thank you, pap!

you better believe we go straight for the salami & provolone upon arrival in the ‘burgh 🙂

rocco in pap’s chair. break my heart!

all fancied up and smiling for pappap

youngest boy great-grand & oldest boy grand 🙂

dad in the bushes iiiiiiiiis MY FAV.

kinda lost rocco, but !!!!!! all my beautiful cousins!!!!!! proud grand and great-grandchildren of joseph a. scioscia. i have to say, it was very strange and sad not having vincent there… but i like to think he was probably sharing a heavenly bowl of pasta with pappap. 🙂

haha. attempt at the classic pap pose.

seriously, this looked like a normal [and adorable!] couple shot of christina & preston… uuuuntil we watched the live version. al, you win. // those happy little bunners with luke & bella… theeee best little scene to look over and spot!

maddalena truly in her happy place // becca apparently also happy being smashed by joe poe. hahahaha.

wow, no, we’re not related at all.

gosh. i love them.

yesss, exactly what we thought this bannister was for growing up! 😉

baby girl turning mourning into dancing. i love her little performing spirit so much.

my hair still drying from the shower, but… i love my peeps.

one of my dad’s lifelong bffs completely spoiled us with delicious homemade pasta! [among homemade other things… LIKE COOKIES!] he brought the fam together one more time before we took off, and it seriously felt like the 90s to have everyone together dining over pasta in that house again. THE BEST. // also, we looooove our scherder section of the fam so much!

ugh, goodbyes! hugging our sweet grandmom. // i asked maddalena which of my dad’s brothers she thought was the most like him… she said uncle joe. you can prob see why!

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while steven, the kiddos and i were at the beach a couple of weeks ago, we received word that my grandpap had passed away. he was where he wanted to be, at home, by his wife’s side… but gosh! you’re never quite prepared for that kind of news. so, we loaded up, headed back to nash, and a few days later, the kids and i headed up north with my parents and siblings. [steven held down the fort at home & went back to work, having just taken a week of vacay.] and gosh. i’m such a puddle of emotions going back over our time honoring his 89 years of life on earth with all of our fam! i love our people so dang much.

you could say a lot about our pappap. he was a veteran. a photographer. a traveler. a business owner. he adored his beautiful wife, and together they raised 6 kids. he was strong, he was tough… a tornado in his younger days, i’ve been told! and forever an italian american waving a fist of opinions… i just can hear my grandmom saying in her calm voice, “oooh, joe!” to one of his spiels. 😉 to his grandkids, he told stories of the two-tailed pony… insisted that we were full of prunes… checked our heads for lumps… subjected us to tickle tests… and let us search his closet for spare change. sometimes, when we’d first arrive in town, he’d greet us with a, “who the hell are you! get out of my house!” followed by an immediate, “come here and give me a squeeze!” and we’d run in for hugs, his arms wide open. haha. goodness, what a gem, that man.

anyway, as my cousin, joe, noted beautifully at the funeral, our pap truly believed in the importance of honesty, hard work, and family. and that last one… family… well, i think it’s pretty unmistakeable how that family mentality has carried on through the generations. family is everything. and after years of kids growing up, busy schedules, different locations, new babies and such… the fact that he brought us all together again was such a gift… to the cousins, especially, i think! i hope he was smiling down happily.

oh pap! he was a force even death struggled to reckon with… and i have to say, i’m pretty proud to share genes like that.

[some favs from the life of pappap: cutest thing ever, pap on the right with his mom & brothers – he was rocco’s age! // one from a photobooth strip // i’ve always loved this military shot! so handsome! // grandmom & pap on their wedding day – valentine’s day // i have this one framed… they were both under 30 in this photo! and he looks so much like vincent there. // pap with 3 of his boys – my dad’s the one in stripes!! // obsessedddd with this shot from my uncle’s wedding // gram & pap at my parents’ wedding // with me & joe poe in his lap // all my blondeness with gram & pap after cousin oreste’s graduation // vince & pap at my wedding // suuuch a classic capture // my dad & pap after a delish pasta dinner // rocco picking up on the classic pap pose last summer // “rocco!!! come stai! i am your GRANDPAP!!” rocco adored him. // pappap & grandmom with their two great-grandbabies. <3]

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aaaand i’ll leave off with this pappap understatement of the century from last summer…

pap: “when you’re dealing with an 89 year old man, you’ve got to be careful. because they can get very set in their ways.”
brittany: “i don’t think that started when you were 89!”
pap: “no. started when i was 29.”

WE LOVE YOU, PAPPAP!!!