Arizona Rainbows

Sorry for slacking on the blog.... I have been too sick... too migraine-y... too tired and just feeling plain ole' sad to make it a priority...but I'm coming back around and I'll do my best to keep you updated...

Our trip to Arizona was a lot of fun... difficult at times... but fun. We rented an AMAZING house with incredible views and even had the rehearsal dinner there. We spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool and hanging out with family. It was so nice for all of us to be together for a joyous occasion. Mike and Marie's wedding was absolutely beautiful! Everything was just PERFECT!! Gabe and I even had a very special role in the wedding.... we walked Kiah (their ring dog) down the aisle :)

Unfortunately, while in Arizona we did have a few mishaps. Gabriel ended up with a nasty ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. We spent an entire day in an urgent care center while he got antibiotics and a nebulizer treatment.... and then there was Maw... poor Maw took a tumble... and we ended up spending an entire evening in the ER with her, while she got put back together!

Besides the wedding of course...and all of the fun times spent with family... my most memorable experience from the trip... happened on the day of the wedding... Gabriel woke up at 5 am on that Friday morning (gotta love time changes with toddlers!) And it was my turn to get up with him. So I moaned and groaned and made my way into the family room with him. I was absolutely in awe with what I saw next... there were rainbows... not just one rainbow... but rainbows all over the house. They were on the floor... on the ceiling... and on the walls... I had never seen anything like it! I was just completely amazed...and of course my first thought was Adam! I couldn't help but think that that was his way of letting me know he was there with us... it had to be him... it was just out of this world. They lasted for about 2 minutes and then they were gone. Thank goodness I took pictures because no one would have even believed me! When I was sharing this with the rest of the family (several hours later of course) Roy and Andy looked at one another... and said that they had been up at that time every day that week and NEVER saw ANY rainbows!

Of course mom and Mike's song at the wedding was "Over the Rainbow" and the only song fitting for the video of our trip :)

Friday Family Fun Day

We took Gabe to Ocean City for a day of SpringFest fun. It was too chilly to go near the water... but we enjoyed some boardwalk fun, some fun in the sand, and some oh so delicious dough roller pizza :)

Our Cutie

Life Goes On...

As hard as it is sometimes, Life must go on...
There are egg hunts to be had, playdates scheduled, trips to the zoo planned, holidays to celebrate, wedding showers to host, and birthday parties to attend...
Here are some of my favorite pics from the last couple of weeks...

BelAirions

Before life was forever changed for our family... we enjoyed a nice weekend with everyone as "BelAirions"! We drove there late Friday night and stay until Monday morning... when we left that Monday morning... we had no idea that in less than 24hrs, Adam would be gone forever...

While in Bel Air, we visited with Mom-mom and Pop-pop and PPJ! We had a nice lunch and afterwards PPJ, Gabe, Aunt Amy and I walked to this neat pond...where PPJ kinda sorta taught Gabe how to spit...Thanks a lot!

After visiting with everyone, we returned to Grammy's and had a nice family dinner...

(and Gabe got into Grammy's bag of potatoes)

These are the last pictures taken of Adam...had I known that I would have taken a thousand more!

He is wearing his Hollister tee and doing what he loved most...EATING :)

As dinner was winding down, Gabe was starting to get restless...mom suggested that Adam take Gabe down to feed the horses... something in me just knew that I should join them... at that time I knew that I should help mom clear the table and do the dishes... but I excused myself and told Adam to wait up. Adam, Gabe, and I walked down to feed the horses together...stopping along the way to play some wiffle ball. We fed the two horses an entire bag of carrots...and then decided that we wanted to check out the house that they were building next to mom's. The three of us hiked over there and spent a fair amount of time walking around the house and trying to figure out what the different room were. In the end, we determined that mom's house was way cooler :-) On the way back to mom's house, Gabe legs grew tired and he sat down and refused to walk anymore...Uncle Adam went over to him and picked him up. He carried him all the way back to the house.... with a huge smile on his face! There is no denying that Uncle Adam loved his little nephew Gabe...and vice versa! Just that weekend, Gabe learned how to say "Aaaaadum" and would stand at the bottom of the stairs and hollar his name....

Zoey also came to her Grammy's and had lots of fun playing with the other dogs.

On Sunday, it was a little chilly and windy but we decided to take Gabe and his bestest buddy Dominique to the playground. She taught him how to go down the BIG slides all by himself :)

I can not even begin to tell you how glad I am that we made this trip to BelAir. It was a great weekend, spent with family and friends...a weekend that will be burned in my mind forever...

A dedication

Always Loved...Never Forgotten

I just want to thank all of you for all of your phone calls,facebook msgs, e-mails, text, cards and visits. I can't tell you how grateful my family and I are to be surrounded by all of this love. One can never have enough support during a time like this. To say that the last 36 hours have been difficult would be an understatement. These have been the worse 36 hours any of us have ever had to face. While I had not experienced how much love the heart can hold, until Gabriel was born.... I can honestly say that until this tragedy, I had no idea how much pain the heart can hold. This has been devastating to all of us..and we are all continuing to vacillate between immense sadness and numbness.

Although we may never know what happened that fatal night, we have been doing everything possible to seek some form of closure. We have spoken to the paramedics that were there with Adam that night. We have visited the crash site numerous times...just trying to make sense of this. We have torn apart what very little remains of his car...looking for CD fragments and anything that just might bring us closer to him. (I never thought I would be so happy to find his chewing gum) We have cried, laughed, and prayed. We have even shared a private (and very tearful) moment at the funeral home, with Adam. We have reminisced over pictures and mom and I have even been make ourselves comfortable in his hollister sweatpants and t-shirts...I can't tell you how much I love the smell of his clothes...

I know the next couple days are going to be especially difficult as we lay Adam to rest, but I just hope and pray that with God, family, and friends...we will get through this.

I have added viewing and service information to my facebook page. I am looking forward to seeing so many of you, I just wish it didn't have to be under these circumstances.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to pray for all of those that are grieving the loss of a great son, grandson, uncle, nephew, and friend.

We will always love you Adam!

Cell Phone Archives

There is this cute little train that takes kids on a ride around the mall. Everytime Gabe sees it he waves, screams "HI", and says "Choo Choo"! Well I may have made a mistake by letting him ride this! Now I better make sure I have $3.00 cash everytime we go to the mall!!!

But the ear to ear grin on your child's face...priceless!

Picnic lunches and backyard fun :-)

70 and sunny! Thank You! We are tired of the cold...tired of the wind...and tired of the rain! On this 70 and sunny day, Gabe and I enjoyed our very first picnic lunch in our very own backyard. I have been looking forward to this moment for a very long time!

After our picnic lunch...we enjoyed some backyard fun and I got to test out my early Mothers's Day gift (Thanks Andy!)... A brand new BEACH chair! Wahoo!

Gabe needed to have his very own chair too :)

Someone is lookin' super fly...

...in their 3 piece suit :-)

Poor Gabey Baby

Gabey Baby has yet another double ear infection :-(
He has had a high fever... he won't eat anything... and he is just plain miserable. He goes between crying uncontrollably and just laying their lifeless... It breaks my heart...
And to make matters worse...I couldn't be there to hold him...
Work has been busy busy busy... so busy that Maw and I had to swap houses for a few nights. (so I could be closer to work...work..sleep...repeat)
I guess if mommy can't be there to care for you when you're sick... a Maw and a Daddy is the next best thing.
Luckily, I received lots of phone updates and photos.
Here are a few photos I received...

At the doctors...

The doctor's office has a cool fire truck exam table...

Daddy took him for a happy meal while waiting for his antibiotics...

Still not better Mom...

Finally I am home (for a day) and my baby is back in my arms. He's still pretty miserable... so I think tomorrow will be a pajama...cartoons...snuggle on the couch kind day ;)

Boys and their trucks

Andy sent me these pictures while I was at work...

It was a beautiful 70 degree March day. A day where Gabe could wear shorts and a short sleeve tee. A day where knees were skinned and friendships blossomed. A day where 3 little boys could play and drive their pick up trucks.

As I look at these photos, I can't help but think about all of the fun and trouble these 3 boys are going to have together in the days, months, years to come :-)