An Italian Family Reunion...

Bonus road trip, and a ton of pictures. Since Justin doesn't start work until July we were able to go to his family reunion this year. We made it into a road trip. Our first stop was Rock Springs, Wyoming to visit Grandma and Grandpa VanValkenburg. We also got to see Aunt Gayle and cousin Jamie. It was a great visit and the kids warmed right up to their Great Grandparents.

We hit the road again. This is one our many visits to McDonald's. We love ice cream. We are in Cheyenne at this stop.

Then following the GPS rather than Map quest, we wound up on this gravel road somewhere between Wyoming and Colorado. It added about a half an hour to our arrival time. We were praying for a paved road to show up somewhere, anywhere!

Kate sleeping and Zach watching Toy Story. They were such troopers. I had all sorts of hesitations about driving in the car with kids for long hours, and my kids have proven me otherwise.

We finally made it Sterling, CO. Here are some of Justin's Grandpa's brothers and sisters that are still living. The one farthest on the left came up to me and said to me, "With that cute dimple of yours, I can just tell you are a Marostica!" Pretty funny considering that I was pretty much the whitest girl there. This white freckled body of mine is so far from Italian, but I will accept the compliment...thank you very much!

Here are all the children of the brothers and sisters from above. In other words the first cousins. Justin's dad, aunts and uncles, etc.

Zach took this picture of Grandpa Wal-Marty and Uncle Matt.

I guess this is a lot of how Zach experienced the Family reunion. He loved the program they had...lots of music, and Uncle Dan sang and played the guitar. Gee I wonder why? He is obsessed with the guitar, drums, you name it.

Three of the sisters sang some of their favorite Italian Songs. Here is one of them.

We took a tour of the cemetery where a lot of the Marostica's were laid to rest. Zach is putting a rose in the ground by Justin's Grandpa Lawrence's parents grave, John and Domenica. We also took a tour of Iliff, CO, courtesy of Uncle Harry, where Justin's grandpa grew up. Lots of history and lots of stories.

After the family reunion was over we continued our road trip. We passed through Matt Perry's(Justin's buddy from Dental school) old stomping grounds of Akron. And it was probably a mile long...I am not exaggerating.

We ended up in Rye, CO, where Justin's Grandma lives. We visited Justin's Grandpa's grave. This is the new headstone. It was beautiful. The Army charm is from his hat. He was a Korean War Vet. The Rose is a symbol to Lovell, WY, where Justin's grandma is from. And the Salt Lake Temple is where they were sealed. A few facts for the sake of family history.

Justin's dad took us on a little tour up into the San Isabel National Forest, near Rye. This is a castle that a man has been building since the 1970's. The guy is a little cooky, but pretty talented for constructing this massive thing.

Video of Justin and Me climbing the Tower.

Justin's dad took us up to his family's property. It was gorgeous! They use it for hunting mainly, but maybe someday will build a cabin on it...fingers crossed. The only way to get to it in the winter is by snowmobile!

Then we ate at "The Lodge", one of Grandma Marostica's favorite restaurants next to the San Isabel Lake.

We stayed with Grandma Marostica for the night. This is four generations!

We left Rye and headed back to Utah, with a few planned stops on the way. Just a few more remnants of some of our friends from Dental School. "Chaffee" County sign.

We climbed the Rockies and hit this amazing view among several, and even got a little snow!

These guys were having a blast getting pulled up the mountain by a snowmobile and skiing back down. Some people have the life...this was Monday afternoon...who needs work?

One of our planned stops was Aspen, CO for lunch. It is in a setting like Park City, only bigger and I might have to say better! I could live here. We ate the best burgers at a little place called "Bad Billy's" and walked around the town.

We eventually left and kept plugging along. Zach was in Grandma and Grandpa's car, Kate in ours...again such good troopers.

We had so much fun and saw so much. I have always said that I would much rather fly than drive, but after this road trip, I am thinking that driving is not such a bad thing. You definitely get to see and do a lot more than you think, granted you might have to take the longer roads, but well worth it.

The Last Three Weeks...

Have been spent moving from Philadelphia to Utah. Between packing, stressing, loading, stressing, saying our good-byes, stressing, BBQ-ing, and stressing...did I mention stressing?, we managed to see a few things in Philly that we had neglected to do our entire 4 years of living in Pennsylvania.

Here we are at the top of the steps at the art museum. Philadelphia is beautiful, at least this side of it anyway...

Grandpa and Zach re-enacting "Rocky". There Zach goes pulling that famous face of his...

One of my favorite things to pass along the freeway and look at during the day, and especially at night all lit up, are the crew houses along the Schuylkill River.

We hit up Geno's, for the first time. Easy cheese and all. You only live once. I thought my mom was going to die, but she ate it.

Again after all the stressing, packing, loading, stressing, good-byes, and stressing Justin took off with my Dad in the truck and my mom and I were off on the plane to Utah.

This is what driving across the country looks like from a Penske Truck. I hate to say it, but I don't think I missed much. Someday though I will probably get my chance...minus the kids though. I love them, but I just think the 5 hours on the plane, mixed with how exhausted they were from the week, was enough for me.

A lot of people helped us move, and we needed every little bit of it. Can I just say that Kids + Moving = Not Easy? My poor mom had to witness it all. She was so nice to take a month off and help us out. Thank You! The other kicker was having to say good-bye to Justin's parents. We even stayed with them the last week we were in PA, thinking it would help ease the whole good-bye...we were wrong. We are going to miss living so close to them. It is hard to move knowing that you leave behind things and people you love so much. We are now settled in our new place and are enjoying seeing family, friends, and Cafe Rio(hahaha). But, we definitely still think about Philadelphia every day and wish we could have the best of both worlds all in one place.

That's Dr...

Justin R. Marostica! Well, he did it! He is officially a DMD. Here is the rundown of all the festivities the last couple of weeks, and a handful of pictures...

We went to Justin's Senior dinner for all the people graduating in his class. It was held at the Chart House near Penn's Landing in downtown Philadelphia. Here is the view from the deck. The guys had to fork over an additional $50 to have us wives come to the event. We were a little worried that it was going to be a night of cocktails and appetizers only, but were pleasantly surprised when we all sat down for a pretty descent meal. In other words...worth the extra $50!

Justin won't forget these guys. He carpooled to and from school with them. I think they are all relieved that the commute is finally over. Good-bye 422, Rt. 1, 76 and Broad Street!

Some of the wives that survived the 4 years of Dental School. We worked hard too, just not in a scholastic sort of way.

The day before graduation they had an awards ceremony. They awarded some pretty prestigious accomplishments. I was amazed with some of the things his peers had done while in school. Justin was awarded a couple for being such a stellar student. Not too shabby huh?

This award was awarded to him for his interest and commitment to oral implantology and implant dentistry. He also got a piece of the loot for his board score for boards part II. Way to go Justin! All that studying was definitely worth it.

The day of graduation we had prepared Zach for his walk across the stage with Daddy. He was very excited to say the least. He walked off waving and giving everyone a two thumbs up.

Here is the calm before the storm. The actual graduation lasted a couple hours. I promise that my kids have never been so naughty as they were for these two hours. It didn't help that both Kate and Zach were exhausted from being carted here and there with little or no nap in between. I am just glad that we survived and that I didn't kill my kids...definitely tempted!

And he did it! He is now Dr. Marostica! We couldn't be more proud. What an accomplishment.

The kids are still trying to catch up!

We Are So Proud...

Daddy passed he boards! I have never seen Justin so nervous to open a letter in the mail. Well, I guess this wasn't your typical letter. Anyways, after an insane amount of studying, hard work, and perseverance, the result we got on this small slip of paper made it all worth it! Congratulations! We love you and could not be more proud of you. To celebrate we hit up good old Chili's for a little dinner.

The facial hair? That is a whole other story. I was given several reasons for the grow out that I am not sure if it was a good luck charm for him and his buddy on the boards, an opportunity to get attention from his peers, who he claims have given him loads of compliments on it, or just an attempt to look like McSteamy. He even got a compliment from his little brother, Tyson, who could grow a beard for him and Justin both!

Graduation...

Is just around the corner and the next four weeks until we move are going to fly by. Before every one's families got in town, Justin thought it would be fun to get together with all his friends from his class and have one last BBQ. Most of our friends were able to be there. A few weren't able to come because of prior commitments and some who have already moved, but we adopted some of our med student and pedo student friends as well. We all had a great time. The rain that poured most of the day stopped just in time for us to start grilling. We provided the meat and drinks and everyone else brought a side to share. Justin and I were proud of our kabobs. They look good, no? We will miss having such great friends. My friend Emily also took some pictures.