Our Annual Family Reunion

Our annual Iacolucci reunion was held this year on August 13 at Tony and Janet Pinto's house in Maple Valley, Wa.  We had nearly 90 family members gathered including my husband who has not been for many many years.  We had a birthday celebration with cake for our two older members of the family...my Dad who will be 90 in October and his cousin, Fred, who will be 80 this year.  My cousins son has a catering business in Seattle...called Emerald City Catering...and I think he specializes in Italian food...but I could be wrong about that, I do know that he brings everything Italian to our picnic and let me tell you, the food was delicious!!  Spaghetti, meatballs, two kinds of raviolis with a pink sauce, short ribs...oh my, it was fabulous...we had salads and garlic bread and then lots of desserts made by family members, including the TWO Costco cakes for the the birthday boys!  We had biscotti's...Melinda's famous recipe...so good.!  We had pitzels, and then of course several kinds of chocolate brownies and I brought the Mirabel Magic Cookie...everything was so good and it was so nice to see the cousins and aunts...The Matriarch of the Iacolucci Family is my dad's sister, Elvera who was 92 in July!  And she was there --- here she is in all her glory...such a sweetie...

Does she look 92?  And does she look Italian?  She borrowed the hat to keep the sun out of her eyes while pictures were being taken...

Fred (80), My dad, Ben (90), Elvera (92)

Carol, Nancy, Dad

Jamie, Dina, Teale

Kids playing bocce

Michael, brother Marty, Melinda, Teale (Marty's daughter), Ellie

This is the Iacolucci/Pinto family...just a small part of this whole clan
 We are blessed to have such loving and kind people in this family...ones who really treasure keeping the connection between all of us.  My Grandfather, Giuseppe (Joe) had three brothers and two sisters...they all married and had children.  My Dad, Ben was one of six children...they each married and has a family...so you can see how this can grow into a really large group.  And truth be told...we were missing a LOT of people just from my father's siblings children...my first cousins.  And we keep growing!  My father has another sister still living, Carm, and she was not at the reunion as her husband Fred is not in good health and she cannot leave him alone.  So we miss all  those who could not make it this year.


Family is and should be very important...to learn your roots and to see where you came from is so important, it helps define who you are...my Grandpa Joe died when he was about 75...I was maybe 5 years old.  He left Italy when he was 12 years old...coming for the American Dream...he lived in Philadelphia with an aunt and uncle on his mother's side.  He worked at a grocery store to pay for room and board. When he was a teenager he  moved to Seattle, he bought a house and after the house was paid for, he took a trip back to Italy and married my Grandmother, Rosa.  He returned to Seattle and worked for 5 years to save enough money to pay for my grandmothers voyage.
They had 6 children...and of those six, three are still living...one being my dad and this year on October 18, he will turn 90 years old.  He was so sure he would not live long after my  mom died, but he is going strong!  Yes, he tires easily.  Yes, he cannot do all that he used to do.  Yes, he does his own cooking.  Yes, he does his own gardening, keeping the orchard, pruning, harvesting, canning, and freezing.
It is what keeps him going...he loves it.  Without the garden he would be lost...it is what motivates him to get up and get out!!  Growing up in the depression years also helped to define him...he works hard to put food on his table...he harvests so that he will be sure to have healthy home grown food - and he boasts that he saved $30 at the end of a month because he was able to use all the vegetables from his garden.


I was very happy that nearly all of my family was able to make it to this reunion...especially since we were honoring my dad.  Unfortunately, because of the motorcycle accident with Aaron, Lacey's family was not able to make the trip up north.  We missed her and I missed sharing her family with all the others...so they would have an idea about the "connection"...the Iacolucci Family Connection!