Congratulations Class of 2010 - We did it!

This Spring, our family celebrated 2 graduations. On June 12, Allison graduated from Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo with a degree in Landscape Architecture. We were so grateful for all of the family members that were able to attend this ceremony, considering the busy weekend that it was. Now the real challenge. . . finding a job! Good luck, Allison!
Just a week earlier on June 6, Ne graduated from medical school at Loyola of Chicago. It was a fun weekend filled with many memories of her 4 years at medical school. Ne has already started the next phase of her training by moving to Martinez, CA for her residency. Needless to say, Ne is very pleased to be back out in California!

Transportation Tales

Gavin and Elise are enjoying riding the small plastic trucks around on the driveway. Gavin has figured out that with the slope of the driveway, he can use gravity to fly down the slope.
Elise hasn't quite figured out what to do except to sit on the car and smile.
Today was the groundbreaking for the Gold Line Light Rail extension that will go out to Azusa, through Arcadia, Monrovia and Duarte. The kids came for the big ceremony, where there were members of Congress and many mayors from the foothill areas, as well as numerous television stations covering the story. Additionally a nice lunch was served at the park and there were children's activities with face-painting and crafts.
There was a big bulldozer for the groundbreaking that the kids enjoyed climbing on.
Gavin and Elise enjoyed eating the fruit popsicles after lunch.

Evan in Liniers, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Elder Evan Finlay is shown here with a family that he and his companion are teaching in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It is winter down there so Evan is dressed warmly. Keep up the good work Evan.

Happy 85th Birthday Grampie

Both Megster and Alana made cakes for Grampie's 85th Birthday, which happened to be the same day as Father's Day. Ellie helped Grampie blow out the candles on his birthday. There were 13 of us that got together to celebrate with Grampie on his big day, as well as James, Brad and Jim's Father's Day here in Duarte.
Ethan, Fums, totally enjoyed his piece of cake and ended up wearing most of it. He also particularly enjoyed eating his corn-on-the-cob. Happy Father's Day to all those great fathers that have made our lives better.

Duarte Reception and Graduation at SLO

The 3rd and final Ian and Annie reception was held at Grammie and Grampie's house. The food was excellent, thanks to Lisa, Beth and Craig (with great desserts by Meg, Megster and Shauna). The venue was beautiful, we had great weather, and had many wonderful friends and family in attendance.
Chris, a good friend, came and decorated the backyard with much-needed lighting. It made for a lovely evening.
Beth and Lisa are shown here with some of the delicious food they prepared. We are so grateful for all the help from family and friends. It was a wonderful evening and we are appreciative of all the people that traveled so far to get here.
Immediately following the reception, we traveled to Morro Bay for cousin Allison's graduation from Cal Poly SLO in landscape architecture. It was a packed house but we had a lot of fun.
Also right after graduation, we all went to Tidelands Park and presented Mom and Dad with the bronze plaque that we all got for them for their 60th wedding anniversary.

More Wedding Pictures

Gavin's 3rd Birthday Celebration

For Gavin's birthday this year, he wanted to have his cousins come over and swim in the spa.
Megan made a Thomas the Train cake for him, and put Toby, the square train car, on the track made of pretzels and red licorice.
Megan made Gavin's favorite dinner and we enjoyed it out by the pool.
Ethan, aka Fums, totally got into eating the chocolate cake and was covered with frosting.
Ellie, Stephanie and Elise helped Gavin open some of his presents. Gavin also got a call from a real train conductor on Amtrak that yelled for him "All Aboard. .. ." He loved hearing that on the phone.
Great grandma and grandpa from Ohio brought him some Thomas gifts and also a replica of an old Goodyear delivery truck.
What is a birthday without pushing your cousin around the house on his riding truck? Ethan liked the ride but held on for dear life.

The Wedding Weekend - Part 1

The first part of this weekend on Friday we made the obligatory stop to see Thomas the Train up in Heber. We even got to ride on one of the electric cars on the railroad track.
The big morning arrived and after Ian and Annie were married in the temple in Salt Lake City, we all waited outside for them to come out. Grandma and Grandpa Finlay from Ohio are shown here with Alana.
Helen, Stephanie, Gavin, Erin and Grammie waited outside for the bride and groom to come out also.
Finally, Ian and Annie appeared to cheers from our group.
Grampie is shown here with his newest granddaughter-in-law.
Annie's grandpa, Art Anderson, married Annie and Ian. Art and Jan Anderson are shown here in front of the temple doors with the newlyweds.
The grandparents and parents of Ian with his new bride.
Annie and Ian smiled a lot at the wedding luncheon, held in the Bonneville Room of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
The Crumps, Fergusons and Uncle Jim came from California for the wedding.

Just before the wedding reception at Thanksgiving Point that Saturday night, Ed and Helen Ferguson and the four Ferguson children, posed in front of their Parkview Drive home in Mt. Olympus Park that they lived in back in the 1960's.

One Last Morro Bay Trip Before the Summer Internship

Alana and Margaret took one last trip during the week up to Morro Bay before Alana starts her summer internship at a law firm in downtown Los Angeles. They walked on the beach, went to a movie, chowed down on some great fish and chips, did some rental property work and just relaxed for a couple of days. They waves were big when they walked on Morro Strand Beach, show above.
Alana is shown here with Morro Rock in the background. We had just finished walking 7 miles on the beach and around town. Now it's off to a challenging summer of work in the big city.

Cutter Commissioning

Last week in Alameda, Grammie, Grampie, Dan and Helen were able to attend the commissioning of the USCGC WAESCHE. This is the newest cutter to be commissioned in to the Coast Guard fleet. It is 418 ft. long with a range of 12,000 nautical miles. With speeds of 28 knots, the WAESCHE will join her sister ship BERTHOLF at its homeport of Alameda.

It is interesting to note that the WAESCHE has a crew of about 100. Jeannie's ship, HARRIET LANE which is 270 ft. long, has about the same number in their crew. The newer ships are more automated and don't require a larger crew. We all enjoyed the traditions and rituals behind the commissioning ceremony.

More Business is Conducted on the Golf Course. . .

As is usual, Margaret didn't play golf out at the Contract Cities Conference in Indian Wells but served as the course marshall. Gavin and Alana helped out this year. Gavin stopped by one of the holes and got some "golf lessons" from some friends.
Here Gavin is showing all of us his golfing technique. Not bad for a 2-year old.
Gavin, Lois and Margaret worked the course and encouraged the golfers. The weather was perfect. . .not too hot.
Alana helped Elise at the pool with her swimming.
It was a good day to relax in the pool for Gavin and Elise.

Biggest Losers Celebrate

Our Biggest Losers weight loss group just finished 16 weeks of joint weight loss. For the 10 of us, we lost a total about 150 pounds. We celebrated when Craig and Beth took us to one of their favorite restaurants, Tokyo Wako. Even though Ellie and Gavin weren't in the contest, they got to come. . .and they had a great time watching the chef prepare dinner at the table.
Gavin and Ellie are shown here learning how to eat with chopsticks.
Lisa, Craig and Beth were some of the "Biggest Losers".
Bailey, who is a chef at the Disneyland Hotel, came with us and enjoyed watching other people prepare the dinner.
Both Ellie and Gavin's eyes really got big when the chef started flaming up the grill and cooking the food.