Look what I found!

Have we changed much? Maybe the color of our hair? Maybe that Larry and I got smart and we got IN THE BACK so we are HIDDEN in 2008! I found this pic from our visit to Maggiano's in 2006!

Martin Luther King Celebration reported in Boston

Every year for the last four or five years we have gotten together with our friends the Shaw's and the McEvoys to celebrate Marting Luther King Day. It is a tradition that started by accident and we had so much fun it has continued. One year Linda wimped out because of the snow and we celebrated in Sanford, but every other year we have traveled to Boston to celebrate in style.


We always go to Maggiano's, an Italian restaurant that serves family style. It is so yummy, we love it.
We have tried taking the T in, (usually too cold), we talk of taking the Amtrak train in (too expensive) but we usually drive and park in the parking garage over the restaurant. Us girls are waiting for the guys to catch up in the Parking Garage.


We honor Reverend King and his work by stopping at this statue and reflect on Lincoln and the Emancipation. This statue is a duplicate of one in Washington DC.


Note that Lincoln's hand is on the Emancipation Proclamation.


It says "A Race Set Free and the country at peace. Lincoln rests from his labors." I personally think this statue is a little demeaning. Oh well, it adds meaning to our little getaway.

This year we stopped at the Kennedy Library. It was too late to go see the exhibits, but we walked around and visited the gift shop. I hope to go there soon, it looks interesting.


Mostly we just pig out and have a good time.

2008 - the year of the

BABIES! Yes that is right, we are going to have babies in 2008. I got the clearance to announce our great news. Kelley and Brian are expecting Grandchild #2 in July, and Katie and Anthony are expecting Grandchild #3 only 2 weeks later in August. We are very excited.

To celebrate, I thought I would post a picture of me when I was 9 and 1/2 months pregnant with my first! Yep, I was big as a house and had a big baby to prove it - Kelley weighed in at 10 pounds 3 ounces.

Not to scare you girls, or anything.
HOORAY!

Getting old makes you think...

Tonight I am remembering Kelley at the same age as her Alex is now. She had a riding toy - no horns or electronic sounds to scare her. Just a horse with a handle at the head to hold, and four wheels. She would get on that horse and do the circuit around our little apartment in Bangor Maine. She would ride into the living room, pick up a beloved small toy, ride back around to the kitchen, open the lid to the trash can, deposit the toy. Then she would ride off, around the kitchen, out the second kitchen door, and back into the living room to find another toy. Here is a great picture of the horse, but that is Jon Kill riding.


Here is a pic of Kelley riding the horse, on our front porch. I wish we still had that horse for Alex. Notice the determined look on Kelley's face. That is an Alex look for sure.


Kelley loved going down to Ellsworth, to visit with Grammie and Grampie Small, and especially to see Aunt Jane. Note the ratty old white car we drove when Dad was in college and we were poor. It was a Dodge Colt. That car was great.

I got this great book about potty training. It didn't really work, but Kelley loved sitting on the toilet.

This reminds me of pics we have of Alex. No shower in that apartment, just this great looking claw foot tub that was only about 4 feet in length. Great fun.

Here is a favorite of mine. She loved climbing on things, hiding in things. Can you believe that Kelley was mischievous?

The rest of our 2007 Christmas Letter...

• We got educated! Heather has completed her student teaching and is now teaching Physical Education in Utah. Denver (Communications and Media) and Anthony (Engineering) continue their studies, Katie is finishing up her Master's in Speech Pathology, Brian (Kelley’s husband) graduated from Utah State University in April. Brian interviewed at dental schools across the country and is now enrolled at Temple University in Philadelphia learning to be a dentist. We are so excited to have Brian, Kelley and Alexander living within driving distance. (It’s a stretch, but you can do it in 7 hours!)

• We traveled. A lot! A visit to Larish’s Aunt Jakey in January in Pennsylvania, wedding reception in Utah in March, wedding in Utah in May, continuing on to California to deliver a car to Kelley and Brian where Brian worked this summer. Visit to California in August, picked up the car to drive it back to Philadelphia with another stop in Utah. Several trips to Surry Maine to visit family, and Larish went to Norfolk VA 12 times and Bremerton WA 5 times with his employment. When I lay down at night it feels like the bed is still moving.

• We had visitors. Lots of them. It started with Anthony, then Denver and all the wedding attendees: Aunt Pam from Kentucky, the Pedersen’s, lots of Katie and Anthony’s friends from Utah, New York, Georgia, etc. We had people sleeping in every room in the house! Next wedding it was The Riddles, the Trotters, along with most of our family. Lisa Winterton came in September, followed by Susie’s cousin Eileen Lentz. Brian, Kelley, Alex and their friends the Churches came from Philly for Thanksgiving, and all the kids home for Christmas! Ali even came from North Carolina, and Jake from Washington, as well as a visit from Ray from Oregon! Hooray for company.

• We cried. It was a year of mixed blessings with the loss of dear family members. Larish’s brother Alan passed away at the end of December 2006. Alan had many medical complications from Downs Syndrome although his passing was unexpected.Alan was dearly loved and we are so glad we were all able to see him just a few days before he left us. Alan was a very special and dear person to us all and every time we sing a Christmas Carol we will remember Alan’s love for Christmas all year round. Larish’s Aunt Jakey (Marion Koons) became ill in January and thankfully we were able to visit with her in Pennsylvania as she only lived a few more weeks. Finally, Aunt Althea (Larish’s Dad’s sister) passed away due to incidence of age in November. We love and honor these family members.

• We celebrated. New sons! A wonderful grandson that turned 1 in June! And…will 2008 bring more grandchildren to the family? Only time will tell….

2007 - A Year in the Life Part Two

We had another wedding in 2007! In February, on top of a mountain in Utah while on a snowmobiling adventure - Heather's beau Denver proposed and we now had two weddings to plan. Heather and Denver were married in Manti Utah in May with many friends traveling from all over the country to celebrate with us. We love Denver and welcomed him to our family with open arms.

I need to warn you this one is longer - the same song plays twice cause I couldn't get another one that I wanted on the collage to work. Oh well. Sorry about all the detail shots, I just loved how everything turned out, especially the pics! I am still learning all this techno stuff, so I made the resolution too small on the pics. Hope they are clear enough. Enjoy....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Christmas 2007

We had a great Christmas with everyone home.
Every year we take a picture of the kids in front of the door before we go in to open stockings and gifts. Someday I will compile all these and see how everyone has grown and changed (not to mention the addition of many family members). For now, it is enough to know that I have the pictures somewhere....
Opening stockings...(maybe we need to get a bigger couch, or a bigger family room!)
Alex thinks Christmas is great - for him it just lasts forever! Christmas happens in Logan, UT at Grandpas; in Saratoga Springs at Aunt Andria's; and then at Grammie and Grampies in New Hampshire!
He was a little put out that we put his old toys away - he liked the new ones but the old ones had to be moved back in for him to be happy and to keep him in the room! Open a new gift, go look for the old toys, open a new toy, go look for the old toys.
What's the matter with Katie?We had a great Christmas dinner, with a house full, of course.
We went to Maine to see Great Grammie and Great Grampie but I have no pics to prove that.

We celebrated Brian's birthday with the annual family basketball tournament, but somehow Dad and I missed that. Hmmm.....well at least we were there for the cake and ice cream ;-)
We traveled to Philly to celebrate New Years and visit the Cradle of Liberty. We saw the Liberty Bell, the original Constitution, ate yummy cheesesteaks at Reading Terminal, and some even ran up the "Rocky Steps" in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Denver, Heather and Dad got to visit Denver's Grandma Teena in New Jersey after dropping Katie and Anthony off at the airport.

On the way home from Philly, we stopped on Staten Island and took the ferry over to NYC.
We visited Ground Zero, Times Square, but shortened our visit cause it was so COLD COLD COLD and well, Denver just wasn't too thrilled with his first visit to NYC. Maybe next trip we will make an all day adventure out of it.
Denver is excited to go to Utah to celebrate his birthday with snowmobiling and parties with his family. Heather is not excited to leave her family and go back to one more semester at BYU before graduation.
And that my friends, is what we did over Christmas Break!

Down memory lane

They grow so fast! This is an old video of Alex.



Kelley, why don't you just use blogger video?

2007 - a year in the life...

We had a wedding! Anthony flew to NH from Utah on Christmas Day of 2006 to surprise Katie and propose to her – and the year of the weddings began. We had a lovely Boston Temple wedding in March with loved ones traveling to NH from all over. Katie was a beautiful bride and we couldn’t love Anthony more – he is great and we are so happy for them.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Here we go...

Ever walking around, doing something and you are blogging about it in your head? I decided it was time to try to put those thoughts out there. Welcome to my blog!