Countdown to Suzy's Big Day

The biggest event of Memorial Day weekend was the bridal shower for John's sister Suzy. It has been super cute to hear Callie talk about how Suzy and Brian are getting married in Colorado. So the event was a great way to show Callie all the bells and whistles that go along with a wedding. Callie enjoyed being in the middle of it all, and especially enjoyed any chance she had to share the limelight with the star of the show, bride-to-be Aunt Suzy.



The actual event was held at the Balestracci residence, a home normally infested with boys. But fortunately, John had arranged for all the guys to spend the afternoon at a pool party across town. So while they made themselves scarce, the ladies showered Suzy with food, gifts, and laughter.


Two of those in attendance were Alison Skonieczny Zanardi and Melanie Skonieczny Loeber. They are sisters, by the way, and not just two women who have eerily similar middle names. It was great to catch up with both of them. The focus of our conversations were pregnancy, since Melanie is now officially 12 weeks, and when we could eat, since Mel and Sarah were trying to battle first trimester nausea. It will be fun to expand the Skonieczny-Bowes clans by two this winter.


it was also wonderful to see John's cousin Emily and Aunt Debbie, pictured here with Katie. They drove down from Vermont for the event and we will also get a chance to see them in Colorado at the wedding. Emily is going to be in attendance with her boyfriend Eli, and we have already given her fair warning that he should be prepared for a proper grilling by, among others, Chris and Sarah. While they are gentle and kind about it, Chris and Sarah have a way of learning a lot about you in a short period of time.


Also making the drive to Guilford for the event were John's Aunt Pat and cousin Barbara. It was great to have them there since we don't get to see them often enough. Barb looked especially radiant on that day...wink-wink, hi Barb! (We have to give a shout out to someone we know reads the blog besides our parents!) On a serious note, it was great to get a chance to talk and hopefully the future will provide more opportunities to hang out. For instance, perhaps Ryan would like to take a look at the University of Kentucky. Rumor has it we have some good sports teams - basketball, football, baseball. We're just throwing some ideas out there.


Finally, we have a picture of the original Bowes girls. Don't they look fantastic. Unfortunately we don't have a photo from a few decades ago to compare. But trust us, they have only gotten cuter.



Katie, Taffy, and Suzy's friend Heather put on a fabulous shower and truly got us revved for the celebration to come. We are looking forward to Colorado in less than two weeks. The countdown is on for Suzy and Brian's big day!!! Don't worry, we may take a few pictures to share.

May Travels

May was a tough month for us. As we shared with you a few posts ago, the Halloran family left Lexington and headed for Salt Lake City. The good news is that they are doing great in SLC. The bad news is that they weren't the only ones leaving Lexington. At the end of the month our friends Neil and Karen packed their bags and headed for New York. Like the Hallorans, this move was because of an awesome opportunity that they couldn't pass up.

Fortunately, we had the chance to spend a weekend with Neil and Karen before they departed. We rented a cabin at Jenny Wiley State Park and got in some good old fashioned nature and relaxation time. Pictured below is part of the nature encounter - ducks aplenty.



Okay, so there are no ducks in the picture above. But we were feeding the ducks. Callie enjoyed it, once John a.k.a. Captain Caution, allowed her to walk past the large hissing drake. That's a male duck, by the way. Don't feel bad - we had to google it. This was yet another example of Sarah and John's contrasting parenting styles, because Sarah thought she might be able to tame that bad boy by riding him across the lake.


Despite the parental craziness, Callie was willing to pose with one of the signs that confirms there were actually ducks on the premises. One wonders if her willingness to pose for such pictures will diminish or increase as the years go by. We are having to bribe her more often to obtain pictures like these. (If you look closer at the picture you will see a fine pair of legs behind the sign - but you don't see the candy held behind the sign)


One of the best parts of the weekend was taking an easy hike on the lakeside trail while Neil a.k.a. The Tree Man, pointed out the variety of plant life and gave us juicy tidbits about the age, diversity, and lushness of the forest around us. At the end of the hike, we weren't sure whether to tip him, prepare for a quiz, or just get dinner ready. As you can see, we have to work on Callie's ability to stay awake in class. This behavior would not fly in Neil or John's classroom.


We will definitely miss Neil and Karen and hope that we see them soon in the future. Of course, that may be difficult as Karen will be spending the next year doing research in Israel while Neil spends several months studying the forests of Mongolia. And no, we are not making any of that up. You thought we traveled alot. At least we stay on the same continent.

Speaking of travel, the last weekend of May brought us to Connecticut for a number of events. The first order of business was John's 15th Yale reunion. Callie spent most of the weekend with Nana Banana, Sport, Suzy, Chris, Katie, Michael, and Brendan, while we lived it up in New Haven. John walked around and caught up with classmates he hadn't seen for years, while Sarah scoped out the members of her favorite reunion class, the men of '45W. Those are the guys who initially enrolled with the class of '45 and then went to fight in WWII. Though they graduated later they are designated '45W. They were celebrating their 65th and were looking good!

In any case, Callie did come into the city to hang out with us for a couple of hours on Saturday. She ran around with the other kids and took part in the little festival Yale put together. They are just trying to recruit early. Personally, John thinks she looks pretty good in the Yale hat she has on below. Although to be fair, she would probably look just as cute in a UC-Santa Barbara hat.



It pains me (John) to say that another picture that could have gone in this spot just didn't make the cut. But for the record, we do have a couple of pictures of John and Callie at the front door of the Master's House of Jonathan Edwards College. With any luck, and over Sarah's registered protest, this will be the front door to our house. Yes, Sarah is shaking her head as I type this.


The last picture for this post finds Nana Banana, Brendan, and Callie posing with the man of the hour, Michael. He had just finished playing his trombone and marching with the Adams Middle School Band in Guilford's Memorial Day parade. Everyone agreed that his band was far better than the high school band. It is also important to note that we intended to have pictures of Michael marching and playing. However, due to John's fine camera work, we ended up with multiple shots of a fine young boy named Tony Penza. He does play the trombone, but is not Michael. Such is life.

Of course there was one more very big reason for our trip. But that deserves a post all its own.