Baby Katelyn, Bruins, Beach, and Summer Fun !!

It has been a few weeks since my last post. As you will see below we have been very busy. I hope you enjoy this update.

Introducing Katelyn Emily Costa !! This little (well not so little) cutie was born on May 17th. She is beautiful and we are so happy that she is here. The girls are very excited to have a new cousin and George and I are happy to hold her and get our baby fix and then give her back to Jen and Greg :)

She has a full head of hair unlike her uncle George :)



All of the cousins. And Aunt Jen looking radiant only a few days after Katelyn was born.


All of us with Katelyn. George is a total baby hog and won't let anyone else hold her.



So, did you hear that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup !!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

This is the bumper sticker on George's car. In case you can't read it, it says" Bobby, Cam, and Ray are perfectly acceptable names for your daughters." (A Bruins reference.)

The girls getting ready cheer on the B's for game 7. They did not make it to the end of the game but I did. It was amazing to watch !!

A few weeks ago we went to Manchester and had our fist summer visit to the beach and Tuck's Point. As you can see from the kids attire, it was cloudy and freezing that day. But we still had fun.

Isabelle and Febo. Staying warm in the car.

Isabelle at Tuck's Point.

The Spencer girl's building a sand castle.

The kids at the beach.

Oops, this picture is out of order :)
The girl cousins at Frank's first communion party.

Ellie loving the beach :)

Another summer activity is going out for ice cream. We had our first official summer ice cream outing a few weeks ago. As you can see Ellie is wearing her ice cream on her shirt, face, and my sunglasses.

Ellie's first full body dip in the pool. She loved it even though it was freezing cold.

The girls on Memorial Day.

The girls and the Russo boys trying to stay cool on Memorial Day. It was very hot that day.

Almost all of the cousins posing for a picture after Frank's first communion. It was a great day and we are very proud of Frank.

All of us relaxing at Grammy and Grampy's house.

Last weekend George and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary. A special thank you to Nana and Papa for watching the girls so that we could spend the night at the Hawthorne. This picture is our attempt to recreate one of our favorite pictures from our wedding day. We look older and much more tired than we did 5 years ago :)

Grammy and the girl's relaxing before bed.

Our little artist :)

The girls just being cute.

The girl's playing "nap time at school." This is one of their favorite games.

Relaxing on the couch after a long day of playing.

Who knew that brushing your teeth could be so fun !!

Tough Mudder 2011

I am sure by now all of you know that George completed the Tough Mudder New England course over Mother's Day weekend. It is really hard to explain this event to those who have not experienced it. It seems insane to run up and down a mountain 4 times and then endure 28 military style obstacles including jumping from 22 feet into 38 degree water, being electrocuted, and crawling under barbed wire just for the fun of it. But those if you who know George, know that he loves a challenge. Especially if the challenge is a physical and mental challenge. So needless to say an event that is advertised as "probably the toughest race on the planet" was all that George needed to hear and he signed up !!

This is a cool video that shows more about the actual event:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ToughMudder?blend=2&ob=1#p/a/u/0/ObcX5ZopSZE

On a serious note, we are all very proud of George and everyone on team, "Chicken Legs." They trained for 6 months for the event and it showed. They all completed the course and worked together as a team to get through the 3.5 hours and 10 miles of pain.

Below are the pictures of our weekend in Vermont.

This sign greeted us as we pulled into town.

The day before the event we decided to check out the mountain. This is a picture of George and the girls in front of the electric wires that George would run through the next day.

Maybe this should have been the first sign that it was going to be a hard event :)

This is a view of the fire obstacle from the main road. The Mudders had to run through a maze of fire.

Preparing the snow for the another obstacle.

The girls waiting for Daddy to come down the mountain.

George on the greased money bars. Unlike Marc, he didn't make it all the way across :)

George and Drew at the 7 mile mark. Looking pretty good considering all of the obstacles they had completed.

Marc playing in the mud.

Drew also playing in the mud.

George- post barbed wire crawl.

Tough guy !!

This is an awesome action photo. I don't see any chicken legs in this picture !!

We spent a long weekend in Vermont and decided to explore a bit the day ofter the Tough Mudder. So we of course got ice cream and relaxed in this huge chair.

This is the house we stayed in. It was amazing. It even had a slide and rock wall in the basement. We had a great time there.

Back to ice cream :) The girls with Marc and Jill.

Mommy and Isabelle showing our muscles. Yes that is a snow covered obstacle behind us !! Those black dots are people coming down the snowy slope.

The next generation of Tough Mudders.

The only way to get one of these orange headbands is to complete the course. So it is a big deal to own one of these sassy headbands.

This picture screams Tough Mudder !!

The house also had a zip wire and Isabelle was a pro. It was fun to watch her. She is in training to do the Tough Mudder 2025 with George.