Family reunion photos

Below are some sort of good photos from the reunion:

In this photo everyone is sorted by the brightest on the right.

In this one the persons with the longest arms on the right.

Sorted by most light-headed on the left.

Sorted by cameras.

Finally the cousins sorted by height. Everyone smile!!

Party Time!

A Time to Relax

And Smile

The Greatest Sport in the World

Girls!

A Thief Caught in the Act

We Walk it Off

catching up

In order to keep some things from getting on the google worldwide I will use first names only. I read a couple of books recently that I have really enjoyed. "Making the Blue Plate Special" subtitled The Joy of Family Legacies by Florence Littauer, Marita Littauer, Lauren Littauer Briggs prompted me to get in touch with a couple of people that have touched my life and probably some of you guys as well. I wrote a letter to Dick and Bette and Les and Marlyn. Dick and Bette are still in their apartment in the downtown area of Duluth. I found Les and Marlyn in an apartment on Haines Rd. by looking in Dex Knows. Of course until they respond I won't know if they are all alive. I wrote to these folks by snail mail (what in the world is that?) first and will contact them by phone if they don't respond. One thing I wanted to know from Dick and Bette is if anyone has done any genealogy on Dad's side of the family. I wanted to thank both families for their impact on our young lives.

Anyone want to respond about their experiences, memories? I will let you know if any if them call or write back.

Jose's 3rd Birthday/Summer Get-together

José is almost 3!

We're going to have another party! Please join us if you can make it. We'll do another BBQ /potluck. Start around 2pm. Eat at 5pm? (July 4th) It's on a Sunday this year.

See chickens and lambs. Play games. Go hiking. Sit around and talk. Sit around a fire? Sing? Fireworks?

I looked back at last year's post for José's 2nd birthday. It says: "He likes wearing caps. He's talking, but barely. He loves cars, trucks, and tractors."

He still loves cars, trucks, and tractors. Add to that, trains. (We'll have to take a train ride sometime.) He talks a blue streak! He's funny. He's good-natured. He's pretty good with his fine motor skills. He's in the middle of potty training. He'll be going to pre-school this fall!

Emery has moved

Grandma painting Emery's toes.
Emery looks a little sad about moving.
Showing Christoffer her doll.
One of my favorite things was watching Emery peel a mandarin orange and then divide it into sections. She uses all her muscles in her tiny fingers and hands, and concentrates on the task at hand. Grandpa taught her how to do it.

If most of you have been checking out Facebook you know that John and Heidi have moved to Tacoma Washington. John is now a regional director for Samaritans Purse - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. We are missing them and especially Emery. Hopefully we'll get down to see them often.

Picturephone

The first Picturephone test system, built in 1956, was crude - it transmitted an image only once every two seconds. But by 1964 a complete experimental system, the "Mod 1," had been developed. To test it, the public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. In both locations, visitors were carefully interviewed afterward by a market research agency.

People, it turned out, didn't like Picturephone. The equipment was too bulky, the controls too unfriendly, and the picture too small. But the Bell System was convinced that Picturephone was viable. Trials went on for six more years. In 1970, commercial Picturephone service debuted in downtown Pittsburgh and AT&T executives confidently predicted that a million Picturephone sets would be in use by 1980.

What happened? Despite its improvements, Picturephone was still big, expensive, and uncomfortably intrusive. It was only two decades later, with improvements in speed, resolution, miniaturization, and the incorporation of Picturephone into another piece of desktop equipment, the computer, that the promise of a personal video communication system was realized.

Why use skype when we already have the picturephone?

Skype

I made the suggestion to Mark the other day that we should all get on Skype. To my surprise he didn't know what Skype was! Perhaps some of the rest of you don't either. Skype is a cheap way (free, actually) to make phone calls over the internet. As you can see from the screen shot above, both JaNae and us have it. The picture quality isn't perfect, but I can't complain. Conference calls can happen too - not video, just audio.

All you need is a cheap computer cam. JaNae got us one for Christmas. You should be able to get one for less than $25.