It's marching band season for Stephanie

Cathy writes: It's that time of year!"

Darby Marching Band is finishing up band camp, as school begins Aug. 17.

The students were at "away camp" the first week of August, and we held our annual Ice Cream Social to welcome them home. This is when they get to perform a portion of their show for the first time.

This year's show is called "High Strung." Here are two videos showing the beginnings of Segments 1 and 2. (Click the links below to watch.) Enjoy this preview. More to come as the season progresses!

Watch segment 1. The opening of the show will have the band members on the ground in circles, with a color guard member in the middle of each circle. Stephanie is in the circle on the front left hand side of the field. She's in the front near the 45 yard line. All the clarinets are wearing blue shirts. When they turn to face the back, her shirt has the #79 on it.

Watch segment 2. Stephanie is in the same area, then at the end she moves toward the very front left of the pit -- because she is part of a clarinet trio that will perform at that point. You can be sure I'll have pictures and video of that!

Details of Hugh & Dolores' Alaska Adventure

UPDATED 8/12 - All 10 chapters added to travelogue!

As promised, Hugh has sent along photos and description of the trip he and Dolores took in June to celebrate their anniversary. They traveled to the Canadian cities of Victoria and Vancouver and then by cruise ship up the coast of Alaska.

We've created a page dedicated to the story and photos. It's a detailed travelogue, in ten parts, richly illustrated with photos.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRAVELOGUE

Cathy collects ribbons at county fair

Cathy won several ribbons at the Franklin County Fair in Hilliard, Ohio, last weekend.

Cathy submitted examples of her photography and her scrapbooking. Scrapbook pages of photos from last year's Hilliard-Darby High School production of "Peter Pan" (in which Christopher played a pirate) won a first-place blue ribbon, and pages featuring her photos of the school's marching band (featuring both Christopher and Stephanie) took a second-place red ribbon.  

This photo of a rock band and concert audience silhouetted against stage lights also won a red ribbon, and a still-life of colored chalk took third-place honors.

Family members gather for a wedding in Rochester

Lisa, Doug, Liz and Rebecca were among the guests as Lisa's niece Kathy was married last weekend.

Kathy and her husband, Daniel, live in Rochester. The wedding brought Kathy's parents, Dave and Susan (Lisa's sister) back to Rochester from Florida, where they recently moved. Doug and Lisa came up from Maryland. Rebecca also lives in the Rochester area, while Liz is now a Brooklyn resident.

Dan & Julie enjoy a musical weekend

Ready for Coldplay

Having splurged on tickets for a bunch of concerts this summer, Dan and Julie got started this weekend by seeing Dawes at a theater on Staten Island and Coldplay at MetLife Stadium.

Dawes, a California band that evokes comparisons to the Eagles, Jackson Browne, CSN&Y and the like, performed at the St. George Theater, near the Staten Island ferry terminal.

Dan and Julie took the ferry over and back, enjoying the New York Harbor views on a warm summer night.

The next night, this time accompanied by Christine and Andy, they saw Coldplay's first U.S. show of its current worldwide tour.

The British quartet put on a spectacular show - as in spectacle, with laser lights and fireworks, plus electronic wristbands, give out to all audience members, that lit up in various colors coordinated with the music-and light-show.

A quieter moment in the show

Visual effects aside, the music, drawn from many phases of the band's 20-year career, sounded great all night.

As seen on the big screen

A fine Fourth weekend on Long Island

A number of family & friends spent Independence Day weekend in Noyac, enjoying a beautiful summer weekend. Dan & Julie, Christine & James and Andy & Shannon filled up the Birch Street cottage. At Kathy's house, Genevieve & John & Bea and Vivien & CJ got an early start on the weekend Thursday. Kathy arrived on Sunday and the whole crowd spent that evening watching fireworks around Noyac Bay.

Earlier that day, Dan, Julie, Christine, James, Andy & Shannon spent some time checking out the boats and ducks and shops in Sag Harbor, then went over to Southampton's Cameron Beach, where the younger ones took a (very quick) dip in the still-chilly ocean.






On Monday, they were joined at the "back beach" by Kathy, Genevieve, Vivien and Bea.

Hugh and Dolores explore Alaska by land & sea

Dolores and Hugh are back from their latest trip - an Alaska cruise.

The couple flew to Vancouver, B.C., then started their explorations with a brief visit to Victoria, B.C. Back in Vancouver, they boarded the Regent Seven Seas ship S.S. Mariner to begin the cruise. Their course took them to Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Sitka and Seward, with sights including the Sawyer and Hubbard glaciers. On side trips they went whale-watching, rode the White Pass Railway, toured Anchorage and spent a full day and two nights in Denali National Park.

Dolores writes: "We had such a wonderful experience that we'll be months telling you all about it. We enjoyed every trip, excursion, lecture, Even the meals were fantastic.

"The ship was a wonderful experience too -- lovely stateroom with a balcony and a large walk-in closet, which we have never seen on a ship before. We enjoyed sitting outside and watching the snow-covered mountains go by.

"The cruise itself taught and showed us about whales, glaciers, sea animals like otters, seals, and sea lions, and a lot about the gold rush days. Going to Denali was another delight and education. It's a whole different world! Much more rustic. On Solstice Day, we were up at a mountain restaurant, watching kids play in the snow outside on the mountain!"

Hugh plans to send lots more photos, so check back.

Eight years ago, Daniel and Lorraine took a similar trip. See our archive article here.

Happy Father's Day 2016

This recent photo of Gerrit and Nolan says "Happy Father's Day" better than any greeting card.

Wishing a great day to all the Dads in our family!

A weekend full of milestones for Shannon

Congratulations to Shannon who's having a very big weekend - graduating from Catholic Central High School in Troy, N.Y., attending the school prom and celebrating her 18th birthday!

Shannon is planning to join the U.S. Air Force later this year.

Liz heading to NY for work & study

Liz will be making a move this fall.

Starting in September, she'll be living in New York and studying for her master's degree at New York University while continuing to work for WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Liz, who has a bachelors degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, currently works for Parsons at its Baltimore office. She's been part of the traffic-engineering team there since early 2012.

At NYU, she'll be studying part-time toward a Masters in Transportation Engineering and Planning. Meanwhile, she's transferring to Parson's Manhattan office, where she'll work full-time.

"Not sure where I'll be living yet, but most likely Brooklyn," Liz writes.

The robin family of Birch Street

A pair of robins built a nest atop the front-door light fixture at Birch Street Radio headquarters. Three chicks were born there, and in a little over a week, left the nest for adventures in the wilds of suburbia.

Sometime in mid-May we first noticed a bunch of twigs and scraps of paper and such piled on top of the light fixture. Dan cleared it away, but the next day there was another pile. After three rounds of this, a very well-formed nest appeared and we decided to let it be.

After seeing mama bird perched there off and on for a week or so, we discovered on May 21 that there were three chicks snoozing in the nest (first photo). Less than a week later, they were flexing their muscles and getting ready to leave (second photo, May 27).

That evening, Dan saw one of the chicks hopping across the lawn with one of its parents. By the next morning, all three were gone!

On a rainy Preakness day, race & party go on

Lisa serves the mint juleps

If you watched the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, you know it was raining in the Baltimore area that day. But the race went on, and so did the annual Preakness Party at Doug & Lisa's house.

For the 31st time(!), family and friends gathered for food, drink and conversation - and a short pause to watch a horse race on TV. Dolores writes: "We couldn't believe how many people showed up on such a gross day!"

With the rain keeping guests from spreading out over the yard, Lisa and Doug made use of the garage as well as the screened-in "summer house" to accommodate the guests. Come race time, most moved to the living room to crowd around the TV.

Exaggerator's victory ended not only Nyquist's bid for a Triple Crown, but Elizabeth's 10-year streak of winning picks in the party's betting pool!

A big birthday celebration for Kathy

-- Updated 5/24 with more photos --

Some three dozen family members and friends gathered in New York on Saturday to help celebrate a significant birthday.

Kathy's children, Genevieve, Vivien and Patrick, arranged the evening of fine food, drink and conversation at the downtown Valbella restaurant.

Kathy's crew

Here's an album of photos by Dan, Brien and Robert that captures some of the highlights of the evening.

Stephanie ends school year with concert, awards

As the school year wrapped up, Stephanie received awards for both her academic standing and her participation in the music program at Hilliard Darby High School.


At the school's Academic Awards presentation, Stephanie was among those recognized for having GPAs of 3.75 or higher for the year.


And following the end-of-year band concert, Stephanie received an award for "Outstanding Sophomore."

Moms & daughters on Mother's Day

We're catching up with a couple of nice photos from Mother's Day last week.

Here's Bea with her Mom (Genevieve), Grandma (Kathy) and Godmother (Vivien).

Visiting Columbus for Stephanie's confirmation, Dolores was treated to Mothers Day brunch by her daughters, Julie and Cathy.

Stephanie receives confirmation

Stephanie was confirmed on Saturday (May 7) at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Dublin, Ohio.

Confirmands from several Columbus-area parishes received the sacrament from Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal, bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.


Stephanie's godmother, Aunt Julie, and grandparents Hugh and Dolores joined proud mom Cathy at the service.


A reception followed in the parish hall, and the family members later went out for a celebratory lunch and visited together for the rest of the day.