WATTOS.NET NEWS
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Rockes in Melbourne |
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Breaking news! Katie and Hannah Rocke connected with the relatives during their visit to Melbourne. Katie and Hannah stayed with Lisa and Joe for 2 nights got to know their 2nd cousins once removed a little better! They also caught up with the Porters and Mum and Dad. So glad you were able to visit ladies!
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Terence Morrow |
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As you have all heard by now Terence passed away last week. It is sad to see another Morrow brother lost. I personally have many fond memories of Terence and thoroughly enjoyed all the time I spent with him. He certainly was the closest in appearance and many personality traits to my Dad. I loved to talk cricket and rugby with him and especially Cabin Hill days and your man Jago! One Sunday afternoon spent at Terence and Pat's in 1999 with my Dad and loads of other relatives was one of the funniest days I have ever had. Sadly we were not able to visit Pat and their wonderful house this trip as poor Pat had the flu, we really missed seeing you Pat. Our thoughts are with Pat, Jess, Kevin, Mel and the rest of the family.
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09 Goings on |
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G,day again to everybody. I took a look at the last time I wrote here and it was February of this year! Now that is a while ago and a lot of water under the bridge since then not to mention probably more hairs on my head. I am sure I have lost a considerable amount since! Bridie was only 9 months old then and she has doubled her age now. Anyway I will try and keep it somewhat short as I have been known to carry on in my time. In May and June of this year we had visit from the Porter's. Was sensational to have them here and show them around lovely Clarkdale/Cottonwood area. We had loads of fun with a tinge of the funny guts to go with it. We drove up and met the Porter's in lovely Las Vegas. Was only 40 degrees or so there so pleasant temps indeed. We wandered up and down the strip and spent some time in the lazy river at our hotel. Then a trip to the factory outlets was in order before heading home. Ciaran started the whole funny guts thing but it Cathy the hardest and she was laid low for at least 3 days. No way to spend your holiday and we were feeling awful for her. We did the tourist things like going to Sedona and hiking and trips to more factory outlets. Gordy did the rounds of the car dealerships as he continues his dream to import a Corvette to Australia. He has since added Bobcats to that list. The drivable kind not the furry kind. Had a great night at the local cowboy show and before you knew it their time was up! Certainly was great to have them here and we appreciate them coming. Next in the year was a trip for us to see our very good mates in Rochester, NY. I had to take at least 10 days off in the summer so we thought we would head out there. We flew to Toronto and then drove down. They have 15 acres of greenery and we had a wonderful time there as well and was difficult to leave! We managed to sneak in a trip to Niagara falls and really felt I was in India and not the USA or Canada. There was so much to do for the kids and a whole lot better than getting baked in the hot Arizona sun. Next was a trip over to England and then onto Northern Ireland to see the rellies. No shortage of them obviously! Our boys did quite well remembering where some of them fit in which is no mean task. We spent the first 3 days in Windsor and headed off to Legoland the day after arriving. Had a superb time there and it was pretty quiet so no lines for rides. Can't beat that because I don't do well when I have to wait in lines for small children rides or any rides for that matter. Not sure how standing in line for hours on end for a 90 second ride makes any sense at all! After that we went and had a cuppa with Tarek and Greta. Was great to meet them as much had happened since I last saw Mel. From "I am not getting married" to married with a wee one and another on the way! We managed to catch up with Mel the next day for breakfast before heading off to Norfolk where we spent a week at our church convention. We drove back to Heathrow and miraculously found the rental car agency without getting lost. Off to Belfast where Eileen and Hugh had kindly given up their house for us. But really do you blame them? A family of 5 with 3 little wipper snappers invading your space. We were very grateful to them for doing that. It was great to have a social secretary while in Belfast organizing all kinds of lunches, dinners and outings. If any of you visit there I can highly recommend using Eileen to co-ordinate your stay. Of course the most popular and practically only destination for the kids was the farm. So off we went on the first day and nearly every day after that. It was so great to be able to take the kids there and hopefully plant the seed for them so they keep the connection going. It was also wonderful to show them the place where their Pa spent a lot of time in his youth. Pa and the lads will be able to chat about Ireland now! So went to the farm a few times and the kids absolutely loved it as expected. They certainly did not want to be sitting around sipping cups of tea with relatives. We really enjoyed catching up with all the Morrows up at the farm and thank them for looking after us. I did the usual walk around the Gilnahirk church graveyard and found all the relevant gravestones. I took the boys with me and they seemed to enjoy looking at their name on a piece of stone. Addie joined me and gave me another superb history lesson. The man really is astonishing with all the knowledge in his head. I thoroughly enjoy talking to him and look forward to it each time I visit. We did have a delightful day with Addie and Nancy down at some wetlands where there are all sorts of birds everywhere. Kids loved feeding them and hearing all their different sounds. Also took a trip down to Mahee island and it never ceases to amaze me the history on that island. The remains of a monastery which was built in 493 is there. Hard to wrap you head around that when you come from Australia where the white man has only been for 200 years! On the penultimate day we caught up with Martha and her 2 beautiful little girls, Maeve and Erin. The boys had a ball playing with them at an indoor playground and then we were treated to a lovely lunch at Heather and Alastair's and more playing. Maybe those kids know they are related even if they are 3rd cousins! That night Eileen and Hugh once again went above and beyond and offered to watch our kids while we enjoyed a dinner party at the Rockes. Another superb meal and more chatting to every body. Really was treat to have a night out without the little ones. So another wonderful visit to N.I. came to an end. Hard to believe it had been 10 years sine Pam and I last visited but that is the great thing about going there. You just pick right up where you left off last time. Who knows when we will be there again?? Pics of our trip can be seen at http://wattos.net/Albums/WattosAz/Eng_IrelandOct09/
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More kidlets |
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Yet another birth announcement. This time Mum's side of the family in Oz. Cousin Tim and his wife Nicole are proud parents of a new baby boy. What else hey? Luka James Friend was born on at 5.50 p.m. on Friday January 30th, 2009, he weighed 7lb. 15 oz, 50 cm long, head circumference 34 cm. A hearty congrats to the Friend family. Wonderful, wonderful news and look forward to hearing more about him. P.S. Good to see I still hold the mantel of the father of the only girl!
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Bit and pieces |
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Our life continues to be filled with so much joy with Bridie around. She really is a wonderful baby and we are so grateful to have a baby girl. Very different feelings having a girl than boys!! She started to crawl this week so that is very exciting for her. I kind of like her staying put actually! Anyway we had a superb trip to Oz in October. Bridie was the star of the show of course and had a bout 3000 pics taken of her. Mainly by Cathy and Seán! They took some sensational pics and some of them are in the Wattos Az section of the gallery. The boys had a great time with all their cousins! We had some great family friends of ours make the trip with us. Tim and Katie and their 3 girls braved the trip down under and lived to tell the tale. We had many laughs and are so glad they come with us. James and Lisa came over from Tassie for the last few days of our trip and we are very grateful they did. Always great to see them when we are home. Pam, Declan and Bridie stayed an extra week after Patrick and I left. Thought Mum and Dad would like to spend some extra time with their one and only! Pics will be uploaded soon from the trip. In the meantime here are some recent pics of the kids: http://wattos.net/Albums/WattosAz/PhotoSessionJan09/ Nothing much else to report form over this way and would love to hear some news from others!!
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Happy News! Ashley Alastair arrives! |
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So here is the happy news! It was lovely to receive the news about the safe arrival of Ashley Alastair Lewis. Below is the email Simon sent out not long after the big event! "Gilli, Nancy and I are thrilled to announce the happy arrival of a baby boy. Born at 9:15pm on Jan 21. He's to be called Ashley Alastair (Lewis). He weighted in at 4.160kg (9lb 3ozs), and seems to be in fine shape. Gilli is in pretty good shape as well, having managed the whole birthing thing herself without any extra medical help. It was a water birth, with no other pain relief than the hot water. We hadn't specially planned that but Gilli seemed to feel pretty good having got to into the water, so she just stayed there. It worked out really well. I've attached a few photos. I daresay there will be many many more to choose from in a few days." I have uploaded the pics Simon sent to the Gallery page. Follow this link: http://wattos.net/Albums/NornIron1/PicsFromGilli/Ashley/index.html So a big hearty congrats and cheers to you all! Look forward to the day when we can all meet up!
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Not so good news... |
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G,day all. Been a bit slack on the updates as usual but the family life takes up some time especially when there is a new princess in the house. This post is the not so good news that has been happening within the family. Firstly right before Xmas this year Dad suffered a heart attack. he was off at the beach on the annual trip with the fam when he had some discomfort in his arm and also chest. Mum took him into the local hospital who ran some tests and then they shipped him off to Melbourne. He was very fortunate to be able to get into one of the best cardiac care hospitals in Melbourne. There he was seen and underwent an angiogram. During the angiogram they placed a stent in one of dad's coronary arteries. He was told that the blood flowing through that area was down to a trickle. I spoke to Dad just after he came out of the procedure and I must say it was a bit distressing. he was very uncomfortable and tired. Never heard hi like that before. He receovered well from the procedure and spent a couple of days in hospital. He was then able to go home and has been able to gradually ease back into things. He visited the doc last week and he was very pleased with him. Seems like the Watson side of the family is unfortunate to have heart trouble running through it. Looks like my generation has that to look forward to. I spoken to Dad lots sine he came out of the hospital and he sounds back to normal. He is definitely fitter now than before all this business so he should be out rolling his arm over with the grand kids or kicking a few goals before too long. Now to the sad news within the family. Unfortunately John Morrow passed away on New Year's Eve this year. The message below came from Eileen: "John died last night in his sleep. He was at Addie & Nancy's for New Year with the rest of us but he was looking very ill with some bug which is doing the rounds & has many people laid low. Alison & Duncan decided they should go home with John & stay the night ---later he died in his sleep." Very sad news and our condolences are with all the family over there. I was fortunate to meet both John and Shirley when they visited Australia a number of years ago and I am very happy I did. I am sure he will missed by all that knew and loved him. If anyone would like to write a few words about John and add them here then let me know.
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Deanne on the move |
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More news from the Latham clan in Australia. For those foreigners reading these posts this Mum's side of the family in Melbourne. It includes the Friend's and Latham's. Cousin Deanne has been offered a a good job with the ANZ bank in Sydney so she is up and moving back! Deanne has lived there previously and is heading back for another go. A farewell party is planned for August 17th and we wish Deanne all the best in the new venture.
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Another baby! |
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Well I must apologise for not posting this sooner! No excuses really excpet I have benn wrapped up with my dear little girl. Cousin Carolyn gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Yes another boy joins the Aussie crowd. Benjamin Charles Potter Friend arrived at 6.50 a.m on the 4th July. The U.S.A celebrated with parades and fireworks!! He was 6lb 7oz and nobody told me the length! Very exciting for the Great Aunt Mal and Great Uncle Dave as now they have 2 grandsons! Congrats to every one!
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Sean P, Brooks & Beaulieu's visit |
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Need to get this posted while it is fresh in my mind. The first visitor we had from Oz was none other than Sean Porter himself. He came over to Oregon for a summer camp and then came and stayed with us for a couple of weeks. Was super that he was able to visit because he had not been to Az since he was 2. He is tad taller than he was then and won't be long before he catches me I reckon. Picked him up from the airport and then took him shopping and then the first drama occurred. Left his wallet on the plane! Not a good start mate. Anyway after canceling everything a couple of days later we tracked it down! Then off to home and Pam asked him for his washing. Mind you he had just been to camp! He produces 2 pairs of jocks and a shirt! Not sure what he was doing at camp but he must have kept very clean! Hmmm. We had a fun week, did some riding, geocaching and the boys and Pam went to see Wall.E. Sean spent most of his time on the computer keeping up with all his mates and flames from camp. Had to extract him from it for food. Poor kid got sick on the weekend with a tummy bug and it wasn't pretty. Will leave that one alone but Gordy owes me $110 for a bill incurred! All in all we had a great visit with Sean and he was great help around the place. He spent some quality time with his new girly cousin Bridie and they had some lovely chats. Then it was time for another visit to Az for the Brooks tribe. After spending time on the east coast with Joe's family they thought they would come our way for a little queace and piet. Anything would be queace and piet after hanging out with Joe's clan. They stayed with us for a week and of course we had a great time as usual. The kids played and played and played. Joe and Sean tried to get a fair bit of tennis in which was great fun in the indoor court. Gotta love it when your father-in-law buys a house with an indoor tennis court! Auntie Lisa and Auntie Pam did some shopping here and there and tried to escape from smaller beings as much as possible. While the Brooks were here some long lost relatives from Alberta way decided they would come down to the hot country. We are so glad they did because we had a blast. Our cousin Eileen Beaulieu (Condy) and her husband Ron flew down for a few days while Lisa was in town. Auntie Pat thought it was time Eileen spent some time with the "good" kids. I had not seen Eileen for 28 years and it was like we had seen each other last week. It really was great to see them and we appreciate them making the effort to come down and visit. That is the great thing with family you can pick right up as if you have spent loads of time together. We just needed to bridge the gap and get together and all is good. So glad that has happened now. We had some great laughs and of course poked fun at our Dad and Eileen's Mum. No worries Dad and Auntie Pat! Now I had threatened to turn this into a report about Eileen's behaviour while visiting here but I think her Mum would be mortified if I did that. So you are safe for now Eileen. We were all able to talk to Maureen, Auntie Pat and the kids on Skype which was great. We went to Sedona one day with everyone and hung out in a beautiful park. Had a great picnic and snapped some cousin pics and played some mini-golf. Really was very pleasant. On the Friday we headed up to Pam's parent's property in the pines. After complaining how hot it was at our place Eileen and Ron were complaining about the cold up there! It was only a hour away but quite the temperature change. Some people are never happy. It is lovely up there and we hung out and had a barbie followed by a good session around the fire. Eileen made up some stories about our grandparents in India and we had to call in the adjudicator, Auntie Pat, to clarify some information. COME ON EILEEN! Was a great night and the Beaulieu's headed off to Flagstaff to spend the night and visit the grand canyon the next day. The Brooks and Watson's hung out and did some walking and eating and general hanging around. Then on Sunday we got the ATV's out and had a bit of ride around the woods. They don't think the kids liked them at all! (Sarcasm) Sam Brooks would not stop nagging me for a ride so finally had to shut him up and take him. That eased the pain! We were sad to say goodbye to Ron and Eileen and we packed up and headed back to the hot country. Next day it was time to head to Phx and say farewell to the Brooks and Seanie. That was quite the effort believe me. Had to borrow a gas guzzling yank tank from a mate that seated eight bodies. I had to go to the airport as well as I was flying out for business. We crammed in there with all the luggage and some was strategically placed hey Uncle Joe? We did make it though! It was sad to say good bye but we were all happy because it is only about 2 months until we head to Oz for 3 weeks! Sensational. Remember I was nice to you Eileen!
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