Congratulations, Madame Secretary!

Pete, John and I just returned from a wonderful week-end in Washington where we were honored to witness the swearing in ceremony of our beloved friend Jo-Ellen as she became the second female Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.
We were treated to a tour of the Pentagon before the ceremony which thrilled John....and gave me blisters on my toes. Jo-Ellen was surrounded by all of her family and many, many friends from near and far. We were so touched to be a part of it!
Saturday we watched the MSU/UofM game at Ellen Globokar and Bob Chlopak's with their son Jack. It was a great afternoon and we all had fun and certainly enjoyed the end of the game!
Jo-Ellen and her sister Margy, Pete, John and I stayed at the Dubliner until way too late last night, but it was great fun and well worth the tiredness this morning!
Congratulations and way to go, Jo-Jo! We love you!

First Day of School

I know I'm late on this one but here are the pictures of the first day of school. Pete and I returned from Ireland the night before so the morning was a funny one getting everyone off to school. John and Pasha didn't (wouldn't) have pictures taken for the blog,but everyone else was very cooperative. Nolan and Aidan go to a different building this year. Whitehills is a 5th & 6th grade building and Buffy, Alex, Ben, Jane and Lilly are all at Pinecrest. I'm finally getting used to EVERYONE being gone all day and Nolan and Aidan being at the BIG school---they all adjusted way before I did :)! The year is going great for everyone! Buffy is just beginning and John is ending---as in, he's a senior!

EAST LANSING TROJAN FOOTBALL UPDATE

The East Lansing Trojan Football Varsity team is looking better the last two weeks. Last week was their first win, beating Lansing Everett and last night they beat their big rival Okemos 27 to 21. It was a fun and exciting game. I forgot to take may camera again---I'm always a little nervous getting ready to leave and continue to forget something. I'll try to get pictures at the next home game---or maybe Pasha and his friends will just pose for me some afternoon after practice! Ha!

Happy Birthday Pete and Jane!

Happy Happy Birthday to Pete and Jane! We all hope the day and year are one of your best ever!
We just returned from a great celebration dinner with Doug and Susan, wedged in between soccer practices, football practice and many, many other important commitments! It seems as if getting this whole family together gets more difficult all the time!
We all enjoyed dinner, cake and lots of laughs----not only did Pete and I forget to take a camera, but Uncle Doug didn't bring one either! I guess we will all just have to commit it to memory without pictures!
Anyway, Happy Birthday you two!

Scooting Scooter!

Nolan has begged for an electric/battery scooter for months. Yesterday was he lucky day in that Pete and I caved and finally bought the crazy thing. The battery had to charge for a very painful 18 hours. This is a shot of his second or third time down the hill by the cottage driveway. he loves his new scooter!

Summer Memories!

Well, as we get ready this week to pack up and go back to East Lansing, I started looking through some of our fun summer pictures. These are mostly of our Sunday afternoons with our friends who come from East Lansing for tubing,swimming,boating,sweet corn, hot dogs, watermelon and great, great fun! We have had so much fun on these Sunday afternoons it will be hard to say good-by to them. It is great watching all these kids together making memories! Our annual family portrait on the steps is included in this batch, too. It's been another fun and wonderful summer at the lake!