Christmas on the Road

We had a great drive on Christmas Day down to Jared and Stefs in Virginia where we had fun playing with the Grand dogs and cats. The cats aren't nearly as friendly and only appeared when there was food to be had. Once we arrived we went over to Stef's parents (Norm and Sharon Levesque) and had a very nice dinner. It had been two years since we had seen Norm and Sharon so it was nice to visit with them. After visiting with Jared and Stef and the puppies. (Jared promised to put up pictures of the puppies in their Christmas finery)
We headed down to Spencer and Elizabeth's home, arriving to find them healthy and doing well. We had a real treat of having some bear ribs for dinner. One of their friends had given them some frozen bear so Spencer, ever being the adventurous person made up an apple marinade and cooked the ribs. They were yummy, we also had some of their recently killed chickens in a stir fry to round out the meal. We are hoping for some bear stew on the return trip.
Our ride to Norfolk was uneventful, as was our flight to Utah. Matt and Angie and Jayson picked us up at the airport for the ride to Orem, and then let us use a car for our ride down first to Bethany and Ryans and then off to the Edmunds to visit with them, and the Chatfields who are leaving on a mission to Albania next Monday.
We of course got everyone together for the Patriots game on Saturday night. It was nice that Mike and Penny were away, so we were able to use their large TV for the game.
On New Year's eve day we went to Tucanos for lunch. This is a Brazilian restaurant, where if you are a vegetarian you would not be real happy. They grill meat on skewers and bring them around to tables and cut off meat for you. Everyone had a great time. There were 23 of us there. We were only missing Sean and Kyle.
We had a New Year's eve party at Matt's home, where we very sensibly rang in the New Year at midnight Eastern time. We were all headed out the door by 10:30.
That's it for now. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Retirement

Well it finally came - the last day of work that is!! Friday, Dec. 21 was it. My official beginning of retirement is Jan 1, but there will be no more work days at Raytheon for the foreseeable future. I was given a wonderful party on Wednesday at the Green Valley Country Club. There were about 70 people there, spanning my entire work career - NUSC, Hughes and Raytheon. There were some very nice words said and some very nice gifts.

It has not sunk in yet and I don't think it will until we get home in late January. Maybe when we're sitting in the Hallen's back yard with the temperature in the 80s it might also sink in.

Stay tuned for our continuing travels. We'll be in Easthampton, MA until Christmas Day.

Thanksgiving 2007

Just looked and it has been over a month since We blogged. There has been lots happening since that time. I continue to go to my parents every week for a couple of days. This is our new car.

It has almost become a pleasure to drive the 2 plus hours to Easthampton. Having a CD player and Harry Potter CD's along makes the time go by faster. I also get to listen to Christmas music, can't tell you how many times i have heard Dominique the donkey. HEE HAW HEE HAW

We brought Thanksgiving up to Easthampton this year. Clive joined us, and we had a great dinner. I, of course, was holding the camera


Once Thanksgiving finished, it was time to continue with getting ready for Christmas. Lots to do and not much time to do it. Will be exciting to see most of the family at Christmas time. It starts off with Gordon and Carrie and Geoffrey, then Grandpa and Grammy and Pepere, then Hank and Susan and family all in Massachusetts. We will then drive to Virginia to have a quick visit wit Jared and Stef, and Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith. We will be taking Julia with us to Utah. Once we arrive in utah we will see those living there. Whew, I am tired already just thinking of it. We will be stopping to see Adam on our return from Florida after our trip to Utah. I am really looking forward to sitting in Florida with nothing to do. Maybe will get a day or two of that.

Adams graduation

Here we are at Family day at Fort Jackson, Was good to see Adam, He looks taller than when he left home. Must be because he has eaten so much. They only had about ten minutes to eat, but you know how efficient Adam can be when he wants to.
We left Rhode Island on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night at a nice hotel, hey, the bathroom was clean, and there were sheets on the bed, somewhere in Pennsylvania, and in the morning had a lesurly breakfast, then on the road to Spencers house where we saw the chickens up close and personal. We also saw Julia and went out to lunch at the Pink Cadalac, sorry forgot to get a picture. Oh well, maybe next time. After lunch, a late lunch we drove down to Charlotte North Carolina where we spent the night at another nice hotel. In the morning we picked Jessie up and had an hour and a half drive to Ft Jackson South Carolina. We knew we were getting close when we started to see palm trees near the road way.
We finally got to fort Jackson and to the place where we were supped to be. The plans had changed but we found the correct location. As we sat in the stands and waited adam sent a text message to Jessie saying that they were all hiding in the trees and he would be running out and standing on the left end of the stands. Of course we were sitting on the right hand side. Oh well, we finally did get to see him about ten minutes after the program ended. We had to wend our way down to the field along with all the other family members

Matt and Jared joined us at the Solomon Activity center.

At family day we got a big surprise.
border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5129702080370199810" /> President Bush was going to be attending and speaking at Adams graduation. this of course meant that we would be getting up earlier and waiting longer but hey, when else do you get to see the President of the united states.
The president gave a speech about the progress in Iraq, the kind of stuff that the News Media doesn't think we need to know about. We have also heard many posative things from people in the ward who have been there. One sister;s father is in Iraq now, and we are helping to furnish things for a school. Finally here are two other pictures of the graduation.


This is a picture of one of adams drill sargaent's receiving an award for best drill sargaent of the week














Of course all the guys look exactly the same, and since Adam is so tall he is in the rear of his platoon, so he isn't visible. If you want to see him in his Class B uniform, go the their blog. They all really look the same. Some of the new soldiers really look young, and some look old. The oldest in his platoon was 39.


Here is a picture of the front of the program for the graduation



















And the other family picture that is hidden above

Halloween at the Zoo

Meredith in the back pack
we had Spencer and Elizabeth and Meredith up visiting for the weekend as Spencer met with prospective students. He has a little free time so we went to the Zoo in New Bedford. Buttonwood park is certainly a cute little zoo. It has been closed for the past couple of years to update it, the animal enclosures are really beautiful and the animals have a lot to do. She liked to see the "kitties" and would meow when she saw one.





She liked the larger animals best, I guess they were easier to see.

When we returned from the zoo we got ready for Trunk or Treat down at the church. She was a little fairy and really got into the getting of the candy.






We also saw Mrs Potts, who was handing out candy

Weekend with Friends

Conference weekend was something, We don't usually have friends stop by,but this weekend we had two sets. The Baruss's came first. They had spent the weekend on Martha's Vieyard and had a wonderful time. Most of the tourists are gone but the weather was still beautiful. They flew over to Newbedford and we picked them up there. Sunday we attended conference at the ward building in Newport as usual. Monday dad had the day off and we went and had an adventure. We became tourists in Rhode Island. We went to see the Gilbert Stewart Birth place in Saunderstown RI. Anyone out there know who Gilbert Stewart is?
When we arrived home from our trip we found Gus and Linda Hallen had arrived and had their trailer all set up and were having lunch. Gus needed to rest so we went over to the Sykes for a lunch with Rena and Devirl.


We went to Anthonys for chowder and clam cakes and had a great time isiting with everyone. Brought Rena and Devirl to the airport on Tuesday morning and Gus and Linda left for their trip back to Florida on Wednesday. They took the last of the warm weather with them. I went up to Easthampton. Has been busy this fall.

The leaves aren't turning yet

We were up in Vermont this weekend to help our Gordon and Carrie while Pittsfield had it's annual town fair. You know the kind, where everyone goes out and buys the stuff that the neighbors make. The fire department had a booth selling some kind of food. Carrie made and sold cookies to raise money for her church. We also attended a chicken pie supper. Had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful the leaves haven't turned yet, last year we went to late, this year to early, one of these years we will see the view with the leaves all orange and red and yellow. We returned home in about 3 hours, which was good, we hit no traffic going through Boston. I was back in Easthampton this week. Grammy continues to improve, but it is going slowly. Pepere and i went to the black walnut tree on the side of the road in Holyoke to replace the walnuts that the squirrels hijacked from the week before. I had put the earlier ones from last week out to dry and the RI Squirrels took them away. I expect to see fat ones around here this winter. Pepere had also gotten me some butter nuts for me, well the Easthampton squirrels got those. They went into the garage and swiped them out of the bucket that they were sitting in. We also have been catching chipmonks which are getting into the house. we have caught about 6 chippies and transported them up to the Holyoke wildlife refuge where we hope they are living happily. I think they are trotting down the mountain and returning to their home in Easthampton. I think he should mark them so he knows if they are returning to him.

Another trip to Western Mass

Another week , another trip to Easthampton. Grammy is doing better, but she could still use some cards and letters. It is a difficult time she is going through. On my drive here there were some trees beginning to turn color. I think it will be a pretty fall, and we will get to experience it up in Vermont in a couple of weeks and agaiin on our trip for Adams graduation at the end of october. We are still planning that trip. And we have other trips to plan. This is going to be a busy year for the Rhode Island Kohls. We expect we will be seeing everyone by the end of all our traveling.
Keep yourselves well

visiting in Easthampton

Don't have any pictures, but thought I would write to let people know what is happening. Grammy came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning, and what a day we had. Pepere and I went to do some grocery shopping, must have food in the house that she can eat. No more goodies all the time. Grammy is on an 1800 calorie diet that is quite strict. You know the kind, 2 oz of meat 1 slice bread, as many vegatables as she wants (and read this none all my life i thought she like vegatables, well, she doesn't)
Trying to find things she likes that are tasty is quite a trick. Will take a while, going grocery shopping again this afternoon before i leave. She would love a cheer up card . I expect i will be here quite often . She is also getting used to all that goes with being an insulin dependant diabetic, testing and shots and the like. Keeps one on ones toes.

Lorraine Mathieu
255 park Street
Easthampton Ma 01027

cards are probably best, as she gets tired when talking on the phone.
Hope everyone is doing well We are fine and moving forward.

Adams address

Hi All, We are getting ready for the laborday picnic at the glen. We have made 2 huge vats of Chowda ( br Stevens is away this year) and are out buying hotdogs burgers and corn as you read this.
I called down to Ft Jackson to see if they had an address for adam. this is what they gave me, said he had just arrived.
SPC ADAM KOHL
ECO 3BN 34INF
FT JACKSON SC 29207

Stands for E company 3rd Batallion 34th infantry.

http://www.jackson.army.mil/334/welcome.htm a welcome letter for families

http://www.goarmy.com/life/basic/index.jsp?hmref=qu this will show you with video clips exactly what he is doing, is even filmed in Ft Jackson. Note all the sand and pine trees

Have a great day, picnic well, and have a good week of school or work or a combination of all of it

Where did the summer go

This has been the buisest summer yet. We just saw Adam off to his big adventure on Thursday, his first responsibility was geting four other guys down to Fort Jackson I expect that he was the oldest. Jessie left for home and then for Idaho on Friday morning, and arrived safely sometime on Saturday. but we will let them report on their family. But if you want to see what Adam is doing, go to Goarmy.com and look for Basic combat training. Will show week by week what is happening. The videos are actually from the place where he is attending basic training. So he will be going up That victory tower, will be running That obstical course. Graduation will be at the beginning of November.
We had a good week at girls camp, was a little bittersweet, as our ward is now a part of a different stake so we will not be attending that girls camp next year. The weather was beautiful except for the last evening when we had tornado warnings, and had to get all the girls into the lodge. Even with the warnings, the sky cleared and we were able to go to South Royalton to listen to the Green Mountain Brass Band where where Carrie was playing. Gordon with little g decided to not attend, little g does not sit well, and the grass was all wet and would have been difficult to keep him under control. We were also able to do a little kayaking before the storm, was fun and nice to be out on the little pond across dairy hill Road from the church.

Trip to burton Island