Grandkids in San Diego, CA 2012

Most know that Richard and I have 7 grandkids…2 are step grandkids and 5 are grandkids…The unfortunate part is that we don’t have any recent pictures of our 2 step grandkids so I can write about them…Three out of the 5 grandkids are girls who are Brandi’s 3 girls…Then there is our youngest 2 grandkids who were born over in Sicily…Laurianna & Nicodemus…This past November, the family moved from Sicily to San Diego, Ca for about 4  years…

Laurianna is 3 years old as of January…Nicodemus is 1 year old as of March…We haven’t seen them in person but they are always thought of and hope one day to meet them and have quality time with them so that they may us…Skype is always there to use but when one works at a campground where there are lots of guests and your hours are always busy, there is very little time for Skype…Plus the hours time difference from Texas to Sicily were very different…Now being 2 hours different, it is much better but being busy all the time is another issue…But there is always Facebook where our youngest, Misti, posts pictures of the kids…This is our we see how they are growing… The proud parents, Chad & Misti, of Laurianna & Nicodemus

Laurianna & Nicodemus at Christmas Time 2011

The Jorges Family with Supernatural star Jensen Ackles at the Convention in Rome 2010…

Look at those beautiful blue eyes…May 2011

Daddy & Laurianna – March 2011

I think she looks like Pebbles from The Flintstones show…

The crazy things kids do…Anna is 7 coke cases tall…lol

7 months old Nicodemus…I wish I could call him Nico since his name is Nico demus…lol  Maybe one day!

Birthday #2 – A Blues Clues theme…Looks like she was enjoying the icing…

A Halloween Fairy 2011

A little Green Dinosaur 2011

Mr. Flirt’s 1st Hair cut…He was doing very well until he got tired of sitting in the chair…

Yes, his nickname is Mr. Flirt…According to his mom, Nic loves to smile and flirt with the ladies…I can’t wait until he is a lot older and see how the girls react to his smile…Watch out there girls!  Mr. Nicodemus Jorges’  will break your heart…lol

Anna & Nic is playing Hide –n- Seek…Nic knows that his big sister is in that Ravens blanket somewhere…Sissy, where are you??  lol

Laurianna at the San Diego Zoo – Jan. 2012…I think she wants to be Batgirl…lol  Nico is just enjoying his ride…

I believe I see some inch worms with funny faces…Anna & her Daddy having some fun at the San Diego Zoo…

This is our beautiful and precious youngest granddaughter…Anna’s hair has gotten so long and I think her smile & eyes will break all the boys’ hearts when she gets older…This picture was taken for her 3rd birthday…Can’t wait to meet you…We love you, Poppy & Mommom  xxoooxxxooo

Rub a dub, there’s a boy in this tub…Nico at the age of 1…Special birthday pictures…Their mommy thinks of everything…She does candy bar wrappers, cupcakes, cakes and other Creative Memories special birthday offerings for the guests…The 2 kids are very lucky to have a very special mommy in their life…

Ain’t nothing like Carebears…Anna had a Carebear 1st birthday too…

Birthday boy bit in to a sour grape…At first I thought it was the hat that he didn’t like on…but his mommy said it was the grapes…What a face!  Nico didn’t leave the hat on too long…His big sister put on the birthday hat after he was done wearing it…

Silly girl!

So these are 2 of our 7 grandkids…Yes, we haven’t spent any quality time with them but as long as pictures are shown and we can see how big they are getting and some of the funny stuff that they do, I feel close to them…Maybe not personal close but close enough…Thanks to their Mommy for always sharing pictures…It’s very special to us…

My Brother, Nick & His Partner in Life, Michael

There were many years when I did not “get along” with my brother…Most people in his life know him as Phil while family members know him as Nick…The reason for that is because his name is Philip Nicolas…Over 15 years time we had not kept in touch so neither one of us knew about the others lives…Until July 2010 over the July 4th weekend…A few months before July 2010, we had been chatting back and forth…Michael and him decided to come down to where we were working at Lake Ridge RV Resort in Hillsville, VA…The drive was long for them but in the end it was well worth it…They procurred a hotel room in town and came to the resort to visit us…It was such a treat to see him after so many years & to meet his partner in life, Michael…We went out to eat, went swimming, had a campfire and drank a beer…It was so awesome to be able to talk to him again and get to know Michael…

Michael is a steward for an airline…He is an international flyer so he flies to all over Europe…Jealousy sets in since he gets to visit countries that I would love to see…Nick is programmer, I think…I don’t really remember what he does but I know he messes with computers for companies, I think…My brother is a “social butterfly”…He knows people from everywhere…We have found out that he is a lot of fun…

The next time we got together was at Orange Lake near Walt Disney World…What a lot of fun…We visited and walked the Orange Lake timeshare areas…This is Nick, Michael and their niece, Brianna…

     Uncle Nick and Brianna having a nightly swim…As you can see, Uncle Nick was a “flotation” device…lol

Seaworld and the Makahiki Luau…Food and singing and dancing all under one roof…Michael didn’t make it with us this time…

Magic Kingdom Adventures…It was a blast…

Two Princes and a Princess…

and here is another Princess…Just don’t go with the baseball cap…lol

Michael and Roy Disney…

My brother and brother-n-law in front of the Train Station at Walt Disney World…Jan. 2012

Nick and Michael have been together for 17 years now as of March 23, 1995…Nick has been posting pictures of their time together over the past 17 years…Since I have not seen them together over the past 15/16 years, it is great to see their life together…Now it is my time to share…

Amsterdam 1995

At their home 1997-1998

Seaworld 2004

Nick in the 70’s…This boy had hair…So long ago…

  Cheesecake Factory 2011

We all change over time and as we get older we change…Over time, my brother has become more pleasant and fun and I truly miss him…The time we do spend together is very precious and I do look forward to spending more time with the both of them…

Turning 30 Birthday Party

Some birthdays are memorable and should be celebrated…There’s the FIRST birthday…A milestone from being born…A 1 year old gets to put all their fingers in the icing and smear it all over their face…or they can scared to even tough the icing…The next biggest milestone of birthdays is when  you turn THIRTEEN…Now you are a teenager, not tween…The third biggest milestone is when one turns EIGHTEEN…Out of school, now you are an adult (or so you think)…The fourth milestone is when one turns TWENTY ONE…Now you are of drinking age..You can now go clubbing…You can now order drinks and be asked for an I.D. and you are proud to show that I.D….Next comes turning THIRTY…This is where our eldest daughter was at…She turned the big 30 and wanted to celebrate that fact…

We flew back to where she lives and spent 10 days with her and our granddaughters…We were there for her birthday and for Thanksgiving…The birthday bash was being held in the Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD at Howl at the Moon…I was only at one Howl at the Moon in San Antonio, TX on the River Walk and it was just to get a Sex on the Beach shot…We got the shot on the outside of Howl at the Moon (HatM) so I didn’t know what the inside was like…

Some of us went down to the Inner Harbor early and walked around…We got some lunch prior to going to HatM at Hooters…The infamous Hooters which I found was no big deal at all…The girls were “okay” and the food was very late and cold…We walked some more around the Inner Harbor and then started heading towards HatM…None of us could go in to the place until 5:30pm to get a good table near the Pianos…A first experience for us but not for our daughter and some of her other guests…The fun part was that we were not far from HatM to where we were going to spend the night…Never spent a night at a hotel in the Inner Harbor, Baltimore…

Here is our birthday girl and one of her besties and her sister-n-law…

A Norway ship was in at one of the docks and it was free to go onboard…It would have been nice to go onboard but time was passing by quickly and we needed to start heading to HatM…

Ah, Ravenstown…Phillips Seafood…Hard Rock Cafe…The National Aquarium…The Constellation…Favorite things to see…

Shaking the booty dance contest…I can’t remember the song that the Piano guys played but we knew that this was our girl’s shaking booty dance song..There were 5 contestants and knew it was going to be close between our girl and the guy in red…but he wasn’t suppose to be on stage cause he didn’t have the right color armband…Our girl did win with a showdown between the man in red and her…She won a huge bucket of alcohol filled sweet drink that delicious that runs about $12 or so for the bucket of drink…

There are signs like this in about 3 areas of the room…A person would pay the price that was up in one of the corners to put a message up…I was lucky and got away with just paying $3 for my message…The price went from $3 to $5 then to $8 and so on…My brother paid $30 for his message to his life long partner, M, to tell him Happy Birthday (below)…I was real glad I got mine cheap…lol

 

This was the hotel we stayed at for the night…We had a pretty nice room and we thanked our daughter lots for the room…We had a blast and can’t wait to do it again at some time in the future…Maybe we will celebrate our birthdays this year although it would be more near Christmas/New Year’s but still in the same month… 

Easter 2011 – On our way to Texas

So at the end of Pt. 1, we were getting ready to dye eggs for the Easter Day egg breaking contest…Everyone got some hard boiled eggs and colors and off we all went decorating 5 or 6 eggs each with our own design so we knew who had what eggs…After all of that, the adults decided to play a game while the kids got to watch tv or do other things…

  

Easter Day…Richard and I drove to Crestview to spend the day with the family…and do some egg cracking…This was something I use to do with my dad every Easter and it’s lots of fun…The object is to collect as many eggs as possible to be the winner…There were 9 players so it took a while to play but it went fast too…It was lots of fun and laughter was plenty…

What you do is the person who started the egg cracking and who has won the next person’s egg, gets to pick which end to crack with…Both of you crack the egg with the same ends, pointed end to pointed end…On a count of 3, the winner waits for the player to “punch” their egg against the “winner’s” egg…If your end cracks reverse you egg and hit again…If the “winner’s” egg cracks, then that person must turn their egg over…If both ends are cracked, the person with an uncracked egg or just one end cracked is the new “winner” and they  move on to the next person to crack eggs…It’s a lot of fun and see which egg you think is the best egg out your bunch…This went around for a while until we had one winner…

 

Our niece, Bayne, won most of the eggs…So she was the winner of the egg crackin’ contest…Anyone for some egg salad?  hahaha!

Now it’s time to hide some plastic eggs out in the front and back yards so the kids can find them…What fun this was…We are so glad that Kevin and Kelli let us in on the fun of hiding eggs…but I had to take pics of where I hid mine cause I knew I wouldn’t remember where I put them…There was one “gold” egg with the money in it that I got to hide…and HIDE it I did…It was in plain sight but  hid well too…At the end of the “I give up” stage, we had to tell the kids “hot or cold” to let them know how close or how far away they were from the “gold” egg…It was fun to see them RUN to the area where it was…Such fun…Thanks Kevin and Kelli…

Inside the logs was the best egg of them all, the Golden Egg…Money was placed in this egg…It was fun watching the kids go past this egg many many times…

This is how close the 3 kids were to the Golden Egg…We finally had to tell them if they were HOT or COLD…Bayne just missed seeing the egg and Kevin was very close to finding the egg…However, it was Shyler who found the Golden Egg…It was so fun to watch…

The kids and all their eggs…It was just as much fun to hide all the plastic eggs and it was to watch them go over the front yard and the back yard…Trees, trucks, porches, wood pilings, near the swimming pool, in the garden, on the hills and every where we could find a good hiding place…Thanks again to Kelli, Kevin and the kids for letting enjoy the fun on Easter Weekend of 2011…Pictures and Memories, that’s what it is all about…and Family!

We love you guys and miss you all too!  Uncle Richard and Aunt Shelly…xxooxxoo

Various Pictures of My Youngest Over the Years…

My youngest, Misti, was born overseas at RAF Lakenheath…She weighed more than my other 2 children for a little thing that she is now…Her head was full of hair that curled when wet…Time flew by as she got older and some of my pictures that I do have have been scanned so they may not be the best quality…

Before we left England, a friend of mine back then had a little boy…His name was Jeremy…We were the best of friends and hung out together all the time until all of us left England…On one of the days before we left, we just happened to catch the following moment…Misti’s first kiss from a little boy…lol

Misti and Jeremy were only a month apart and it looked like he wanted to show that he was the oldest..lol  18 months old and already wanted a kiss….With such an adorable daughter, what little boy could resist…lol

 

I’ve keep some school pictures just as a remembrance since I knew that as I get older, my memory would fade…The picture on the left was when she was 9 and on the right was when she was 7…The face on the picture on the right reminds me of my eldest daughter’s youngest daughter…but as she grew up, Misti began to look more like her father’s sister…Spitting image of her to be exact…

I can’t tell you how old Misti was in these pictures…Her hair always went from long hair to short hair or from short hair to long hair…Misti always long beautiful hair just like I did when I was young…Glasses are always funny to see..I remember when I was in the 6th grade and had to get glasses….However, my glasses were bigger and gaudier than hers…

More school years went by and I can see some of the changes…My little girl is growing up so fast…Karate classes didn’t last long but at least she tried it…Nice kick there!  Wish I could have seen her do some of her Karate but it was at a time to where I couldn’t travel to see her do well and excel…

In 1999/2000 (can’t remember which year for sure), we spent time together on Skyline Drive…What fun we had and the closeness we had back then…That soon passed as she got older but I will always cherish our time and closeness…Pictures are always awesome and the memories that come rushing back…

Misti’s step-dad was going through some photos on a website and came across this picture…He was truly amazed on how much this picture looked like our daughter so I just had to keep this one…I would want to see her look like this, at any time…So, is it my daughter or not?

This isn’t the best scanned picture but it is one of my favorites…USA flag behind her and the pose is priceless…

 

After growing up and going through some changes, she met her soul mate, Chad…They got married and now have 2 gorgeous kids…I love to see how happy she is…We don’t get to spend a lot of time together but I think about her all the time…I may not be able to see her but it’s always nice to see pictures and see how she is doing…

I love you Misti and I always will forever…..Love, Mom  xxxoooo