Memorial Day 2009 & other Events

We were invited to Elisa's and Brian's for a Memorial Day Barbecue. What better way to spend the day with family and of course with Collin. Melanie, Will and Dan was there as well.

But we missed Cindy and Andy.

We played games, had good food and then went for a walk at the beach.




You can visit our Picasa Photo Album site by clicking on the link on the right and see all our home photos.

Family Trip to Chicago

When family is spread out all over the country, it is wonderful when we can all get together for a weekend. We have been lucky this year so far and we were able to all get together again.

This time we traveled together to Chicago to visit Cindy and Andy. That is all except Brian and Will. We missed having them along this time.

We had Collin with us and of course he had to push his own suitcase. Collin had the best seat in the plan... Mommies lap of course. Then we invaded Cindy and Andy's Condo and all stayed there together and slept on sofas and an air mattress. All in the fun.

We brought the first warm weather of the year to Chicago for a day at the Zoo. And of course it rained after that and chilled down again. We took Collin to a children's museum where he was able to run around and touch and play with everything. Great place for kids.

Cindy and Andy cooked all the meals for us except for Sunday breakfast. We had barbecues on their deck and fine meals, too, together with Andy's parents, Mike and Pat.

Parker, their dog, was wonderful with Collin and he put up with all of us quite fine. Walks always make him happy.



You can see all the photos from our trip by clicking on our Picasa Photo Album link on the right.

Birthday Parties

We had some recent parties to celebrate birthdays.


We celebrated Dan's 25th birthday. We barbecued steaks for his party. They turned out great.

Then last weekend we celebrated Collin's 1 year birthday. Elisa and Brian used our backyard and invited family and friends over for barbecued burgers and dogs. Can't go wrong with that.


















And then it was Collin's first cake. Lots of first for his party.





Already in the cooler with Dad looking for a beer.

You can go to our Picasa web site using the link on the right to see all the photos and more. And Brian & Elisa's Blog Site has more to see as well.

Winter Update

So . . . what have we been doing?




Joan traveled back to Denmark in January to visit her parents, Mona and Peter. It was off and on snow and rain. But cold. She was there for nearly 3 weeks.

As for me, I had an emergency operation while Joan was away that put me in the hospital for a few days. Not life threatening, though. Something called diverticulitis and ruptured colon. All the kids were there to help me and I got to stay at Elisa and Brian's until Joan returned home. Had fun with Collin all those days. I am slowly recovering, although back to work full time. I will have a second surgery at the end of March to put me back together again.

This video is of Collin having fun with the balloons I got while in the hospital.
I want to thank everyone for their love and support.


Joan's Cousin Helle and Matilda and her friend Nikoli flew over from Denmark for a weeks visit, too.



So not much else going on. Just the winter blues.

Lots of fun to see all the other blog sites.

Don't forget to visit our photo websites using the links on the right to see all our latest home photos.

The Holidays

This was our first Christmas with Collin.


He made it special for the whole family.

Even Great Uncle Bill had fun with Collin.




Special, too was that we were all there at the same time. Hard to do with travel and in-laws.



So this was something special and happy for us all.

Our final picture of us all on the Beach at Brian and Elisa's the day after Christmas.

We wish you all a Happy New Year.

Make sure to click on the links on the right to visit our 2 photo album web sites at Cosco and Picasa to see our other photo albums including Brians Birthday Party. You can download or send out for prints from the web sites.

At the pumpkin patch with Collin

This last weekend, we visited our old pumpkin patch is Santa Paula where Joan and I every year took the children to pick out their pumpkins. That started more than 25 years ago. We have pictures like this one with each riding their first pumpkins. Now it is the grandchildren's turn and we had fun going there again.


Collin and Mommy on a small pumpkin. The one on the right was the one we chose to take home.
Collin was here.

Go to our photo websites using the links on the right to see all the pictures from the pumpkin patch.

Collin's Baptismal

Our Grandson Collin Thomas Barker was baptized in the Catholic Church on September 20, 2008.

Elisa's brother and Collin's Uncle Daniel was the Godfather and Brian's sister and Collin's Aunt April was the Godmother.

We all got to be there for him, and then we celebrated afterward at Brian and Elisa's home in Oxnard, California.