Aunt Cleda Comes for a Visit

We were honored to have Aunt Cleda from Santa Clara, CA come for a visit. Honored because she doesn't just up and fly anywhere on a whim.

She brought some kumquats from the tree in her yard. They tasted really sour but good. You have to sort of massage them before popping them in your mouth and eating the fruit, peel and all.

She ate some fresh eggs courtesy of Ginny.

She did the hula hoop with Tanner, Cammie, Clay and Emma. The kids were delighted that Aunt Cleda could do it.

Cleda said at the outset that she didn't want to do touristy things so we concentrated on letting her get to know all our kids and grand kids. She went to Finlay's soccer game and birthday party, had lunch with Ashley, and dinner with Scott and his family. All in all I think she had an OK time.

Selma Goes To the State Gymnastics Meet

The Virgina State Gymnastics meet was held this week end in Newport News so Selma's groupies trekked down to cheer her on. On hand was Nonnie, Uncle Mike and aunt Adonica, aunt Rosie, aunt Fannie, Mom, and of course Papa. Mema got stranded in Columbus and couldn't get back in time.

Selma competed very well at level 6 and we are so proud of her. Here are a couple of videos of her on the bars and floor exercise.

Here is Selma in the middle with two of her team mates.

Mema and Kids Go to Peter Pan

The local theater put on "Peter Pan" so Mema took the opportunity to drag the kids kicking and screaming to see Captain Hook get his comeuppance. Papa begged off because, you know, Peter Pan can't really fly.

Here's Peter looking a bit long in the tooth if you ask me. But Clay, Tanner, Cammie, Emma, and Rylan obviously don't think so.

And here is that nefarious villain himself, Captain Hook apparently unscathed by his near brush with death at the jaws of the Crocodile.

And here is Wendy, also a bit more mature than perhaps she should be. Maybe the pixie dust is wearing off.

Happy Easter 2008!

Easter this year was just wonderful! We took the grans to church where Clay sang in the childrens choir for the first time. She was the best one in her row!

That's her in the bright dress. The music for the service featured a string section stolen from the Richmond Symphony and, together with the adult choir and the usual band, it knocked your socks off.

Then, of course, we had the requisite egg hunt in our front yard featuring Clay, Tanner, Cammie and Rylan. Well, see for yourself.

Mema & Papa Go to the Big Apple

We visited New York in March in order to take in a few plays. We weren't disappointed. We saw Phantom of the Opera, Gypsy, and Curtains. Three plays in three days kind of wore us old folks out but it was very nice. We even were treated to the Naked Cowboy who hangs out in Times Square even in very chilly weather. Well, see for yourself. Ya gotta have a gimmick to make it in New York and this dude has a gimmick!

It was too cold to do a lot of sight-seeing but we did see a lot of Times Square, the Rockefeller Plaza and a Seinfeld type cafe where we did most of our eating.

The above Lego display was in the largest Toys R Us I've ever seen. Three floors and an indoor Ferris wheel.

We are just in awe of the talent in the theaters. Each production seemed better than the last. David Hyde-Pierce starred in Curtains and was just hilarious.

The Sisters Visit Us

In late February, sisters Sue and Sally, accompanied by niece Kelsey and grand neice Charis, came for a visit. I don't see my sisters nearly enough so this was a special occasion. Daughter Ashley also help host the affair and was glad for the opportunity to get to know these distant relatives better.

We had a grand party the Saturday night that they were here and were regaled with belly dancing, acrobatics and other "hey, watch this" stunts from the grand kids.

We also took the time to visit Jamestown that included a very nice lunch of oysters and clams at a cafe along the York River.

The Girls go Rock, Climbing

These are some pictures that Ann passed on to us where they took Olivia, Sophie and Nora rock climbing with their home school bunch. From the looks of it, they had a real exciting time.

Here Olivia starts up the dangerous ice-covered north face of the Eiger.

Nora carefully traverses during a fierce snow storm

Sophie scrambles to rescue a fellow climber injured in the avalanche.

Ann supervises safely from the ground.