October is potentially my favorite month of the year – I love fall, the weather, the leaves changing, and no fall would be complete without a visit to the Topsfield fair. Mom graciously agreed to watch Brian – as there probably isn’t too much of interest to a 1 month old at a town agricultural fair – and Aaron and I, along with Amy, Joe and Justin – spent an evening walking the fairgrounds, people watching and eating delicious fair food. Justin went on a few rides with his parents, although he’s still not sold on them entirely, and of course we played some games, visited the livestock barns and toured the agricultural halls. It was a fun night. I did have one misstep in the form of a fried twinkie – but I don’t really want to talk about it… :)

At the end of September, most of the family got together to celebrate Joe’s birthday at Amy and Joe’s house. It was a low key celebration and a good opportunity to catch up and spend time with Justin and Brian. Unfortunately, most of the photos from the little party are a bit dark as we turned the flash off to take some pictures of Brian (so not to disturb his sleep) and then neglected to turn the flash back on – but I am posting them just the same.

On September 7th at 7:23 PM Amy and Joe welcomed their second son, Brian Callahan. He weighed in at 9lbs, 3 oz and was 21 inches long. Aaron and I had the pleasure of staying with and caring for Justin for a couple of days while Amy and Joe were in the hospital. It was great fun for us to have the time with Justin. As you’ll see from the photos we played with legos, with water in the sink, we went to the toy store, the playground and we feed ducks and geese at a local pond.

Meanwhile, Brian was born. We also brought Justin into the hospital to visit his mom and dad and to meet his new baby brother, who is adorable. Brian is a very sweet baby – looks a bit like Justin did as an infant, but I think there is a bit more of Joe in Brian’s face (than there is in Justin’s). Above is a family photo from the day Amy and Joe brought Brian home. Needless to say, we are all in love with Amy and Joe’s newest little boy.

At the end of July, Justin turned three! I can hardly believe it and now, he’s already halfway to four – crazy, I say! Amy and Joe had a big back yard party with family and friends. Joe designed a treasure hunt, including a beautiful hand drawn map which took the kids to various stations throughout the yard to pick up color coated loot. Justin was red, of course. The kids really enjoyed it. Amy made another over the top cake (remember the stop sign cake from last year?) – this time incorporating a number of Justin’s favorites: a bridge, windmills, parachuters, a tractor, etc. The party was a great success. I can’t wait to see what they do next summer.

I am happy to report that at the very end of June, my cousin Meghan married her wonderful boyfriend Louis. Amy and I traveled up to Portland, Maine together for the weekend’s festivities. It was great to see and visit with family. The ceremony and reception were at The Portland Company Marine Complex, old historic industrial complex – with exposed brick and wide plank pine floors. Their ceremony was sweet and very personal, and I was glad to be there. The reception featured a local blue grass band, an 80s dj, a candy bar and a photo booth. The two black and white photos at the end of the album were taken in the photo booth. It was a very happy celebration – an appropriate beginning of their life together.

Back in early June, we traveled to DC for Molly’s high school graduation. It’s hard for me to believe, given that when I moved to DC after college she was 5. As my dear brother Peter would say, I am old. Unfortunately it rained, which meant an indoor ceremony and limited tickets. Aaron and I volunteered to sit in the auditorium where the ceremony was televised on huge screens. I took a few photos (they’re in the album), but they’re pretty fuzzy. It was a graduation weekend for Andrew as well, who graduated from middle school the day before. Later on in the weekend, the weather cleared up and we got to see Andrew in action on the soccer field. Click on the photo above to see the small album of photos from the weekend.

It’s official, we’re all married off.

I am happy to report on April 18th, James and Chrissy got married. We all traveled down to Connecticut for a weekend long celebration. The rehearsal was Friday afternoon and many of us had a part to play – Peter was the best man, Aaron and Joe were groomsmen, Justin was the ring bearer, Amy and I did readings and Maria was the gift bearer. After the rehearsal we headed off to the country club for the rehearsal dinner. This was the same country club that my parents had their rehearsal dinner at almost 30 years ago! We had a nice evening of eating and socializing, but the highlight was the presentation of the video that Peter and some of James’ groomsmen and friends put together of a revised version of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing. I wrote a post previously about the video with photos from when Peter, Aaron and Joe recorded their portion. James’ friend Justin who put the video together posted it on his site:
Ode to James and Chrissy
(You may want to press play, then pause and let it fully load before pressing play again to watch it).
Aaron’s part is towards the end of the video, and is definitely worth waiting for :)

Saturday was the wedding ceremony, which went well and included a few minor vow blunders by Jamesy – just enough to keep everyone laughing which seems right for James and Chrissy. The reception was held at The Riverview – a banquet facility in Simsbury, CT. We ate, danced and socialized. Peter gave a sweet toast to James and Chrissy…and then the guests were treated to the now famous Apache dance – put on by all the groomsmen. It was pretty funny. James’ friend Justin videotaped it and although he was too close to get everyone in the frame – you can get a good idea: Groomsmen Apache dance
The dancing went on into the night and we all had a really great time. Congratulations to James and Chrissy!

Click on the photo above to see my pictures from the wedding weekend.

In late March the whole family got together at Amy and Joe’s newly renovated house to celebrate James, Peter and Aaron’s birthdays. It was nice to be all-together and we were all excited to see Amy and Joe’s completed construction project. We had dinner out together and then went back to Amy and Joe’s for presents and dessert. There were of course many great presents, but I would be remiss not to mention Dad’s gifts: Goonies themed treasure chests for James and Peter and a Lord of the Rings prop and cast photos for Aaron. Have I mentioned my father has discovered the wonder of eBay? Click on the photo above to see the album of photos from the party.

For Aaron’s birthday this year, I took him to New York City for the weekend. The initial inspiration for our trip was Will Ferrell’s Broadway show, You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush . I bought us tickets to see that show and then planned the weekend around it. We ate lot’s of interesting and good food: Turkish Friday night at Ali Baba, Saturday lunch at Katz’s deli (where Aaron had the biggest pastrami sandwich I have ever seen), Saturday dinner we had Korean barbecue at Madangsui and finally a crazy brunch (huge portions – way too much food) at Norma’s. We walked the city a bit, explored some neighborhoods and stayed pretty low key. We had a very relaxing weekend away – a successful celebration if I do say so myself.

At the end of January Mom, Amy and I traveled to Sturbridge to help celebrate Chrissy’s bridal shower. We met up with a bunch of our family (Chrissy of course, Maria, Nonnie, Aunt Becki, Tia and Aunt Martha) and many of Chrissy’s family members and friends as well. James and Peter were there too, but went off to a local pub with some of Chrissy’s guy relatives to hang out. Meanwhile the ladies had brunch, chatted and watched Chrissy open a bunch of gifts ranging from the practical to the humorous. It was nice to meet some of Chrissy’s family and it’s clear everyone is looking forward to Chrissy and James getting married. Click on the picture of the happy couple above to see the photos from the shower.