For as long as I have known Steve, he has been talking about how much fun he had growing up going to his grandparents home in Long Island over the fourth of July.

Now that we live on the east coast we were both looking forward to this DeLuca family tradition. On Thursday, July 4th, we piled the boys into the car and started driving.  The boys were such good travelers.  They slept most of the way and we stopped for a quick break at a rest area to feed them and jump back on the road.  In a mere four and a half hours we made it to Long Island and were warmly greeted by a bunch of loving faces.

Nonna (Great Grandma DeLuca) and Papi (Great Grandpa DeLuca) welcomed us into their lovely home.

The boys must’ve known that they were related to everyone because there was no stranger danger crying.  We brought a bag full of their boys and the einstein activity center.  It was very hot outside so we’d put water in the bottom of if for the boys to splash around.

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The pool was a must!  The boys had a daily swim to cool off from the heat.

Thanks Grandma for the cool swim shorts!

The first night there, the night of the 4th, was a little rough on you boys.  I think it had something to do with it being the fourth of July and hearing all of the fireworks, or the fact we were in a new place and your routine was off.  But the fun part about it was you got to come down and watch fireworks on tv.  Papi thought it might be a fun idea to see if Anthony liked playing the piano… he didn’t.  He threw his head back and let out a wale of a scream.

The next day it was Nathan’s turn.  He loved it!  I think we have ourselves a little Mozart.  He had a giant grin of his face and would bang away making noise while sitting on Nonna’s lap.

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The boys loved their Nonna and Papi.

They were both very fascinated with Papi’s watch.

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They also got to spend quality time with Grandma and Grandpa DeLuca

The highlight of the trip had to be clamming!  I feel like I am officially part of the family since I was taken to the ultra-secret clamming location to participate in the 4th of July clamming tradition.

 

Anthony can’t wait until he can go clamming:

 

Steve brought some of them home with us and we had a yummy clam sauce pasta.

I was especially impressed by Uncle Chuck and Uncle Steven’s invention!  The Fifth Paw.  It’s a neat gadget that you can put on your dog leash so you don’t need to hold poop bags.  Our leash doesn’t quite work with it but it does fit nicely on the stroller!  It has been great for walks so we remember to throw the bags away when we get home rather than forgetting about them under the stroller like we used to do.

We all gained about 10 pounds from all of the delicious food.  Those DeLucas sure know how to cook!  Hopefully you boys learn a thing or two from your daddy.

We also got to meet some new faces with the extended DeLuca clan

There were four generations of DeLucas over the weekend.  Of course I insisted on a photo of the DeLuca men:

We got some great photos courtesy of Uncle Chuck.  He let mommy play with some fancy camera equipment!  It’s not about being “good” at taking photos, it’s about taking them!  We’ll always be able to look back at this blog and photos and remember your first trip to Long Island….

Saying goodbye was tough!  We love you Nonna and Papi and the rest of the DeLuca family.

…until next time.