A New Jersey/NYC Weekend

This past weekend we visited New Jersey and New York to celebrate the wedding of my cousin, Matthew Ruggieri, to Kristin Williams. It was a great weekend of joy, fun, laughter and family time together. For the first time since my grandfather’s funeral in 2004, all of Joseph and Josephine Ruggieri’s children and grandchildren were together in one place. It was nice for this to happen on a joyous occasion! Here a few snapshots from the Friday night wedding:

On Saturday, my immediate family decided to head into NYC for the day to spend some quality time together. After stopping by Joe and Kerry’s apartment, we went to Chelsea Market, a unique new spot with a plethora of restaurants and food shops. Just above the market was the Food Network Studio, so needless to say I was happy :) We ate at a nice brunch place and celebrated Mother’s Day with our Mom. “Us all just being together” was the greatest gift for her.



After walking through the city and doing a little shopping, we met our good family friends, the Dinizio’s, at Joe & Kerry’s apartment for some appetizers and the American Idol Wii game. This was quite the hit, and I don’t think I have laughed so hard in weeks- especially for the first timers Mom and Cathy. We then headed over to Brooklyn, via walking the Brooklyn Bridge, to wait in line at Grimaldi’s Pizza. And let me tell you, this was worth the 1 1/2 hour wait. Amazing pizza, lots of laughter, tight quarters = a fantastic dinner. After squeezing ice cream into our bellies, we walked back over the Brooklyn Bridge to catch the tail end of the Celtics game, whose “W” made a nice endcap to the evening.



All in all, never underestimate a weekend with the Ruggieri family- you will never leave wishing you had more fun. We were sad to leave but excited about the next time we can all be together again!

-LMB