Amazon Pictures (2nd Group)

More Amazon pictures with Dad's commentary:

"These two are of the school house and the teacher. He wanted to accomodate us inside the building and was in process of setting up some old school desks with us assisting. Suddenly, I noticed our people and even the natives shooing something out of their hair. I did not hear them but was told we had disturbed a nest of wasps in the school room. After a while I was the only one left with the school teacher and our native guide seen on the left. I wonder, why I never heard the mosquitos that bit me! More later."

Village school house.

"We paid a surprise visit to this village of the Ribereños (River people). The children came running out of the rain forest to greet us. The mother always walks around with a machete for protection against the anaconda snakes and to cut through the forest to get at fruit trees. All are barefoot. More on these people later. "

Rain forest children.

Amazon Pictures (Peru)

As most of you know, this spring Dad went to Peru so he could travel down the Amazon River. He has begun to send pictures for me to post so I'll be posting them as I get them along with any descriptions he sends. In this first picture, he is standing with a village shaman and his assistant. Although most of the indians have adopted more modern dress, the shaman wears the traditional indian clothing.

From Dad: "Our group chipped in to buy supplies for the school. It was a surprise at that village with all the children. The teacher had just been assigned to the school and did not have enough supplies to go around to all the kids. He wept for joy when he saw what we had unexpectedly brought. Our group leader saw this village and asked for permission to show us around. He was a Ribereño from down state and did not know this village. The teacher said we were sent by God. Our leader also gave the village elders machetes and bags of rock salt since they have no refrigeration. I'll send other pix of the interior of the school and the teacher."

Village school room.

River village with school.

Again from Dad: "The Amazon River Barge has 12 air-cond. staterooms with pvt bath, a covered open deck with bar, and a beautiful air cond dining rm with silver and table cloths. It drags a steel motor launch that can go into the tributaries deep in the rain forest. We were able to get close to the natives. On one occasion, our group leader asked me as a Spanish speaking ambassador to accompanying him, with one of the ladies from our group, to visit a village to invite some natives to come aboard for a tour and to meet the passengers. One of the pictures includes the Mayor of the village with his family in my stateroom. They loved the ship. The mayor said they always wave to the ship but had never been aboard."

Tropical rain from barge.

Rosana's pinning ceremony

Here are a couple of pictures from Rosana's nurse pinning ceremony for those who were not able to come to it. These are the best we have from the actual ceremony.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 51st Birthday, Dad!

(Otherwise known as Peter or Uncle Peter to some of you)

I love you!

Happy Anniversary!

May 22, 1982

Spring 2007 I love you, Dad and Mom!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Grandma! I love you!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Happy "Sweet Sixteen"th birthday, Amanda! I hope it is wonderful!

Happy birthday, Rene!

Happy 14th birthday, Rene!! I love you!
(You might recognize the cake ;) )

Happy Birthday!

Happy 7th birthday, Meghan! (Sorry there are only six candles visible; there were more than that on the original cake, though.)
(The title of the blog is "Family News and Notes," so this is a family "note." =))

Cave man

Come one, come all, to the Mark Twain Cave at Hannibal, Missouri! Our very own Peter will be guiding tours this summer! (Sorry. Only immediate family gets a discount. >:( Too bad.)

Square Dance Caller

Just a note to let everyone know that the couple who did the square dance calling for us were in a pretty serious car accident this past Tuesday and got pretty banged up. They slid on ice on highway 63 south of Macon, ran off the road, and hit a tree head on. Debbie's youngest son was with them and was the most seriously injured. He's still in the hospital in Columbia. He had surgery and is recovering.

Remembering

We just wanted to let everyone know to be looking for a very special package in the mail later this week.  Hope everyone is doing well and having a nice winter.  It was so much fun to see everyone in the same place at the Lebron family reunion!  We love you all and hope you enjoy your special delivery!  Blessings to you all!

Prayer request

Hello everyone! Charity wrote me and asked me to pass on a prayer request for her mother.

Charity said, "My mom is having trouble with her heart. She will be having an angioplasty with in the next few days to determine the problem and course of action. This is another thing on top of a long line of things that have gone wrong with her health in the last few years. Please pray for her and send this on to the rest of the family for me as I am not yet on the blog."

Thank you!

Cousins are great--all over again!

When the Lebrón family got together at Thanksgiving 2003, someone took a picture of Preciosa and Rene that was called "Cousins are Great!" This time around, the two of them asked me to take a "four years later" picture of them. So, here it is, along with the original. =)

And a good time was had by all

Hey, gang. Wasn’t that a great weekend? We had a marvelous time. A big Thank you!!! to

• David and Deann for hosting the hordes;
• Terri for the planning;
• Dad and Mom for being there and paying for motel rooms and breakfast;
• the women folk for the great desserts (and other food);
• the children (of all ages) for being so well behaved;
• Mike Cleary for taking the pictures and initiating the ice scraping;
• anyone else we may have missed for whatever you did to make it a wonderful time!!!

Let’s do it again sometime (only in warmer weather as several have mentioned).

Group Pictures

Someone asked if there are going to be any group pictures taken this weekend, and if so, when. We thought that the best time for group pictures might be the Friday night square dance because we will all be together in a large room. We've asked Mike Cleary to take a few group pictures, but he'll only use his digital camera. Instead of trying to take pictures using a stack of everyone's cameras we'll make the group pictures taken with his one camera available on CD disk before the end of the weekend.

Other than that, we figure there will be several folks roaming around with their cameras catching various individual and more candid pictures throughout the weekend. If the cameras are digital we can find a way to share the various pictures later.

Possible Activities

I made some calls around to find some possible activities for young and old during our time together (besides the Friday night square dance, that is).

In the motel lobby there is a "heated" pool. The pool has a gate around it so the toddlers won't be able to get near the water on their own. Also in the lobby there are 2-3 pool tables that cost $0.75 a game.

Called the local bowling alley/skating rink:
Bowling cost $1.75 for shoe rentals and $3.25 per person, per game. He told me there are no leagues on Friday or Saturday so there should be open lanes.

The skating rink is no longer available for "open" skating. They only open in the afternoon by reservation. The cost for that is $70. I didn't ask about skate rentals.

David and Deann will keep the fireplace going in their living room. There is room in their living, dining and family room for visiting and board games. We'll also try to keep them stocked with enough tea bags, cocoa mix, and coffee for warm drinks.

Reunion Meals

Here are our menu plans for the family reunion. The main dishes will be provided by the Kirksville Kellys. For everyone else we only ask that you provide sandwich bread and chips for lunch Friday and Saturday, and hamburger buns and chips for supper Saturday night. Also, if any of you would like to bring any snacks or desserts to share with everyone, that would be great! Questions or comments?

Thursday-

Supper: There will be a pot or two of soup simmering at David and Deann's on Thursday evening for those who are traveling and have not yet had any supper. It's kind of an open house supper meal, so you might want to check in at the motel first and then head over. Please bring bread, rolls, or crackers if you would like to have some.

Friday-

Breakfast: Those staying in homes will eat with their host families while those staying at the motel will need to provide their own. (Later note: I called and they have a free continental breakfast on Friday mornings.)

Lunch: Sandwiches and chips. There will be lunch meats and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. (Peter will be bringing some ham to add to our lunch meats.) Please bring bread and chips.

Square Dance Supper 5:30:
We will have a pizza supper out at the Noes’ machine shed before the square dance. We will provide the pizza and simple drinks. If you have soda preferences, bring your own and enough to share.

Saturday-

Breakfast: Those staying in homes will eat with their host families while those staying at the motel will need to provide their own. (Later note: I found out they offer a breakfast buffet for $6.99.)

Lunch: Sandwiches and chips. There will be lunch meats and cheese, peanut butter and jelly. (Peter will be bringing some ham to add to our lunch meats.) Please bring bread and chips.

Supper: Mike Cleary, Jim’s cousin, is donating a gift card that he was given to Western’s Meat Market, so we will be having barbecued pork sandwiches, beans, potato salad, and chips. Please bring buns for the pork sandwiches, and chips.

Sunday-

Breakfast will be the same as Saturday.

Lunch: Fellowship meal after the Sunday meeting.

Reunion Items Coming Soon!

We're home from Arizona now and I plan to do some menu research tomorrow. On Tuesday, the Kirksville "host families" will get together to work out the meal plans together. We'll put together an outline and post it here soon after.

I also will be calling the local bowling alley/skating rink to check with them on how much it would cost to skate or go bowling sometime on Friday or Saturday. I'll post the prices in case any of you might be interested, so save your pennies.

Stay tuned...

George Washington Ball

Here are some pictures from the Christian Home Eductors Fellowship ball in St Louis, on December 1. Most of Jim's, Michael's, and Peter's families were there.

We don't know who the little boy was who “danced” with Tavanaa, but they were cute together.

Preciosa is shown dancing with a boy who goes to the same church as Jim's family.