Photos 2008

Elizabeth's Birthday

We celebrated at B & J's Pizza. Papa bought Elizabeth a carrot cake. Chelsea got the idea of having Elizabeth blow out a lighter since there wasn't a candle.

John and Nancy with their "baby" - Elizabeth.

"Cousin" Hannah and Chelsea

Joe and "Aunt" Katy

Patrick and Jay

Joe

John took this picture with a tripod on December 1. The new moon is the closest it will be to both Venus, on the left, and Jupiter, on the right, for awhile. With no lights behind our house because of the floodplain, it was quite visable. (I looked online for other pictures and I really think ours is the best of the lot. The others didn't show Jupiter.)

Thanksgiving

John carves the Turkey at the McGovern's home, where we have the traditional fare: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, fruit salad and cranberry sauce topped off with chocolate pie, pecan pie and fudge. Yum! Yum!

Elizabeth checks the turkey in the lower oven.

Tim opens some wine while Jay eyes the food.

Andy is ready to fill his plate.

Jay and Baxter say the traditional blessing.

Elizabeth and Andy get tickled ...

... as does Katy, Jay's sister from Dallas.

Here are Joe, Nancy, Patrick and Tim. We miss Chelsea, who is spending Thanksgiving Dinner in Austin with her family.

... Elizabeth, Andy and Katy

John (Papa) is at the head of the table and eating his beloved cranberry sauce.

San Antonio

Our nephew Greg, his wife Holly and their son Haydon are in San Antonio for Greg to run in his first FULL marathon. Since they live in Wisconsin, we had never met either Holly or Haydon. They easily "passed muster" and we are thrilled with them.

Nancy, Elizabeth and Gloria (Greg is Nancy's brother Phil and Gloria's oldest son.)

John and Bup (Phil)

We all meet for lunch at this burger place next to Bup and Gloria's hotel. There were 30,000 runners in the marathon and so the hotels were really booked. Therefore, Greg and family were at one hotel, Bup and Gloria at another and John and Nancy plus Elizabeth, Jay, Patrick and dogs Baxter and Lucy were at another one.

Joe, Bup and Elizabeth take Lucy and Baxter for some "outside" time. They have their own fireplug, but they don't know what it means! Anyway, there was plenty of grass.

Everyone has finally arrived in San Antonio and we all meet for supper. Here are Jay, Tres (Bup and Gloria's 2nd son), his friend Michelle, Holly, Haydon, Greg, Bup, Gloria, Joe (who is a freshman at
UTSA) and Elizabeth.

John and Tim are at the next table - as are Chelsea and Nancy.

Saturday is moving day for Tim and Chelsea as they move into their new home, a 70 year old stone home in midtown San Antonio. Relaxing on the couch are Gloria, Patrick with Lucy, Chelsea's good friend Joseph from Austin and Elizabeth with Baxter.

The same group, but Joe has taken Joseph's place.

Jay, John and Bup enjoy pizza and visit in their Dining Room.

Tim sits in Grandpa Brown's rocking chair. This belonged to John's grandfather (Tim's great-great grandfather). Dr. Reb Brown's house burned to the ground, killing 2 daughters of their 9 children. They bought a house in Gatesville, but had no furniture. Friends and relatives gave them furniture. This chair had been in a lawyer's office and he gave it to the Browns. John was born in that house (delivered by his grandfather) and was rocked in this chair. John's mother gave the chair to us and Tim was rocked many a time in this rocker. We are so thrilled that Tim and Chelsea treasure it.

Haydon with Tim and Chelsea's dog, Coco

Lucy sits in Joseph's lap and then in Patrick's.

Nancy and Bup are at the Alamodome, awaiting Greg's marathon finish.

John, Haydon, Nancy, Holly and Bup

Greg finished his 26 mile run in under 4 hours - a great run for his first complete marathon, but not enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which is 3.5 hours. We were all so proud of him.

Parents Bup and Gloria are quite proud!

The "Girls" at the lake

The guys: Josh and Stephen Petro and Patrick

The gals: Leanna Gonzalez, Amanda Meurer, Kristen Weismantel, Miranda Reinhardt and Emma Winters

Deb, Claire and Maryanne

Elizabeth and Robin

Patrick's Birthday

We celebrate Patrick's 17th Birthday at Hushpuppies. Left to right are Jay, Pat, Emma (his girlfriend), Elizabeth, John, Joe and Nancy.

Patrick and Emma

He gets a cake at the lake. Here are Emma, Seth (Pat's friend), Pat, Jay and Nancy.

Pat's gift is the puppy, Lucy.

Jay and Emma introduce Baxter to Lucy.

Elizabeth holds Lucy.

Calallen Homecoming

Patrick is the Duke, representing the Junior Class. This is taken at the Homecoming Game, which is on Halloween. Note his corsage. He's with Emma in the stands.

Here is the ceremony. He and his Duchess are toward the back. Our stands are full, but the Kingsville stands are pretty empty. Maybe that's why we beat them 55-14!

Patrick and the Duchess are being introduced. (He has on the blue shirt with the orange corsage.)

The Heftes have a party for Tim and Chelsea

While John, Jay and Tim go hunting, Nancy, Elizabeth, Chelsea, Pat and his friend Emma go to the beach.

AND the 4 dogs - Snoopy, Perdita, Coco and Baxter.

Nancy can handle Baxter if Chelsea can do the other 3!

What a good looking pair - Emma and Pat.

Another good looking pair - Chelsea and Tim at the Hefte's party, which was held at Cotton's Barbecue.

Mary Tom Hefte in a sporty western outfit

John and Pat visit with Kenneth Hefte.

Tim thanks the Heftes for the party. Chelsea gives them a hand.

Jay, Marge Greene, Elizabeth and Lorrie Winters (Marge's daughter).

More of the guests

It was a great party with good food and wonderful friends!

Deb and Steve's in Austin

Elizabeth and Nancy go to Austin for a shower for Chelsea. We stay with the Petros in their beautiful new home.

Andy comes in from North Texas. Here he is with Stephen. They have 3 bedrooms upstairs and a giant game room with new pool table.

Andy works on a film presentation for school with Josh as one of his characters.

We all get hugs in Deb's kitchen. She plans to redo her cabinets and countertops, etc. Look for updated pictures!

The "masters at work".

Lois and Bob visit

John's aunt Lois and cousin Bob Arledge visit. Tom and Nancy come over for supper and a good time.

Elizabeth joins us in a trip to the beach. Guess Lois will be surfing next!

We eat at Snoopys. (What is a visit to the beach without lunch at Snoopys?)

We go up to the lake and celebrate Lois' 89th birthday. John got her a cake.

This is "a little posed" since much of the cake is gone and it's the next day, but we wanted to catch her blowing out the candles!

Bob and John gather around Lois.

Chelsea, Jay and Nancy are ready to help Lois eat the cake.

Elizabeth visits with Lois on a pontoon boat ride around the lake.

Bob rides on the back couch in the boat.

Chelsea and Baxter

Tim, Pat and Jay try out the old ski boat as the sunsets on the lake.

Tim plays the guitar for us. John waves and Pat laughs. We all had a great visit with Lois and Bob.

Joe's Graduation

The Graduates walk in. Since Joe graduated Cum Laude, he was in the honors group, which came in first.

Joe is under the red stripe of the Texas flag (to the left a bit).

Joe gets his diploma.

The Senior Class President leads the group in switching their tassels.

The Senior Class sing the school Alma Mater.

Baxter leads the traditional blessing (aided by Jay). Elizabeth fixed Joe's favorite dinner - lasagna and chocolate pie with whipped cream. Yum. Yum.

The Teelings visit

The Teelings visit in March and we celebrate a belated birthday for Bup. Here are John, Nancy, Bup and Gloria.

Nancy gives him a cookie-cake that says, "Happy Birthday, Bup".

Nancy Jeanne and Tom come for supper and cake.

Bup and John

Gloria and Bup

We go up to the lake and Jay, Bup and John catch over 60 fish. Since the McGovern's are serving blackened fish (cooked by Papa) for Tim and Chelsea's Rehearsal Dinner on October 3, we need LOTS of fish. Way to go, guys!

The gals cheer them on - Gloria, Elizabeth and Nancy.

Andy at Spring Break

Andy comes in for a couple of days in March during his Spring Break from U. of North Texas. We celebrate an early birthday for him at the Executive Surf Club. Left to right are Andy, Nanny, Elizabeth, Patrick, Jay, Joe, Papa, Vic (a Corpus Christi friend who is at A&M CC), Rose (Andy's girlfriend) and her friend. The girls are at UNT also. They had gone to a concert in Austin, where Vic's band played. Then they visited Tim in San Antonio and arrived in Corpus Christi to hit the beach and see the family.

Vic, Andy, ? and Rose