Sunday Surprise!

We ended our staycation with such a great surprise! An email arrived on Saturday evening telling us that the Boccards were planning to stop over for a visit! Yippee!!! The boys have not seen each other since January 2007... they were long overdue for a playdate!

William and Robbie played and played and ran and yelled and ran and yelled and hugged... precious!!!

Welcome Robbie!!

Someone is so excited to see his friend!!

Robbie is such a good sport (and always has been) when Will, the hug monster, attacks!!

Ney Ney FL visits Ney Ney NY!!!

We had such a wonderful visit... not long enough... of course, they should move to NY but that's a whole other story!

Also, William broke his "bombone" somehow and asked Amy to "fix it"... she tried to line up the parting lines but just couldn't fix it... HA! Inside joke!!

Fun at the Fair

During our "staycation" week, we headed to William's first fair!! He loved, loved, loved the rides!! Well, he loved the cotton candy too (as did Mommy and Daddy) but we weren't going to admit that we bribed him to leave by giving cotton candy!

Dizzy Dragons... William's first fair ride!

The boys are getting ready... both are excited.

"Go again," William said. It was Mommy's turn!!

The elephants were not available, so William rode in the dinosaur. However, he didn't give up his hope of riding in the dinosaur.

Waiting to go again...

One of his buddies, Jake, arrived. They rode together in the elephant... thank goodness!

Then Frankie arrived... all the boys in the elephant... very popular!!

Riding the boats... he had his boat rocking... literally... the other kids were folling the leader and dancing!!

Riding with Frankie and Ella... and waiving to his adoring parents.

The ferris wheel... all by himself... can you believe it??

Hang glider is ready for takeoff!

Whoa... and these things made quite a breeze!!

When we got off the slide, William announced, "Mommy screamed!" He was right!! What fun!

A Staycation... sort of...

With "staycations" all the rage, we thought we would do our part this summer... sort of. We drove to Baltimore for a little R&R. We visited the children's museum, had dinner (and dessert) with our good friend, "Uncle Geoff," and took in a baseball game at Ripken Stadium!

Our first stop... Port Discovery Children's Museum. It was a really hot day in Baltimore... so when we got up to the 3rd floor it was pretty toasty and we were pretty sweaty!

The boys in a three-story climbing maze! They made it to the second story before exiting to find Mommy!

The water room was a ton of fun... and quite refreshing given the heat! William is filling the cylinder so the rubber ducky can float!

William loved putting gas in the car!! He did this multiple times!

We didn't get a good photo of our boy playing soccer because we were having so much fun watching him play with the big boys! He ran and ran and ran. The big boys were pretty rough and our little athlete held his own! He got hit in the chest with the ball and knocked down a couple of times... he wasn't phased... he was inspired, it seemed.

We ventured upstairs to the building area... a.k.a the hottest part of the museum with huge windows! William is busily collecting materials for our family project!

Our rendition of our dream house... when we have a teenager!

A proud architect... he began giving lessons to some of the older children on how to build a comparable structure... seriously.

Will the Builder!

We met up with Uncle Geoff for sushi and dessert at Vaccarro's in Little Italy! WOW! For dessert in Baltimore, this is a must!!!

We headed to our hotel after visiting with Geoff. Our hotel is next to Ripken Stadium and Cal Sr.'s Yard. We walked around the facilities and played on the playground before calling it a day!!

After a leisurely breakfast and a long drive for a cup of coffee, we watched a Ripken baseball clinic and the retreated until game time!

The boys are walking from the hotel to the stadium... just a few steps!!

Waiting for the stadium to open!

First ever party pic while looking directly into the sun!

During select games, the Crab Shack serves fresh crabs! So we arrived early in order to gorge ourselves prior to the game!!

Crab hammers... William loved these!

Mr. Hot and Tired Baseball Boy!!

Last Play at Shea

I was sitting at my desk at work when I heard a co-worker roaming the halls asking if anyone wanted tickets to the Billy Joel concert. A guttural "YO" escaped my lips as I ran towards the voice offering tickets to the sold out show!

The next few moments were a lot like the trading floor at the Stock Exchange - we spoke in rapid successions as we haggled briefly. Then I told him not to sell the tickets in the few minutes it would take me to tell Kathryn to find a baby sitter...at any cost. To make a short story short we got the tickets and a baby sitter - I think we witnessed a miracle.

We went to the first of two Last Play at Shea shows, the last concerts to be played before the stadium is demolished.

Hey...wait a minute...this feels like a date!

The weather was fantastic for the outdoor intimate gathering of 55,000 + fans. After finding a parking spot we made a b-line for the stadium. Our dirty water dogs and beer never tasted so good! Finally...as the harvest moon was raising over the stadium...the announcer asked everyone to stand for the national anthem

Seated at his baby grand piano, Billy Joel starts playing the Star Bangled Banner...it brought tears to our eyes.

A short clip from the song, My Life

Each song was like an invitation to remember where you were the first time you heard the melody. Kathryn and I sang along with each song...funny how you never forget the lyrics to the songs that you grew up with.

Several times that night we jumped to our feet...clapping, singing, and dancing. The guest appearances from Tony Bennet, John Mayer, Don Henley, and John Mellencamp were complete surprises - Paul McCartney never showed for our concert...though we were convinced he would. He closed the second show - what a treat that must have been.

The concert was filmed during both shows - apparently a movie is being made about the event. We can't wait to see the film. It will bring back memories of a super cool evening.

The Set List

1. National Anthem
   
2. Miami 2017 Angry Young Man
3. My Life
4. Everybody Loves You Now
5. The Entertainer
6. Zanzibar
7. Allentown
8. Ballad of Billy The Kid
9. New York State of Mind (this is where Tony Bennett came out to share the stage and helped sing the song.)
10. Big Man on Mulberry Street
11. Rootbeer Rag
12. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
13. Goodnight Saigon (which featured a combined NYPD/FDNY choir on stage with him.)
14. Don’t Ask Me Why
15. Time To Remember (featuring John Mayer on guitar)
16. Keepin’ The Faith
17. Downeaster Alexa
    
18. Stand By Me/Innocent Man
    
19. Boys of Summer (yes, the Don Henley song, because we’re in a baseball stadium and Henley came out to sing it - fantastic!)
20. She’s Always a Woman
21. Captain Jack
22. Lullaby
    
23. River of Dreams
24. Hard Days Night (because The Beatles were the first band to play Shea)
    
25. Pink Houses (yeah, Mellencamp came on to sing it)
26. We Didn’t Start the Fire
27. It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me
28. You May Be Right
29. Please Please Me (Beatles again)
30. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
31. Only The Good Die Young
32. She Loves You (and more Beatles)
33. Piano Man
34. Souvenir

Happy 100th Birthday, Miss Anna

During the last week of June, our family celebrated the lives of two very special women: my mom and my grandmother.

We celebrated the life of my mom, Kathryn Virginia Thompson Covington, after her lengthy illness and subsequent death. Then, we celebrated the life of my grandmother, Emily Vianna "Miss Anna" Jones Covington who turned 100 years old!!

The entire family and numerous friends (over 160 people) gathered on the lawn at our family church, Shrock United Methodist Church, for a fish fry and picnic.

"Miss Anna's" birthday cake... her favorite color is green and the cake is decorated with 100 pink roses. One of our cousins made the cake!

The boys enjoying the picnic!

Eight different cakes were served in the church fellowship hall... red velvet, caramel, strawberry, chocolate and traditional birthday cake.

We took lots of family photos with the birthday girl!! These are all the great-grandchildren! There are 5 great-great grandchildren... all but one of them is older than William.

Looks like somebody's great-grandmother has her eye on a special little boy!!

Playing the piano in the sanctuary with first cousin Christopher and second cousin Samuel!

My grandmother with her children... Aunt Chris, Uncle Duncan, and Daddy

Grandpoppy and William when we went to feed a baby cow at a neighbor's house! William wasn't too sure about that calf, but he enjoyed chasing it around!