The Parrillo Family

We wound down Summer at the Lake House in Wisconsin with the Foxes and Morans.  Salad days indeed. 

Look who made it down to the beach in La Jolla?  Great Grampy spent some time (in the shade) on the sand with five of his great grandchildren.  We were in town for Uncle Peter's wedding - that is taking place in a few days. 

The girls spent some quality time with their cousins (and Grammy) up in Wisconsin and got all hopped up on sugar with some s'mores fireside. 

One of the great family traditions we have that kicks off the holiday season annually is a visit to pick out (and cut down!) our Christmas tree.  Welp, this year, we have tree(s).  Two of them.  And we cut them both down over the weekend. We've been going to the Tammen Tree Farm down in Braidwood for as long as I've been a part of the Moran family Christmas Tree tradition and have been posting the photos since 2010. Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2016 . I don't seem to have posted about Christmas Tree Day in 2015? Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2014 . Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2013 . Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2012 . Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2011 . Here's the post and photos from our trip to the Farm in 2010 . This year, we had our full crew and found our 'big' tree in one of the fields.  Yo...

We weren't in Coloma for the 4th of July for the first time in many years because we were in Europe with the Marini family and arrived back on the 3rd, so this year, as the holiday weekend wound down, we were able to join the Moran's and the girls' Uncle Bill, Aunt Sisi and Frank's bestie out at the Naperville Ribfest.   We've been to Ribfest in the past, but I don' think I've posted any photos here on the blog before.  The Ribfest is what you would expect:  bbq and carnival.  They also have music acts, but we didn't go for that.  We were there for the ribs and pork and to win a few carnival games for the girls.   That's Eloise up there posing so proud with her giant, stuffed Emoji that we won at a game.   And here she is taking in some soft serve with her Godmother Aunt Sisi: Frank the tank was there, too!  Here he is goofing around with Granddad.  The jetlag really hit SD hard and she fell asleep in Grammy's lap...

Over the weekend, we headed out West to the Rocky Mountains to visit Ellie and Sadie's Aunt Sisi (Elise) and Unkie (Uncle) Bill in Denver, Colorado.  Along with Grammy, Granddad, and Uncle Peter, we took a flight out on Friday night and returned late Sunday. We packed in quite a bit in the short weekend and saw a lot of sights and ate at a few *interesting* places. First up was a trip up the mountains that included a stop in Georgetown Colorado (That's Nat and Eloise in Downtown Georgetown) and a ride on the Georgetown Loop Railroad.  The GLRR is a narrow-gauge heritage line that runs between Georgetown and Silver Plume.  Wikipedia boasts that the Loop was one of Colorado's very first tourist attractions . After a quick stop in Idaho Springs (and a nap for Ellie and Sadie), we found ourselves at a restaurant that Bill and Peter picked out:  Casa Bonita.  Their restaurant recommendation was based completely on a South Park episode .    The fo...