Massie, Fulton & Powers

Mom was showing Marcia and I some old photos and we decided to scan a few onto the computer.  I selected some that depict Mom's heritage as well as our own.  The first picture represents four generations: Regina Ruble Fulton, Helen Fulton Powers, Ruby Massie Fulton and Don Powers in the blanket.

The next one is Ruby Massie Fulton with baby Don.  I believe these two pictures were taken Over North.

Here is the lovely young lady Helen Fulton in her graduation dress.  She earned the money to buy this dress by working as an aide for two of her teachers at school.

The next one is little Dewey on Oct 8, 1947 just four months after his birth.

This is a great picture of our family Dad, Mom, Dewey, Don and Dick in front of Grandpa Fulton's house on Mill Street.

Next is a 1955 Christmas Card from the Powers Family.  Don, Dick and Dewey.

This one is of Dad, Dick and Dewey I am guessing around my graduation.

The last one is of Dad with the sign in front of the Powers Church.

These are a few of the photos that Mom has.  She has others with more pictures of the family.  I just wanted to share these with you.

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas.  All of the kids were home except Seri who was visiting her relatives in Illinois.  It was such a treat having the house full of kids again.  Our own children were here as well as our grandchildren.  Does this picture tell you how happy we were?

The first to arrive home was Alyssa.  She rolled in Christmas Eve with her car loaded down with her gifts as well as those of Brian and Jennifer. 

Jennifer and Brian with Cole and Quinn got here on Christmas Day and it was sure good to see them.  The Meston side of the family were here on Christmas day so Alyssa and Brian and Jennifer got to see them and spend a little time catching up.  Of course there was the obligatory eating with BIL Bill bringing the main course which was a delicious gumbo.  It had sausage, shrimp possibly some other meat and lots of veggies, yumm.

Matt got here the next day and then the mayhem really got started.  It was time to open all of the presents under the tree.  The boys were pretty excited.  Here are a few photos.

Everyone looked pretty excited with their presents.  The last one is Brian and Quinn playing Perfection.  The object is to get all of the pieces in their holes before the time runs out.  Guess what the time ran out just as they were finishing and then the board pops up giving everyone a thrill. 

We had a great Christmas with everyone.  We wish that Seri could have been with us but we know she enjoyed spending time with her family.  Looking forward to 2011 and wishing everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Fulton-Powers Clan Meeting

On December 11th there was an historic meeting of the Fulton & Powers Families reminiscent of years gone by when we had family get togathers at the holidays.  All of the "kids" from the Fulton side and the Powers side gathered for a meal and good times.  The first picture is of the entire Fulton family.

The next picture is of the Powers family.

This is the patriarchs of the clans.  Eileen Fulton on the left and Helen Powers on the right.

 Then there is Eileen and Helen with all of their kids.  The Fulton girls and the Powers boys.

We had a great time and lots of stories were told.  Several of the stories even had roots with some amount of truth in them.  It was so nice to see all of the cousins again.

Powers Church Service

Holiday Greetings to all!  As many of you know we have started having a winter service at The Powers Church. At the service this year we had a reporter from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette in attendance along with a photographer.  She wrote a very nice article which appeared in yesterdays paper.  I thought some of you might be interested in viewing the article which also has a short video clip.  Here is the link that should take you directly to the page the article is on:

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101211/FEAT04/312119987/1011/FEAT

We have been very busy here with a lot of things happening besides getting ready for the holidays.  We had Thanksgiving at Dick and Jill's which was very enjoyable.  The meal was delicious, my compliments to all involved in preparing and serving it.  We got to meet Jill's uncle John and his daughter Karol, both very enjoyable people.

We also had a big birthday on the 29th as Mom celebrated her 90th.  We had a nice dinner with Mom, Don & Sally, Dick & Jill and the girls Paige & McKenna.  We went to Ruby Tuesdays and several people stopped by the table to wish Mom a Happy Birthday.  Don & Sally had also put a piece in the local paper advising people who know Mom to send her a card.  It was very successful as Mom received several cards from well wishers.  Mom did not receive her biggest birthday present on her birthday but that is a story for another time.

We are really looking forward to seeing almost everyone(we will miss Seri) over the Holidays and can hardly wait.  We wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season!

Quinn's 3rd Birthday

Last Sunday the 14th we traveled to Noblesville to celebrate Quinn's third birthday.  You may be able to tell from the photo that he was excited.  He is accompanied by his cousin Erin.

Here Quinn is blowing out his three big candles on his birthday cupcake.  He got them all on the very first try.

Here Quinn is opening all of his plunder.  It looks like he has lots of help.

Cole sporting his Boy Scout neckerchief and wondering what all of the commotion is about.

And at the end of the day there has to be a sunset.  I thought this one was especially nice.

Halloween

Last weekend we took our last camping trip of the year.  We traveled to White River Campground near Cicero Indiana.  It is a nice park situated along the White River operated by the Hamilton County Parks and Recreation Department.  It is only about ten miles from Brian and Jennifer's house in Noblesville.

Brian and Jennifer brought the boys out for a cookout Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful fall day with the leaves falling from the sycamore trees and the river flowing just behind our campsite.  The boys both had to try out Grandpas zero gravity chair.

First Cole had to give it a try.

And of course whatever big brother does Quinn has to try it also.  It looks like they were pretty comfortable.

Sunday we went to Brian and Jennifer's house for lunch.  The boys had just gotten some new bunk beds so they really wanted to show them to Grandma and Grandpa.  So we went up to their room and WOW those are some really neat bunk beds.  Here is a picture of them on Quinn's lower bunk.

After a great meal it was time to move outside for the pumpkin carving.  There were several pumpkins to be carved so all joined in the fun.

Quinn had taken a little nap and when he got up he wanted to snuggle a little bit so Alyssa was the lucky one. Quinn got in her lap and just watched the activity for a bit until he was ready to join in.

After all of the pumpkins were carved into scary faces we went inside.  Grandma, Jennifer, Alyssa, Cole and Quinn traveled to Canada this summer to visit Great Grandma Louise and Jennifer took some video.  We had not viewed it yet so Jennifer was showing it to Alyssa and the boys.

Later in the afternoon the boys disappeared for a few minutes and we began to wonder where they had gotten off to.  Pretty soon we found out when they came zooming into the room in their Halloween costumes.

Pretty scary isn't it?  They were so cute running around in their Batman and Robin outfits striking poses.  They were so fast that it was hard to get a good picture.

We hope to repeat the trip next year so we reserved a better site for the same weekend next fall.  We had a really great time with Brian, Jennifer, Cole, Quinn and Alyssa.  We were so glad that Alyssa was able to join us for the day.

Until next time, hope all have a Happy Halloween!

Minnesota Fall Trip

We took our usual fall trip leaving the day after Labor Day headed north.  We made the bridge our first day and the weather was bad.  We had to be escorted across the bridge because of high winds and rain.  We stopped at a campground in St Ignace and got set up all the while battling the wind and rain.  It was a night to be thankful we were in a camper and not a tent.  We drove all day the second day in the UP.  It is a far piece from one end to the other.  We were rewarded by staying in a National Forest Service campground at Black River Harbor on Lake Superior.  It is just north of Bessemer, MI which is about as far west as you can go in the UP.

This was the view out our back window of the camper.  It is only about 100 feet to the bluff overlooking  the lake.

Marcia got this picture of the sunset over the lake.  This was a very nice Forest Service campground and we hope to return some day.  The next day we continued on to Grand Rapids, MN our destination.  We stayed at the Itasca County Fairgrounds in Grand Rapids.  It had electric only hookups but a decent bathhouse with showers so it was ok for the four nights we stayed.  The electric was nice cause our little electric heater ran quite a bit.  I wore shorts the day we left home and again the day we returned home.

We went for a woods walk and got a couple of pictures of Mom and Dad with Matt.  Then Matt took us up to Hibbing to see an open pit iron ore mine.  This particular mine is huge and has been in constant production since the end of the 1800's, over a hundred years.

This is one of the big shovel type cranes used to load the ore trucks which are huge.  These hold about 270 ton of ore.  Here is the same shot with perspective to show the size of the mine.  The equipment looked tiny down in the bottom of the mine.

Matt had invited us for supper so we headed back to his place.  He has a beautiful apartment located across the road from a pretty little lake in a nice area of town.  He has a new couch and a newly remodeled kitchen.  Here is a shot of Matt the chef preparing our delicious dinner.

We also took a tour of the facilities where Matt works.  The regional forest service offices were located adjacent to a community college.  Matt showed us all around and explained some of what they do at their office.  Here is a shot of Dr. Matt explaining some of the equipment he uses in his work.

We had a really nice time with Matt.  He is a very gracious host.  He spent a lot of time with us showing us around Grand Rapids and the area he lives and works in.  We only wish we could have stayed longer and that Seri could have been there.

We left Matt's and had a good trip to the Porkies where we got the obligatory picture of Lake of The Clouds.

  We left the Porkies and headed toward Germfask and spent the night there and took a twilight drive through Seney National Wildlife Refuge.  Then we headed on east and stopped at the bridge over the Cut River Gorge.  It is a very deep gorge where the river goes into Lake Michigan.  We headed on across the big bridge into the lower peninsula and decided to take route 23 along the Lake Huron shoreline.  We spent three nights at Hoeft State Park near Rogers City.  We discovered what a nice area the Huron side of Michigan is and not nearly as built up as the Lake Michigan shoreline.  We drove to Alpena and toured the Maritime Shipwreck Museum there which was very interesting.  We learned that Lake Huron has the distinction of having over four times the number of shipwrecks of all the other Great Lakes combined.

This is one that did not wreck.  We saw this freighter steaming along on the lake and figured out it was headed for the calcite quarry at Rogers City, the largest one in the world.  We jumped in the truck and headed into Rogers City to see if we could watch the ship come in.  We were a few minutes late as it was already in the slip at the quarry by the time we got there.  We watched for a few minutes and shortly they started loading the freighter with limestone to be taken to the steel mills and used in the production of steel.

Our last night on the road was spent at Waterloo State Recreation Area near Jackson, MI.  We then headed on home.  We had a great trip and got to see our favorite son, Matt.