Imania and Grandma's visit!

Imania came up to visit with us before she heads to New Mexico with Grandma for a month.

It was great to have her with us and gave Coretta time to hang out with her. They went shopping, watched movies, played on the computer, and spent time at Barnes -n- Nobles.

It was great to see Grandma Marilyn having time to bond with all of her grandchildren. It is hard for her living so far away from them. As beautiful as Las Cruces is, it is clear that her grandbabies are most important. Grandma Marilyn bought Coretta a couple of outfits, a puppet, and a bracelet from Mexico and Geno received a couple of outfits and a drum. Grandma was amazed with how well Geno can walk since last time she was here, he could only do the army crawl.

I will really miss our family while we are living in Switzerland, but they have promised to come out and visit. I am holding them to it!

Here are some pictures of the family together!

Como Zoo

We were lucky enough to have Grandma Marilyn came to visit us before we leave for Switzerland, so we decided to make a day of it at the Como Lake area. We started with a walk along Lake Como. While we walked, Coretta biked 1.6 miles around the lake.

We then walked to the Como Conservatory and Rainforest Center and saw a sloth, various birds, snakes, and tarantulas. We then made our way through the zoo seeing gorillas, seals, flamingos, fish, giraffes, and many other animals.

The biggest highlight was the butterfly exhibit where there were literally hundreds of different butterflies. We also went to the playground and had a picnic allowing the kids to burn off some of their extra energy.

Here are some photos of our special day!

Valleyfair 2008

Coretta, Nick, Ryan, Erin, and I spent the day at Valleyfair yesterday. We were there for eight hours and truly had a great time. I have never seen Coretta so excited. We went on so many rides such as the Corkscrew, the monster, the white roller coaster, and spent time in the water park riding the waterslides. Although Ryan was hesitant to go on some of the rollercoasters, he did a great job overcoming his fears! It was the perfect day.

While we were busy chasing our rollercoasters, Grandpa Tom was home with Geno for eight hours alone!! The first thing he made sure that I did was put on a full pot of coffee. Amazingly enough Tom survived and even changed a diaper or two. They spent their day napping, playing drop the can, and being outside. Now that Geno can walk and does walk everywhere he is always into mischief!

Geno's first face plant

Although Geno is now walking, he is still somewhat unstable. When we went to pick up Coretta from school the other day, he was showing off to the other Mommies how well he could walk, when all of a sudden he fell face first into the pavement. Here is a picture of Geno's first scrape.

Schools out for Summer

Coretta has finished second grade and is officially now a third grader! They have had many fun things going on in school this week. Miss Hulit had the second grade students create pillow cases with a written compliment from each student. Coretta's classmates stated that she was good at DI, soccer, basketball, baseball, and singing. They also thought that she was cool and a good friend. This year was a year of many great memories and great friends. Coretta will miss Saint Thomas More in the next three years, but many people have promised to be pen pals with Coretta and keep in touch. That will make the transition easier. Here are some pictures of her last day as a second grader. Congrats Coretta!

Home Sweet Home

As many of you already know, we have finally found the apartment that we will be living in after much time searching for the right place. We will be living in Huenenberg, Switzerland in a spacious four bedroom, four bath, with a patio that overlooks Mount Rigi. We are living the states mid July and are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives. Here are some pictures of our new place that we will be calling home.

18 month old Geno

Geno is almost 18 months and is walking most of the time now. Some of his favorite things to do are to bang on anything in his way and "pretend" drink out of bottles and pop cans. He also enjoys playing with pencils, pens, littlest pet shop toys, and polly pockets. He even has his first crush on Julie, Coretta's American Girl, given to her by Auntie Heidi. He loves to play with his big sister Coretta and loves to listen to her play the piano. Most times, he even joins in. He loves to be outside and play or even sit there taking in the sights, smells, and sounds. Coretta loves to bring him down the slides at the park and he loves to swing.

Geno is still a work in progress when it comes to his table etiquette, but when we are in a jam, and we have no other choice, we go to eat and definitely suffer the consequences. I make sure to order his food as an appetizer. Then we must be on our A game. First, he may be content just holding the crayons, but most time he throws them either to the floor or to the booth sitting right next to us. He then, may or may not continue to do the same thing with his food and has been known to hit people with a chicken nugget when they least expect it. People always tell me that I am going to have my hands full. Complete strangers. Nick and I have learned to take this behavior in stride and not become too embarrassed, knowing that this is just another phase he will some day grow out of. One of us discreetly exits the restaurant with onlookers staring at our son in full fledged tantrum form and sits in the car until the rest of the party is finished.

This is Geno Robert my son. He is an adventurer, a spit-fire, a comedian, full of life, a happy independent child, and for that we love him!