Dinner with the Donahues

Steve, Missy, Jen, Jed, Jacob & Jordan

What a fun, fun treat last night! Jen, Jed, Jacob & Jordan drove down from NJ to have dinner with us. We're so glad we were able to hang out with them at one of our favorite places in Old New Castle. It was so fun to see them and of course their boys totally entertained our girls! Future ladykillers!

Rachel, Jacob, Jordan & Stefanie

Jessop's Tavern makes me feel like I'm eating in an inn in early America, except that the food is totally 21st century!

Windians!

AJ, Rachel & Stefanie

One of our favorite Ohio things to do is watch the Indians play with Granny & Grandpa Teddy. This year we got lucky and they won too! We are Indians fans, we don't take this for granted.

Mike Golic & AJ

During the first inning we heard the typical vendor shouts of "who wants a hot dog". Of course we look over because I always want a hot dog at a game, but there is something different happening. The vendor is surrounded by people and there are TV cameras. So I asked the woman in front of us and it turned out it was Mike Golic (Cleveland native) from ESPN's Mike & Mike show.

Mike & AJ - check out his "Wild Thing" glasses

It took AJ about 2 seconds to get over there. He of course got a selfie and free hotdogs for him and the girls too!

Steve & Missy

Grandpa Teddy & Granny

It was a beautiful evening for baseball! Go Tribe!

Fourth of July Fun!

Almost all of the cousins...Dominic was at Cadet Field Training
Brian, Victor, Adam, AJ, Phillip, Mark, Ken
Rachel, Laura, Stefanie, Bethany, Kayleigh & Katie

We had a fun 4th of July weekend with the DelRosso family in Ithaca.  This annual tradition is a favorite time of year for the whole family.  A time to relax, reconnect and have fun together. Great-niece/Great-granddaughter Kayleigh is everyone's favorite entertainer.

Kayleigh & Stefanie

Katie, Kayleigh & Rachel

We are always very busy doing nothing and a little of something.  The girls continued the 4th of July Tshirt tradition this year with their "Keep Calm and 'Murica On" tanks.

Stefanie, Laura, Kayleigh, Rachel, Katie

We of course had the annual washers tournament. This really takes up the whole day on the 4th of July, with two games constantly taking place. Teams are drawn randomly except for the prior year winners. They can stay together.  Last year's winners, Rick & Mike, couldn't hang on and the ultimate winners were Steve and his nephew Mark. We take this very seriously, complete with "engraved" trophy.

Mark & Steve

Meanwhile, I think Dominic having some fun at Camp Buckner!

Dominic is third from the right, back row

We even managed to get a photo of the siblings and their mom together!

Motty, Vicki, Rita, Grandma/Mom, Tina, Steve

Steve continued his tradition of a fabulous fireworks show at the end of the day. Every year it gets better and better!

Celebrating AJ - One More Time!!

We had one more celebration for AJ's graduation with Steve's family. It's always good to celebrate!

AJ & Bethany

Our creative niece Bethany, who is also AJ's Godmother, and her clever mom, Steve's sister Vicki, came up with a fun candy based card for AJ. It was a perfect because not only did it highlight AJ's graduation but it contained lots and lots of candy for our candy monster. He was thrilled.

Munich Feis

Stefanie & Julia

Stefanie competed in the Munich Feis this weekend and had her biggest successes at this higher competition level yet! She came away with two second place finishes and a fifth place. We think her friend Julia was a good luck charm. Julia wins best friend ever status after spending 12 hours "feising" with us. She was the ultimate supporter!

Happy Father's Day In Austria!

Missy, Dominic, Steve, Stefanie, Rachel, AJ

We celebrated Father's Day weekend spectacularly. One of Steve's favorite things is Formula 1 racing, we have been watching it for over 20 years. When the Austrian Grand Prix fell on the same weekend as Father's Day we decided it was the perfect way to spend the weekend.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Our friends Vanessa and Abel are also BIG fans so along with their boys Abel and Alan they joined us.

The guys wanted to be there EARLY for the qualifying so they took one car and left around 5am. The girls weren't quite as eager so we left at a leisurely 730! The guys had a great time at qualifying even though it was quite wet for most of the morning and afternoon.  When we arrived it was pouring so they told us to hang out in the car, after a little while they told us to bail and head to the hotel and they would meet us there.  The weather was icky, we didn't need to be told twice!!

Dominic, Abel and AJ - Steve's camping tarp came in handy!

Dominic & AJ - to be fair the weather did clear up!

We found our hotel on the sweet little Thalersee (Thaler Lake) and had lunch and naps! Rachel and Alan's 8th grade boat cruise was the night before, we were tired! Afterwards while we waited for the guys we walked around the lake and realized that we were in the same town where Arnold Schwarzengger is from.

Stefanie

Thalersee

The weather had cleared nicely and by the time the guys had arrived we were sitting outside watching a rainbow having drinks. We all had dinner because they were starving. That night there was a wedding at our hotel but the restaurant was still open so we enjoyed the festivities too. The band was really good and at one point two of the waiters did a dance to the same song Uma Thurman and John Travolta dance to in Pulp Fiction. It was hilarious! We found out later they were brothers and they entertained us all night long.

Alan, Abel, Rachel, Stefanie, AJ & Dominic

Abel & Vanessa, Missy & Steve

Sunday was race day and we left early to secure a good spot. We sat in general admission since we had the kids, this way we had more room and the ability to move around a lot.

Kids are ready for a race!

It's never too cold for ice cream!

AJ & Dominic

Missy & Vanessa

Abel, Steve & Abel

It was a good race and we had fun celebrating the dads while watching the race. Of course we all got tricked out in Ferrari gear.  Ferrari is Steve's favorite team so it's ours too!

Rachel's 8th Grade Celebration

Steve, Rachel & Missy

Another big milestone in our house! As Rachel finishes 8th grade we finish with middle school. Rachel has done much to make us proud this year so we were excited to celebrate with her.

Stefanie, Dominic, Rachel & AJ

The 8th grade celebration is three hour boat ride around the Starnbergersee (Starnberg Lake). There is dinner and of course dancing for the kids. Just parents and 8th graders attend, siblings stay home.

She's going to high school!

Rachel was of course off with her friends from the moment we got to the dock. The girls were all dressed in their best party clothes.

Once on the ship Steve and I connected with our friends while Rachel hung out with hers. My friends and I did of course sneak away to get one or two pictures of the kids!

It was a chilly night out on the lake, but at least it didn't rain so we could be outside some of the time on the boat!

Steve & Missy