Soliciting opinions from blogland - Is it crazy to plan a trip to Greece with a toddler?

Greece is at the top of our *must do* list. We REALLY want to go. We'd like to go for about 10 days. I don't think that I'll be ready to go on a 10 day trip with out James Ryan, ever, or at least until he's in college:)
We're thinking of booking a trip for Summer 2008. We know we want to go in the summer and can't go this summer. Although it's 15 months from now, I think it would be fun to start planning now. It's nice to have a big vacation to look forward to. If we go in July or August 2008, James Ryan will be a full fledged toddler (22 or 23 months) and I don't know what that's like, so is it crazy to plan this trip?
I know that it will be more difficult than traveling as a couple, but it will be easier than traveling with two young children. I'm not sure if and when we'll have two, but it's a consideration.
Some of the trip will be sight seeing (about 2 days in Athens) and the rest will be relaxing on the Islands.
Tell me what you really think.

More St. Pat's

My Irish Boy:-)

This is mean (and out of focus)but I had to post, he was not into the hat.

So serious....

Happy Saint Patty's Day!

Hope you're all having a fun time today!
So far the weekend isn't off to the best start, the Brannigan Girls' Night Out was cancelled last night since we had an ice storm. Didn't we just have summer-like temps a few days ago? What is going on?
Jim is getting sick again and is working this morning. I think he just needs to sleep more....Seriously, I was thinking about it the other day and this is what he has going on right now, he is:
*working full time at Physical Solutions
*writing a paper on the results of his Pitcher Perfect study (hopefully this gets published and we can go to San Francisco so he can present it:-)
*just finished working on an injury prevention program with the women's soccer team at the New York Athletic Club, will cover their home games in May/June/July
*starting the injury prevention program with the NYAC men's soccer and lacrosse Teams later this month
*working toward starting his own practice at the NYAC
*treating his home care client twice/week
*taking care of little Jim on Tuesdays and Thursday while I'm working

Does this make anyone else tired or dizzy???
Not too shabby for a guy who slept for about 17 hours/day in college. Sometime between grad school and now he's developed superhuman powers.
I do have to say a huge thank you to our families, we wouldn't be able to keep it together if we didn't have their unconditional love and support. They are always there to help us with everything, especially with James Ryan. We are so lucky:-)

Here's James Ryan is his Trakis Creations shirt, check him out!


This shirt was a gift from Lee at NFL films, it's so cute! It says:

Trakis Creations
Size Small
100% Joy
Made in Heaven

Care Instructions:
Handle gently. Wash regularly, warm water. Towel dry. For best results, shower with love. Apply hugs and kisses as needed.

With proper care, this wonderful child will give you a lifetime of love and enjoyment!

We love it, thanks Lee!

A few of my favorite things

Today was a day filled with good things. I played with the camera, of course, and got some cute shots. We went to the park and enjoyed the warmer weather. James Ryan smiled at other the other kids. I think he wanted to be a big kid and fly a kite and go on the swings, he was really interested in what the big kids were up to. We went out to dinner and had good food, good wine, good coffee, and dessert. We went to a Greek restaurant called Onassis in Cherry Hill, the food was good and it's a BYOB so we brought a bottle of Smoking Loon pinot noir - our new favorite inexpensive red.

I'm now wishing I could somehow stretch the weekend another day, as always it flew by.


I call this one Piggy Toes.

Off to the flower show we go!

James Ryan had lots of fun yesterday. Here he is getting ready for his first train ride.


We took the train into Philadelphia, James Ryan loved looking out the windows. He also enjoyed all of the city sights and the colors at the flower show and the Reading Terminal Market. I practiced my photography, I was practicing depth of field, specifically photos with a very shallow DOF where one object is in focus and the background is blurred. Here's what I cam up with ...




Have a great weekend everyone!

A swinging good time!

Today we had a nice brunch with Grandma Sue, Pop Pop Frank, and Paw. After brunch, Jim, Sue, James Ryan, and I took a walk to the park. It was colder than we thought but we played on the swings for a few minutes.

As you can see, James Ryan was a huge fan of the swings!

Jim took these photos and I played around with a few color conversions. What do you think?

Thanks:)

Thanks to everyone who reads our little blog - whoever you are!


Extra special thanks to Tara, Laura, Steven, Taryn, Sam, and Kelly for commenting!!! We're so glad you like the blog, we love getting comments, keep em commin!

Here are a few of today's favorite photos. Enjoy!

Beating the Winter Blues...

I've often wondered if I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder), I swear I get the blues every year in February. Well, I feel like a turned a corner today. I had a little change in perspective on some things and I just feel much better and suddenly more alive.

I had a bit of a heart to heart with my boss and it was a good thing. As a result I'll be pursuing a few new projects at work. It always feels good to start a new project with an opportunity to be creative. I love what I do, but sometimes the work just drags and starts to feel a little stale. I'm looking forward to a few fresh start to go along with the spring weather I've been waiting for.

I also convinced my boss to cover the cost of Nikon School as part of my training plan! How great is that? It is relevant to my job in some ways, the course covers optimizing digital images for printing and sharing. After I take the course I have to provide a training to my colleagues that covers our digital camera guidance for civil inspections and investigations, as well as optimizing images for sharing and printing. I'm proud of myself for proposing the my idea to my boss.

Also, when I got home today, I had a package - my camera is back! Woot!
Sorry, no photos today but I promise to take a lot this weekend.

This week has been nuts. Jim was really sick and his cell phone was a casualty (it's too gross to explain), his phone has been out of commission for a few days. We're taking care of it but for now call our home phone or my cell.

LJ is cuter than ever. This week Jim starting telling him "You're the cutest, and the bigest, and the smartest, and the cutest, and the nicest, and you're just the best..." over and over in a really, really funny voice. We all just crack up when he says it. You have to hear it, it's too funny!

Happy weekend!

Oldies but Goodies

I'm really missing my Nikon and hope to have it back from the service center soon. I'm also missing nice weather. It was so blah today!
I can't wait for sunshine. I would love to take James Ryan for a walk but lately it's been too yucky outside. We're really looking forward to spring! For now I'll share a few photos taken before I was a blogger.

This was taken in the fall at Ang Cottone's baby shower. Seriously, Ava and Declan are gorgeous! I miss them...



This one is me, James Ryan, and Billy B. Billy is such a great kid, he is so kind to everyone and just loves James Ryan. This was in September, it was one of the first times and James Ryan and I went visiting after we left the hospital. We went to Nan's, she took this photo. It was a beautiful day.



This is at the end of August, a few days before my due date. My Mom and I thought that it would be fun to play with the new camera and do a maternity 'photo shoot.' It was fun and I'm really glad we did it. It don't have a lot of photos of myself very pregnant. For the most part, I really enjoyed pregnancy, at least the first 40 weeks. It got really old when I was late and everyday became the longest day of my life:)

Obviously Jim was not into the maternity photo shoot. He thought it was a dumb idea. He is supposed to be kissing my belly here but he felt like an idiot and couldn't keep a straight face. I know it's because my parents were there because he kissed my belly all the time when I was pregnant. Anyway, I still think this is a cute shot.



I know most of you know this photo, but I love it so much that I'm posting it anyway. This was taken at the hospital the day after little Jim was born.

Biggie

Just a few snapshots from bedtime, right before we read Goodnight Moon.




Check out little Jim's new Finding Nemo PJs, a gift from aunt Laura, thanks Laur! They are size 12 months! I am not ready for my baby to wear size 12 months yet:( He really is so big for his age, hence the nickname 'Biggie' - we call him that all the time.

Hopre you all have a nice lazy Sunday like we did!