2 days in New Orleans is enough

Kay and I spent two days in New Orleans so he could buy some more property.  Honestly, I think he has enough but I accompanied him on the trip.  The property was being sold by HUD, Department of housing and urban development and the property had no stipulations.  All his other properties bought from HUD had stipulations…. i.e. keep it low income for 20 years, fix roofs etc.  We got off the plane and drove directly there.  All he had to go by was a picture, google earth and no one would answer his phone calls or emails so we drove to the property and found they had used a pre-Katrina photo and didn’t mention some major problems. Kay went to the auction and talked the only guy bidding into lowering his bid from 50,000 dollars to one dollar.  Even Kay, who is known for buying ridiculous stuff wouldn’t touch this one (and doing well with them).  I was glad to know he has his limits.  We did get to the New Orleans school of cooking  (Kay went with me for my birthday) and the WWII museum and went to Omaha a day early.

Winter Quarters trail Center with Cousins

Jenna and Joseph, the moms: Christina and Rachael

Chappell Children: Aaron, Jenna, Sean, Ethan

Ethan, Graham, Eldon

counting how many times the wagon wheel goes around

Jim and Christina (my sister) McClure family- Eldon, Spencer, Graham and baby Joseph



Can a family actually all fit in one of these bunks going across the Atlantic- We are going to try.....


My sister and her husband Jim and Christina McClure drove though Omaha on their way to move to the Boston Area. We met up at the Trail Center- LDS church visitors center, Winter Quarters Temple.

Happy Birthday mom, Love, Frances

grandma Janae (gaga to Claire and Alice only)

mom Frances with Claire (kissing grandma) and Alice (in hot pink)- 18 months old now

Lauren’s mission call

Lauren surprised us and put in her mission papers a few weeks ago.  She is going to the Charleston West Virginia Mission from May 26, 2010 to November 2011 Her friend Ashley Erickson, recently returned from her mission gave her this must-have gift..

Washington DC trip

Kay, Janell and I (Janae) went to Washington DC for Janell’s last spring break. Our hotel was a few metro stops outside of DC in Chevelry MD… free hotel shuttle, breakfast and internet. What more can we ask for? Janell and I arrived a day before Kay and drove ourselves to George Washington’s house at Mt. Vernon. Kay arrived on Sunday so we had the whole week together. We visited and thoroughly went through The Holocaust Museum, Museums of Natural and American Historys, Air and space Museum, The White House, The Capitol, Ford Theater, where Lincoln was shot International Spy Museum,National Art museum, Union station (we had entertainment coupons to eat there). We took the hop on hop off bus for one day seeing ALL the sites in the 90 degree weather. Saturday we took the metro and bus to BWI and dropped Janell off at the airport for her flight home, she is going to San Diego this week for Band tour so I decided to stay with Kay and go to New Orleans on business and then to Omaha for a few days. We got to our Baltimore Hotel and decided to take the light rail into the city. With no plans we visited the famous waterfront, watched a pirate ship fight, visited the great Bambino’s house he was born in and a sports museum, walked to Little Italy for a bite to eat and went to the Orioles second home game of the season which they lost. Kind of a lot for a half day with no plans. I loved watching the Babe Ruth movies and learning about him.

Michael Phelps and Dorothy Hammill are Baltimoreans.

Kansas City and Omaha with grandkids

Kay and I went to the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City with out grand kids. They have a private indoor water just for registered guests. You can go for two days to the water park with a one night stay.

Seth, Ethan and Sean

Grandma Janae and Jenna

Ethan

Aaron and Rachael
Seth scoops up Aaron from the slide, Aaron keeps going and going and going.....

Omaha Zoo with Jenna, Sean and Ethan

Sean





Sean, Ethan, Jenna

2002 Olympic volunteer memories

My daughter Frances and I volunteered for the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. It was right after 9/11 so we needed to do extra training for security. Here are some picture memories:

We were assigned to the Peaks ice arena in Provo Utah. We took tickets, stood in the vomitory (French for entrance to a ampitheater, we liked the new name) , showed patrons to their seats. Smiled and smiled and smiled.

traded Olympic pins

Janae and Frances hanging out with the mascots

Frances and Janae

My home town newspaper did an article on us

Frances and Janae

Frances and I helped people exit. We were at the handicapped exit and Frances got a kick out of calling all of the guests "celebrities". Two old gentle men from Europe went to practically every game. On the final game we grabbed their arms and escorted them all the way to the street with a real celebrity flair. They loved it. We had a fabulous time. Worst memory: eating over my limit (1) of hot dogs for the year. Best memory: Sharing it all with Frances!

Our friend Steve Frisby was an Olympic torch Bearer. Steve, Janae, Kay, Janell and Caleb.