September 2022 Update

This past month has been pretty busy as fall activities start up.  My grandkids have started Awana at church, some of my kids (Hannah, Ella, Cody, Jem) are helping as leaders in Awana, Levi has started soccer, the Bills looked really good in their first game, and my family started playing Fantasy Football.

 

Also, Caitlin discovered a way to play Fantasy Survivor with the TV show, so we’re doing that too.  It gives us an excuse to watch a favorite show and interact with our family in a fun competition.

 

Our biggest news in this past month was the birth of our 14th grandchild, Maya Kristine Shaw, born to our daughter Abigail, and her husband, Bernie.  Maya was born on September 7, over a week late, but both mom and baby are healthy, and we praise God for His goodness to us.

Meeting Maya in the hospital

Right after that, Zach came home from Kentucky for a weekend visit.  I think I mentioned before that he has orthodontist appointments every several weeks, so we get to see him fairly regularly, which is very nice.  He got to meet his new niece, visit with family, and visit Lake Ontario while he was here.

Zach and Cody in Lake Ontario

We missed a couple of years because of COVID, but you may remember that my chorus used to participate in a 9/11 ceremony, and we were able to do that again this year.  We sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “When There’s Love at Home.”  It was a rainy day, but they gave us an awning to stand under, and I think it went well.  The “crowd” was definitely down because of the weather—there were more performers than audience—but we never want to forget what happened that day, so I’m always glad to participate in this ceremony.

 

Finally, I want to tell you all about a program my church is hosting in November.  It’s a musical theater production called “Pilgrim” based on the classic “Pilgrim’s Progress.”  There’s more information about it here:  Pilgrim – The Musical – First Bible Baptist Church (fbbc.info)  If you’re in our area, we’d love for you to come and experience this.  If you are not in our area, I’d encourage you to look at the performers’ website Arise Collective Theatre | Pilgrim, a Full-Length Musical Based on The Pilgrim's Progress to see if it’s coming anywhere near you, or you can contact them to see if your church or community can get them to come to you.

 

Thanks for reading!

Bonus web content:  We were at a local restaurant with some family, and Josie, Ella's daughter, was sitting with Krista and me.  She wanted us to take a video of her eating, so being the doting grandfather that I am, I obliged.  I thought she would just eat her food, but instead she decided to inhale it:

August 2022 Update

When we were at Barker Lighthouse camp with all of our extended family, we went over to the lighthouse in the Golden Hill campground, which is called Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse, because it is 30 miles east of the mouth of the Niagara River.  Anyway, that inspired Krista and I to try to visit each of the nine lighthouses on Lake Ontario that are in New York state.  We’ve been to a few of them already, but we want to go and “officially” document our visit to each one.

 

Our first step in accomplishing this was to go to the Oak Orchard Lighthouse in Kent, NY.  

In the lighthouse

Oak Orchard Lighthouse Selfie!

The big event this month was the birth of our lucky 13th grandchild, Truman Ezekiel Sommer, to my daughter, Ella, and her husband, Cody.  Truman joined his three sisters, Hazel, Ivy, and Josie on August 3, and weighed in at 9lb 2 oz.  They are all loving him, and we are too!  Krista and I got to visit in the hospital, and we’ve enjoyed holding him several times since then.

In the hospital with Truman

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is to be at the shore of Lake Ontario when the sun sets.  Krista, Jem, and I did so on Monday night this week, and then Krista and I went back again the next night after celebrating her birthday at a dinner out.

Lake Ontario Sunset

The beauty of our Father's Creation never stops amazing me

I’ll end with this:  Last night I made a fool of myself.  That in itself isn’t too unusual, but our church had a talent night, and so I did so in front of a rather large audience.  Some of you have seen my (what’s a good word to describe it?  Silly?  Weird?  Bizarre?) rendition of “Theme and Variations on Little Cabin.”  Well, I pulled that out of mothballs and did it again last night.  I had fun, and it seemed to be well received.

 

I guess that’s all for this month, so we’ll visit again in September.

 

July 2022 Update

This seems to have been a more eventful month, so that will make more content for this update, but no guarantees about whether or not it interests you.  I write these because my Mom asked me to years ago, and even though she's in heaven, I still keep it up.  Who knows if anyone reads them, but maybe they will interest my descendants years from now.

Anyway, here goes for this past month.

 

My chorus did a performance at a local nursing home on June 28.  The audience seemed to appreciate it, although there were a couple of the songs we sang where we got out of tune, and I was not sure which key I was hearing.  Others noticed it too, and so we’ve been working on that in rehearsals.  There’s always room for improvement, and in our case, lots of room.

 

When Covid kept campgrounds closed, our family decided to camp in the Mickles’ (my daughter, Hannah’s family) back yard.  We had so much fun then, that we did it again this year over the July 4 weekend.  We ate good camping food, did fun activities like tie-dye and fireworks, went on outings to local playgrounds and an ice cream stand, and generally enjoyed each other.

 

The next week some of the grandkids went to a real live camp, and since both Hazel and Ivy (Ella’s daughters) went, we had her youngest daughter, Josie, over to our house for a couple of days of “Grandma camp.”  Krista’s mom used to have some of our kids to her house for grandma camp when their older siblings were at camp at AMOC, so we sort of continued the tradition.  She slept in Jem’s room for two nights, and spent the days doing special things with her Mommom.

I mentioned last month that Zach had moved to Louisville, Kentucky.  He had to come home for an orthodontist appointment, so he made a weekend of it that following weekend, July 8 – 11.  It was great to spend some time with him again, and we had a little party Sunday afternoon at our house with homemade garbage plates.  I think I’ve talked about those before, but in case you’ve forgotten, they are a Rochester area specialty where you can get your year’s supply of cholesterol all in one meal!  You make a base of some kind of fried potatoes (we used tater tots, but air fried them to be a little less obnoxious) and mac salad, top that with a meat, like burgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers (we used burgers or dogs), and then smother all that with your choice of toppings, like ketchup, mustard, onions, or spicy meat sauce.  It really is delicious, but definitely not something you should eat every day.

 

This past Saturday, the ladies got together for a baby shower for Abigail and her baby, who is due in late August.  The venue Hannah found for this was in Canandaigua, which is about an hour’s drive southeast from our home.  While they did that, I spent the morning with Hannah’s son, Alex, because Kevin had worked overnight the night before and needed to sleep.  Alex and I had a really fun grandson/grandpa time exploring Canandaigua’s playgrounds and eating lunch at McDonald’s.

Playground at Kershaw Park on Canandaigua Lake

Pirate ship themed playground

Lunch at McDonald's

In case we weren’t exhausted enough after our Canandaigua trip in the morning, Krista and I went an hour’s drive the other way (north and west) to the Lighthouse Christian Camp in Barker, NY, that many of you are familiar with.  Her father’s family has a reunion there every year, but we didn’t plan to go this year because of the morning trip.  Then Krista’s brother, Dick, and his wife Debbie, let us know they had come all the way from Kansas to be at this reunion, and we couldn’t miss the opportunity to see them, so we drove out there that afternoon/evening.  I have to say, I had to settle for seeing one of my most faithful readers of this update, Aunt Marion, on video because they couldn’t make that reunion, but we had a good time talking with everyone, especially Dick and Debbie.

 

My son Levi has had some exciting times lately.  He will be going to Genesee Community College this fall for their ACE program where you can complete your senior year of high school and freshmen year of college at the same time, and we have been working on the testing and registration for that.  We’ve also been looking for a car for him to get him there and back.  Then his latest adventure was having oral surgery this past Thursday.  He’s already tired of eating just soft foods, and can’t wait to get a cheeseburger and fries again as soon as he can.

 

Well, there you have it.  That’s our latest month, and we’ll talk again in August!

 

June 2022 Update

Well, our nest is a little smaller now, but still not quite empty.  The weekend after we returned from Outer Banks, Zach moved to Louisville, Kentucky.  He rented a moving van, and I drove his car, and we drove there on Friday, May 20.  Louisville wasn’t picked at random—that’s where Cai and Amy live, and he got an apartment in the same building where they live.  Cai had let him know he could probably do that, and that he could help him get a job where he works at UPS, and Zach was ready for a different adventure in life.

Those of you who read this web version get bonus content that I forgot to put in the email!  I know, you're so excited.  We got there Friday night and unloaded the truck so Zach could return it.  Then Saturday we helped Zach a bit with setting things up, but mostly we just spent time together.  We went for a walk at a nearby park, and got Chicago style deep dish pizza.

Sunday I went to church with them, where Amy recruited me to sing in her choir, and we enjoyed worship together.  Then I was supposed to fly back home that afternoon, but my flight got canceled due to bad weather.  So I ended up staying an extra night, and flew out Monday morning.

Lunch at Panda Express on the way there

We made it!  Greeted by Cai and Amy

Amy had supper ready for us.  Yummy!

Going for a walk at a nearby park

There was a deep dish Chicago style pizza place nearby!

I slept in the baby's room--it's all ready for her!

I went to church with them before returning home

So now we have a little, perfect family of four:  parents, one girl and one boy, just like normal people.  Personally, I think “normal” is overrated.

 

In contrast to that, besides the 32 of us getting together earlier in May, our local family got together for Memorial Day at Ella and Cody’s.  We did our usual good food, yard games, and lots of just enjoying each other, especially enjoying watching the kids play together in the pool, on the swings, and just all over in the yard.  The weather was perfect here that day, and that’s always a treat.

 

Other than that, I guess I don’t really have anything to report from our corner of the world.  I hope all is going well with you, and you are enjoying your summer weather, as we are.

 

May 2022 Update

As I reviewed my calendar for the last month since I wrote, it looks like there’s only one newsworthy event, but I think it will still take up about the usual amount of space.  Plus there are pictures!

 

Every couple of years, my whole family tries to get together for a big vacation.  Last time we did an Outer Banks vacation that got canceled by a hurricane and turned into a Hamlin vacation.  Last week, we had a large house rented in Outer Banks again for a wonderful week together with our whole family:  20 adults and 12 children.  The weather wasn’t very good—in fact our weather at home was better than what we got in OBX—but we know how to have fun even in lousy weather!

 

Ella and Amelia had come up with a plan for who would drive what so someone could pick up Kortney’s family at the Norfolk, VA, airport.  Krista and I drove Ella’s minivan, Ella and Cody drove Amelia’s SUV, and Amelia, Zach, Jem, and Levi drove Ella and Cody’s Tesla, so it became known as the “party car.” 😁

 

Krista and I left Friday morning, May 6, and drove to a hotel near Washington, DC.  We had a nice little mini-vacation alone time as a couple, even with the difficult traffic in places.  I guess that’s to be expected traveling on a work day and being near big cities during rush hour.  I don’t know why people are so inconsiderate as to be on the roads I want to drive on.

 

Saturday, May 7, we had plenty of time to get from our hotel to Norfolk to pick up Kortney’s family, so we found an outlet mall right near that airport, and did a little shopping but mostly just looked around.  We found a candy shop that we of course had to try, and it was really good.  Then we picked up the Rhodes, and all of us went to another hotel near the airport for that night because we couldn’t get in to the OBX house until Sunday.

Happy couple at the Outlet Mall

Sunday, May 8, was (I hope you all remembered!) Mothers’ Day, and when we stopped at a Wendy’s for lunch on our way to OBX, they had pink tablecloths on all of their tables.  We thought it was a nice touch.

With the Rhodes at Wendy's on Mothers' Day (Daisy is hiding behind Krista)

Finally everyone got to the big house in OBX, and the fun began!  Each family took turns making a big supper for everyone, Krista made pancakes for breakfast two of the days, and she and I made a hot dog picnic for one of the lunches with Rochester’s finest, Zweigles hot dogs.  Needless to say, we ate well all week, and not just at the regular meals, because our four youngest kids got together and provided snacks and special drinks for everyone for the week.  I don’t know about the rest of the family, but I have about 10 pounds to work off.

 

The big announcement of the week was Cai and Amy telling everyone about their first child being due in September!  And, if you know them you know that they wouldn’t just tell us.  Cai had run a Survivor game for our family a while ago, and he said he had one more challenge left over from that for us to do.  It was a word search, and once you’d found all the words, the remaining unused letters would spell a special message that announced their baby.  Then they had us all guess the gender before telling us it would be a girl.  So we have Ella due in late July, Abigail due in late August, and Amy due in late September.  That will make 15 grandchildren for us, 11 girls and 4 boys! 😮

 

As I said, we didn’t have the best weather while we were there.  I ran into a fellow Bills fan who worked at a convenience store (I was wearing a Bills hoodie), and he asked me if I lived in OBX now.  I told him, no, we just came for your great weather, and he apologized. 😂 However, it did get better as the week went on, and we were able to spend some time once or twice at the beach enjoying the ocean.

The view from our bedroom on a rainy day with a stormy ocean

Playing at the beach!

Levi and I took the Rhodes back to the airport on Saturday, May 11, then we all left the big house on Sunday.  Krista and I went to the ocean one last time before heading out.  The Sommers and we traded cars so they had their own van for the ride home, and we drove Amelia’s SUV.  We again ran into some bad traffic on the way home.  We had planned to drive all the way home on Sunday since I had to work on Monday, and the rest of the families made it, but Krista and I decided to stop in northern Pennsylvania.  The mountains north of Williamsport were very foggy, rainy, and dark, and it was just too stressful driving.  We don’t need more stress in our lives, but if any of you do, I recommend driving on Route 15 in northern PA at night in the fog.  We just missed a deer by a few feet.  She was just standing on the side of the road looking like she wanted to cross, but God gracefully kept her where she was as we drove by.  I didn’t see her until we were right next to her, and it really got my heart going.

Saying goodbye to the ocean

We woke up early Monday morning and got home by about 7:30AM.  My nice boss had agreed to let me work from home on Monday, so that made that day a little easier.

 

Now we’re back into the regular routine.  Krista mowed our long lawn on Monday and Tuesday, so that’s looking normal again, although it was a bigger job than usual.

 

I am very thankful to God for allowing us all to be together again and for giving all of us safe travels to and from OBX.

 

Talk to you in June!

 

April 2022 Update

It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of activity to tell about in this last month, but what there is, is this:

On April 9, our barbershop chorus district had its Spring Contest.  It was the first time in a couple of years that we’ve had one, and it was really fun to get together and sing again.  Our chorus didn’t do particularly well, but we had a good time.

Then that night, our local families gathered at Hannah and Kevin’s house for a Seder meal celebration.  They did a great job reminding us of the Jewish traditions that are the underpinning of our Christian faith, and how Jesus fulfilled them as our eternal Passover lamb.  It was a really good preparation for the Easter season!

Our church had a really meaningful Good Friday service, and then a moving Easter morning service.  Ella and I sang in a choir with the praise team leading music, but, in my opinion, the best part of the service was what they called Cardboard Testimonies.  They had real testimonies from real members of our church cut down to just a few sentences that could be put on the front and back of a sign board.  They told how Jesus had changed their lives as one of our men sang about the mercy of God.  If you’re interested in seeing it, you can check it out here Peace Be Unto You | Sun Morning | Pastor Kevin - YouTube.  The testimonies I’m referring to start at about 33:45 (if you look before that, you can see Ella and I in the choir/praise team).

That afternoon our local families got together for Easter dinner and egg hunts.  One egg hunt was designed by Abigail and Bernie as their baby’s gender reveal.  All the eggs they hid had yellow Peeps in them, except for one, which was pink!  Their baby daughter is expected in a few months!

I guess that’s it for this month.  Our weather has been crazy with a day in the 70s followed closely by snow again, but that’s typical for western New York, so not really worth commenting on.  But I did anyway.

Until May!

March 2022 Update

As I looked at my pictures from this past month, I only have a picture of an interesting bird Krista and I saw in our back yard a couple of weeks ago. Is that worth posting? We decided it was probably a Cooper’s Hawk, maybe a juvenile. He was just sitting on the grass in our back yard, and then he flew away.

It seems like it was a pretty uneventful month. Krista, Jem, and I have formally joined the church we have been attending, First Bible Baptist, and we are contemplating how God wants us to be involved there. It’s a big church, which I never thought I’d want to be a part of, but I have been blessed by their focus on God’s Word and many opportunities to be a part of their family.

As an example, last Saturday, Kevin and I went to a men’s prayer breakfast there. We had a great breakfast as a large group (over 100 men!), and then we broke into smaller groups to pray for our church and each other. We ended up with two other men, one who had been at FBBC for many years, and one who just started coming. It was great to get fellowship with and get to know some people a little better.

Then that night, Cody and I joined a euchre tournament the church had. There were 43 teams, so 86 people for the tournament. It was lots of fun again meeting people, talking with them, and playing euchre. We started out strong, winning our first two games, but it was all downhill from there. We ended up near the bottom of the group, but we both had fun, and we’d do it again.

The five of us at home (Krista and I, Zach, Jem, and Levi) celebrated Pi day (3/14) with cottage pie for supper (like shepherd’s pie, but with ground beef), and a chocolate cream pie from Wegmans. Really it was just a good excuse to eat pie.

Yeah, I guess that’s about it. Maybe next month will be more exciting, but don’t count on it.