Frick & Frack @ 6 (weeks)

Pictures of Babies

Okay, Where are they? I want to see baby pictures and I need to see them NOW. Get those babies on parade please. Its bad enough I can not get my arms around them but at least let me see them. All of them. Thank-you.

West End

Last week we took a ride out to the west end of the island. Jim had been for a bike ride in the morning and had come upon some strangeness that he wanted me to see. Theres a road that hugs the coastline but is bordered by big trees that send down runners in the opposite direction. It ends up looking like string curtains and creates areas of dappled shade and coolness. In one of these he came upon a circle of stones in front of a large tree that had an alter of sorts built around it. Above this carved in the tree were the words "Tan-Tan". All very magical , you expected to see little fairies hiding behind something. It was not a dark vision of voodoo or sacrifice, but airy and light. Who meets back here at the circle in the wood?

Driving further we come to the start of Mahogoney Road. Theres many little houses, and a building with a low slung roof and dirt parking lot, the Christmas Bar its called. Up the road from this a "fence " begins. Its made entirely of bottles, row upon row of clear glass and then a few green and brown bottles thrown in. Upon closer inspection you can see that theres a wire fence and all manner of debris is balanced against it. Looking beyond into the yard is rather mind-blowing. Little islands of arranged trash are everywhere, thousands of bottles, raid cans, dolls ,articulated figures, pens, rags, cans, tv sets, thousands of plastic cups.... Then the sculpter appears, or maybe artist is a better word or perhaps junk collector. He seemed happy to have someone admire his work.

More grandchildren pictures.

Our new home.

Thatcher and Hope on the horrible jet ski.

Hunter and Jim on the liver-damaging jet ski.

Pre-teener set to enter those turbulent years.

Hula Lesson from bottom to top.

These are in reverse order. Please remove all clothing, don a bikini top and grass skirt, no pants allowed. Shake everything and sway. Continue.

Where is everyone? I will continue to post grandchildren and tropical shots until I get some news!!

Easter Week

Conch Towers

Nobody wanted my peeps so now they are living out by the walk.

Hedy Lamar

Easter Bunny brought this shirt for Jim.

Hunter was snorkling and found 4 lobsters under a ledge.

Harry Potter Hunter

The Great Conch Hunter

White Water Man

Tad LaFountain posted a comment the other day with a link to this photo of Thatcher. Lookin' good, Thatch. I'm not sure everyone saw it, so I'm putting it up as a regular post.

You can click on the image to go to the other newspaper photos.

Thanks, Tad!

50 Years Later

WASHINGTON – (April 13) President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

It took almost 50 years and a president with some gumption to bring us back to our senses on Cuba. Hopefully this is just the beginning, and all of us will soon have the opportunity to travel to this beautiful country and start reconnecting with its good people.

Harper and her parents have arrived on the East Coast. Dave got here after a week of driving included a 3 night stop in Gillette, Wyoming to wait out a blizzard.

Unca Will

Cheeks

Dreds

Quick Trip to NJ.

We stayed with Chris and Amy and Mags, very nice to get up in the morning and see this sweet face.

We visited WB. We all sat around the table while Pam tried valiantly to get everyone to sing. She and Jim and I did 10 songs in a row. The minute the music began Dad put his head down and slept. When we stopped he woke up, held my hand tightly and stared at his shoes. He called Jim by name. Pretty good visit all and all.

Cuzins

We took Hunter and Hope to the Swinning Wheel Diner for some fine food.

We took a quick trip to NJ last week. For anyone who has not heard yet our house was heavily water damaged 4 weeks ago. We are staying on in St. Croix until early May while work proceeds. But- we thought we should see what it looks like now. It was good to be home and experience Spring. Seeing our house down to the bare walls and plywood floors with everything packed up was a jolt. I am looking to the positive which first and foremost is my d-in-l Amy-Lynn who is driving this whole project and doing a wonderful job, a million times better than I could with more enthusiasm and expertise too. We have good insurance which is paying and so far a amiable, agreeable insurance agent . We have a place to stay while the work is done. I do miss NJ though, it was good to be home for awhile.

3 weeks

Energizer baby

Maggie was having fun eating with Grandma Marg and Grandpa Jim.....Maybe a little to much fun.

Msg from Tad LaFountain re Family Geneology

For those of you who seldom go back and read comments on posts more than a week old, here's a comment to a previous post, made today by Tad LaFountain. Thanks, Tad. This is something I'm sure many of us would like to take advantage of. Tad, give me a couple of days and I'll send you the decoder ring.
Charlie

"Simpsons:

I've been trying to overcome anonymity my whole life, but this is a chance to embrace it wholeheartedly - it's a door into the blog. Praise Allah.

I'm Tad LaFountain (Tica's husband) and as some of you know, I have compiled some extensive genealogy on the family. It's not just the Simpson side, either - Shaffer roots on many branches going back to George Zavietz born in 1695 in Strasbourg, France (Who? Exactly - that's the point).

The irony is that I have more material on 18th and 19th century family members than 20th and 21st century newbies. And you keep multiplying (commendable, but not without its frustrations).

So here's the deal - send as much detail about your families as you can (birth dates and places, marriage dates and places, divorce dates, whatever) to aal3@alumni.princeton.edu; I'll compile all this stuff and send you a family tree if you're interested (and of course you are).

And if someone can send me the decoder ring to figure out all the blog nicknames (mine fell out of the cereal box and the dog ate it), that wouldn't hurt, either."