Marge Visit

I finally had time this weekend to upload the pictures from last Saturday's gathering on our deck. Good weather, good pizza, and especially good company made for a nice day. Too bad we had to shift our clocks back the night before, or we could have had more daylight and stayed out there even longer.

Chris' Birthday Hike in the Smoky Mountains

For Chris' birthday today, we took a family hike above Cades Cove in the Smokys, and then went downtown for dinner at the Melting Pot. It was a very nice day, and as you can see from the pictures, there was still some color left in the trees.

Last Boating Day in 2008

It was 72 degrees and sunny in Knoxville all weekend, so we took the boat out one last time to see the Fall colors. Caitlyn needed the serenity after taking her to two haunted houses (one house and one cornfield) last night late. It was very scary, but not as bad as the first half of the NU OK game!

Caitlyn at Homecoming

With one of her best friends, Savannah, at our house before the dance:

With her boyfriend Matt after the dance (I drove him home). He didn't get there until late because of his own football game (he goes to a different high school). His Dad dropped him at the dance and he changed in the car on the way over (no shower).

And yes, I feel old now.

Homecoming, Tommy in Band

Here is Kayla in her Homecoming dress:


And here is Tommy doing marching band with a broken ankle:

Mom and Dad's Visit to TN

We're having a great time with Mom and Dad. They arrived on Thursday evening last week. Saturday we all went into Gatlinburg and wandered around. We had a great pancake brunch, and then came home and watched NE lose a tough one to VT. Sunday we went boating pretty much all day. Dad drove for a while so that Caitlyn and I could raft together and he broke a new record for air time when he hit a wake and sent us both bouncing up into the air and off the raft. Yesterday (Mon.) Mom and Dad went downtown to the older part of Knoxville to explore on their own.

Today I took them golfing at Willow Creek. It's a long course, and yes, Dad beat me again (he had a 93 to my 97). I didn't bring a calculator for Mom's score (actually, she did pretty well). Tonight we may go to the science museum in Oak Ridge and listen to a lecture on the state of the Y12 plant (where I work). On Thurs, Mom and Dad are planning on going to the Biltmore castle in Asheville, NC (I may join them time permitting). This weekend we'll probably be back out on the boat and having dinner on the lake. Wish you all were here too!

John

Rough Weekend

We had quite the weekend. On Friday afternoon I rode up with a couple of other musicians to rehearse and play a show with Joe Piscopo - nice guy, BTW, and a real pro. He sang, played about 5 different instruments, did comedy bits and impressions, interacted with the audience, auctioned off chances to dance with him, and generally brought a lot of Vegas energy to a room of about 200 (I kind of felt sorry for him - it seems kind of a tough way to make a living for a guy who had made it to the big time. Maybe he knew somebody on the board of the charity we were raising money for - or knew somebody who benefits from the charity). Here he is (sorry for the blurry pic) auctioning off a chance to dance with him after the show.

Anyway, we had about 2 hours or so to kill after the rehearsal before the show, so we headed to Old Chicago to have a beer - on the way I get a text message from Julie to call her - it seems Tommy snapped his ankle playing ultimate frisbee down at Cook Pavilion. She later sent me a picture message of his ankle before the doctors reset it (WARNING - don't click if you have a weak stomach) you can see the pic here if you want. It was pretty horrifying to see that and not be able to be at the hospital.  The gig went until about 11 pm, so I didn't get home in time to head to the hospital until the next day.

He had his surgery Saturday morning, and it went fine.  Now we're just dealing with how we're going to get him to classes.

Our Return to Boating

Hi family:

We finally got to test our new boat yesterday, and it worked great! The lake was calm and empty (TN was having its first home game), and the temperature of both the water and air was perfect. I sent you all an invitation to see the pictures I took on Kodak ShareGallery, but I'm not sure its working, so I thought I'd make this posting as well (I did not get any messages from anyone about the last one share gallery I sent, about our Labor Day in a cabin, but that could be because my email address in KodakShare was out of date). Anyway, hope everyone is having a great weekend, and we can't wait to see Mom and Dad in a couple of weeks!

Everything Changes

Paul got moved into his new apartment last week, Tommy is moved into his dorm, and Kayla is deep into band camp and school. The other night, Julie and I stopped by Sunken Gardens - we haven't gone there in a long time. It's amazing how much it has changed since the days we used to run wild there when we visited Grandma and Grandpa Nehe (you can see their old house in the back of the first picture. I had my cell phone with me, so I decided to take some pics so that those of you who haven't been by there in a while could see it in full bloom.

Getting Settled In

Hi Everybody:

Well we just had our fourth weekend since the movers came in, and we're finally pretty settled in. We have to unpack old kids toys (the only remaining boxes), and decide which ones to give away, sell, or trash and which ones to keep, but at least you can see the garage now. We could actually put both cars in if I didn't want to keep things clear for a little more shelf work first. The third picture down is of our third garage bay (all clear now), and the bottom one shows Sarah helping to check in boxes as they come off the truck (she did a great job). In the second picture, Chris finally gets to relax for a few minutes on our new porch, and at the top is the morning of the first day of school.

The next big thing for us is getting an audio/video contractor in. We need to have our flatscreen mounted over the fireplace, and I'm going to install a home theater upstairs similar to the one we had when we lived in Knoxville before. When that's done we'll actually be able to entertain visitors.

Meanwhile, the kids started back to school this Mon (8/11). Caitlyn has started high school, and Sarah started middle school. They also started dance again this week, so Chris is back to carting kids around. They seem to be doing OK, but summer was very short for them, and neither has any old friends in their classes - but they'll adjust.

Looking forward to football season (considering season TN tickets, but really looking forward to the Husker season). Hope all is well with everyone. I'll send out email addresses and new contact information to everyone by email. Take care,

John

Back in Knoxville

Well we're all back in Knoxville now. Caitlyn arrived a week ago (Sunday), after she spent a great last week with her friends in CA. The movers came last Friday (July 18), so we've been moving in for a little over a week now, and this weekend we finally got cable service, so we're back on-line. We won't have email for a couple more days, though. When we finally get email going, I'll give everyone our contact information. In the meantime, Mom and Dad have my cell and our new home address and telephone.

Sounds like everyone is having great summer vacations. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our plans to go to Yellowstone and the Tetons because of the move, but we'll get there eventually. Can't complain though - Hawaii over Spring Break will last us awhile.

Job is going fine. Unfortunately for the kids, school starts in just two weeks, after they got out in CA in late June. Very quick summer for them, but a memorable one. They had a great time at camp in TN right after school let out (scheduled before we knew we were moving back). They've already had a couple of sleepovers, so they're getting back in the groove of things here. We're all very tired, but we'll settle in soon. Hope to talk to all of you soon,

John

We finally have some pictures to share from Ireland.  Here are a few.  The first one is of the Cliffs of Moher.  These are the highest cliffs in Europe.  It was on this boat trip that my digital camera got drowned by the big wave.  

The second is of the Rock of Cashel.  It is  an ancient ruin of a castle the first part of which was originally built in the early 5th century.  It became a royal center with the coming of Conal Co

rk head of the Eoganachta.  In the mid 5th century the Eoanacht kings accept Christianity when Patrick baptizes King Aengusat the castle.  From then on it suffers through a history of conflict and religion finally becoming an abbey.  It remained a religious center known as the Cathedral of St Patrick on the Rock until 1649 when it is shut down my the oppression of Cromwell. 

The third is a picture of a couple of old thatch

 roofed homes that have recently become little shops for tourists.  The roofs are made of reeds that are carefully placed close together so that they will insulate the house and shed water so

 the house stays dry and warm.  There are a number of homes that still maintain these roofs even though the more modern tile roofs are available.

The next picture illustrates the narrow roads that dominate throughout the southern part of Ireland.  They are barely wider than a standard two-car driveway.  Like here drivers tend to drive much faster than the roads safely allow.  You always have to be on the left side and speed limits run about 100 kph.

The last picture is of our "cabin".  We had the whole thing.  It had 4 bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen and 2 bathrooms.  Very luxurious living on a golf resort in County Clare.  It was out in the country away from any towns.  We went into a nearby town, Tuamgraney, to eat at a wonderful pub.  The food there was good if a little too bland.

South Dakota trip

We recently returned from our trip to the Black Hills. We started at the farm on July 4th (where we shot off a multitude of fireworks). We traveled up to Valentine, NE on July 5th (Saturday) where bad weather caught up to us once again. We had to pull over on the highway in the middle of nowhere while caught in high winds and hail with no radio station and no cell phone service. We heard later that a tornado had passed through. We're pretty sure we weren't too far from it.
We canoed the Niobrara Sunday morning and then headed for Custer. We stayed in a beautiful cabin for 5 nights. The 3 boys took professional rock climbing lessons (no pictures of that, just video). Jon and Jared were able to scale all 5 of the ropes they were given. Sean was a little nervous, but conquered the "tower of death" climb and got about halfway up another wall while telling everyone, "This is not a much fun family vacation!" The owner of the climbing company told us that we have a future mountain climber in Jared, who thinks he'd like to tackle Devil's Tower next. We spent some time there climbing all over the boulder field that surrounds the base of Devil's Tower. We also did a little horseback riding and a lot of hiking. If I can ever figure out how to download video from my camera onto my computer, I'll add that in later. Otherwise, see it next time we see you!