2015 Week 33: Old and New Memories

A wonderful discovery (re-discovery as I was sorting and filing) led to scanning and sharing Mother's college-years (1940-41) letters to her parents, including the summer she worked at Greenwood Hills conference center AND became engaged to "Sam" (nickname, real name--Solon)!  In fact Dad's letter asking for her hand in marriage is the one on the right.

Each day I e-mail two or three enhanced (i.e. cropped, enlarged, darker, digitized versions) to my siblings. These glimpses into those early years allow us to learn much about our parents and about ourselves.

Monday Night Dinner is back! I think we were all excited to get together again, so there was quite a crowd. However, host and chef Stephan was missing! He was in the ER after nearly chopping off his finger! So we all pitched in to help Karen prepare a delicious meal. 

Said goodbye to this young man headed to college in Tennessee

Four stitches later, after the crowd was gone, Stephan made it back home. The accident happened while constructing a model of their dream house he hopes to build in the near future.

Tuesday morning walk I had the added pleasure of taking Rebecca for part of the stroll. I may be doing this more often since we go right by her house. If she's awake and ready, we're off and running walking and Kayla can accomplish a lot in that half hour unhindered!

This was our week to go to the State Fair. I was reminded of long ago 4H adventures, and in my effort to digitize old photos, I dug these out and improved them. Here are my favorites.

Cowboy Samuel

Thursday was the long-awaited day, for Diane anyway. She so looks forward to this annual event. Thanks to Mike's new mode of transportation, he was able to survive the long day, though not totally pain-free, and being careful to sit at intervals.

Diane trying to keep up; Mike's bronze; lunch time

The sign said to tweet a selfie and enter a drawing. I got the selfie and forgot the twitter handle!

Admiring the cheese sculpture

One of our sitting down times was a jousting show by the Knights of Valour where we were transported to the days of Henry VIII.

The jousters line up; "Ready go!"; the winner

We visited the sheep barn twice in search of robotics friends' stall. We finally found Mary and the Bennett family sheep. She said it was feeling very lonely, without its own barnyard friends.

The most unusual place to sit for a bit

When we'd had enough of the fair, we drove to downtown Indy to watch Stephan and Ben sculpt sand in celebration of the gymnastic championship--Countdown to RIO.

Anyone recognize this former gymnast? She was autographing books at a table nearby.

This little lady came alive and bowed after Mike posed with her.

Friday--Rebecca's first birthday!

Her party was Saturday afternoon and coincided with the wedding of my cousin's daughter. Since we are privileged to see Rebecca often, we chose to attend the Hoyt-family event in Warsaw--a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet and greet numerous relatives.

My cousin and his daughter came up from Georgia and spent Friday night with us, and had to experience Ivanhoes, of course.

Stan and Erin Hoyt

Saturday noon we drove up with Stephan and Karen and enjoyed the beautiful event together with a large number of Hoyt relatives, even so only representative of Uncle Lowell's progeny (a large portion of them are in New Zealand).

This was Sharon and Vijo's second wedding ceremony. This first was in India the previous week, following their customs, and attended by the entire village!

Sharon's family + two uncles and one aunt

We thoroughly enjoyed everything and everyone! The five-page cheat sheet helped me put names and faces together.

What would Grandpa Hoyt say if he could see how his family of ten has become a multitude of beautiful people and families?