Family and Friends in New England

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We had a rare family reunion of sorts last weekend in Gloucester MA. My two brothers and I were able to be together with my dad, a very special time for us all. My brothers, from left, Fred, of the Philadelphia area, and Brackley, from Las Vegas, and I with my dad who celebrated his 89th birthday in June. We were all in Gloucester to celebrate my sister-in-law, Heidi's, birthday, a great excuse for a party.

Here are our youngest daughter Cassie (left), and her partner, Alana, posing in front of one of Cassie's self portraits in their apartment in Providence. We will be retuning to see them again in Preovidence on our way home.

Here is Pixie posing with her siblings at a family BBQ last Sunday: from left, Vance, Tex, and Liana. Her other borhter, Rick, was not there.

Here I am posing with our neice Jan ( Tex's daughter) who will continue the family tradition of attending Brown University in the fall. She received an almost full scholarship to Brown and, at this point hopes to study history. I am very proud of her!

Here my cousin Sally poses with my Aunt Mary, my dad's big sister, at the Gloucester BBQ, who celebrated her 94th birthday this week. She still calls my dad her "baby brother."

Here we have my neice Ariana (left, Brackley's daughter) and Loren, her friend form Tel Aviv, hamming it up before for the camera. Ariana produces a weekly television show, "Taylor Thursday" on You Tube from Las Vegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkE5aHbui48

We had a long-awaited reunion of our gourmet dinner group. With us, this is three quarters of the group: from left, Betty, Gene, Kathy and Doug, and their new additon Zephyr. Both we're hoping they make it to Jalisco for a visit next winter.

Lst Saturday, we met up with our two good frineds from our old UU congregation, Mary Kay and Claire, and went to one of the free LL Bean free concerts last Saturday. The band was Blues Traveler, and the company was wonderful. They hope to visit us next year as well.

We will be visiting in Maine until next Friday, August 14, then head down to Providence for another visit with Cassie and Alana, and on to Muncie for another visit with Eric, Crystal, and Isabelle, before the long drive back to Mexico. It has been wonderful to see everyone and demonstrate that we are both fine, and to confirm that our friends and family are still intact. It has finally stopped raining in Maine (for now) and we are able to enjoy the summer Maine is famous for. We has lobster the other day ($4.99 a pound) and Heidi cooked steamed clams for us in Gloucester. We will soon be back in our home in Mexico, resuming our life there. Thanks to everyone here for their generous hospitality and love!