The 21st Century Greeting Card

Hello family and friends. Since social networking is now the prevalent form of communications in the 2000's, we have thought we could save a whole lot of trees, printer ink cartridges, and postage and put our greeting card for year-end 2007 online in the form of this blog. Ellyn came up with the idea, Geoff helped out with the header graphic, and we will both be posting entries here about events in our lives, significant and perhaps otherwise, which occurred throughout the year of 2007.

Just missing the cut was our trip to Israel at the end of 2006. It was great fun and we got back on 12/31/2006, just in time to stop and visit with our good friends Gary and Susan Morgen, with whom we have celebrated New Year's Eve for nearly 20 years. We were not up to staying awake that late after a long journey, but we will be there with bells on again this year. So let's get things rolling. A memory jogger is to start going back through the photos we took this past year. Since everything we take now is digital, it makes for easy cataloging and easy review, and will make posting images here a snap (like the one here!). This should be lots of fun for us, we hope you will enjoy it as well. Ellyn and Geoff on Masada

Out with the Old....

On just about the coldest day of last winter, our van made it clear that it was ready for retirement. It died in stages, which was not good, since it meant we ended up with a couple of bills trying to get it back on it's feet. Finally it had enough and conked out within walking distance of a Honda used car lot. Ellyn and I looked around the lot a bit and then a salesman came out in the cold (remember it was the coldest day of the winter?) and we chatted with him and walked around. He came up with a 2002 Honda CR-V which had been imported through Canada and had the unique feature of a hard cover on the spare. We test drove it the next day and decided to go with it.

Work, work...

Logan's mother-in-law, Diane, had a busy year as a chair of many of New Milford, CT's 300th anniversary event. Here's a photo of Geoff and Ellyn (on left) with Marc and Diane outside the New Milford Tricentenial Art Show that took place at The Silo Gallery.

It's Alive!

Geoff let the whiskers grown during our 24hr+ travel to Israel.....For better, or for worse, the beard stayed one year (so far).

Cruising with Celebrity

English Bay in Antigua was one of the highlights of our Caribbean cruise this spring. It was a great time although the ship was plagued with a stomach virus. We met some wonderful people who we have been able to spend time with even since then.

Jamaica, Mon!

In Jamaica, we could not pass up visiting one of the tributes to Bob Marley. This place had a biographical movie and a gift shop. Then we hit the beach for some soup. There was a very nice three-man band on the pier when we arrived. We bought their music CD and a tropical planter to keep on the ship during the rest of our trip.

Curacao

In Curacao, we rented these dune buggies with several other couples and got a tour of the island from a dirty standpoint. Here, Ellyn is resting while Geoff got out to snap some pictures. -------------------------->

You can see Geoff's GPS receiver hanging from the rollcage of the buggy. This let him make an accurate map of the trip. (Click on the map to see it larger) We stopped at an ostrich farm with pigs and wild iguanas, and had a cool drink of aloe juice.

Bermuda Sea Glass & Pastels Captured our Hearts!

Our favorite destination on the cruise was Bermuda - the pastel homes, white roofs, blue skies, pink sands...I could go on and on. A highlight of our ship's 30 hour stay in Hamilton, Bermuda was the beach loaded with sea glass that we were taken to by friends we made on the cruise. Below is a photo of Ellyn in a cave surrounded by sea glass....and also below is a closeup of the sea glass.

Cinco De Mayo De Flickr

Geoff and Ellyn had lunch at a local Mexican restaurant on 5/5/2007, which was also (coincidentally, I don't think so) 24 Hours of Flickr, our favorite photo sharing website. The people at the next table were wondering what the heck we were doing when we had this taken.

Our picture of the mariachi band made the cut as our contribution to the Flickr group for the 24 hours.

Our Days

Ellyn and Geoff got special gifts from Logan and Brian this year for Mother's Day and Father's Day; their time. For Mother's Day, they took Ellyn to Harvard University's Arnold Arboritum, They had opened their gates to the community to come in and see their lilac bushes in bloom.

On Father's Day, they took Geoff to a Pawtucket Red Sox game in Rhode Island. The Sox won.

Grandpa Jerry's 80th Birthday

In June, we flew out to California for Ellyn's Father's 80th birthday celebration. Logan and Brian came out as well and were also able to meet up with Manish Patel, a friend of theirs from Danbury. We took a limo ride into San Fransisco, had lunch on Fisherman's Wharf, and a big dinner party for Jerry with lots of his friends.

Uncle Lou's Beach House

We were fortunate to be able to visit Ellyn's Uncle Lou's beach house on the north shore of Long Island twice this summer. The first time was in July when Phil and Vicki were there with their dogs and some friends and also Marge and David. Then we went back in August when Beth and Susan and their children were there.

Kayaking Adventures

We had the kayaks out a few times this season. We took to the Bantam River in Litchfield, CT in July and paddled for a while with a beaver.
	We drove them out to the beach house in August and paddled the Sound as well as the salt marsh area behind the house know as Crab Meadow.
		Then we went to Ball Pond in New Fairfield, CT for a lovely late summer day in September with our friend Art Prager.
And one last time in October, we went to Watertown, CT to Lake Winnemaug and the colors of autumn.

A Vermont Visit

In October we traveled up to Thetford Center, VT to visit with Geoff's Brother Steve and his wife Laurie. Geoff's parents Arnie and Clare also traveled over from Michigan. It was a very nice autumn weekend with the colors out in force.
Robert and Katie at home.
On the way home, we stopped in Springfield, VT which was designated the official home of 'The Simpsons' and the premier location for their movie this last summer.