fond memories...

a couple of years ago, cecca's hand was viciously attacked by a rogue jar of overheated fudge. This photo represents the day after the burn incident.... not so bad, huh? Well, why don't you join us on a trip down memory lane as we explore what this humble little blister turned into and turned into again?

this. this is what it turned into.

if one looks close enough, one can see the virgin mary's footprint suspended in the blister juice.

"surely, she went to the doctor," you may be asking yourself. no, she didn't, and don't call me shirley. 

staying true to it's nature, the blister eventually popped yet left us with this beautiful reminder of it's existence.

yum.

there's nothing more appetizing than the juxtaposition of burned-up dead skin next to fleshy new skin.

like a heart with the tail of a tadpole.

cecca's hand has since healed completely with not a scar to be seen.

It's a stunt kite thing... you wouldn't understand!

Cecca and I spent a beautiful day at the beach with her new stunt kite! She hasn't used one since she was a smaller person some days past.  As you can see, however, she still has the goods!

the weirdos we let live with us

this is where i found oliver napping.

please, nap in the sink.

weirdo.

jessie loves getting bathed; just look at her face.

jasinski family reunion

jarrod practices his dance routine for cecca's cousin tory.

lucia celebrated her first birthday at the reunion. few could resist those plump cheeks; as my brother-in-law jim put it when alessia asked where lucia was, "she's being passed around like a doobie." 

ethan steps in to mediate the baby dispute.

vinnie enjoys some recreational outdoor activity.

reunion from above.

when jarrod asked ethan how batman's eyes tasted he said "good."

ethan takes a moment to thank batman for his sacrifice.

nothing gets a baby's engine revving quite like a game of peek-a-boo.

zombie baby! cecca's cousin matthew's daughter, caleigh.

marco and lucia take a load off.

cecca's dad, vinnie and his siblings (there are seven total, my aunt mary jo is hiding in the middle)

vinnie, though drunk, managed to win the horseshoe tournament with b.k., the fiancee of lauren, cecca's cousin. this is a title held relatively seriously amongst the jasinski clan.

traipsing some more in nyc

the southern tip of manhattan... if you look closely you can see that ol' biddy ms. liberty in the distance.

a plaza.

this basically blew ethan's mind.

ice cream!

what could he be pretending to hold up? look closer...

traipsing about in nyc

jim pushes the double wide as we pretend to know where we are going.

the financial district: nearly everyone we passed was wearing a blue or white button-down shirt along with a stern expression and spoke in abrupt, boring-sounding sentences... the architecture was amazing, though.

jarrod poses by one of his favorite scaffolding.

one of our many breaks

jarrod takes over the double-wide as we approach that crazy bridge.

skyscraper of the future if the future was now

ethan and his birth mother

one of manhattan's many crosswalks

the brooklyn bridge!

it was humbling to be in the presence of such an engineering marvel.

ethan and jarrod relax.

beautiful.

the towers imparted a cathedral-like quality.

from this vantage point, one could see the statue of liberty in the distance.

what a skyline!

back to the city.

cecca laughs quietly to herself.

the freedom tower. it is being built on the site where the world trade center building once stood.

where's cecca? oh, right there.

walking the line is not as hard as mr. cash makes it out to be.

.... and they're out.