved and become more aggressive. Below Syd chats with teammates in the blustery wind before the game.




Below Sydney is drilling with her team before the game. Above, she bolts down the field after the ball.

Lou has a play date.

My parents came over for dinner and brought their 7 month old golden retreiver who looks like a bear next to Lou. Jake was very gentle and restrained but needed to be restrained by my dad because of his sheer size. One blow from Jake's paws would have put Lou in the animal hospital!

Happy Birthday Jon

Well, Jon's finally 27. He spent the greater part of the day on Thursday waiting for AAA to tow my car after the alternater died. Syd and I went home in his car and got his birthday dinner ready. What a guy!

It's not the greatest picture, but our digital camera is dying and the good pictures are few and far between!

Pumpkins!

When Jon and Lou went looking for halloween pumpkins they found Sydney on a pallet amongst the pumpkins.

She was overpriced.

Lou is racked out!

This is what Lou looks like at the end of the day. Sydney and her friends run him all over on their scooters. By nightfall he's dead to the world.

I love vegetables!

Although we don't encourage Sydney to play with her food in general, sometimes she can't resist!

Lou is settling in.

He's doing a great job with crate training and housebreaking. What a sweet dog!

Wedding Pictures

My favorite, courtesy of Meghan! To view all the wedding photos please visit the photographer's website at www.weddingprints.com and search for "Trish" or "Jon." Our password is TJ. Enjoy!

Honeymoon, Part II - Washington DC

When we returned from Jamaica we wanted to spend some special time with Sydney and asked her where she might be interested in going on a week-long trip. We finally settled on DC where my brother and his girlfriend live and attend Catholic University Columbia school of Law. They generously gave us their bedroom and were very gracious hosts despite it being their first week back to school. We had a blast!

Poop

At the national zoo (which is right near where Bill and Avanti live) we explored Sydney's favorite topic. Yes, she is holding elephant poop!

DC - Syd and Bill teach a class

....at Columbia Law School where bill is a second year law student.

More Jamaica

Our Honeymoon - Part I, Jamaica

Ya mon. Since I haven't talked to most of our friends since the wedding (our schedules have been crazy!) I wanted to share a little bit about our two part honeymoon. Jon and I headed to Jamaica two days after the wedding. Our resort was beautiful and consisted of private cabins, a beach and several bars and restaurants. We spent most of our time relaxing on the beach, in the pool and of course eating. We ventured off the resort to go on a croc-viewing boat ride and to go swimming in the largest waterfall I've ever seen. We also went snorkelling, which I think was my favorite activity. We couldn't help but notice that outside of the resort Jamaica is a very poor country. Although it is the law for children to attend school, the families must pay for it and most cannot. The unemployment rate is very high as well.

Our new pup!

Lou has finally arrived! We picked him up at the Meridan Humane Society in CT this morning. He's only 8 weeks old and has already had a really rough time. He was found wandering the streets of Ohio with his sisters, motherless and taken to a pound where he was scheduled to be euthanized. A couple of dog rescuers heard about the litter and posted their picture trying to find homes for them and that's where we found Lou. The rescuers think that they are border collie - black labrador mixes. Lou looks mostly black lab but he has the thin border collie face and thicker hair than you would expect on a lab. He's been much sweeter in personality (so far) than we would have thought given where he came from.

There is a picture is of Lou with his sisters taken at the pound in Ohio. Lou is the one front and center (and the smallest!) The other pics were taken after we got home.

First time bloggers!

We couldn't help jumping on the bandwagon and figured having our own blog was a great way to communicate our family's news with everyone who is interested.

We are currently busy with preparing for our new puppy, Sydney's soccer and applying to Residency programs for next year.

We'll post details soon.

PS I can't believe the last image I have of all three of us together is from March! This is us at Disney's Animal Kingdom last spring break.