Rose's Birthday

              We did a near repeat of yesterday today...

             ....with a few twists...

             I spent the morning telling the ladies at Momentum Fitness, where I am getting my right rotator cuff worked on (unfortunately, I will be unavailable to pitch during the playoffs, but the Phillies were able to pull off the win without me tonight!), about Kim.  About what happened.  And the person she was.  And the family she built.  And the work she did at church, in the community and at the schools...Turns out, in yet another 'small world' scenario, Kristin, the p.t. killing me  rehabbing my shoulder, is the daughter of Joan Taylor, who works at Cottonwood!  So, we had a lot to talk about!  She knew about the Head Sprout program, that Kim did so much work with, because her little girl is in the program right now and she loves it.  Our friend, Lupe, has spent a great deal of time volunteering with this program at Cottonwood since Kim left.

            We decided to swim again at Nana and Pop's hotel and scooped up Lexy and Breanna to join us.  It was pouring rain when we left our house, but, by the time we made it down to the hotel, we had sunny skies!

        
                          The girls played Marco Polo and a game called 'colors'...

While Cody dazzled us with flips and other assorted tricks!

                                  Tonio sat with Nana and Pop, watching, as he is still under the weather - but a great sport, reading his book, playing with Autumn's Nintendo DS and talking to us.  Breanna was so cute.  She would come over and sit with him, keeping him company from time to time.

       
                         Another incredible day, yet chilly, as the temps only got up to about 90 degrees!  The bambini had a picnic by the pool and swam for hours.  We hit the Jack In the Box for tacos afterwards - swimming make you hungry!!

                        In the evening, we went to Viro's to help celebrate Rose's birthday with a surprise birthday party.

                                          The cake was a chocolate delight cake...Rose had trouble blowing out all of the candles and said the candles were too spread out, she had to walk from one to the next to blow them out!

Rose's and Vito's family!

                              
                            There was lasagna and chicken Parmesan with bread and salad.

As usual, we ate too much.  Vito's son, Joe, made me a double cappuccino tonight!

Some of the people there tonight, came up and shared memories with Kim, after seeing her photo now hanging on the wall of the restaurant and the flyer for her dinner on the counter...it was nice.  Francesca (Vito's aunt), who's husband, Angelo, is directly above Kim, and I had a long conversation about our spouses.  Angelo passed away from cancer four years ago now...

It was chilly tonight, as the bambini scrambled up the garden wall to light their candles.  They like to alternate who is lighting candles each night and who gets to light the St. Jude candle and who gets to light the Mother of Guadalupe candle.  We could hear the coyotes calling in the distance, making Bella nervous, as we said our goodnights...

Love,

 Dave