She's crawling but not in the typical style. But it gets her around.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Family Reunion in Virginia: Part Three
I need to hurry up and finish this story so I can move on to the current events. So here it goes. I'll start with our family pictures. We were really excited to be able to have Kim able to come down and be with us a little at the campsite and so everyone was able to be in the pictures.
Here we are, all 31 of us.
Here we are, all 31 of us.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
An Eve Funny
Eve's next to me watching me go through the photos to post them. As she sees each one she has been exclaiming the names of the people she knows. When it got to this one she yelled out "Cinderella" which is pretty close to Gabriela, and I don't think Gabriela would think it insulting either.
Family Reunion in Virginia: Part Two
Here's just a bunch of pictures of us playing in water. Both Lily and Eve loved the ocean. I was surprised about how fearless Eve was, she would get knocked over by the waves and think it was the best ride ever! We had to stay right next to her to keep her from drowning. In a group this big with so many kids we had to employ "man-to-man" defense. I would constantly check on my own girls, make sure I always knew where they were and have to trust my sisters and cousins to watch their own girls. It sure is tricky keeping track of kids on a beach.
Andy Rooney: Good News
There's a bit of an Andy Rooney lecture that I want to recount before I continue our vacation story.
All of us who work in television news are constantly being accused of emphasizing the negative side of everthing. We get letters saying we never cover a story unless something terrible happens. Tonight we've put together a little news broadcast to give you an idea of how it would look if you had it your way.
"I'm here by the Mississippi. It's raining but the river is not over flowing its banks.
"As a matter of fact, it doesn't look to me as though there's any danger of a flood whatsoever. People are not piling up sandbags. No one has been forced to evacuate his home and the Governor has not asked that this be declared a federal disaster area."
"O'Hare Airport in Chicago is one of the nation's busiest. At 11 A.M., a jet aircraft with 168 passengers and ten crew members on board started down the long runway. The plane, headed for London, took off without incident. It landed without incident too. Everyone on board is now in London.
"One passenger on board that plane was quoted as saying he didn't like the fake milk they served with the coffee."
"For a report from New York City we take you to our correspondent standing in front of the Plaza, one of New York City's most luxurious hotels.
"This is the Plaza, one the New York City's most luxurious hotels. CBS News has learned that last evening, after a night on the town, the Shah of Franakapan and his semi-beautiful wife returned to their hotel suite after depositing more than a million dollars' worth of jewelry in the hotel safe. The jewels included the famous Cooch Behar Diamond.
"This morning, when the safe was opened, all the jewelry including the famous Cooch Behar Diamond was right where they'd left it."
"In Florida, the orange crop was hit by another night of average weather.
"The oranges just hung in there and grew."
"Oil industry officials announced today they were lowering prices because they just don't need the money. One reason for their affluence is their safety records.
"The oil tanks behind me are very close to a residential area. If they were on fire, smoke would be seen billowing up for miles around. They aren't on fire, though; they're just sitting there."
"In Detroit, a General Motors spokesman announced today that more that 174,000 Chevrolets made in the late fall of 1974 would not be recalled. They are all perfect.
"At eleven-thirty this evening, CBS News will present a special report listing the serial numbers of those cars."
And if that's what you want to hear, that's the way it was.
Good evening.
I posted this because my stories from my vacation seem to be mostly about the negative things that happened. Alot of good things happened too. And I'll try to report them, but they just don't make as good of stories.
All of us who work in television news are constantly being accused of emphasizing the negative side of everthing. We get letters saying we never cover a story unless something terrible happens. Tonight we've put together a little news broadcast to give you an idea of how it would look if you had it your way.
"I'm here by the Mississippi. It's raining but the river is not over flowing its banks.
"As a matter of fact, it doesn't look to me as though there's any danger of a flood whatsoever. People are not piling up sandbags. No one has been forced to evacuate his home and the Governor has not asked that this be declared a federal disaster area."
"O'Hare Airport in Chicago is one of the nation's busiest. At 11 A.M., a jet aircraft with 168 passengers and ten crew members on board started down the long runway. The plane, headed for London, took off without incident. It landed without incident too. Everyone on board is now in London.
"One passenger on board that plane was quoted as saying he didn't like the fake milk they served with the coffee."
"For a report from New York City we take you to our correspondent standing in front of the Plaza, one of New York City's most luxurious hotels.
"This is the Plaza, one the New York City's most luxurious hotels. CBS News has learned that last evening, after a night on the town, the Shah of Franakapan and his semi-beautiful wife returned to their hotel suite after depositing more than a million dollars' worth of jewelry in the hotel safe. The jewels included the famous Cooch Behar Diamond.
"This morning, when the safe was opened, all the jewelry including the famous Cooch Behar Diamond was right where they'd left it."
"In Florida, the orange crop was hit by another night of average weather.
"The oranges just hung in there and grew."
"Oil industry officials announced today they were lowering prices because they just don't need the money. One reason for their affluence is their safety records.
"The oil tanks behind me are very close to a residential area. If they were on fire, smoke would be seen billowing up for miles around. They aren't on fire, though; they're just sitting there."
"In Detroit, a General Motors spokesman announced today that more that 174,000 Chevrolets made in the late fall of 1974 would not be recalled. They are all perfect.
"At eleven-thirty this evening, CBS News will present a special report listing the serial numbers of those cars."
And if that's what you want to hear, that's the way it was.
Good evening.
I posted this because my stories from my vacation seem to be mostly about the negative things that happened. Alot of good things happened too. And I'll try to report them, but they just don't make as good of stories.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Family Reunion in Virginia: Part One
I suppose I've put it off long enough since this family reunion took place last month. But so much happened, I knew it would take a long time to journal it all, so I just haven't done it at all. Now you all know, I procrastinate blogging.
I guess it started after my Dad's funeral. We were together, well most of us, discussing that we wanted to organize a reunion with the entire extended family so we could see each other more regularly than weddings and funerals. We came up with a plan of every other year and taking turns organizing it by going down in age order through the cousins. My older brother is the oldest cousin, so it was his turn first.
My brother and his wife set the bar really high for the rest of it as far as organization goes. They chose a destination about a year in advance and started a family messaged board for all of us to be able to keep updated with how the plans were going. They worked really hard to find ways to keep the costs low knowing that several of us were going to have to spend alot just to get there.
I think the most amazing thing is that everyone came who could. We were only missing one person from our entire extended family, and Uncle Jake couldn't come because he was in Iraq. Several times we paused and acknowledged that that was an amazing feat in and of itself.
We first gathered to Baltimore, where we got to meet the newest member of the family, two-month old Carina, and see her blessed. It's always so precious to see a new baby. After the blessing we went to a little park that over looked a bay for dinner. We had some yummy food and the girls got to chase fire flies. Kim's dad also gave us rides in his boat. That was a wonderful feeling. It was warm enough that the wind on the boat felt really good. We were able to see a light house and several birds on our ride. We stayed up really late debating politics and health food before finally crashing all over my brother's house. (Seriously, bodies everywhere!)
The next morning we planned on leaving asap to drive four hours down to Virginia Beach. And as most know ASAP with a large group means in hours, I think it was about 11:30 before we all were on the road. Before we could even really get going we had to make a couple of stops to pick up some last minute things, and do some chores. (Like my Sister faxing some papers to sign on her house, hooray for selling!) Then the kids were going crazy, so we had to stop for lunch too.
While at MacDonalds we got a phone call from my brother. He and his wife were hauling a camper-trailer, it had fish-tailed and caused them to roll several times. We were not far behind them so we hoped we could be there quickly to help. The traffic on the highway was backed up for a couple of miles before we could even get close, so they arranged for an escort for us to follow in the emergency lane so we could be there. Kim had already been taken to the hospital in an ambulance, Spencer, had been cut, but was doing okay and was still at the accident site. Their two daughters didn't seem to be hurt or affected at all and Barbara, my sister, who was riding with them was sore and in shock. It seemed unreal, to see. I wanted to help but there was so little I could do. We mostly just hugged each other and were grateful that the girls weren't hurt. The police let Spencer pick out a few salvagable valuables, the rest was cleaned up by a towing company. My sister Amber and I road in a fire truck with Spencer's two girls while our families and Spencer and Barbara in our two cars to the hospital to see Kim. Kim ended up with some deep cuts on her head and a fractured vertebrae. They kept her overnight. We left Spencer and Kim at the hospital and took their two girls with us and finished the drive down to Virginia Beach.
Now the camper had been carrying almost all of our camping supplies so we had to make some more emergency grocery shopping trips and buy a cooler or two. We were also down a couple of tents, luckily another of my sister's, Sarah, had brought an extra. And a couple people braved sleeping out under the stars.
The campground we were at had a nice pool pretty close to our site that we found really nice early the next morning. With the hot sticky humidity we all wanted to get in the water as soon as we could. We mostly lived in our swimming suits. The best times were at the beach.
I guess it started after my Dad's funeral. We were together, well most of us, discussing that we wanted to organize a reunion with the entire extended family so we could see each other more regularly than weddings and funerals. We came up with a plan of every other year and taking turns organizing it by going down in age order through the cousins. My older brother is the oldest cousin, so it was his turn first.
My brother and his wife set the bar really high for the rest of it as far as organization goes. They chose a destination about a year in advance and started a family messaged board for all of us to be able to keep updated with how the plans were going. They worked really hard to find ways to keep the costs low knowing that several of us were going to have to spend alot just to get there.
I think the most amazing thing is that everyone came who could. We were only missing one person from our entire extended family, and Uncle Jake couldn't come because he was in Iraq. Several times we paused and acknowledged that that was an amazing feat in and of itself.
We first gathered to Baltimore, where we got to meet the newest member of the family, two-month old Carina, and see her blessed. It's always so precious to see a new baby. After the blessing we went to a little park that over looked a bay for dinner. We had some yummy food and the girls got to chase fire flies. Kim's dad also gave us rides in his boat. That was a wonderful feeling. It was warm enough that the wind on the boat felt really good. We were able to see a light house and several birds on our ride. We stayed up really late debating politics and health food before finally crashing all over my brother's house. (Seriously, bodies everywhere!)
The next morning we planned on leaving asap to drive four hours down to Virginia Beach. And as most know ASAP with a large group means in hours, I think it was about 11:30 before we all were on the road. Before we could even really get going we had to make a couple of stops to pick up some last minute things, and do some chores. (Like my Sister faxing some papers to sign on her house, hooray for selling!) Then the kids were going crazy, so we had to stop for lunch too.
While at MacDonalds we got a phone call from my brother. He and his wife were hauling a camper-trailer, it had fish-tailed and caused them to roll several times. We were not far behind them so we hoped we could be there quickly to help. The traffic on the highway was backed up for a couple of miles before we could even get close, so they arranged for an escort for us to follow in the emergency lane so we could be there. Kim had already been taken to the hospital in an ambulance, Spencer, had been cut, but was doing okay and was still at the accident site. Their two daughters didn't seem to be hurt or affected at all and Barbara, my sister, who was riding with them was sore and in shock. It seemed unreal, to see. I wanted to help but there was so little I could do. We mostly just hugged each other and were grateful that the girls weren't hurt. The police let Spencer pick out a few salvagable valuables, the rest was cleaned up by a towing company. My sister Amber and I road in a fire truck with Spencer's two girls while our families and Spencer and Barbara in our two cars to the hospital to see Kim. Kim ended up with some deep cuts on her head and a fractured vertebrae. They kept her overnight. We left Spencer and Kim at the hospital and took their two girls with us and finished the drive down to Virginia Beach.
Now the camper had been carrying almost all of our camping supplies so we had to make some more emergency grocery shopping trips and buy a cooler or two. We were also down a couple of tents, luckily another of my sister's, Sarah, had brought an extra. And a couple people braved sleeping out under the stars.
The campground we were at had a nice pool pretty close to our site that we found really nice early the next morning. With the hot sticky humidity we all wanted to get in the water as soon as we could. We mostly lived in our swimming suits. The best times were at the beach.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
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