Happy Father's Day Bill! Your 3 Girls Love You

Here is my favorite guy curled up on the couch with two of his favorite girls and a good book. Bill is a wonderful father. As our girls start to grow up they will learn this for themselves. I'm just proud of myself that I did such a great job picking out the father for my kids. I think his heart melts every time he hears Lilah say, "Dada." Some Dads don't spend a lot of time with their kids, but Bill starts playing the minute he walks in the door. He even helps me get dinner done and or washed and the kids ready for bed when he's been working hard all day. He takes great care of his family. Bill is off every wednesday, I don't know if many of you know that. But the girls and I call wednesdays our Daddy day, and its hands down our favorite day of the work week. Here's Bill, ....father's day morning,.... we made him a special mexican breakfast, his favorite! I should share that he cooked a large portion of it while I was fielding phone calls and tending to Aubrey Jane....what a great Dad!
Bill got 4 special gifts. One from each of us girls, and one from the 3 of us. This is a basting pot for when he's grilling. Aubrey Jane got him this one, but she was asleep when we opened gifts. Bill is quiet the grill master. He just got a new grill, so we got him several accessories for our favorite top chef.
Then we headed out for a hike not far from our house. Bill got me a hiking with kids in Western Washington book for mother's day and we found this hike in it. The weather was fantastic, sunny skies and 75 degrees, it made all those dreary cloudy days start to feel worth it. We made Bill a frame for father's day that had a picture of Bill and his Dad in it when Bill was a baby and Opa had him in a backpack. The other picture in the frame was of Bill with Lilah in a backpack. It was super cute. We gave Opa one too!
Here's just a cute picture of Bill and Lilah being silly at home.

While we were at breakfast today we were talking that last year he'd only been a Dad a few weeks on father's day. This year he's a real dad,..... house is messy, ... kids crying.... he's really earned his special day this year! And just 3 days after father's day we learned sweet Aubrey Jane was on the way, now that's one father's day gift we're not repeating this year!

Happy Father's Day to Opa, Papa Jack, & Papa Jerry. We love you all and hope your day was great! And to Papa, we're thinking of you and missing you!

We love you Bill, Happy Father's Day!

This is how much luggage it takes to get our family of 4 half way around the world.
Gotta nap when & where you can. Can you find Lilah?

Rehearsal dinner at a winery in Chianti region. Founded by Verrazano family who were credited with discovering NY.

Leaving Tuscany, it was beautiful!

Wedding May 29th

Aubrey Jane thought she looked great!

Here we are with Josh & Ellie in front of the villa. This is where the wedding was and where we stayed all week. It was gorgeous!

View from our room.


Aubrey Jane getting ready for her first wedding!

Florence

How cute is that back side?
Josh with the Moore clan in Florence as we start our day. The happy couple arranged a great tour for everyone to see The David and tour the city a little.
Thinking of Opa at the Duomo.
Touching the boar so we'll be sure to return to Florence one day.

Tuscany

Volterra, this is the town very near the villa where we were staying for the wedding. It is a town high up on a rock, known for its alabaster. We found it a great place for pizza and bruchetta and terrific views. This is a shot of the pool at the villa. We hung out around the pool quite a bit. It was very nice. The weather was a tad cooler than I would have wanted, i.e. no one really wanted to get in the pool, but the weather was perfect for just being outside enjoying everything.

Lilah and I in Volterra.
Lilah's new man, Tyler. She even kissed him while we were there. Tuscany is a great place for a first romance.
Bill and his 2 girls.

When In Rome 2

This is one of my favorite photos. We'd been going all day and were pretty tired. We grabbed a few slices of pizza and sat in a square to eat it and take in the city. We were just really enjoying ourselves here.
Cute hotel photos here. The hardest part of the trip was trying to change the girls' schedule. Well mostly Lilah, ...Aubrey Jane is still easy. This picture was taken at midnight!
Colosseum. Things you learn on the trip. The first day when we saw the Sistine chapel we were looking down most of the time because Lilah was running around. Second day we put her in the backpack.... much better for Mom & Dad, we actually got to see some stuff and Lilah could just nap when she needed to.

WHEN IN ROME

Just 5 days after the girls and I returned from GA, we headed to Italy for the wedding of Josh Morris, Bill's roommate from Rhodes.
The wedding was in Tuscany, but we stopped in Rome for a few days before we met up with the wedding party to see the sights.
The trip really turned out great. There were moments that were hard traveling with little ones, but overall very worth it. Best quotes I heard, "I can't believe you're taking your kids to Europe, when my kids were that age I didn't even take them out to eat." Said by a lady on the plane. " You guys must have a great marraige to handle this kind of trip." Said by someone at the wedding.
Vatican City
Panthenon


Trevi Fountain

We Love You Papa April 1, 1927 - April 28, 2008

My Papa, George L. Chaney, passed away in late April from liver cancer. Papa had been to visit us in Seattle, and we got to spend almost a month with him. I put him on a plane to return to GA on a tuesday and the following tuesday the girls and I were headed home for the funeral. He died just 6 short days after he left us.

At the funeral so many people kept coming up to me and telling me how much Papa had been looking forward to his trip out to Seattle to see us. They said it was all he talked about and had asked everyone to pray for him that his health would allow him to make the trip to see his newest great grandbaby and to visit with me & Lilah & Bill in our new home. Everyone felt when he got back home he had done what he really wanted to do and was ready to go and be with the Lord.
Lilah loved Papa's artifical leg. She was constantly pulling on the metal piece at the end of it trying to figure it all out. And when Papa was napping she'd move his leg and cane to play with them, and then he couldn't get up! We got lots of laughs out of her fascination with the leg.

During Papa's visit he told me he has had a wonderful and blessed life and was ready to go, that not much would change now between now and the end and he had done all he wanted to do. For those of you who don't know, Papa raised me in his home after my mother passed away when I was 15 years old. There are no words to describe how much he has meant to me.
I am at peace with Papa's passing. He lived to be 81 years old and he made the most of every year he was given. And he had been so broken hearted and lonely since Nanny passed away, and I am happy knowing they are together again. I was so proud of him over the last two years he did a lot of traveling and trying new things like eating dim sum and working on his technique with chop sticks. I know Papa knew I loved him and I know without a doubt he loved me. There were no words left unsaid between us. Although I have peace with his passing I do miss him terribly. I was in GA for almost a month trying to help settle the estate. There were so many things that were left from my Mom's home, as well as going through all of Nanny & Papa's things from the home they had lived in since 1965. It was saying good bye to 3 very important people in my life. It was a lot of memories, but am a thankful to have had such wonderful people to help me grow into the person I am today. I've enclosed pictures of his time with us during what we now know was his last month of life. It was my honor that I got to spend those days with him and I'll cherish those memories forever. And Aubry Jane will feel so special to know Papa made such a big trip for her.
We love you Papa!