Scavenger Hunt - Reunion 2007

The Teams: Green, Yellow, Blue, Red.

What a blast. Everyone participated...adults, kids. Each team was designed to include representation from all age groups.

Thank you Terri !!!!! Thank you Aunt Gene for the team bags and major assistance in the project!!! It was terrific. Here's a little advance notice...Terri is already planning for 2009....something along the lines of a human chess board (jump in with ideas and volunteering).

The age groups for the 2007 scavenger hunt only had an upper limit (high school). Toddlers were welcome but in the end many declined participation. There were prizes for everyone! It was a lot of fun. I was at a remote station and I didn't get to see the balloon toss, or the egg passing. Hopefully, someone else will post photos of that.

My station was:
How did Jim and Beth meet?
What did Sam and Jim have in common?
How did Jim and Beth call the kids to dinner?

Can any of you answer those?

Margaret

Cousin Morrie

Anyone who listened to Mom heard the stories about Cousin Morrie. He was in the middle of everything. His mom was Aunt Jessie and Mom had a special relationship with her. What a character. I'm sure I met Morrie when I was little but I was so delighted to meet and talk to him as an adult. It was great to see and hear him narrate Uncle John's baby photos. He is 85 and still full of vinegar and he is exactly like Mom described. Uncle Paul and Uncle Arch added background and prompted wonderful stories and memories. What a treasure! He could do stand up! I was so happy to get the opportunity to spend time with him.

I'm so happy Morrie and his daughter could attend!

Morrie's voice, appearance, and wit are so familiar. I feel like I've always known him. I know I recognize him from my Martin/Marshall heritage...listening to stories from Mom, Grandma M. and the Uncles. There's a little Marshall in me and in all of us.

What a blessing.

Reunion 2007

At the reunion this year, I was so happy to have Dad's sister, Ruth Ann, take me up on the invitation to come to our reunion for the first time. We had a great visit and she shared great photos with me. I need to make notes of the family history I garnered during our time together.

This is an impromptu snap of the family in the area before Ruth Ann was preparing to leave. Luckily, it was most of the family attendees...a few missing. The good thing was it was a painless version of time for a family photo...

Reunion Ride '07

Friday and Monday we rode to Reunion and back for a total of 170 miles.
With us was Cousin Gail.
Friday we had our best time to date.
Monday we got off to a late start,
and then suffered a nearly ride-ending breakdown.
Luckily we were able to get rolling again for an absolutely exhilirating ride.
In spite of our delays we still made it back in time for Gail's flight.

Awfully quiet around here!

I was thinking it was awfully quiet here but then I remembered it was reunion weekend. I guess that let's you guys off the hook. We missed everybody.

Johnika Inc., Stockholm Office.

Sentry

Hi Emily, you might be too busy to check the board...
Of course JWE made it to Great Britain in the course of his travels (1989). I was luckt to get to travel with him on this one. We went to White Chapel foundry near London which is where the church handbells were made. They knew him because he corresponded with them and we got a tour.

Tastes of Summer

I love the foods of summer.... mmm, sand!

Yummy Florida curly fries!

Who needs a bun?

apples anyone?


more please!!!

Lookout England!

Emily is in England visiting her pen-pal, Lucy. Em is soooo... excited. After two weeks in the UK they'll both come to the states together for another two weeks before Lucy returns home and Emily heads back to school. You'll probably get the opportunity to meet Lucy at Dan's Graduation Open House.

Our Big Adventure

We did it - five days, four nights, two county fairs, 266 miles on two tandem bicycles. The highlights included meeting a penpal, riding the oldest passenger elevator in the state, a broken bicycle chain, Dan coming to meet us, road closings, headwinds, seeing the new Harry Potter movie and lots of country roads and corn fields. We had planned on seeing three fairs but decided two was plenty. It was great fun in spite of the effort and fatigue. Yes, we're still talking to each other.

About to start.

The girls on the road.

"Wake up, Emily. Break time is over. Time to ride."

This is one of the road closings we chanced.
Nice to be able to go where cars can't.
We were lucky it wasn't a bridge out.

Fried bologna sandwich at the Madison County Fair.

Crazy kids at the Madison County Fair.

Big News!!

Mike and I are engaged!!!! He proposed to me Friday, July 20th. I was so surprised. I had no idea that he even had the ring. We had grilled out at home that evening and after we brought in the dishes, he proposed. I wasn't expecting it at all. He's so sweet! No we don't have a date set, tentatively next summer is all we have planned so far. Stay tuned for more details.

Florida Fashion

Things were a little backward at first.....




...but....




...big sis can help!

little boys and life

The boys keep me going. They keep me laughing, keep me wondering. I came out of the house the other day to find the boys in the driveway next to the new car laughing hysterically. They were looking at their own reflection as it was distorted by a fold in the metal shortening their bodies like a mirror in a fun house. "Daddy, look!" I had to laugh along too.

I love this picture of Sam. Talk about function and form. Superman boots, Hammarby t-shirt(local soccer team) and bike helmet. I fear as our little boy gets older we'll get less shots like this. Keep them coming.

Daytona Beach

A whole week of fun, sun, sand and SPF 45.

Hopefully, all the others who are vacationing this week will post some snaps.

Bubbles on vacation

Hello from Bubbles...
Bubbles lives with Grace, but this week he's vacationing at a Goldfish Resort (all-inclusive). Just hanging out with some new friends, eating good food and swimming fast. These big fantail goldfish are pretty slow but they do tricks. Bubbles just can't get the hang of floating on his back like the big guy.

not again

I think this Mom is getting tired of this view.

Olivia, Margaret and I are taking horseback riding lessons together now. Mae was out of town, and I still needed one more week without the bouncing to fully recover from my gallbladder removal. So, I took this opportunity for a couple of photo ops. We are all three enjoying the riding, but Margaret did not enjoy the landing when she bounced off last week. She tells me it is very colorful, but not in a place where it is easily (or tastefully) viewed.

Christine

Important news on Bake and Spam

Hello everyone,
Be sure and check the link to Bake and Spam for an important message from Jake.
Margaret

orchids

This one is for you Margaret... We got our car today and the dealership gave us an orchid as a thank you for doing business with them. Earlier this week I also got an orchid from my new boss at work as a summer present before he left on his vacation. I don't have a picture of that one, it is a dark pink phalaenopsis.
Monika

July 4th

It was a modest gathering by Enterprise standards. Thanks again Dwight for hosting. It was muggy with at least three thunderstorms during the course of the afternoon so not much happened except the important stuff: visiting and eating. We had some good stuff - the most popular was corn on the cob picked same day. Wow!

Last year Dwight completed a major project which has brought he and Julie a lot of joy. I finally took pictures of his very professional pond installation. It is about the best home pond I've seen. Our group picture for this gathering consists of backsides counting goldfish and admiring water plants.

Here we are about to ride to Oxford, OH. It was a great ride, however we didn't look quite as cheery at the finish.

Doesn't our little boy look all grown up?

only in sweden file

So we move to Sweden and get a taste for pizza. I'm open to new foods but altering something as basic as pizza is just not right. It's not the same here. The crust is always thin and it's got little to do with Italy and you don't get to choose the toppings, only the 'type' of pizza you want. If you don't like those toppings you pick something off. I knew this pizza was close to something back home but had egg involved with it somehow. I wasn't expecting this. Turned out not to be too bad once you got past the breakfast feeling.

Chicks Dig Scars

Apparently the 'bionic' sounds i heard were a result of the pain meds.

Akron

This is us at New Year's we don't have anything more recent. Recent ones will be posted at a later date.

I moved to Akron, well a suburb of Akron 4 weeks ago. I live with my boyfriend, please no comments. He bought a house and we moved into it a week and a half ago. We are pretty well settled in, only a couple of more boxes to unpack. I work at a large hospital in their critical care lab. Right now I am training but once I am done, I will be working third shift again. Hopefully, a day shift job will open up at some point and I can be awake during normal hours. The job is going well. It's basically the same thing that I was doing in Columbus with a few differences.

Hello from California!

You probably don't recognize my name! Last week I spent the whole day at the courthouse legally changing my name from Stacy Catherine Chambers to Kathleen Kessell Chambers. Kathleen was my birth name and also my birthmother's name and Kessell was my birthfather's last name. So I guess that's my big news. Still trying to track down the rest of my birthfamily- they can't hide from me forever! Oh- and I just got accepted into a graduate program at Cal State Dominguez Hills. I'll be studying Humanities and I start in August.
An update on the Kai: She turned 6 on June 30th and had a big party yesterday. We're leaving for a week of summer camp on Friday. Kai is in cheerleading now and also takes swimming and yoga and is still doing Girl Scouts in Troop 16 which I lead with 2 of my friends. We can't wait to see everyone at Xmas!!
Many blessings,
Kathleen

Dwight and his buddy Jerry with some friends have formed a celtic band. Christine, Scott and I went to hear them tonight for their debut performance open to the general public at the Westwood library. They were very good. I preferred the waltzes to the jigs...they performed both. Dwight and Amy did a couple vocals.

Left to right: Dwight, Susan, Jerry, Amy, and Bob