On Monday, 19-DEC, Rosie and I participated in the Audubon Society's 2011 Christmas Bird Count. A national count is done each year in December. Here's our team (except for John Taylor who took the picture):
From right to left: Carolyn Minson (our team leader and outstanding birder), Rosie, Lillie Wallick, RHC, Angela Taylor (kneeling), Donna Osborne and Vic Prislipsky.
We had a morning break at Bill and Penny Kasdorf's house on Lake Sophia. Bill had the outdoor fireplace going. It was a great time to warm-up, have some snacks and count the ducks on the lake. My priorities were fireplace and snacks. Surprised? I thought not!
We had lunch at Cranfords' - a local grocery store that also has a sandwich bar. It's convenient since their eating area has windows on two sides. You can eat and continue to look for birds. Here I am looking for birds during lunch. Don't I look like a "bird geek"? Looks can be deceiving.
John Taylor got many good bird pictures during the day. Here's a picture of a red tail hawk in flight.
We started at 7:30 am and finished at 5:15 pm (it was getting too dark to see birds). As a team we saw 60 different bird species (an excellent day) and a total of 614 birds. Thanks to Carolyn and the entire team for a great day!
On Saturday, 10-DEC, Doug and Ashley Kulju were married in Westerville, OH, at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church. We had a great time at the wedding. We also enjoyed visiting with all our kids and grandkids, plus family and friends.
The wedding rehearsal was Friday night. Ashley's parents, Bill and Ann Kulju, watched the activity.
Rosie and I were photographed by three year old Lottie, the candid camera girl.
Doug and the groomsmen practice following Pastor Will Hartfelder to the podium. Pastor Will called it "dead man walking"!
Here's the wedding party with Pastor Will.
Adam and Logan enjoyed playing Angry Birds on one of the phones.
The rehearsal dinner was at Brios' Italian restaurant. The food and service were great. I think everyone had an enjoyable evening. Here's Amy with Lottie and Adam at the rehearsal dinner.
Saturday morning we went to First Watch for brunch at Doug's request. Adam wanted to eat with the groomsmen and tried to contribute to the conversations.
The wedding started at 5:30 pm on Saturday. Adam, Lottie and Kayleigh are ready to do their "ring bearer and flower girl duties." Don't know where Logan was, but I'm sure he was ready!
Lottie did have time to get a picture of Aunt Karen.
The flower girls are ready.
Here come Adam and Lottie down the aisle.
Followed by Logan and Kayleigh.
They all looked really cute.
Here come Ashley and Bill. Ashley was beautiful in her wedding dress.
Here's the bride, groom and attendants during the wedding.
What a great looking group!
Everyone looks a little relieved now that the service is over.
Here are the parents with the newly weds.
Doug and Ashley make a great looking couple!
After the wedding we all headed to the reception at the Medallion (Westerville) Country Club. All the attendants were introduced. Here comes Chris - Doug's best man - and Abby Kulju - Ashley's sister and maid of honor.
The wedding cake consisted of lots of cupcakes - 4 different kinds. Using multiple data points, I can tell you they were all good. Ashley and Doug cut the first cupcake.
The panda bear cake topper that Ashley ordered from Hong Kong was really cute.
The little kids really enjoyed the dancing. Lottie is getting Logan out on the dance floor. "Let's boogie cousin!"
Shane is having fun with the little boys.
Chris and Adam are having a good time.
All the seats had horns to blow. The newlyweds were to kiss whenever the horns were blown. Adam and Logan enjoyed their dinner and blowing their horns.
Doug and Rosie had a son-mother dance.
Doug and Ashley danced with the kids. This got the rest of the group into the dancing mood.
During the wedding we stayed at the Hampton Inn. It was very nice and ideally located for all the activities. Here are the four grand kids in front of the Christmas tree in the lobby.
Finally, here are all the kids and grand kids.
Ashley - welcome to the family! We're excited to have you. We hope you can stand the craziness.
This year we repeated our tradition of getting together at Thanksgiving with the kids and families. We also returned to the house in Galveston, TX, we had rented two years ago. Chris' family and Karen's family were able to come. Doug was pretty busy getting ready for his wedding to Ashley Kulju on 10-DEC; we missed you guys! However, we'll all get together at the wedding!
Here some some pictures of the house, the Grand Victorian, that we rented. It's in the historic district of Galveston.
This is the view from the back:
The heated pool in the backyard was a big hit!
Here are a few of the nearby houses. Some are rather colorful.
Gram (aka Rosie) led the kids in making Rice Krispy Treat turkeys. They were a bit messy but delicious. The kids had a great time!
As I mentioned, we really enjoyed the heated pool; we used it just about every day. Here are some pictures of us enjoying the pool.
All the kids thought it was neat to hang unto Chris.
Karen, Logan and Kayleigh enjoyed the water.
The kids had fun jumping off the rocks/waterfall into the water. Here's an Adam, the "flying banana" in an action shot.
On Friday night we walked to the Galvez Hotel to see the kick-off of the Galveston Christmas season. The tree in front of the hotel was well lit.
They also had a band of bagpipers playing Christmas songs - very unique.
Here's the Flachman clan in front of the lobby tree.
Chris, Adam and Lottie enjoyed the Galvez lights.
All the kids (and adults) enjoyed the gingerbread house display:
While we were together, we celebrated Logan's birthday; he'll be 4 on 18-DEC. He enjoyed opening the packages:
We also open Christmas presents while we were together. Lottie, Adam and Logan are having fun opening presents.
Shane took the kids outside to pop some snappers. The kids had a great time making them pop.
Gram enjoyed being with the grandkids. Here she is with Lottie and Kayleigh.
Chris enjoyed testing the hammock on the upper porch:
Amy is getting Lottie's hair ready. The end product was beautiful.
Yes - the kids enjoyed bathing together in the upstairs bathtub. Here's the whole gang in the tub:
While we were there we also had a great Thanksgiving meal - complete with deep-fried turkey thanks to Shane and Karen. We didn't get too many shots before or during the meal, but someone did get a good picture of Adam and Lottie ready to "chow down" on some turkey legs.
As were were getting ready to leave, we tried to get a final picture of the four kids. Here they are: Kayleigh and Logan Flachman and Lottie and Adam Callicott.
We had a great time and look forward to seeing everyone again soon in Columbus, OH!
