January 2017

January 28th--heading to the Motown concert

(not in Detroit)

 at the Longhorn restaurant

 Did not eat this guy

 or these....

:-)

 Great concert--these guys came from Vegas to a park near us

Texas sky....

 We had supper at IHop and viewed the gackles on the wires

 Cousin Cody and Karin came to the Island for a winter break.

Cody farms our land.

Alfonso is the artist who painted our tractor and combine

on a tv dish.  Now he is doing a scene taken from nephew Jay's plane

January 20th

Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, TX, 

a high school for boys in grades 8-12

 Our guide was a retired marine who also was the

regional recruiter. They had students from all over the world.

 Encouragement? in the training room

 Signs in the dining hall where we ate lunch...

 Team leaders earned their ranks

 In formation to head to the dining hall...

Pretty stringent training at the academy.

January 14th

 We did the 5k walk across the causeway bridge 

from Port Isabel to South Padre Island 

with Dennis, Bonnie, and Wendy

 Great weather this year on Jan. 14th

 I was not "the leader of the pack"

Bob was ahead of me with the rest of the crowd

 Went to the Brewery for lunch afterwards with

Bonnie, Jerry B., Kathy, Jerry F., Bob, Dennis, Nancy, Wendy

Then we went to Clayton's for "dessert" :-)

Christmas 2016

 Donna buys supplies in huge amounts--she 

has enough creamer for a couple of years!

 Cousin Pat and Donna relaxing

 Of course we had to have raw kibbee at Koury's

with cousins Sean and Pat

Spent some time at the pool, too!

Ashante and Sonnie (and her baby Skylar) came to
Donna's for lunch

Skylar was probably wondering who we were!!!

Dinosaurs (not the ladies pictured) and pot (not marijuana) holders

We ate Joe's Stone Crabs (thanks Lucy and Emilio)

and Aunt Lou's (thanks Mary Anne) spaghetti

on Christmas Eve

Fall Events and Thanksmas 2016

This year's Fritel Thanksmas was at nephew Brad and Maureen's.

They have a 3-car heated garage which was great for our gang (42)

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed to Grand Forks

for the UND hockey game and some pool time.

The grandkids are sporting their
"I survived Fritel Thanksmas 2016" shirts

Color code: Orange (Trina's), pink (Ana's) green (Sara's), blue (Jimmy's)

Julia would not sit by herself, so Sara got in the pic :-)

Scenes from Brad and Maureen's

First we ate (too much)

Getting ready for the gift exchange: Brad explains the "rules"

This year's theme was the letter "t" (we are spelling "Fritel")

Bob drew the lowest number, so he chose first
from the stack of gifts pictured below

 Nicole and Eric's new baby, Cora, met the gang on Thanksmas

 A variety of "characters" and a great choice of "t" gifts :-)

Front: Claire, Ari & Matthew, Jett & Caiden, Doug J. & Julia, Maureen & Haylee, Sara & RJ

Seated: Trina, Diane, Cecelia, Lydia, Nicole & Cora, Annika, Grace, Ana, & Samantha

Row 3: Bob, Brad & Kimber, Tom, Andrea, Kathy, Eric & Jace, Barb, Steve, Kelly & Luke

Back: Jerry F., Jerry B., Jill, Doug F., Jay, Connor, Suzanne, & Jimmy

Fun and games at the farm the whole week of Thanksgiving

with 22 of us sleeping in various locations in the house!

 Ari and Claire put on a show including "props"

which I am still finding under the furniture

 Gymnast Caiden. Does Ari look interested??

Attempt at a card game

 I think they're watching Charlie Brown

 Doug and Jett admire the Christmas tree

Bob cut from the barn that blew over at Ritterman's.

The sign was from the old KC hall in Rugby

 Julia and Doug

 Jimmy guards the bucket of German potato salad

 One quiet moment: Caiden, Grace, Kelly, Julia, and Bob

 Sara, Julia, RJ, and Doug enjoying our nice November!

 "Slide rules" Annika, Cecelia, Lydia

 Sasquatch Squad: Caiden, Annika, Ariana, Jett

Lunch bunch: Cecelia, Lydia, Claire, and Ari

Sisters-in-law at the UND hockey game
Diane, Barb, Kathy, Wendy

Fall Has "Fell" 2016

Fall means closing up the camper 

at Lake Metigoshe and heading

to the Norwegian "Hostfest" in Minot

View from our yard

 Prettiest time of the year at the lake! 
Note: the dominant Fall color in ND: Yellow
My flowerbeds, however, make me homesick 
for the Cleveland Fall colors

 Baby Spirea that I just transplanted

 Last year's baby Spirea

 Barberry and Spirea

 Two Spirea varieties and a different Barberry

 The oldest Spirea in the flowerbeds

 Three-year-old Spirea amidst Snow-on-the-Mountain

 Another older Spirea

Five-year-old transplant

 The Norwegian Hostfest is a big deal in ND
Mollie B is a popular country singer who was

trained in opera, but not "country." 

She comes to Texas to do concerts and dances every year.

 I think Neil Sedaka wrote every rock star's most 

popular songs.  He put on a great concert.

 Little Norwegian dancers

The "Ringling Five" are Montana ranchers

who apparently can't count, but can sing :-)