Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Favorite Moments from 2009











It's been quite a year for us this past year and we have enjoyed a few milestones. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the past year! I hope you enjoy them too.

We wish you a joyous holiday season filled with family, friends, love and hope.
From our family to yours,
Tom,Dianne, Matthew,Justin, and Chandler

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Justin and Tom's Excellent Adventure

Justin left for school last week. He and Samantha packed all his stuff into his car, and there was still room left!

Neal wanted to go too. "I'll drive the first leg" he said.
And off they go! They left Strafford at 9am Wednesday and arrived in Tuscaloosa, AL at 6:15pm EDT Thursday.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Bama Bound!

Justin and I attended Orientation at U of Alabama last week, and I have to say, the boy chose well! It's an absolutely beautiful campus and there is tremendous spirit and pride there. I'll share a few snapshots with you but I did not do the school justice.

This is the Student Recreation Center. This is about a quarter of the building. It has 100+ cardio machines, 100+ weight machines, an indoor lap pool, an outdoor pool with a water slide (think Water Country) and a lazy river, 8 full size basketball courts, a climbing wall, etc., etc.
This is looking across "The Quad". Again, this only represents a fraction of it's size. We are standing on Capstone Dr facing University Bld. For refernece, the Football Stadium is about a half-mile ahead and to the right.

Home Sweet Home :-) This is Paty Hall where Justin will live. Coincidentally it also houses the package delivery center, so he will only need to go downstairs to collect his care packages. Unless we use USPS. In that case he will have to go to the Student Center where there is a full fledged and service US Post Office!

This is the main entrance of Shelby Hall which houses the School of Engineering. I was able to go with him to meet a representative from Engineering to begin course selection for the fall. The lecture room we were in was very up to date, and intimate enough to encourage discussion in class.
The visit was fantastic. He's excited for his future. I can't believe he leaves in two weeks!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Slip Sliding Away

Look out below!


Wheeee!!!


Strikin' a pose


Geronimo!

This is what summer vacation is supposed to be! Friends and Fun!

Here are the details on the Supertronic Slip-N-Slide 2009..... A 3' X 50' piece of plastic from Home Depot, rocks from the yard to anchor the ends, the hill at my house and the garden hose from the garage because Mr. Peterson HAD to have a hot water spicket too to wash cars year round, and a little dish soap to really get things moving. Add it all together and it equals BIG FUN!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

NHYLA Festival






NHYLA had it's annual year end festival this past weekend. All the youth teams from NH are invited to participate and put into brackets of teams with similar win/loss records. Chandler's team lost every regular season game. Some were close, others not so much. So it was AWESOME that they won BOTH of their games in the festival. Even more impressive is that they were the only team to play their games back to back and they had 5 minutes between games to change fields! Hard work and a "Can Do" attitude really do pay off.

Did I mention that it was also World Wide Knit in Public Day? (No, I did not make that up, it truly exists) Guess what I was doing during the games?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Justin's Graduation Party





This weekend we celebrated Justin's graduation from High School. It was a great day filled with lots of friends and family. Thank you to everyone who shared it with us!

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Fun Times in the Backyard



It's all fun and games until you want to come in the house and Mom makes you have a bath! But I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
Luv, Emma

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Monday, May 11, 2009

Justin's Prom



Justin and Samantha went to the Prom Saturday night. It was at the Grappone Center in Concord and was a complete evening with dinner and dancing. They had a great time!



On the cheek smooches so they don't share mono. Yikes!



Doesn't he look handsome?

Thursday, April 23, 2009

In which my kids can still amaze me

Strafford School held a Science Fair last week and all the 7th & 8th grade students were required to participate. I was prepared for a "poke my eyes out" experience but in fact was amazed at the thought, creativity and execution of the many experiments. Chandler and his friend Jeremy collected hockey sticks from their various hockey playing friends and devised a way to test flex vs. accuracy. Some of the other experiments included training chickens, does ice cube shape affect how fast it melts, is Orville Redenbacher popcorn worth the extra cost vs store brand kernals, do male horses and female horses react differently to the same stimuli? There were rockets and catapults, and electromagnets. The best part though was seeing the kids with their projects. Most of the projects had a connection to a personal or family interest and it was so much fun to see how proud they were to share their interests. It turned out to be a very fun evening!
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Another Season in the Net


Another season has come to an end.



It was a good one for Chandler.



They made it into the playoffs and advanced to the semi-final round.



Although they lost 2-0 in the semi-final game, Chandler finished incredibly strong with 35 saves on 37 shots for a save percentage of 95%. Not too shabby.



This was a great group of kids and a great group of parents that we got to spend the hockey season with. We owe a huge thank you to Chandler's coaches. Not only did they donate hours of their time for these kids, they were all tremendous mentors as well. It's a tough job to teach kids to win and lose with grace and dignity. Not only did they do that, every kid on the team left with new skills and confidence.

Great job this year Chandler! We're proud of you!