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.