A Thousand Welcomes

Sorry it took so long to post. We will show you more soon. When I say soon, I really mean in a couple of months.

One week of financial freedom left!

So... it looks as if this Thursday the two of us will become home owners. I don't know why this doesn't scare me yet... I'm sure it will!

We plan to close on the 31st (this Thursday) and move in on Saturday the 2nd. Fortunately for us, we do seem to have an All-Star cast helping us out with the heavy stuff. I am especially worried of some of the larger pieces and the apartment that we are moving out of. Moving some of the bulkier/heavier things could very well be weather pending.

Anyway, here is a teaser picture of the house. We're very proud and neither one of us thought our first home would be this nice. I might add that there is a guest room and if certain individuals from Michigan care to see the Greater Western Massachusetts area, we can provide accommodations... at this point, I might point out that Massachusetts is a very difficult state to spell and may or may not have taken spell checker to spell properly.

In 2007....

I'd say this sums it up!

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Our First Christmas Tree

It looks a bit empty, but I am sure we will get more ornaments over the years to actually fill the tree.

I don't know if it's just me who does this, but I can't stop moving the ornaments around.

Wickham Park

Last week we went to a park called Wickham Park. We drove by the entrance a couple times on our way to other places and Sean would always say how beautiful it was and we should go one of these days. So last Wednesday we decided to go. He was right, it is very beautiful. I looked up the park history on line and found out most of the land had been owned by Clarence and Edith Wickham. They left the land and a large portion of their estate to fund the park. The park is over 250 acres. I know you are probably thinking "who cares where the park came from". Well it turns out this couple met in Europe but he was from Connecticut and she was from Michigan. In June of 1900 they were married in Muskegon, Michigan! Her maiden name was Edith McGraft. McGraft might sound familiar to those who know Muskegon because it is a name of a park. She donated money to build the community building at McGraft park and when she died she left money to the trust for the park funding.
We had a great time walking around taking pictures. I tried to capture some of the colors of a New England fall, but with the little rainfall we had this year I am told the color is not as great as it normally is. I still think it is beautiful.

Happy Birthday Dad

Tuesday was my fathers birthday. I wanted to be able to give him a hug, but the distance makes that extremely hard to do. To those of you who are able to give him hugs, please give a big one from me.

I love you dad!

1400 Sky Miles later....

This weekend we went back to Muskegon for a long overdue visit. Kelly was incredibly excited to see everyone that she has missed so much since moving here. I was also pretty excited, but I'm sure it paled in comparison. The night started out with a dinner at Mom and Dad Corbin's. Ryan, Angela and Maya showed up as well and we had Musaka... musuka... we'll just call it Mufassa (from Lion King). A great Greek dish that lived up to it's hype; I've been hearing about it for a year.

On Friday, we had the opportunity to see some of Kelly's friends, and that evening we went over to Ryan and Ang's new home near the airport. We had a great dinner and desert. Mind you at this "feed on demand" schedule, I've already eaten enough to allow most large mammals to hibernate for a season or two, so any talk of food hereafter after implies the feeling of being incredibly stuffed.

Saturday morning, we went down to the Heritage landing for the Irish music festival. The "opposite of July" would explain the temperature that day. We huddled in the tent to watch some great live music and gorge ourselves on Irish Stew (again, stuffed!). They also had a great arts and crafts area, and an outdoor stage were we saw an amazing fiddling band. That evening we went to see Katie's new place. She was kind enough to entertain us with a book about a bearded lady and her elephant-man boy friend. I guess you had to be there...

Sunday, unfortunately, was our day to say goodbye. We met at Rafferty's for brunch where we had a waitress who did everything in her power to remind us that tipping was strictly optional. When we asked her for a kids cup for Maya, she brought us a Styrofoam container and offered to stick a straw through it. Her logic was truly mind boggling. We said some goodbye's after brunch, and some more at the airport.

The flight was uneventful, which is the trademark of a good flight. When we got home though, we discovered that Maya had left us a present in our luggage, as you can see on your right.