Book 33: 2012
Jan 8, 2012: the boys have spent the night and we goof around in the kitchen. Jan 10: 55ºF so it's a great day for Edgcumbe playground.
Feb 2: Jack's school (Sunny Hollow Montessori) open house; Millie Acamovic (NWAF) family; JGH home birthday party.
Mar 25: Jack O'Brien is 7 and we celebrate with a Pirate party at the Science Museum of Minnesota. (Papa and LLH have lifetime membership due to JGH's making the former museum happen in the 1970's.)
April 8: Another Easter with Mass at St Olaf followed by Minneapolis Club brunch replete with petting zoo, Easter Bunny and generous brunch.
Thelma Hunter, nieces Meagan and Tori Hoeschler join us at the Club. We retire to Edgcumbe for our annual neighborhood egg hunt in our Japanese garden.
We often watch operas with the boys: Pique Dame and Rosenkavalier. Plenty of time for peeling carrots, horseplay and dancing. Great times!
April 15: Jack O'Brien's violin recital at Augsburg. April 20 Saint John's University performance. William finger paints on the kitchen deck on May 2.
May 2: Jack and William perform at Circus Juventas where they've been taking acrobatic etc classes--great show! May 4-5, Pocantico Hills Sailing Reunion for our Viking adventurers of 2011.
The intrepid Ellen Sykes helps with the setup. We tour the Stone Barns at Blue Hill where David's mother, Peggy, established a significant farm and restaurant.
We savor beautiful bouquets at Blue Hill restaurant and enjoy walking the grounds. Jack engages with Rick Pepin, fellow lawyer from the Twin Cities.
Gorgeous Great Pyrenees guard the livestock. The party starts at the Rockefeller Playhouse.
Savoring the sculpture and views at Kykuit, and engaging in silly games!
Mother's Day weekend: we travel to Philadelphia to celebrate the Georgetown champion (undefeated, if you please!) varsity rowers who won the 1962 Dad Vail. On Saturday, May 12, the old heavies put in at St. Joe's boathouse with Tiger Sergeant reprising his coxswain role; he cautions the veterans to "row pretty, not fast" since this is a celebratory row-by!
LLH cries, as do some of us spouses, when the guys put in (well documented by Carol Blyberg). May 15-18: LLH then flies to Portland, OR for a Northwest Area Foundation Board meeting, Dinner with nephew Zach Lovas and his girlfriend.
Can't be in Portland, OR without a visit to the lovely Japanese gardens. LLH brother, Steve Lovas.
Our NWAF board meeting includes meetings with many different leaders to see and better understand local issues and programmatic solutions. LLH loves it!
LLH returns home to do a couple of loads of laundry and to set up (with Jack, of course) for Jack O'Brien's violin recital on May 19. Thelma Hunter is his fabulous accompanist and Ellen Kim, his teacher, presents him with a trophy. Well done! (Lunch follows, of course!)
Memorial Day, May 28: Games, food and snapper mamas laying eggs! Life is good.
June 2: We celebrate William's 3rd birthday (a day early). Games, food and good times!
Scavenger hunt at William's b-day party (Terry and Kristen totally manage the kids and games.).
William is determined to enjoy his loot, then the group retreats to the lake for play.
Beautiful cabin grounds and lake. Back at Edgcumbe, Papa embraces William.
June 23: Delightful Midsommar Dag at Gammelgarden in Scandia.
Song, dance, crafts and games at Gammelgarden.
Drawing and dining at the Dock Cafe in Stillwater on the St. Croix River. At Edgcumbe, Papa and the boys toast marshmallows in the yard and Jack O'B dances on the deck.
LLH and JGH travel with their "best boys" to Colorado, June 29-July 4. Leanin' Tree Museum of Western Art in Boulder (Statues were very hot from the sun...)
We visit fellow Georgetown rower, Ben Domenico, in Boulder and sup with Ira and Barb Litke at their club.
We stay in at the Niwot Inn where Jack can practice violin. Visit to nearby Celestial Seasonings. On July 1 we visit Dwight and Jean Wederquist (he is Hildur's 1st cousin) and see some of their children (Heidi had visited us when she was about 8.).
July 2: Bjorn Ranheim and Dorie Wood wed up in the Rockies. Kristen and Terry have joined us for the festivities. Judy Ranheim plays flute, of course and LLH holds music from blowing away. David Ranheim officiates.
Lovely ceremony and reception (the latter at ground level).
Papa looks especially handsome at the reception. We enjoy exploring Boulder with the boys.
July 4 at Niwot hotel: Papa reads to sleeping boys. Birthday dinner for Bianca Withers back at Edgcumbe.
Papa twirls Meagan on the deck. Bianca and the boys enjoy Gem Lake.
July 19-22: Marc and Sally O'Brien host crew members at their lovely Jaffrey, New Hampshire summer home. Jack and Marc; Tiger and Jim Mietus.
Convivial meal with Janet and Jim Mietus, Peter and Carol Blyberg et al. Peter and Kyra McGrath. Jack, Tiger, Linda.
Early August: We visit Boston's excellent Museum of Fine Arts with Cecily and Alan Morse (Cecily shows us some works on which she is doing conservation), then travel together up the coast to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.
Morses continue to guide us on a wonderful sightseeing trip: Beauport in Gloucester, MA;. We stay at Spirit Farm, an extraordinary B&B in Marlboro, VT. Next stop is in the Berkshires: MassMoCA, a North Adams factory converted to a museum housing large art.
One of the MoCA installations is by Francesco Simeti (son of Molly Taylor Simeti who hosted our Radcliffe group in Sicily): art wallpaper. Aug 6 we're in Stockbridge at Naumkeag: gardens and historic home of the Choate family.
Carol Gilligan home, Lenox, MA. Back home, William O'Brien stays with us a few days...
On August 12 we welcome the World Press Institute fellows, board members and spouses (JGH is on that board).
Aug 19: Party for Bjorn & Dorie Ranheim at the cabin. Lower rt: Leaetta Hough, Bob Muschewske, Dorie and Bjorn.
Mostly friends of the Ranheims...Thelma Hunter, solo, bottom left.
LLH with Dick and Kay Cisek. Leatta, Hella Hueg and Bob Muschewske.
Aug 22: Enroute LLH Great Lakes board meeting in Madison, WI, we take our boys to Circus World in Baraboo, WI.
This former winter home of Ringling Bros. Circus features marvelous exhibits, artifacts, performances and (both mechanical and animal!) rides.
On Aug 23 we motor on to Fox Lake, WI (practicing violin at stops) to see the John Bowe Jr. church window in Annunciation RC church (John was Jack's great grandfather).
After we visit the Bowe farm and Bowe cemetery marker in Fox Lake, LLH attends her Madison (Great Lakes) board meeting. Our merry crew travels on to Geneseo, IL for the Johnson family reunion, Aug 25. We tour some of our Swedish ancestral farms and homes.
Aug 25: Delightful and informative Johnson family reunion--centered on sharing information in the church basement, of course!
End of August: Hakan Hagegard visits we we go to the Minnesota State Fair. (camera breaks!).
On Sep 8 we take in a Twins game. Then it's off to DC where we meet the Porters for the annual Yale-Georgetown football game. On Sep 15 Jack attends crew practice--always nice to meet the rowers. At the football game, to our surprise, Jack and I are recognized for our crew support at halftime! Jack 9/15, GRA practice. All dressed up with Porters at the Cosmos Club as we head out to dinner at the Occidental.
Rocque Kramer & Jack; Rocque and Elaine join us and Porters. Jack O'B knits as part of Montessori coordination training. Sep 22 wedding photos in our garden (no connection to us, although of course we gave permission).
Oct: Sleepy Hollow HS 50th reunion at Class President Tim Thom's lovely home in Pound Ridge, NY. We stop in at Thornwood to see Aunt Helen and go to the Farmers' Market with her son, Ward.
We stop in at Washington Irving's Sunnyside home while at the reunion.
Oct 12-14: we invite a small group to Cleveland to hear Stephen Paulus' Violin Concerto for Concertmaster Bill Preucil and the Cleveland Orchestra--our somewhat late 45th anniversary celebratory piece.
Oct 13: Paulus premiere at Severance Hall. Jack with Steve Paulus. Bill Preucil, Jack, Giancarlo Guerrero (conductor), LLH and Paulus. Bot rt--our friends who join us: Charlie Boone, Judy and David Ranheim, Leaetta Hough and Bob Muschewske, LLH and JGH, Carol Heen.
Thanksgiving 2012 trip to Pensacola. Aleta Hoodless and Dan Milham host us at a delightful Pensacola Beach condo for a long weekend. Of course we visit the Naval Air Museum on the base.
A pre-dinner meal at one of Dan's kin. Delightful weather and no people on the sugar sand beach. Fritz tries paddleboarding.
Tree up: Nov. 25! Dec. 1, Double header at Children's Theatre & Chinese Warriors, MIA. Mild early December. Phew!
Dec 6-9: a wonderful long weekend in Chicago with William (LLH has Great Lakes meeting Thurs night-Fri morning, then it's off on the town!)
Of course we spend full days at the Field Museum and Art Institute. We also wee good friends whom we met in Montevideo, Uraguay, composer Tomas Gueglio & actress Cruz Gonzalez. We return home to lots of snow!
Dec 13-16: We travel to Washington DC. Saturday we go to a fabulous Georgetown basketball game (Jack sits with Rocque Kramer). Then its off to 21st Century Consort concert with artistic director Christopher Kendall and composer Jon Deak.
Jack and Linda with Jon Deak. Dec 16: Jack O'B's play at the JCC. We celebrate Judy Ranheim's 72nd birthday at our home. Dec 21 is the Sunny Hollow winter concert and lunch at Mount Zion Temple: both Jack and William perform.
Dec 22: Voumadis come to Edgcumbe for presents, cookies & music. Jack O'Brien plays violin and wears his pipe cleaner mask!
Dec 24: Our annual "Breakfast with Kings": brunch and Kings College carol service broadcast at home of Nick Nash and Karen Lundholm.
Christmas Eve Norwegian-fare dinner at Ranheims. Christmas Day we trundle up to the cabin. William shows off his astronaut helmet from godparents Fritz and Juli Hoeschler.
Skating on Gem Lake while Nonna broadcasts Viennese waltzes.
Jay Hoeschler, with daughters Katie and Abby, join us for Xmas day Hungarian feast at the cabin. Afterwards it's games and naps!