Caden Patrick Flaherty (90 photos), by Valerie Trefry

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
http://www2.snapfish.com/fbshareredirect/p=93211246506099597/l=2316479013/g=119603525/redirectURL=share/otsi=SALBBL/AlbumID=1388231013/a=119603525_119603525/usercomments=I_xqd%20like%20to%20share%20my%20Snapfish%20photos%20with%20you.%20Once%20you%20have%20checked%20out%20my%20photos%20you%20can%20order%20prints%20and%20upload%20your%20own%20photos%20to%20share./counttext=90%20photos/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish

So back to April 4th....

I will begin to catch everyone up on the news since my last blog. On my last posting, Emily and I were going to visit McDaniel College in Westminster MD. On the way up the road, I asked Emily if she was up for an adventure. I thought it would be a great idea to ride up to St. John's University in NYC...just to look at the campus. John was busy working on an audit and Emily didn't have to work that evening...sounded like a plan.

I checked with John and he said "go for it".

We had our handy dandy GPS and we were on our way. We hit a bit of NYC traffic, but found our way to the campus before the sun set. We only drove through the campus, actually only spending about 15 minutes total on campus.

As we headed home, we got a awesome evening few of the Statue of Liberty. Our GPS friend was telling us we would be getting home around midnight, so we decided to stay overnight in Wilmington DE. John was able to get us a room at the downtown Marriott using his reward points. Emily and I had a fabulous late dinner at a small pub in the city before settling in for the night.

We made it home by church the next morning! What an adventure!

What a busy time....

Today Emily and I are driving to Westminster to vistit McDaniel College. I am excited to see the day should be a beautiful Spring day. It is supposed to be windy, but I can deal with windy. Emily has been accepted to 6 out of the 7 schools she applied to. Now, she has to make up her mind which one to attend. She has already visited Villanova and Bucknell when we took a trip earlier this school year. John, Emily and I will be visiting St John's on April 19th.

The next few weeks will be so very busy as next weekend is Cindy's shower for Caden and Easter. The following weekend is Emily and Joe's DI State competition and our visit to St John's. Just a week or so after, Emily turns 18 and John and I celebrate our 23rd anniversary.

The secret is out

Each year the Drew family gets together between Christmas and New Years to have our Family Christmas Party. It is a great time for us all, as we all know how hard it is to have the chance to visit with everyone during the holidays. Years and years ago, we used to do a gift exchange, but that has given way to an ornament exchange. What is really great about the ornament exchange is it really doesn't have to be a huge expense. Each year I mark the bottom of the ornaments with my kids’ initials and the year. With this in mind, each one of my children have a wonderful collection of ornaments so when they move out on their own - and they will move out on their own - they will have these to take with them.

This year was such a great get together. All of Brenda's girls were able to come from out of state with their families and Cindy and Brad made the trip from Chicago. One of these days we will get Marilyn, Bobby, and Larry's families all to make the trip also. Counting all the adults and children, there were 58 in attendance. There were 2 TV’s going with games systems, 2 computers, a very large air hockey table, ping pong table, and a drum set. Factor in a dozen or so different conversations at one time and now you get the idea of the magnitude of our get togethers.

The secret was announced in a grand fashion, as is always the case at our family gatherings. The great news is Cindy and Brad are expecting. Rather than me telling you here how they made their announcement, I will have you go to Cindy and Brad's Adventures in Chicago listed to the right of my blog. Trust me - it is great reading!

I really did not believe this would have happened this way. Christina and I were just in Chicago in October visiting with Cindy and Brad. There was no way she was pregnant and didn't tell me. Actually, this is exactly what happened. Now looking back at our visit, there were tell tale signs - but nothing that would have led me to believe at that time.

The biggest surprise was that she is 4 months along. Well, needless to say there were lots of hugs and tears. And of course we are all guessing what the news will be at the next family get together.

New Year - New Beginnings

I know, it has been way too long since my last posting so let me start to catch everyone up with what has been happening.

September 16th Christina turned 21. I can believe she is 21, I just can't believe I am old enough to have a 21 year old. We went out for dinner to Texas Roadhouse for a Birthday dinner. Nannie, Greg, Sandy, Patrick, Michelle, Allie, Lauren, Steven and our family enjoyed a celebration dinner. She had her first "officially legal" drink.

October brought TOB's (Tournament of Bands) for Emily and soccer games for Joe. Emily enjoyed a great season with Thomas Stone being invited to perform at ACC's in Pensylvania in November. Joey played midfield for Thomas Stone's Junior Varsity team and was asked to move up to Varsity for the playoffs. This is a pretty special honor, as only three students were asked.

Emily performed in Thomas Stone's Imagination Playhouse production of "The Revenge of the Space Pandas or Binky Rudich and the Two Speed Clock". They performed this along with "The Frog Prince" as the hope was to attract more children. They were able to perform 2 - 2 a days. This means they had two daytime performances during the week and area schools attended. This enabled them to raise quite a bit of money to be used for their trip to Scotland this summer for the International Thespian Festival. I know what you are thinking - and the answer is yes. Emily graduates in June, goes to Scotland in August, and then right off to college. What an adventurous Summer this will be for Emily, and a sad fall for me. I will adjust, but I will miss her terribly when she goes off to school.

Christina and I had a wonderful time visiting with Cindy and Brad in Chicago. What a fabulous and beautiful city. I will blog more about the trip in my next post, as I really need to rethink the entire visit and how a huge secret was being kept from me the entire time. Wow, I know - how could anyone keep a secret from me - well it did happen. More to come in the next post.

Okay, that is enough for now. I will try to get back on later and bring you up to speed with the happenings through the Holidays.

Love to you all!