.From GrandMary.......what Did we do?

We brought in the 2007 new year with the Sorensens, the Lawlers and other friends as we cruised the Caribbean. The farthest point south was Grenada and we renewed our good memories by visiting "Solemente". A quick visit to Las Vegas allowed us to personally welcome Trevor back home. At the end of February the bad knee finally got fixed. The usual meetings that keep us in touch with the world came along in regular clockwork style. Inga, Lynn and Mary Lou drove the new car to Keystone for a last look at 1159. Culver's helped us spiff up the front of the Rosedale house; meanwhile Sherry worked hard in the garden. We spent more time in McGregor and did a little spiffing up there. We went to Flagstaff to help Dan graduate. We celebrated Bets graduation from Washington; another Hattery on a firm foundation! Suzy had a great 70th birthday party for Dick. Over the internet Irishmen kept showing up with information and questions about the J J Orr family. Preparations for the first week end in August kicked into high gear........

We had a great family reunion in August ...........

and we were treated to a memorable dinner in Florence ...

We liked Cortona a lot ....the hotel was nice.

the town plaza was interesting........

We met friends in Paris and enjoyed a convivial week-long barge trip on the Seine.

We explored French markets

and looked at several castles. As always, it was good to get home!

Soon we found ourselves on that old doctor-lab-hospital merry-go-round that is so popular at our age; but "All's Well that Ends Well" and every day we know life is good.

We look forward with anticipation to the new year and send you our love and prayers for your health and happiness!

More Rosedale Christmas pictures

More pictures from Christmas at Rosedale -- this time from Inga's camera.

Grandma and Grandpa talking to Vashon on the phone...


Pieter excited about his awesome gift!!!


Grandma opening her Arizona vacation gift...


Lynn and the new purse...


Tommi came over for Christmas Eve dinner and we made Fondue...the cheese was a bit sketchy at times and very potent!!




Senor Azul


THe Diva

Christmas at Rosedale

Christmas Eve - while the devout when to church, the others played...

Everyone loved their gifts!

Shadow said Humbug!

We missed you all and hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas is up at Rosedale

The Christmas Tree is now up at Rosedale!!!

Iowa City Ice Storm 2007 edition

Iowa City woke up this morning to an ice storm that had been going since about midnight of last night, which means it's been raining ice for almost 12 hours now. Everything is coated in ice - cars, roofs, trees, shrubs....it looks pretty, but makes it very difficult to get around. It's also pretty eerie when the wind picks up and all those ice-covered trees start moving from the wind... Here are some pics:

Halloween in Chicago

Yes, that's a giant pixie stick in the Crocodile's hand. No, Josh was not allowed to have that tonight before bed. Josh and Maia (Ladybug) had a fun time trick or treating through the neighborhood. Josh even had a trick when asked for a trick..."Two little ghosts that I once knew, one named Bob (showing one of his thumbs) and one named Boo (showing his other thumb), fly away Bob (puts one thumb behind his back), fly away Boo (puts other thumb behind his back), come back Bob (showing one of his thumbs from behind his back), come back...BOO (as he opens both hands to scare you). It was really cute. Anyhow, we hope everyone had a fun and chocolate-filled Halloween.

Happy Halloween

I figured I'd post something since the blog's been a little 'stagnant' for a while. Is anyone dressing up for the holiday tomorrow??? I don't think I am this year, but I was a deck of cards last year....does that count?? It won me the office costume contest aka $15, which was barely enough to actually cover the cost! :(

Hope you guys are all having a great fall so far. It's flying by here in Iowa City. On Friday I'm picking up my good friend Eva from Germany who is flying in to spend 10 days here in Iowa. I'm sure some of you remember her - she was one of the Maedels who visited me right after we moved from Germany to Iowa City!!

Anyway -- hope you're having a good day.

Inga

Trevor is home

I wanted to share some photos from Trevor's homecoming. Unlike his deployment, the return happened during the day....

Andrea had put together a few welcome home signs which were placed in strategic locations where Trevor could see them as the bus drove by.... so we thought! The bus actually came in another way, but he got to see them on the drive home.

Alex got to put on a special dress for Daddy's homecoming - she doesn't look like it in this picture, but she was really excited!

Waiting for the bus to arrive was a bit long, but the kids passed the time by playing and the parents had time to talk about things.

There were quite a few people in the area waiting for the arrival.

The start of the procession is just coming into view and the crowd was yelling and clapping to welcome the Marines home.

A proper bagpipe arrival!

The bus doors were open and we could see through the windows a bit.

As you can see from the arm out of the bus window, the Marines were taking it all in.

After they got off the bus, they had to go to the ammunition depo to turn in their weapons and ammunition (yes, they traveled on the planes with weapons...) and then they were able to come down the hill to the waiting families. It was really hard to identify a specific Marine as they all pretty much looked alike.

Trevor is the very determined Marine in the middle of the photo with the sun glasses on, striding purposely and looking at the camera.

Back together again!

We had to wait a bit for them to be released to go home. There were some things for the kids to do and it gave us a chance to talk with some of Trevor's buddies.

Alex wasn't really too sure about Trevor at first. After a bit, Trevor pulled out a worn picture of the three of them that had been taken before he left. I could tell that he had pulled it out a lot because it was torn a bit. He showed it to Alex and she pointed to Andrea's picture to let Trevor know that it was her Mom. Trevor pointed to Alex's picture and asked who that was. Alex told him it was "Alex" and he pointed to his picture and she told him that was her Daddy. He pointed to himself and said "I'm your Daddy" and she connected the two, and gave him a big hug. Needless to say, a few tears were flowing at this time.

As some of you know, there is a certain duck call that Trevor got from my Dad when he was about Alex's age. When you give a 2 year old a duck call, it can get a bit noisy and somehow, the reed on the duck call mysteriously disappeared. Many years later, Trevor took the duck call to Iraq and used it to round up his vehicle crew. After he got his things, he gave it to Alex and she had a great time blowing into the duck call -- and his crew had a good time with it too!

However, Dad, it is still a bit noisy.....

This is an LAV, similar to the one Trevor commanded. For more information, write to Trevor!

The house had a few special signs!

We are very glad to get him home and to be able to be there to greet him. He is now back in "Mama radar range" and it sure feels good!!!!

Lynn & Lothar hiked RMNP

After having said good-bye to Keystone in May, Lothar and I spent a vacation week in Grand lake Colorado, at the southern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park the end of August. We missed the gentrification of Summit County (especially the hot tub!) but got to see more wildlife in 5 days than in 5 years at Keystone!

These marmots were sunning at 7:30 am - a good idea considering the brisk temperature of 46 degrees! A few steps up the trail we walked right past 2 Pronghorn rams - the first I'd ever seen! The most exciting event was the bugling of the elk, however. Mating season was just starting and (for a brief, somewhat scary time) we shared a clearing we an elk who was sounding off to another elk somewhere across the valley. Sounded a bit like the pig calling at the Iowa State Fair...

We did a lot of hiking. Here's the view looking back along the Continental Divide.

And here's the view of what was yet to come:

with some mighty slides along the way -

It was a lot of fun! We came back feeling much more relaxed, content and FIT!