This weekend we had a large gathering of relatives since our New York cousins were visiting and Dick was having his 75th birthday.  It gave me a chance to get some new pictures of some of my latest little cousins. 



I had promised an updated picture of Ellen so, as promised, here she is at about 2 weeks old.



I also caught a cute one of Mary Jane enjoying the blackberries which grow wild all around this state.



Here is Emma, who looks a lot like a Gray in this picture.



And finally, my favorite, this is Jesse, Donny, and Emma.  Donny is working very diligently to attach leaves to the sprinkler system, while Jesse assists in holding things for him.  Meanwhile, Emma is keeping track of the supply of leaves to be used.

Tags: birthdays

I am happy to report that on Friday, August 3, 2007 at about 5am, Emily had a beautiful little girl, Ellen Louise.  Ellen was 8 lbs. 12 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  Both mother and daughter are doing very well.



Here is Ellen shortly after she was born, with her cousin Penny, who is quickly growing up to be a sweet little girl.



And here is Ellen at 3 days old with her mother.  Thank you Becky for these great photos.  I have not yet met Ellen in person, but I will be sure to take pictures when I get a chance.

Tags: birthdays

Sunday was Jessica's birthday, though few people actually knew that.  LaelAnn and Christina found out though, and made a special effort to throw a nice surprise party for her.  Lael baked a delicious cherry cheesecake from an old German recipe which used metric measurements.  She had to convert these to U.S. measurements in order to get the ingredients right, which was a challenge.  The cheesecake was very tasty, so she must have done the job right.  The German recipe was worth the trouble.



Quite a few people showed up and helped celebrate.  Lael and Christina even brought tablecloths, decorations, a pretty punch bowl, and china cups to make the party more festive than the usual Sunday night gathering.  They obviously put a lot of thought into making this a special event.  Thank you both for all your time and efforts.



Penny is quickly growing up and is already stealing attention away from the party as you can see here.  Even Caleb couldn't resist having a chance to hold her all by himself.



Unfortunately, by the time Caleb got his turn, Penny was more interested in finding mommy and a warm, cozy crib, so she wasn't quite the little charmer she was earlier.  Nevertheless, this important bonding time was established.



Jessica opened some nice presents while others eagerly stood around waiting to see what she got.  I don't remember who owns the hand that was hovering over the table on the left.  It looks ready to pounce on whatever comes out of the box.

Typical of most Sunday night parties, half the people stand around and talk, half of us eat, and the other half (oops too many halves) finds a good group game to challenge the mind and wits.



Several of us played a rousing game of Speed Scrabble.  For those of you who haven't heard of this, the game is played like regular Scrabble except that each person works on his or her own set of words.  Everyone starts with 5 squares and tries to form words (two letters or more).  When anyone uses up their squares, "draw two" is called and everyone draws two more squares from the pool in the middle.  As soon as someone finds a place for all 7, they announce "draw two" and the game continues in like fashion until all pieces have been used and the first person to finish using up every square in their collection calls out "I'm done", which signals the end of the round.  Everyone counts up the score on all their squares and that becomes their score for the first round.  After a few rounds, the scores are tabulated and the person with the highest score wins.

We weren't really keeping score too carefully, so I can't say who actually won (hint: her initials are HH).  Mostly we just enjoyed the fun of the game.  The party didn't last too late, as most of us needed to get home, but everything turned out to be a success.  I even remembered my camera and managed to get a few pictures, which will go into the "Sunday night album".  This has become quite a history of all the folks down through the years who have joined us for evenings of fun, food, and fellowship.

Tags: birthdays

On Sunday my dad turned 70 years old.  Auntie Shari hosted a big surprise birthday party for him at her home down on the beach.  It was a big success.  Many friends, old and new, were there to help celebrate and feast on food and cake.  My dad survived admirably for more than 30 minutes wearing this hat which says, "I can't believe I'm 70".  I admit, I can't believe it either.



After a lot of fellowship and some funny stories, Randy came out with a song he had just written and played for us on his guitar.  I wish I had the words.  I will try and get them and post them here, so check back later.  The gist of it was "I can't feel at home too far from the brush" and one of the funny lines talked about his castle behind the woodpile.  The song really made everyone laugh and smile.



Update March 2, 2007: Here are the words to the song Randy wrote and sang for Dad.  This is sung to the tune of This World is Not My Home.

Well, Hoodsport is his home,
He ain't just passin' through.
It's where he chose to live
And raise a family too.
Big cities aren't for him
With all their noise and rush.
He would never feel at home
Livin' too far from the brush!

Chorus
Yes, I know, it's country life for me
Well I'm livin' out of town
There's no place I'd rather be.
Oh I dearly love my home
Even though it ain't too plush,
Cuz' I can't feel at home
Livin' too far from the brush!

Now Frank, he has his castle
Behind a pile of wood.
It's a cozy warm abode,
It suits his life real good.
He doesn't want to move
Where there's traffic jams and such,
He could never feel at home
Livin' too far from the brush!

Now Frank, he has his hobbies
It's plain, there ain't no doubt.
When he ain't diggin' bottles
He's tryin' to catch a trout.
And Frank, he's full of secrets
Hidden fishin' holes and such.
He could never feel at home
Livin' too far from the brush!

Tags: birthdays

Tags: birthdays

Last night I visited Camp Woodworth way down on Key Peninsula.  I joined them for dinner and chapel and even got to participate in a little skit called The Red Tie Club.  It was fun seeing the camp and their 10 acre campus in this beautiful setting.



With over 400 feet of waterfront, the camp is able to offer a wide range of seafaring experiences including swimming, boating, sailing, canoeing and kayaking.  During this week the campers are able to choose from a specific area of interest such as sports, arts and crafts, pioneer living, archery or sailing to focus on as well as the normal Bible-centered teaching each day.  Every night campers attend chapel where they sing hymns, enjoy fun skits and hear a message from a special speaker.



Last night we celebrated two birthdays and a piñata was hung from the trees to celebrate.  Everyone got a chance to swing at the candy-filled box until finally someone broke through and candy scattered in all directions.  I just happened to capture the picture above at the exact moment of impact when the severely dented box finally came apart.  It almost looks like a fireworks explosion as all the colorful candies came bursting out.  It sure is nice to finally have my real camera (Canon EOS 30D) with less than 1/15 of a second shutter lag time.  No more frustration from lost shots because of shutter delay.

Mom and Dad are headed for Oregon to join the relatives in the Bramblet's Summer Shindig this weekend.  I have yet another wedding to attend and couldn't get anymore time off work right away so I will be home in Hoodsport.

Tags: birthdays

This morning I decided to visit the Brinnon Community Church since I hadn't been there in awhile and was thinking about the Burt family (soon to be missionaries to Thailand) after enjoying the delicious Thai meal last night in Port Townsend.  But alas the Burts were not there having decided to visit the Edgren's church instead.  It was a nice day for a drive along the canal anyway and I did get to talk with some folks I don't get to see very often.  After enjoying a gourmet lunch with the Bringhams I checked out their new computer for spyware and cleaned off a few things they didn't need.  I got back in time to take a much-needed one hour nap before going to church and then headed right back up to the Duckabush again to crash the Edgren birthday party just as most people were leaving.  But Edgren birthdays last a long time (days, even weeks) so I was not too late to miss seeing Kathy open one more present and then Sarah open a big present just before bedtime.



Like all the best toys, the Little Mommy shopping cart needed to be assembled and Joshua was more than willing to help in this area and was working on it when I left.  Sarah was quite thrilled with the real plastic banana that you could actually peel.  Oh what fun to be a kid in this day and age.



The Burt family was also there so I was able to see them after all and they were plotting to get a game of Settlers of Catan going later this week which I hopefully will be able to participate in.  Tim tentatively scheduled this for Thursday so I will have something to look forward to this week.  I had a very nice talk with Tim outside just before leaving and I was glad I decided to make the special trip after all.

Tags: birthdays