Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania

Well here we are, back home and ready to blog our vacation. We had a grand time, gone over 2 weeks, and I have lots of wonderful pictures but I will select a few to capture the highlights. First I will cover our lovely Thanksgiving at my sister & brother-in-law's home in Pennsylvania. I think there were 24 of us - from age 90 to age 7. I thought this first picture sort of captured the sense of people visiting ... and waiting for the okay to start heading towards the turkey...

Ah, finally, after all those good smells, we can start to load up our plates!

That little lady there is my mom - does she look 90 to you? She is one perky mom.

This table looks like an exclusive men's table to me... I think because it was in the room near the tv and the football games!

This would be the dining room crowd. (This was where I was sitting too.)

I guess this is an all-girls table, huh? We sure had a good time!

Thanks, Marlane, for a delicious dinner and day!

Heading East

The above photograph is my mom and me - 60 years ago. I was about 7 months old (I'm guessing here) and my mom was 30. We are now about to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday (and, as you know, I just turned 60.) This blog will be quiet for a while as we will be enjoying family time in New Jersey - Thanksgiving and my mom's birthday celebration. I'm sure I'll have lot of pictures to post when we get back!
Happy early Birthday, Mom! I hope I have the energy at 90 that you have!

My baby is 27!

27 years ago today our third son was born, weighing in at 9 lbs 3 oz. He was 22 1/2 inches long too! As you can imagine, I was more then ready to give birth!
Here is the hospital photo of the older brothers, John & Adam, meeting Daniel. Adam was mostly interested in that funny mask he was supposed to wear over his mouth. Do they do that anymore?? How about that skinny leg of Daniel's slipping out of his gown. I think it is still quite slender.
Ah, those sweet boys all dressed up for church and for Daniel's baptism day. Adam looks so innocent. Right.
Springtime on the farm and a happy, handsome baby.
Oh yes, this picture shows the close bond between Adam and Daniel. Hmm... It actually ended up that way, though there were times I wondered.......

Happy Birthday, Daniel. Dad & I are so proud of you!

Here is the grown son with his lovely wife. Soon to be parents of 3....

Birthday rider

For my 60th birthday (which is today) Wally gave me a package of riding lessons (he knew I was interested in doing that.) So yesterday I had my first lesson. Here I am meeting Pistol, the calm horse that will be the one on which I will learn.
One of the first things I learned is how to properly groom a horse. You must get all the dust and debris off the horse before placing the pad and saddle on him so there is nothing irritating him under the saddle. I didn't know that, did you?
My instructor Liz is really good - she is teaching me about the proper way to hold the reins.
Here I am doing an exercise to learn proper balance and posture on the horse.
At the end of the lesson I got to brush Pistol down again. I look forward to my next lesson! It's good to know there is always more to learn as we get older!

Happy Halloween!

Look who came to trick or treat! "Beauty and the Beast!"
I would say that is the cutest "Beast" and such a pretty "Beauty!"

Birthday celebration

Here I am at the end of the great party. Thanks to Denise for the pictures. There are more over at Andrea & Adam's blog www.bergebunch.blogspot.com
Wally bought fabulous N.Y. strip steaks and John grilled them perfectly for our guests.
Are these boys every not silly in pictures? At least we have great smiles!
These three lovely girls have found a way into my heart. I love my daughter-in-laws.
Our three sons...

The A team

What a nice weekend - we had the "A" team here - that would be Adam and Andrea's team of 4! Here is the youngest team member...
Grandma and the A team. 4, 2, 1 and 2 months...

And did I mention that John & Sara came to town this weekend too? Hm... should I be suspicious that both out-of-town sons arrived in town the week before my 60th birthday?

Yes! I should have been suspicious because they were part of a lovely surprise party. We had a great time together but I don't have any pictures in my camera since I didn't bring my camera to my party since I didn't realize for sure I was going to a party. I just wasn't sure what was going on..... All three sons and their wives and Wally and lots of great friends delighted me with their attendance. Wally planned a great feast too. Good job, Wally!

Grandma's Helpers!

How lucky am I?? Timothy, Luke, Hannah, Josiah and their parents came to visit. The boys don't need toys to keep them busy, they can help grandma clean all those little panes in the french doors! Such fun, squirting the windex and wiping the drips!
Luke can multi-task. Paper towel in one hand and a transformer toy in the other!! (They really love getting to play with their Dad and Uncles old transformers. )
Of course, Miss Hannah needed to help too. Isn't she getting big??
Grandma is finally getting smarter. All the pretty, breakable items found themselves a new ... higher... place....
And of course, Josiah is enjoying being cuddled by Grandma. (and Grandma is enjoying cuddling him!!)

Looking for owners....

This nice new house is almost complete and ready for prospective buyers. Today I took a few pictures so you could see some of the house.

This is the view of the foyer, a nice decorative tile in the center. The front door is off to your right where the tile continues. I am standing in the living room taking this picture. The open door is the powder room. You can also see the built-in shelves Wally made. Hopefully some customer will just love it!

Also in the foyer, when you enter, you look at this nice arch opening. The staircase to the lower level is behind the half-wall. This would be a lovely place in which to display some art. There is a light that will shine onto the wall where the art would hang. The living room is the room you see with the wood flooring.

Here is a view into the kitchen from the living room area. The wood floor includes the living room, the kitchen and the dining area in the kitchen.

Another view of the kitchen - the glass door you see is the pantry door. There is lots of storage in that corner. The door actually says "pantry" on it, etched into the glass.

October 18, 1975

As you can easily surmiss, this is our wedding anniversary. In 1975 wedding dresses included lots more fabric then todays dresses! No strapless, sleeveless dresses - if you are going to pay a lot of money for a dress, you should at least get a fair amount of fabric, right?

I remember that I never really took a good look at our wedding cake and had to rely on the pictures of it afterwards. Note Wally's wavy hair. In the humid climate it really gets wavy. And how about those velvet lapels, velvet bow tie and ruffled shirt! I was so pleased when Wally choose that trendy tuxedo. He lead me to believe he had just picked a plain one.

This is the picture that was in the newspaper announcing our wedding. The photographer made Wally bend his knees to get him shorter and closer to my height. Funny.

Grandma talks with Josiah

Grandchildren together

Today Meghan, Brooklyn, Preston and I went to Fargo to visit with Andrea, Timothy, Luke, Hannah and Josiah. (Andrea was visiting her parents.) We should have tried to get a picture of the 6 grandchildren at the beginning of the visit instead of the end when they were getting tired. This was the best shot...
We thought perhaps we would try to have them sit down instead, but as you can see, it didn't go so well!!
Josiah is 6 1/2 weeks old and very responsive. He smiled for me when we talked. Adorable.
When the little ones were napping, the "big" kids Brooklyn & Timothy got to do a project. They painted pumpkins and had a great time. They really play nicely together.

Preston makes music....

Tonight Preston and Brooklyn stopped by for a visit - and they got to playing with the old Fisher-Price musical instrument kit. Preston was fascinated with the kazoo piece and he was good at making noise with it! We thought it was pretty funny! (I used to hide this toy from my sons!)

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving today!

Happy Thanksgiving today to all our dear loved ones in Canada. We wish we were sitting around a table again with all of you! (This picture is from our little reunion in Banff last October. Here we are getting ready to eat at Wild Bill's!)
This picture of Berge siblings and spouses was taken a year ago - minus Phil & Betty Jo, who were unable to join us.
We are looking forward to us all gathering again, hopefully in early 2008!

A nice weekend

Just a quick post to say thank you to John and Sara for a nice visit. Wish it were longer!

Happy Birthday Alison!!

Happy Birthday today to my niece Alison, who is 11. Alison, I hope you have a wonderful day! You are growing up to be such a sweet girl! I wish I were closer so we could hang out more often!

Happy Birthday Jill!

Happy Birthday today to my niece Jill! I hear you are having a special day with hubby - and no children! Enjoy every minute! Best wishes to you today.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Birthday greetings today to my niece, Stacey! I hope your birthday is a day of happiness for you today. You are in our thoughts today especially as you celebrate. Much love to you!