Photos 2009

Thanksgiving

Elizabeth has cooked this great turkey. We had dressing, gravy, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, fruit salad, cranberries, rolls, pumpkin pie and chocolate pie - ALL from scratch!

Joe does the carving honors.

John had knee replacement surgery 8 days before and this is his first outing. Patrick and Joy with Baxter visit with him.

At dinner is John, Andy (home from University of North Texas), his girlfriend Monica (home from NYU), Joe (home from U of Texas at San Antonio), Elizabeth, Katy (Jay's sister from Dallas), Jay and Patrick (high school senior and UT bound).

Elizabeth took this picture, which includes Nancy.

Lake

Papa has brought some of his stereo equipment to give to Tim for his home.

Chelsea has come in from working on her first well. She and Jay are waiting to log and find out if it's any good.

Jay and Chelsea are enjoying their break, but are anxious to see the well results.

Papa is enjoying being at the lake before his knee surgery, which is scheduled in 4 days.

AND ... so is Nanny

Geologists at work

... and work

Patrick plays his guitar and sings. He's gotten good.

The oldest and the youngest play their guitars. Each has his own notebook of songs. We all enjoy their music so much. Elizabeth finally arrives from Houston on Saturday night, where she has attended a conference for "Women of Faith". Six dogs complete the group.

Patrick's 18th Birthday

Patrick celebrates his 18th Birthday with friends, Seth, Andrew, Sky, Kristen and Amanda. Elizabeth has made Lasagna and Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream - Patrick's dinner request.

"Spooky", otherwise known as Elizabeth, dishes up the lasagna. Friend, Claire Meurer, is in the background.

John and Jay enjoy the back deck.

Uncle Timmy and Dee get some salad and bread. We all enjoy having them nearby in Rockport.

Burgers at the Grays

We have burgers at our house.

Joe, Uncle Timmy and Jay take a swim. Patrick and his girlfriend, Brianna, do too.

We watch from the cool gazebo. Here is Dee, Timmy's girlfriend.

Elizabeth

Patrick gives Brianna a bite of Strawberry Short Cake.

Timmy and John

Nancy, Jay and Elizabeth

McGoverns at the Lake

Jay and Elizabeth have just come home from spending 4 weeks in Europe and John has just gotten out of the hospital. Both of these happened on Friday and we all gather at the lake to celebrate.

Brother Jamie and his fiancee Patty have come in from Galveston.

Jay and John enjoy Jay's brother, Timmy, who has just moved from Mexico to Rockport. Grandson Tim came in from San Antonio. He is next to John.

We enjoy a pontoon boat ride. Here are Elizabeth and Dee, Timmy's girlfriend.

Chelsea, Tim's wife, relaxes in the hammock. Over the weekend, we had McGoverns: Elizabeth and Jay, Timmy and Dee, Jamie and Patty, Tim and Chelsea, Andy, Joe and Patrick plus us (John and Nancy).

Father's Day

John got out of the hospital from a heart blood clot just in time for a great "heart healthy" lunch prepared by Elizabeth and Deb.

The main dish is lasagna, made with Mozzarella Cheese instead of Parmesan and low sodium tomatoes. Since Steve is on a low carb diet, Deb used squash on his instead of pasta.

Stephen and Steve in the McGovern's den

Patrick is making a set of hanging shelves for the den.

Jay enjoys his Father's Day cards. Andy (who is not pictured), Joe and Patrick have added some "guy" drawings. (No comment!) We missed Tim and Chelsea.

No comment again!

Happy Father's Day to Steve

Thank you, Elizabeth. Tom and Nancy came to see John in the hospital and brought him a card and the pretty yellow and blue striped shirt that he is wearing. Thanks, Tom and Nancy.

The Teelings Visit

John, Nancy, Bup, Gloria

Our brother and sister-in-law visit in March and we have a great time.

We have a family get together at the lake. Row 1 is Patrick with Lucy, Chelsea and Tim with Perdita. Row 2 is John, Stephen, Deb, Elizabeth, Nancy and Gloria and row 3 is Steve, Josh and Bup.

Gloria brought this pretty bowl with salad servers and matching salt and pepper shakers. The delicious fruit salad really looks pretty in the bowl. Here are Elizabeth, Gloria and Deb.

Nancy and Gloria

Jay was out on a well, but John, Steve, Josh and Bup caught these 50 white bass.

We enjoy an evening pontoon ride, as John drives the boat with Gloria, Bup and Nancy in the stern.

Deb and Elizabeth with Lucy hold down the bow.

Tim and Chelsea join us from San Antonio.

Jay gets to eat and sleep for a few hours in between checking on wells.

Tom and Nancy Jeanne join us back at our home for Sunday night supper. Here are Bup and Tom.

Nancy Jeanne and Gloria

Texas A & M

John's 55th A & M Reunion was held in conjunction with the Sul Ross Group Reunion. At 55 years, the graduates are inducted into the Sul Ross Group. This group has annual reunions for graduates of any class after 55 years. There were about 400 from the class of '54 attending. The freshman Drill Team perform at the opening ceremony. Their performance was outstanding. They have won 1st place in the National competition for 4 out of the last 5 years. This includes beating every service academy.

We stayed with our friends Jerry and Joan Ledwig, who live in College Station. They adopt Aggies and offer them a resident "Mom and Dad". (They did this for both Tim and Chelsea and we so appreciate it.) Chris is one of their Aggies. He is from Pennsylvania and is a 4th generation Aggie on both sides of his family. What an outstanding young man he is!

Swapping stories at the Monday night dinner are John and his roommate (on the left), Bob Poteet, and his good buddy, Jack Woodson, on the right. They were in Squadron 13 for 3 years and best friends throughout their college career. Needless to say, they had a great time swapping stories. Bob lives in McKinney and Jack near Bossier City, Louisiana.

Here is our group at the Luncheon. June and Jack Woodson are in the front. Left to right are Jerry and Joan Ledwig, Mary and Bob Poteet and us (John and Nancy Gray). After the luncheon, June and Jack went on the campus tour and the Ledwigs took the Poteets and us on a tour of the George Bush Library. They both volunteer weekly at the library and so made sure that we saw it well. Although we had been there twice before, we had missed so much and new things have been added. It was a special treat and a must for anyone visiting in the College Station area!

Bob and John sit in chairs of a NASA launch model simulator. John was an Air Force pilot for 3 years, while both Bob and Jack were career Air Force pilots.

Mary and Bob Poteet

Jerry and Joan look at the pictures they have taken.

Jack and June Woodson

Beaumont

We visit Carol and Dick Weatherall in Beaumont beginning February 1. On Monday, Carol arranged for our friends to meet at lunch. Left to right are Carol, Jeannette Kuhlman, Barbara White, Jeanne Faires, Barbara Moor, Mary V. Engelking, Jan Lamb, Marilyn Higgins, Peg Towers, Nancy, Kay Eastman and Mary Moore. Lettie Goehringer had to leave early. As you can tell, we are a group of beautiful, well dressed "young" ladies.

Tuesday night finds us at the Guadalajara Mexican restaurant for the weekly Mexican food night. Left to right are Dick and Carol Weatherall, Peg Towers, Marilyn and Mike Higgins, Nancy and John, Jan Lamb, Mary and Bill Matthews. We loved seeing our wonderful friends and feel so fortunate to have these great friendships!

San Antonio

We visit Joe at UTSA. His dorm is at the edge of the campus so he can walk to class. Elizabeth, Baxter and Lucy are glad to see Joe!

Here are Joe's roommate John, Joe and Toby Leon, who attends Texas State. Their apartment/dorm has a full kitchen with each John and Joe having a bedroom and bath on either side of this main room.

The living room is furnished and quite comfortable. Baxter and Lucy like it!

The family went to IHOP for lunch. Wish Andy could have come down from Denton. Left to right are Patrick, Jay, Joe, Nanny, Papa, Chelsea, Tim and Elizabeth.

Tim and Chelsea's home was our Headquarters.

Chelsea is repainting some of the rooms. The Living Room is purple (eggplant). The coffee table is a slab out of an ancient tree. She has a great wall hanging that they plan to put over the fireplace. Their large green plants will bring out the color scheme.

Another view of the Living Room

These are the original wood floors, which are throughout the "old" part of the house. The rest of the house has newer wooden floors.

The house has 2 bathrooms. This is the original one from 1938. The white and blue floor tile are original. Chelsea painted the wall tile, which had clashed with the floor and painted the walls this pretty blue. They are planning to get a pedestal sink. The bath has nice white 6" surround tile and the tub is to be refinished.

This large enclosed was an addition to the house and will likely be the gathering spot. The Dining Room table has been moved in here while that room is being painted.

Here is the other end of the porch with the kitchen on the left.

Tim has erected shelves for the large added room, which they are using as an office.

They have made the dog kennels into bedside tables by cutting and finishing wood for the tops. They like the dogs to sleep in their room, but not in their bed! A neighbor gave them these Tiffany lamps.

John is examining the kitchen appliances and cabinets.

Elizabeth and Nancy enjoy the River Walk after seeing "Jesus Christ Superstar" at the Majestic Theater on Sunday afternoon. It was great fun, beautiful weather and is so wonderful to have family in San Antonio.