Friel Family Reunion 2009, Down on the farm.

We had 3 full days of family fun this weekend, down on the farm. Family members came from Texas, Ohio, DC, Illinois, Missouri, and New York City to join in the festivities. The activites were divided between the Weigand farm and the new Friel compound. I will try to put together an account of the reunion from the many photo's taken during the event when I return from my trip back east. It will be worth the wait, trust me!

Morgan is not happy.

It would seem that we now have two dogs. An inside dog, "Morgan" and an outside dog "Shadow", or as we like to call him, red dog. He comes over to play every night then falls asleep on the deck while we eat dinner inside. He will spend several hours at our house waiting for someone to come out and throw the tennis balls for him. This however does not please Morgan.

Easter in Missouri.

The winning eggs from left to right. First place goes to Nancy for her rendition of Mr. Stitch as an Easter bunny. Next is Beth's in second place, with the Martha Stewart's lace design. And in third place is Sue's rubber band design. Thanks to Kristen for judging the eggs.

Our traditional bunny cake was made fresh today. And yes Courtney, we saved you some for when you come home this weekend for the Friel Family reunion.

Beth sets the table and pours the lemonade for dinner.

Easter eve we colored eggs. Here is Nancy creating one of her masterpieces.

Spring flowers in time for an Easter display, and look, the corn is up!

K-9 kayaker.

Saturday I decided to put the kayak in the pond and go for a little paddle. My best bud Morgan wanted to come along, so we headed out for open water. She loved the ride as you can see.

More neighbors, down on the farm

On the Weigand farm on any given day you will see one of many cows grazing in the field. As they tend not to name their dinner here, lets just call this one cow #29. (This is Tom, Diane, and Travis Weigands farm, Nancy's sister).

Meet the neighbors.

Hanna lives across the street. She keeps to herself, but is a really good listener.
She will not turn down a good juicy apple or a pat on the snout.

Caught in the act!

Morgans tennis balls started disappearing from the yard and we could not figure out where they were. Later that day Morgan ran over to visit Red dog and we found several balls at his house. They are back home now and we have to bring them in every night. Don't worry, we gave one to Red dog for his very own.

Bluebird, Bluebird, on my shoulder.

Since the state bird of Missouri is a Bluebird and the fact that we just happened to have a nice new Bluebird house on hand ( thanks to Joanne) I installed it today to attract them to the south forty. We will keep you posted on any new tenants.

Got Grass?

This looks like a toy tractor. I think I'm going to have to upgrade soon!
So much lawn, such a little tractor.

Burn baby burn.

Burnin down the house. That is one big match, lady!

Travis installs the burn barrel.

Nancy wanted a burn barrel, so a burn barrel she got. Her sister wants to know where her new one is. If you feed Travis M & M's Diane, maybe you will get one.

Yorkie dinner, sweet!

Nancy and I had a dog for dinner one night. It was so sweet!

Sorry Cooper, it was really just a cake, not a Yorkie.

Freak winter storm, or not.

What is up with this weather?

We have seen it all from warm sunny days, wind like you never want to see again, rain, sleet, hail, and snow. Oh, sorry, we packed the Liberty Bell for a little touch of home.

Bringin the crazy to Missouri!

Before we start unpackin all those boxes lets just sit a spell.

Morgan is loving the new off leash policy for sure. Hey red dog wanna play?

Let me give you a hand with that.

Hot tub anyone?

Rub a dub dub in the pole barn.

Heavy lifting Missouri style.

This is how you unload a truck Missouri style. Nothing runs like a DEERE!

Unloading the trucks.

Morgan supervises the move in.

Up early, family and friends begin the task of unloading 2- 26" trucks, the motor home, and a U-haul trailer. Not to mention both our cars packed to the ceiling. Were talking 20 plus years of living!

What Up DOG

Morgan is sick of the car and ready to meet the neighbors. Red dog comes over for a visit. Life is good.

A new day, not!

Morgan spent a quiet night at the Days Inn and is waiting for the maid service.

Saturday morning comes and we pack the car to get back on the road to Missouri. But first we must deal with the stinking kayaks again! Nancy goes to the front desk to ask for help while I once again try to tie these suckers down for the 12Th time. At one point Nancy said lets just leave them in a ditch!!! Well I was ready to agree, however when packing I saw the paperwork on what we had paid for them and decided that would not be such a good idea.

Help comes in the form of two non English speaking guys who seem to understand our problem. We work in the freezing cold for about 20 minutes and still we can't get the straps to work. One of the guys takes all the straps off and takes one of the kayaks off the car. At this point we think, oh they are going to start over and do it from scratch till Nancy hears the guy say, where do you want to put this? Crap!!!!!!!

We thank them for their help and put the kayak back on the car, strap them down well enough to limp to a Home Depot. Once again I go in, tell my story and this time we get the help we need.

A shout out to Dave and his son Lance from Ohio,they were able to secure them so we could make it to Missouri. This cost us 5 hours over the two day trip, but we made it safe and sound.

Moving Day

Moving day did not go as planned. We started out a 1/2 hour behind the caravan of trucks thinking we would be able to catch up with them as they would be driving at a slower speed. All seemed to be going ok till we stopped for gas in Bedford. I found that the kayaks were falling off the car. We tightened them down and started on our way to catch up with the rest of the group. At this point we were about 20 minutes behind them. About 2 miles down the PA turnpike the boats start to come off the roof again. Back out of the car, tighten the straps again, then back on the road. We played this game for about 2 hours before we pulled over to get help from a state trooper. He told us to get off at the next exit where we could get help at an Auto Zone. Little did we know we had a 12 mile police escort to the exit.

At the Auto Zone store we were able to get help and back on the pike we go. We made it to the exit for I-70 and the darn kayaks started comming off again. I tightened them down once again and we went 60 miles an hour the rest of the way to Columbus Ohio where we spent the night. We will deal with this in the daylight!