A bride, a groom,....

One ring bearer and five precious flower girls...

More of Abbey in MA

A reenactment of "Pilgrim's Progress", completed Thanksgiving Day. This is a reenactment of the journey (call to worship) that took place each day of worship, through Plymouth.

(if I have it correctly.)

Abbey is helping Josh's family put together the lunches for the (entire) historical tour group, which they are all on, in MA.

Josh and Abbey in Boston (I think).

Hill Family (& Allen Family) Thanksgiving Gathering

We had a wonderful time gathered together with family. I think 29 or so gathered together at the Mark & Wendy Kennedy house for turkey, dressing, potatoes, salads, dressing, vegetables, desserts and more dressing :) and just lots of great food and good company. Mark & Wendy invited my brother Rich, his wife Elena and their boys, Sean, Ryan and Jacob to join the Hill gathering. All of the Hill's were there: Grandpa Jack and Lynn; Mark, Wendy & Katy; Kurt & Dedee and their boys, Andrew, Collin and Kyle, plus Jordan brought his girlfriend Leah along; our family minus Abbey and Josh; Mark Andrew, Holly and Quinn; plus Dedee's brother the other Uncle Mark and one of the Kennedy's drivers who is from Lithuania. A good crowd.

Justin, Ryan, Leah and Jordan, Mark H., Sean

Arnie, who was from Lithuania spoke Russian, so he and Elena spent time visiting and chatting in Russian.

Each year we put together a Hill Family calendar, working on it together, usually on or around Thanksgiving. It is great fun as we look through pictures of the past year and do a lot of cropping, clipping and pasteing. Some funny highlights were..."gar...bage" and also pulling photographs off Aunt Wendy's walls, because we needed pictures of certain people.

Turkey trouble

Daniel thought this was so funny, he wanted to put it on the blog. We had a great Thanksgiving meal at the Kennedy's, Uncle Mark fixed the turkey, good thing he didn't have so much trouble.

Game time, November 23, 2007

Wendy, Rachel and Briana helped keep the boys fed; though when the boys are playing computer games, unless it comes out of a bag and is right at hand, not much gets eaten. OK, the home-made peanut butter cups were eaten.

First team, in the (heated) garage: Barney, Falcon, Quick Draw and Silent Death (I prefer to just call him Grant.)

Second team in the school room: Blind Monkey, Master Drake, Captain Jack Sparrow, Fat Erbert and Seahorse. Where was that Killer Midget, they were looking for him.

The girls and Justin watched the highlights of "Singing in the Rain", then when Justin went to bed they watched "Pride and Prejudice", you'll be happy to know, that once again, Mr. Darcy was able to wed Miss Elizabeth. Daniel did spent a lot of time in the other room, with all the girls, keeping up with Mr. Darcy. All in all it seemed to be a good evening, which went smoothly, was not too late and we had polite young men coming and going with their computers in tow. The group definitely wants to do it again very soon, for they were missing a very important player, that being Grant S. (and I'm not sure what his secret name is.)

Betty Brinn Museum with the Strand's, Nov. 20, 2007

Abbey in Plymouth, MA

Abbey in MA, with Joanna and Jessica. Today it is sunny and warm there, where here in Union it is cold and snowy.
We miss her!

The "Friendship of Salem"

Thanksgiving morning

Another snowy Thanksgiving morning. It is very pretty, but will probably be gone before too long.
Daniel is running in the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot with the Baumgartens and the Berwicks. Abbey is in MA with Josh's family.
And we're heading to Aunt Wendy's for dinner this afternoon.

Wyatt's birthday

A few weeks back we were invited over to the Webb's to help celebrate Wyatt's birthday. The theme was cars, which was very exciting. Mihee had made a great race track cake, plus we had great food, fun and fellowship. We played pin the tail on the donkey (and I mean we, meaning all the kids, moms, dads, grandmas, etc.) :) The kids got to see and ride Dustin's horse, help/watch milk the goats and play outside, for it was really nice. Then some intense card games for the big kids and opening of gifts for the little ones. It was a very pleasurable evening spent with friends. Thanks Webb Family!




The grown up boys out talking, Dustin was out for a ride on the horse. Ethan (and Abbey) were in TX with Resounding Voice)
Brian trying to aim for the donkey's behind, which he really missed, but it set the kids in hysterics and laughter.
At first Justin was over with by the animals, they are across the street,but at some point the goats made a strange noise, at that point, he had to be as far away as possible. Another time when when we were trying to get him to ride a mechanical horse his comment was! "I like cars"!, I guess he was thinking that. We're not sure what set him off, but he would have nothing to do with any of the animals after that.

Everone wanted to help Wyatt open his presents, sweet Clara was really cute. Seth, Emma, and Gracie we're all really sweet also. Justin thought it was a great time with friends.

Wendy and Joanna

Wendy and Joanna slept out "under the stars". Though it started out cloudy, they dispursed after awhile and then the girls were able to see the stars, even seeing a couple shooting stars. It was probably a last warm night, since right now it is snowing here in Union.

Justin waking the girls up in the morning.

Painting at the Strand's

Making applesauce

Working in the backyard

We wanted to take advantage of some warm weather last week-end, so we were able to get some end of the season yard work done. Also, Wendy had been wanting to try her hand at "chain saw carving". Wendy's art teacher had told her that she should be able to create (well) any art medium, if she gets her sketching down. Chain saw carving isn't exactly a high art form but it is fun to see what she can create. Chain saw carving is much more grueling than charcoals. Also, if you happen to see her Christmas wish list and you notice she wants a chain saw, this post might explain it. :)







Justin: some of us had more productive work than others.

Daniel
Burning
More carving. Wendy's friend Tessa was carving pumpkins and they are amazing. The two pumpkins below were taken from Britt's Xanga page and are Tessa's carvings, one of a knight the other John Calvin.

Guys fishing trip, June, 2007

A very happy Bob.
Bob Spez.
Edward
Rob J.



Daniel
Ed, Edward and Bob
Tom Sch.
They call this something special when they tie the boats together, but I can't remember...
Michael B.

Luke B.
Nick J.
Edward
Edward and Ed
The entire group.
Daniel

Bob Spez. and Luke B.

Back in June when we girls were traveling to Jamestown, our boys were traveling north to Canada for a fishing trip. (Sorry Tom, but I just have to return to June). :)

Anyway, our guys drove all night to end up in (kind of) west central Ontario, then were flown into an remote outpost and private lake for fishing. I'm sure I will not do justice to the trip, but I can tell you what I do know, perhaps Bob or Daniel can elaborate somewhere along the way, if needed. I do know the fishing was great. Seems everyone caught a large fish or just lots of little ones. There were no accidents or trouble, (Daniel did get bit by something and his mouth swelled, but nothing bad.) The weather was great, rain maybe one day. Rob James did a great job planning and implementing. I think the food worked out (they needed to carry everything in.) Bob even making (baking a frozen) apple pie one day. The fishing is catch and release, unless you are going to eat it that day. So they caught and released quite a bit, but were able to eat their fill of very fresh fish.

Who went: Of course Bob and Daniel.
Bob Speziale who is Bob's best buddy. Bob and Bob met at a crisis pregnacy "walk", where they were setting out route markers (or something like that.) Bob and I were ready to deliver Daniel any day and Bob and Nora were already expecting Kate. So that is a very long time ago.
Ed Baumgarten, who is Daniel's boss, came with his two sons, Luke and Edward. Ed also brought along a nephew, Michael Baumgarten. (Also, Bob Sp. is Luke and Edward's uncle.)
Rob James and his son Nick.
Tom Schowalter. Ten altogether, all very good friends who have been fishing together (and other things) for a long time.

I've got the slideshow down to about 3 min. The scenery is wonderful and lots of shots of good friends and good times.

Just click on the box and the slideshow should load.

If the slideshow is bothersome, switch to gallery view and you can pace the pictures and the music stops, I think. Many of the pictures are from Rob's camera, thanks Rob.