Photos 2011

Austin visits in December

A rainy day at church, but wonderful Christmas music and a great sermon.

Soup at the McGoverns - Joe is home studying for finals, which begin tomorrow - the last week before graduation.

Andy is home from New York and we are all asking questions about his experiences in TV. He recently finished working on Celebrity Apprentice.

We're so thrilled to share Austin with our family. We went out to dinner one night with Tom and Nancy - so got to see all of them!

Thanksgiving

Elizabeth cooks the entire Thanksgiving dinner herself - except for the cranberry salad that Nancy made. We had turkey, dressing and gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, purple cabbage, mandarin orange and spinach salad, chocolate pie with whipped cream and pumpkin pie - also served with whipped cream. With only 6 people, we have lots of leftovers to enjoy. We had Elizabeth and Jay, Joe and Patrick and Nancy and John. John carves the turkey as always, but he instructs Patrick to be the "backup" Lucy and Baxter hope something falls on the floor!

Jay is comfortable watching the Cowboy game. He and Patrick had gone to the lake fishing earlier in the day.

John helps his plate and Jay has a plate full!

Nancy poses with Joe while Patrick puts the dishes in the dishwasher.

Joe's friend, Jade, brings him a belted birthday gift - a neat 33.3 record. Joe LOVES music!

The Cowboy football game turns out well for us, be we suffer through the Aggies losing at the last minute to Texas. This will be the last year of the traditional rivalry as A & M moves to the SEC. Since Patrick is a Sophomore at Texas and Joe graduates next month from UT at San Antonio, maybe we can enjoy cheering for UT in the future ... or maybe not!

Fun in Beaumont and on to San Antonio

Our "excuse" for this trip to San Antonio is to see a UTSA football game. This is the first year that they had a football team, and since Joe graduates in December, we wanted to see a game. It is played in the Alamodome and we won!

We celebrate Patrick's 20th birthday. There are no more teen McGovern boys! Chelsea had to shoot a wedding and so missed this outing. She cooked a great dinner the prior night. Tim and Chelsea have graciously opened their home and so we stayed all weekend! Left to right are Jay, Patrick, John, Tim, Elaina Simmons (Chelsea's sister), Nancy, Elizabeth and Joy.

Got everyone's picture but the birthday boy, Patrick!

The burn ban is off and so Tim builds a fire in their outdoor fire pit.

Chelsea returns from her photo gig and is all dressed up in black. Elizabeth is really proud of her daughter-in-law!

We buy 5 pumpkins. John and Elizabeth are spooning out the seeds for carving. Elaina seasons and toasts the seeds. They were wonderful!

Patrick is using his Architectural skills to do his carving. Note how great the beautiful, remodeled kitchen works out!

Nancy visits Carol Weatherall in Beaumont for 3 days. Jan Lamb treats us to lunch at this cute Tea Room in Port Arthur, Left to right are Carol, Jan, Nancy and Peg Towers. Since Carol is a native of Port Arthur, she gives a tour of the town. There are still such pretty homes across the street from the levee. The homes had been built prior to the levee's construction, so they had originally a beautiful view of the water.

We get together at Le Bistro for lunch and a good visit. Left to right are Carol, Nancy, Mary V. Engleking, Jeannette Kuhlman, Kay Eastman, Marilyn Higgins, Peg and Jan.

John's Birthday

Dinner at Macaroni Grill on John's birthday. Elizabeth, Nancy and Tom treated us to a wonderful dinner and lots of fun!

John gets an early birthday celebration at the lake. Chelsea made his birthday cake - an angle food cake. Elizabeth furnished all of the fruit and LOTS of whipped cream. We had just gotten home from our 2 week trip to Montana and Banff and headed straight for the lake. Couldn't miss the opportunity to be with kids and grandkids!

The dogs are hoping Chelsea will drop a piece, but Tim gets served a nice size bowl.

Jay tempts Lucy with the dessert while Elizabeth looks on.

Nancy and Chelsea - Chelsea has on her Aggie shirt because we are also watching A & M beat Baylor in the opening football game. Everyone but Nancy are A & M graduates.

John gives a "Gig 'em", as the buys watch the game - on a full stomach!

Jamie and Patty

Patty and Jamie come to the lake in August. It was hot, but we had a fun visit.

Petros at the Lake

Cousins Steve and Deb, along with Josh, visit at the lake. It had been 6 months and we were really thrilled to have them again. Steve enjoys the boat rides and fishing while Deb enjoys the lounge chair.

Josh and Steve

Jay, Elizabeth and Robin Reinhart

Jay has "dog duty" with Schnitzel, Baxter and Lucy.

John drives the pontoon boat.

Nancy and Deb enjoy the ride

Jay has his fishing boat and he, Steve and Josh catch LOTS of fish.

Girls at the Lake

Carol Weatherall, Nancy, Peg Towers, Jan Lamb

Our Beaumont friends come to the lake house for a fun time.

John takes us for a ride in the pontoon boat and even catches some fish.

Here are 4 Kil Deer eggs. The bird lays them on the ground. Jay had put these rocks around the eggs so people wouldn't step on them.

These birds usually stay away from the nests and play like they are injured to steer people and animals away from the nest. Hard to tell much from these pictures. Other wildlife adventures were a drive by this ranch where the owners raise exotic animals, such as Pronghorn Antelope, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Zebra and Watusi Cattle (longer horns than a Texas Longhorn).

Tom's Birthday

We celebrate Tom''s birthday at Niko's. Tom has a birthday dessert and we have a tate. Here are Tom, Nancy Jeanne, Nancy, John and Elizabeth.

Tom is glad that they didn't sing!

Tom gets to celebrate his birthday at his house. Here are Roxie and Poppy.

Nancy Jeanne in their pool

Nancy's daughter Shawna

Grandson, C. K.

Granddaughter Kathryn

Kathryn and C.K.

Nancy's Birthday

Tim and Chelsea join us at the lake for Nanny's birthday. For dinner, Elizabeth made Cannelloni, french bread and salad.

She also made a Brownie cake with walnuts and fudge icing. Yum! It was "to die for"!

Tom, Nancy Jeanne and Elizabeth take Nancy to the Outback for a fabulous steak dinner and gifts!

What a treat and a special way to celebrate my birthday!

Our grandson, Andy, is a Staff Production Assistant on the NBC Celebrity Apprentice TV show. (Middle group, 3rd name.)

Since Carol Allen is in town, we have a fun lunch at Cheddars. Here are Pam Gordon, Nancy, Sandy Ten Napel, Carol, Jeanne Marie Welch and Ava Overmueller.

Carolyn Cutbirth invited me to lunch with their cooking club. Not only was the table lovely, but the food was delicious and the company delightful!

There were the 4 of us" Lena Maude Mueller, Pat Schotland, me, and Mollie Vick standing.

Carolyn and Gloria Waller round out the group.

Our nephew, Austin, comes to town and we celebrate at the lake house. Elizabeth and Nancy pose with him.

Austin cooks some delicious food for us.

Chelsea makes sure that we work off all of the food we ate. However, only Austin takes her up on it!

Tim went out on a well with Jay all night and he's still a little sleepy. However, that didn't keep Tim and Austin from driving boats on the lake. John had given Austin his Bass Boat when we moved to Corpus Christi. Then, several years ago, Austin gave the boat to Tim. They enjoyed getting to share it again - along with the old ski boat and the pontoon boat.

After coming back to town, Tom and Nancy come over for Sunday "grill cheese" supper. (Sorry there are no pictures!) The next day, we eat at Snoopys - always a favorite.

We celebrate Nancy Jeanne's birthday at Niko's Steakhouse It's such fun being with them - especially on these wonderful occasions.