Mass & Maine

Had to take a trip to Boston to see my grand babies, the birthday boy and the Blessed Kate♥, that amazing girl who has the honor of raising my grandchildren. :-) hahahah








Had a delightfully fun time hanging with the fam and friends and sight seeing. They took us to this amazing food place called Mr. Bartley's that has been in Cambridge forever, well my whole lifetime that is. I can't wait to go back. The menu was hilarious. The "Obama burger" One and done. Too funny and too bad I can't remember the other 29 items with funny titles like that. I loved the Cherry lime Rickey and The Elvis shake was so delish. That's really what I'm going back for. Chocolate, banana and Reeses Peanut Butter Cup. hmmmmmmmmm


Did some apple pickin at the Honey Pot Farm in Stow.









Pumpkin Pickin

or maybe just sittin


or how about a little kissin


Candlepin bowling - only in 3 northeastern states and Canada. Totally fun and I liked it a whole lot better than regular bowling.






Our scorekeeper
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York,Maine - the hottest I've been all summer except for the week spent in AZ. Strange we were on the coast and I expected it to be cold like the bay area, but nooooooo. Actually beautiful weather. Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.













Love finding quaint outside food places like this. "The Daily Grind"





Birthday Boy with his Ultimate t-shirt quilt. Kate is amazing!

Yep, Mass and Maine a great place to visit, especially when cute kids like this live there.

Anna, I haven't forgotten about You!

I seem to have a hard time blogging during the summer and now we're into fall.
Sad that my daughter wanted me to blog/brag about her during school last year and I just never got around to putting the pics and story together, so here goes.

We rescued a cat from the pound last year whom they named Cooper. I like the name so that's what I call him. Molly calls him Crookshanks after the Harry Potter crazy cat. My seminary kids called him Mufassa from Lion King. David calls him Roto, who knows why? Anna calls him all four names depending on her mood.

In the spring Anna auditioned for the jr. high play and was caste as the cook in "Alice in Wonderland" You're probably thinking, "I don't remember a cook" well apparently the original version had it, or maybe the jr. high just needed more characters.
She has good friends who came to support her and one artistic friend who worked behind the scenes and had a delightful time putting on Anna's makeup.


Towards the end of school,Anna decided to give her lovely red mane to Locks of Love


Attending a week long Christian Youth Theater (CYT) camp, she got a main role as Captain Hook - Exciting! Good thing she has short hair.

She was thrilled when a new friend, K moved into the ward and they could go together.

Even more thrilled that Molly would take time out of her busy schedule and come watch the performance.


AZ to visit Family


and catch lizards

and hike with cousins.

Back at the ranch.
She's has quite the eye for nature and takes good pics, so here's a few of hers for you to enjoy. These were all taken last week on a stroll in our neighborhood.(in between conference talks)





Yes we do live by a creek with the greatest walking/riding trails EVER!




She also has an ear for nature. She heard this woodpecker and tracked him down.


I'm telling you Fall is truly the best in the midwest!






Rumor has it she's starting her own blog since she's feels she's been forgotten this past year. Good thing.
Unbeknownst to me she took this shot off our deck the other night.
Pretty cool I must admit.
Night, night


Anna, how could I ever forget you? ♥

Boston Roots

The past several months I've had this urging to get back to my family history. Right after Christmas I finally made the time and chose to work on my Grandmother Dorothy Evelyn Bullards family lines.

I hadn't researched any of her family since 2003 and it was time.

I dove into the Bullard line tracing them back to the early 1800's in Kentucky. Then dead end.
In the meantime my grandaughter Evelyn was born in Cambridge,Massachusetts so we went to meet her in the middle of January.

I stayed an extra week to help out with her sister who is two and adorable.

When Ellie was napping I looked up to see how far the New England Genealogical Society was, turns out it was 10 minutes (an hour and 15 minutes during rush hour coming home - if you know Boston traffic, you know what I'm talking about) Really? - MIT, Harvard,Boston College nor any of the other 23 colleges in Boston can figure out better street planning?

Anyway on with my story. Off to Boston's Back Bay Town we went and I must say I want to go again. Not only the Genealogy junk but all the fun shopping on Newbury street and I'm not even a shopper. It was hopping in the dead of winter, snow everywhere, didn't matter.
(sorry I didn't take a pic and obviously this is copied from Wikipedia)

Upon entering the building I had to pay a $15.00 fee or I could pay 79 bucks and become a member of the New England Genealogical Society. Thanks for mentioning this on your website. NOT. I'm so used to libraries being FREE that I was surprised. Then I remember that I had to pay 30 Euros to walk into the Scotland Library in Edinburgh so about half the price in my own country.
Well worth it though, it was just that nothing was mentioned on their website that ticked me off. Ok so I just looked again and it is mentioned at the bottom on their site "Visit the library". Just so you know.

I headed to the sixth floor where most of the books on Families in the New England area were.
NEHGS has been collecting information for 165 years. Their library has more than 200,000 titles and 28 million items.
I actually went looking for my Welton, Baldwin, Scott and Delamater lines since I knew they were in Connecticut back in the day.

I walked into the room full of books and there above the copier was 2 brand new books with BULLARD written on it. I snagged them and headed back to a table to peruse and to my amazement I think I found the connection from my Kentucky Bullards to Robert Bullard who came from England in 1636 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. I copied and copied.
I asked my son where Watertown was. He answered, "It's where the mall is. It's the town right next to us."
That night as I was looking over my treasure I realized that my family has made a complete circle of the United States from 1636 till present, from the east coast to the west coast and back again.
My grandaughter who was just born in the same area as her ancestors from 375 years ago. Then to top it off her name is the middle name of her great great grandma who carried that line. I didn't even realize that at the time til I started this post.

The next afternoon I went back and to my astonishment, the books were not there.
It then dawned on me that the shelf I had found them on the previous day was a restocking shelf for patrons to use when done copying.
I would never,ever,ever have gone looking for that Bullard line.
I had no idea they were in the New England area let alone Boston.
Someone within the hour I had arrived the previous day had put those books there. I firmly believe this statement from an apostle back in the early 1900's said,

"The spirit and influence of your dead will guide those who are interested in finding those records. If there is anywhere on the earth anything concerning them, you will find it."
-- Elder Melvin J. Ballard (Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin Joseph Ballard, p. 230)

Not realizing that I was being guided at the time but that's how it turned out and what a wonderful experience it is in finding my roots, not only for me but for my children and grandchildren. This fifth generation Californian girl has Boston Roots

Snownami

I just have to write about this epic winter week. So many fun names are floating around these parts - Snowmageddon, snOMG, Blizzard of OZ, Snowpocalypse, Fast and Flurious.

We were warned on Sunday about this major storm coming on Tuesday afternoon. The weatherman was right on the money. It hit at 3 on Tuesday,just as predicted.

Just last month we were told we were getting the storm of the century and we got nothing, so this time they got it correct.

We were so prepared. Our cars were topped off, pantry and fridge filled, propane heater ready to go and Anna even slept with 3 flashlights. Luckily no power outages.
It was actually kind of fun having David home early on Tuesday and then home today. That has never happened in our 27 yrs. together. It feels like a Saturday.
Last night I had to walk up the hill and around the block to retrieve Anna from a friends house since my car was barracaded. No problem. Blizzard conditions. Just wrap up and walk fast. Kind of eerie walking in the middle of the road with no cars, just snow blowing everywhere.
Today The four of us shoveled and shoveled, the sun was out and we survived the 3rd biggest blizzard in Chicago's history.




We got about 20 inches, but what made it dangerous was the winds whipping it around. Visibility was null, O'hare was shut down and people trying to get home from work were stranded.
This morning We had parts of sidewalk with not a speck of snow, then next to it would be a snowdrift 3 to 4 ft. high. due to the wind.



The only thing that didn't survive was our basketball post/net. Like any of us play basketball?
It was here when we bought the place, so I'm actually happy it's down.
Thank goodness it fell in the yard and not on David's new car.


Most of the neighbors were out snowblowing and shoveling this morning. We are all amazed at the amount of snow. Even Government offices were closed.We were asked to stay off the roads and school is cancelled for two days. That's a first.

notice the neighbors haven't even taken down the backyard Christmas decorations.

Anna and her friend even spent the last hour sledding in the front yard. She came in before I could snag a photo. darn

So for our family, we were prepared and it turned out to be fun, simply cuz we were home together safe and warm. It's snow big deal, even with a snownami.
Thanks to Houlihans for reminding me of all the fun winter names with their cute email they just sent