Salt Lake City

Barbara and I went to Salt Lake City to do some research at the Family History Museum, and oh, by the way, watch Brendan race in the SLC Marathon. SLC is a beautiful, quiet and clean city, with majestic views and a wonderful history. In addition to spending some long hours in the archives, we stayed next to Temple Square, the Mormon Vatican City, and were pleasantly surprised to be able to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice for its Easter presentation.

I was able to identify 9 generations of Adamses, and have a lead on a 10th, but it is hard to find good data when dealing with immigration and records from other countries. My mother's side, the Simonses, seem to disappear after my great grandfather. Barbara spent a lot of time with the different branches of her family. It is helpful that they almost all resided in the Baltimore area, but you would be amazed as to how many spellings of "McKeldin" there are. Handwritten records have caused innumerable errors in interpretation and translation for everyone, I am sure. If/when we visit again, we will have to be prepared to get into paper, microfilm, and other archived information.

We also enjoyed watching Brendan complete his second marathon, right on the time he trained to run it. He looked strong and steady the entire time -- we cheered him on at 9 miles, 16 miles, 20 miles and the finish. The pictures show him getting ready in the chilly, dark morning, then at the finish line, and being appropriately congratulated. What fun!

So off we go, back to Vancouver. Grandchildren await spoiling!

J&B

The Party

Well, August 8th, 2010 was about all I could ask for. Trudy, George and almost all the immediate families were here. We had the 6 grandchildren together for nearly a week, along with Trudy's 2, and they wore us out. Many from Barbara's soccer team were here, and we got to give them one more of our sideline cheers, for which we as fans were nearly ejected from a game or two.

We had been planning for this for over a year, and the date for it was changed several times. We celebrated: John's retirement (May, 2009), Barbara's retirement (March, 2010), both of our birthdays, our 40th anniversary, our new homes in Washington and Colorado, and our first post-retirement trip (to Scotland in July, 2010). We are so grateful for those who came to our house from far and wide.

I really didn't get too much in the way of pictures, spending my time eating, laughing, and doing my part to polish off a pony keg in the garage. Posted here are some family shots for you to see.

Trip to Scotland

We went to Scotland from July 4 through the 12th and had a wonderful time. They say not to go to Scotland for the weather, and "they" are right. Despite some rain, the temperatures were agreeable and we managed to see this beautiful country up close and personal. The scenery on the very first day gave us a hint regarding how it was going to be.

We stayed in Oban on the west coast for the first few days, and sorteed out to the islands and up to Loch Ness. Even though we sailed out onto the water, we still didn't spot Nessie but the trip was worth it. There is a system of locks, which connect lochs together so that the inland lochs can be connected to the ocean. That way water transportation can be used far inland.

The views from high above Oban were very picturesque, our hotel was a building constructed in the 1700s, and our room was in the turret tower to the left. The town of Tobermory was colorful and quaint, and like most of the towns, it had its distillary. I sampled a few single malt scotches, and learned that there are over 150 different brands in Scotland.

Castles, castles everywhere. We stayed in Stirling next, where there is an extraordinary castle, including a beheading stone. People were being beheaded while we were there so we only saw it from a distance. The 4 most notable castles to me were Sterling, Duart, the Stalker island castle and Edinburgh. We'll get to Edinburgh later. The Duart Castle is where Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones filmed part of "Entrapment."

Edinburgh is a big city, with the biggest of castles, and a summer residence for the royal family. The weather was pretty miserable that day, so the outside pictures aren't great. I did get an interesting picture of the prisoner of war facilities, used in the 1700s to house U.S. sailors from the Revolutionary War. And we did get to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe -- same ol', same ol'.

And then there was St. Andrews. We crashed a 2010 British Open practice round by going through a gate accidentally left open! More interesting than the golfers was the course and the clubhouse, and then we left to see the old St. Andrews church and graveyard. Can you imagine a church with 31 altars? Anyway, it was a glorious end to the trip.

There is more, but you'll have to put up with a slide show to see our William Wallace and Robert the Bruce stuff, along with the other monuments and memorials. The flights were long, but the trip was fantastic. Now we have to decide where to go next year.

Love,

John & Barbara

The Pieces Are Coming Together

As I sit here contemplating my navel, waiting for Barbara to retire....

I thought I would go over the last year, mostly subsequent to the entries for the construction in Englewood. Most of my time was indeed married to the construction, and Barbara was working, working, working.

We took three major trips between the beginning of 2009 and today, all in the truck. We went to the east coast and visited with much of Barbara's family, while we packed and hauled items from her parent's estate to New Mexico. Then we went to the west coast to see Trudy, Cami and, for the first time, Gabe & Alina - Tru's grands. From there it was up to Vancouver to see Brian and Michelle's family and to look at the housing market in the northwest.

Then it was all work until Christmas, when we went back to the northwest to spend Christmas with Brian's family and buy a house if one was available that we wanted. Fortunately for us there was, and we made an offer which was accepted. In January, I returned to sign the papers and move our stuff out of storage, so all we have to do now is bail out of Crownpoint and complete our move.

So sometime between March 15th and the 22nd we are outta here, and the next chapter begins. We are lining up some kid and dog sitting in June for Colorado, and going to Scotland in July for the first of what we hope will be many trips as tourists. I will definitely post a report of our Scotland tour.

John

The Floors are Finished!

We are just about ready for our final inspection! John finished the large task of installing the wood floors for the addition and Brendan installed the wood on the stairs. The banister is up on the stairs. It just needs some stain at some point. The kitchen is complete and all of the appliances are hooked up. They are both working on trim throughout the house - a large task that takes time and patience!

Counters and fences...it's looking good!

The long awaited granite tops were delivered and installed today. The first two pictures are the bar area in the dining room followed by John and Barbara's kitchen counters and then their bathroom "grotto." Now we just have to get the faucets in and hooked up and we are good to go. After 4 months of a relatively open back yard, Jameson is nice and secure with the new section of fence up. Of course now that he can relax outside in the sun without running away, he would rather nap on the couch. Go figure!