Our Family 2024

Posted on December 30, 2024 by John and Paula

Our family continues to mature and prosper. As usual, we didn’t manage to get everyone in same place at the same time for a consolidated group picture, but we spent time with everybody both in Florida and Virginia. Stephen and family are in Oviedo, Florida. Matt and family are in Alexandria, Virginia. Danielle is in Charlottesville, Virginia.

**Thanksgiving in Alexandria, Virginia**

We had all four grandchildren with us in Florida for two weeks in June. Their parents were going out of the country, separately, and didn’t think we could handle all four at the same time. But they left anyway. John had great faith in Paula, and it worked out well.

Our Family 2023

Posted on December 30, 2023 by John and Paula

The family continues to mature and prosper. We didn’t manage to get everyone in the same place at the same time this year for a group picture, but we got to spend time with everybody both in Florida and Virginia.

**Christmas in Winter Springs:** **John, Bill, Paula, Leon, Danielle, Julian, Tanja, Lee, Stephen**

**Matt, Stephanie, Ben and Jack in New Smyrna Beach, Florida**

**Danielle and Abby on the Monticello Trail in Virginia**

**With Leon and Julian at Blue Springs on the St. Johns River**

**Having fun with grandsons Jack and Ben**

Visitors and Visits 2023

Posted on December 15, 2023 by John and Paula

We are always pleased to have visitors, and John’s cousin Kathy and her husband Roy were the first in 2023 to visit us in New Smyrna Beach in January.

**Kathy and Roy** **at New Smyrna Beach**

The OFD (Originally from Dorchester) Gang that Paula grew up with visited in May.

Yui, our friend from Japan, her husband Martin and their daughter Mia visited in July.

**Martin, Mia and Yui at New Smyrna Beach**

We visited Colorado Springs in February to share memories and family stories with John’s cousin Paula and her husband Frank. We also saw John’s cousin Terri and her husband Howard. Sadly, Colorado Paula passed away later in the Spring. We miss her.

**Colorado Paula, John and Frank documenting family history in Colorado Springs**

Other visits we made included Rotunda West to see Bill and Lee as well as March and August road-trips to Virginia. On the March road-trip we stopped in Wilmington to see Janet and Ben. While we were in the DC area in March we visited Mt. Vernon with Matt and his Army buddy Scott and Scott’s family.

And we visited Florida Paula’s cousins Leslie and Pam in Bristol, UK later in July.

**Leslie, Paula and Pam in Bristol, UK**

Boston at Thanksgiving 2023

Posted on November 30, 2023 by John and Paula

We went with Leon and Julian to Boston for several days around Thanksgiving to explore history and see family. They were great travelling companions. The history included Plymouth, Lexington, Concord and the Freedom Trail in Boston. Julian is into robotics and was interested in MIT, so we spent a day there exploring the MIT Museum, Doc Edgerton’s Strobe Alley and the student activity, living and athletic facilities, joined by John’s roommate (1967-1969) Jesse and his wife Bonnie. We saw John’s nephew Scott and his sons Ryan and Alex at Dave & Busters and joined Paula’s family at Dan and Tina’s house in Shrewsbury for Thanksgiving dinner.

**At Plymouth, site of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, with Mayflower II in the background**

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Cornwall and John’s Ancestors 2023

Posted on July 31, 2023 by John and Paula

In July we met Kathy and Roy and spent 6 days hiking on the Cornish Coastal Path, which runs all the way around the edges of Cornwall, hugging the cliffs and inlets of the coast. Lots of up and down hiking, but the scenery and the hospitality were outstanding. This was our kind of hiking, active during the day traversing between 5-star hotels and inns with local Backroads “Active Adventure” guides. Cornwall is also very significant to John and Kathy since it is the origin of Rosevear and Williams ancestors on their grandmother’s side, who came to the US in the mid-19th century.

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After the organized hiking adventure, which had touched on some of the areas where John and Kathy’s ancestors originated, we stayed a few more days to explore in more detail. We found evidence of our ancestors going back 6 generations to the 18th Century.

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Lowes, Hiking and Day-Drinking in Charlottesville

Posted on December 25, 2022 by John and Paula

Danielle moved across the country to Charlottesville this year and moved into her new house in late November. We spent a couple of days there at Thanksgiving and came back for 10 days at Christmas. She got a running account at Lowes, which we made liberal use of for a range of projects.

Since we were there for 10 days at Christmas, though, it was necessary to entertain us with more than new home projects. She asked the locals what they recommended for activities. The first thing they asked was whether her parents drank. After she replied in the affirmative, they said “Oh, good, otherwise I wouldn’t know what to recommend.” Seems that Charlottesville has over 40 wineries, and dozens of breweries, cideries and meaderies. Thomas Jefferson takes the blame, for trying to establish a wine business able to compete with France a couple of hundred years ago. The Monticello Wine Trail is the thing now.

Outdoor dining facilities for December in Virginia at Veritas Vineyard & Winery

Hiking the dog-friendly trails at Foxhaven Farms

Our Family 2022

Posted on November 30, 2022 by John and Paula

Stephen, Tanja, Leon and Julian live near-by and we can get together regularly. Notable this year was the new tradition of “battle eggs” at Easter. Playing on Roger’s toys was also a hit.

Matt, Stephanie, Ben and Jackson visited us in the Spring and Summer. We went there for Thanksgiving. We also got to see Sandy, Sara, Hannah and Hobbs at Thanksgiving.

Danielle and Abby spent October with us in Central Florida, and we visited them in Virginia in November.

The four grandkids got together in the Summer.

We celebrated Grammy’s 2022 Birthday with an Ice Cream Tribute in Oviedo.

Boston 2022

Posted on May 30, 2022 by John and Paula

We made three trips to Boston this year. One was for John’s long-delayed MIT Class of 1970 50th reunion, that finally took place in-person in year 52. The other two were for weddings of Paula’s nieces and nephews.

At the MIT Reunion in May, the events were largely outdoors for safety, in tents for each class. We spent time with Jesse, Bonnie, Willie and Marti. We got to visit “Strobe Alley” where John learned from Doc Edgerton (inventor of the strobe light). And John got to wear his cardinal and grey reunion outfit and participate in the esteemed “march of the geezers” in the “Great Court” as part of the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2022.

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The nieces and nephews are continuing to marry. This year Dan and Katherine got married in Rockport in September, and Brianna and Jonathan got married in Boston in October. After the wedding in October, we went with Steve and Lucy to Ted and Mary’s new house in Newport, Rhode Island for a couple of days until Ian beckoned us back to Florida to put up hurricane shutters.

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Our Family 2021

Posted on December 30, 2021 by John and Paula

Since Stephen, Tanja, Leon and Julian live nearby, we got to see them regularly at home and at the beach.

Matt, Stephanie and Ben visited Florida in April and July. We went to DC in March and December. Ben got to see the elf house that he had seen so many times via Facetime in 2020, and he also got to see the rope swing on the creek down underneath the railroad bridge where his dad spent some time many years ago. Their family expanded in December with the arrival of Jackson. See “DC for Christmas 2021” for more on Jackson.

We visited with Danielle in California in June and in DC in December.

We made one trip to New England this year, in October, for the wedding of Paula’s nephew “little Timmy”. He is the son of Linda and Paula’s brother Tim, and he married Sherri. It was a great celebration and was an opportunity to see many of Paula’s family who we had not seen since the onset of Covid.

DC for Christmas 2021

Posted on December 29, 2021 by John and Paula

We spent three and a half weeks in DC in December and early January. In addition to the normal holidays of Christmas, New Year and John’s birthday, this trip included the birth of Jackson to Matt and Stephanie. Danielle also joined us from San Diego.