It's been a while!!

Hi everyone -- Yes, it's been quite a while since we've written. Let's see....since February, Alex turned 6, we had Hannah's Christening, Alex finished Kindergarten, we spent Easter in St. Louis, and we took a bunch of vacations this summer. We're all back into the swing of things now, though. Alex started 1st grade; Darese and I are back to work; and Hannah has taken over the house!!

Hannah's Christening was quite nice. We held it at the Ithaca College Chapel, which was beautiful. Aunt Angela flew in from St. Louis and, along with Auntie GiGi and Uncle Pete, Christened Hannah as her Godparents. We were lucky to share the special day with our friends and family.

In April, Auntie GiGi gave Hannah her first haircut. Hannah did great! For Easter, we traveled to St. Louis so that everyone could meet Hannah for the first time. We had a great trip, and really enjoyed spending time with everyone. Alex and Hannah both did great!

We took our annual trip to Hershey Park with our friends, the Muscente's. Darese has started referring to this trip as the kids' "pilgrimage to the motherland" as they are both quite the chocoholics!! I think they get that from Grandma Doskal's side of the family!! We had a wonderful trip, and ate lots of chocolate. In May, we also took a trip to Six Flags Darien Lake. We heard they were closing soon, so we wanted to get one last trip in before it was sold.

In June, I had my 20 year high school reunion...ughh! It wasn't as much fun as I had hoped....most of my classmates still haven't grown up. It's all about drinking still. I swear some of them are still 18. I did get to plan a reunion this year at the Syracuse Zoo for the 20th anniversary of my HS marching band's national championship. That was fun! Most of my friends in HS were from marching band, so even though not everyone showed up, it was great to get in touch with people, and at least catch up with everyone. It certainly brought back a lot of great memories.

In July we traveled to Albany for the annual picnic sponsored by our adoption agency. We were fortunate enough to stay with the Hollister-Pettinger family, one of the families we traveled to China with. It was great to see Jill, Bill, Kailee, and Briana and spend the weekend with them. We even got the chance to go to Six Flags Great Escape with them. The kids all had a great time playing with each other!

We also took trips to Rochester, Seabreeze Park, and the State Fair in Syracuse. The summer was quite busy, but we had a great time!

Alex's first day of school went okay. Hannah has been enjoying going out to the bus stop every day with him and playing with the kids. I think it's just a matter of time before she makes a run for the bus and hops on!

Darese and I have been pretty busy with work. It seems like we just shut down last week, and here we are with a whole new group of students!

The anniversary of Hannah's adoption is coming up on November 7. We're not quite sure what we're going to do yet, but obviously its a very special day for us. Maybe we'll let her pick a place to eat....if we can find a restaurant that serves raisins and oreo cookies!!

Well, that's all for now. I uploaded a bunch of pictures at our shutterfly website (scaffido.shutterfly.com). Here are some other favorites from the past few months. Enjoy, and keep in touch!!

Joe