Scenes of Memorial Day 2012

Dan writes: Our family has participated in the annual Scotch Plains-Fanwood Memorial Day Parade for each of the last 14 years, starting when Christine was a Daisy Girl Scout. She marched with her Girl Scout troop each year through grade school, then four years with the SPF High School Marching Band. Andy likewise marched with Cub and Boy Scouts and, starting last year, with the marching band. This past Monday he marched the 1.2-mile route carrying and playing a set of tenor drums (probably sweating off a couple of pounds in the process).

Julie, who also marched with the Girl Scouts in previous years, was able to relax and watch this time, as her troop of dedicated Scouts has graduated. Christine, home from her first year of college, watched most of the parade but then got to ride with a friend in one of the antique cars that brought up the rear. Meanwhile, I shot video of the marching band at both the beginning and end of the route and posted it online for other band parents to see. (Click here to see it on YouTube.)

Elsewhere, some lucky family members spent at least part of the weekend on Eastern Long Island, where Shanna took this photo of Noyac Bay.



From Tish, we get another idyllic view, of Skaket Beach in Orleans, on Cape Cod.

And from Hugh and Dolores, the scene at Arrowhead on Maryland's Deep Creek Lake.

But it's hard to beat this view:
Genevieve took this photo of John looking over Yosemite Valley. One visit to Yosemite National Park this month proved not to be enough for the California couple.

Spring concerts for Chris, Stephanie

This month saw both Christopher and Stephanie perform in year-end concerts with music ensembles at their schools.



Chris played saxophone with the Darby High School Symphonic Band, and Stephanie played clarinet with the Tharp 6th Grade School's "Tiger Band."

Here, the Tiger band plays "Above and Beyond." (Click the image to see the video.)



The Darby HS Symphonic Band performed a medley of music from the movie "The Incredibles." (Click for the video,)



One more video from the Tiger Band: "It Don't Mean a Thing."

New job brings Vivien close to home

Vivien has begun a new job as a manager at a Midtown Manhattan restaurant, Lexington Brass. It's an American bistro at Lexington Avenue and East 48th Street - which happens to be within walking distance of Vivien's New York apartment.

"I really enjoyed my first week," writes Vivien, who started May 15. "The management team at the restaurant is young, full of energy, and I am already learning a lot."

"Because the restaurant is in Midtown the clientele is a fun mix of business types and tourists," Vivien said, adding that she enjoys "interacting with all types of interesting characters in the restaurant."

Lexington Brass was opened last September by EMM Group, which owns two other restaurants in Manhattan's Meatpacking District - Abe and Arthur's and Catch - plus a couple of night clubs in the city, one in Hoboken and one in the Hamptons. The company also owns "The Estate," a mansion on Noyac Path that it uses as a venue for "exclusive events."

"The whole company is very young, and open to feedback and new ideas -- which presents a lot of great opportunity. And walking home to my apartment is a great feeling!"

Since graduating from Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration just a year ago, Vivien had been working for Brookdale Senior Living as a dining services specialist. She originally expected to be traveling around the country improving the food service at various Brookdale properties, but her second assignment turned into an extended run as dining manager at the company's Hallmark Battery Park City. A few months ago, she was promoted to a supervisory position, which meant some traveling and a lot of time at corporate headquarters in Chicago.

"Chicago was a really fun city to get to experience - with a lot of great restaurants - and I miss the close friends that I made in Chicago," Vivien writes. "But I am so happy to be back in NYC!!"

Looking good - in very different styles!

Andy and his girlfriend, Shannon, had two occasions recently to get all dressed up - in two very different styles. The first was the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Junior Prom, a dinner-dance at a nearby catering hall.

The second was a bit different: the Steampunk World's Fair, a celebration of the future as imagined in the past (think Victoriana mixed with sci-fi).

What's with the mask? Why the strange weapon? Well... you'd have to ask them! But they had a good time visiting the old-time future.

Summery scenes on a beautiful May weekend

"Oh Sag Harbor, how I missed you!" wrote Shanna as she posted this photo to Facebook on Sunday. She and her parents took a quick trip to work on the Noyac cottage and, of course, visited Long Beach.

Meanwhile, Vivien posted this shot from her family's house on Mill Creek. It was a great weekend for a preview of summer!

Great weather for a party - oh, and a horse race!

Place your bets!

The 137th annual running of the Preakness Stakes provided the reason, and Doug & Lisa provided the hospitality for the Umpteenth annual Preakness Party at the family homestead in Riderwood, Md.

The official crowd estimate provided by Hugh: "Lots." And who were the attendees? "The usual crowd."

Hugh, by the way, was among the winners of the party pool, as several guest picked I'll Have Another to repeat his Kentucky Derby performance and were not disappointed.

Liz, we hear, was another winner, having hedged her bet on a long shot with a second bet on the favorite - a strategy she has successfully pursued before.

After the race, Liz and Rebecca and their friends broke out the croquet set to continue another family tradition. Now, the wait begins for next year's party!

(Photos by Dolores and Hugh. Thanks!)

Genevieve & John Visit Yosemite

Half Dome as seen from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park

John and Genevieve visited Yosemite National Park on May 11-13 to celebrate John's birthday (May 10).  

Genevieve writes:
"We stayed in a tent cabin in Curry Village right in Yosemite Valley.

Curry Village cabins (Photo from yosemitepark.com)

"We had an amazing trip. Highlights included hiking the mist trail to Vernal Falls, and continuing up to Nevada Falls. The trail was steep but the views were sensational!

Looking down at Vernal Falls

"We had dinner on Saturday night at the Ahwahnee, a landmark hotel that was built in the 1920s.

The Ahwahnee (Photo from yosemitepark.com)

"We enjoyed our trip so much that we are actually going back to Yosemite for two days over Memorial Day weekend! We plan on hiking to Sentinel Dome and to upper Yosemite Falls."

From Classical to Punk-Ska, Andy plays it all

In the past few weeks, drummer Andy has performed in a classical/pops concert at a girl's academy, a rock show at a local club, a jazz show at his high school (see previous posts), the high school's Spring Instrumental Concert, and a punk/ska show put on by School of Rock at two New Jersey clubs.

Here's a clip from the Spring Instrumental Concert at Scotch Plains-Fanwood high school. Andy is on bass drum in the Symphonic Band on a number called "Festivo."

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And now for something completely different! 
 
Andy also takes rock-drumming lessons at the School of Rock in Chatham, N.J. For a spring show this year, the school tried something ambitious: a program of "punk-ska" and "third-wave ska" music, featuring a lot of brass as well as guitars, drums and keyboard. At Andy's suggestion, they included one of his favorite songs to drum to -- a number called "Everything Went Numb" by Streetlight Manifesto.



And for his next trick... Andy will be drumming with the SPFHS Marching Band in the upcoming Memorial Day parade.

Musical week continues for Andy

Monday night was "Jazz Night" at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, with performances by the jazz bands of the school district's two middle schools and by the high school's four jazz ensembles. Here, Andy plays drum set on a tune called "Mambo Hot."

Rock show starts a busy week for Andy

Andy is doing a lot of drumming in performances this week. It started Sunday when the rock band he's been playing in with friends took part in a multi-band show at a club called Crossroads in Garwood, N.J. It was a benefit for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life.

Mainstream Express -- Andy, his girlfriend, Shannon, and friends Alex and Matt -- played five numbers, starting with the Foo Fighters' "Everlong."



Videos of the rest are here:

• Blink-182's "Anthem Part II" 
• Foo Fighters' "One Of These Days" 
• Rise Against's "Prayer of the Refugee" 
• CircaSurvive's "Get Out" 

Coming up this week, Andy is in a school jazz concert Monday night, a school concert band show Wednesday night, and two shows next weekend with his School of Rock classmates. Stay tuned for highlights!

Andy returns as guest drummer for concert

Andy made his fourth appearance as a guest musician at Mount Saint Mary Academy, playing drums at the annual spring concert in the school's chapel.

Sunday's program at the small, all-girls school in Watchung, N.J., included performances by its choral groups and flute ensemble, plus several numbers by a Symphonic Instrumental Ensemble made up of students and guest musicians.

The guests include alumni, other adults and students from other schools. Andy has now played in two Christmas concerts and two spring shows at Mount Saint Mary.

Sunday in Manhattan with cousins

Shanna, Vivien and Courtney, cosmopolitan in black-and-white.

Courtney, Shanna and Vivien had a chance to spend a day together in Manhattan.

"We had lunch at a place called Caliente Cab, went shopping in SoHo and and spent some time exploring the city," Shanna said. "It was really great to get together and to catch up. We hope to all get together again soon."

Courtney was in New York visiting her mom, who moved up from Florida to Shelter Island a few weeks ago to become executive director of the Shelter Island Historical Society.

Welcoming NASA's Discovery to its new home

Marie, Brian and Xander were on hand April 19 to help welcome NASA shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center.

Discovery had arrived from Florida the day before to go on exhibit at the center in Chantilly, Va. It replaces the shuttle Enterprise, which is moving to the Intrepid museum in New York City.

Marie writes: "Welcome Discovery day was a lot of fun. The weather was beautiful! They brought Enterprise out to "greet" Discovery and parked them nose-to-nose before moving Discovery into the museum.



"We got Xander, the Costume King, a flight suit from the gift shop right when we got there, so he was able to go around to all the activities and exhibits dressed like an astronaut. He was really excited to see the space shuttles and he also had a lot of fun visiting the other NASA exhibits. He's ready to go into astronaut training!"

The day before, Brian was on the Washington Mall when Discovery made a fly-over on the back of a 747 en route to its new Virginia home, and took this photo.

More to see:

• Marie & Brian's photos
• Welcome Discovery Day in photos, from the Washington Post
• Articles from National Geographic and the Washington Post
• NASA press release

Travel report: Four fun days in Vegas

Shanna is "back to reality" after a trip last week to Las Vegas. Here's her report:

Two of my best friends (whom I have known since I was 13) and I traveled to Las Vegas from April 11-14th. We stayed at the Monte Carlo, right on the strip. We crammed a lot into four days and enjoyed every second, exploring the area and checking out the attractions.

We saw the Titanic exhibit at the Luxor Hotel, which was really interesting especially since we were there during the 100-year anniversary of the ship's voyage.

We also saw Siegfried and Roy's dolphin, tiger and lion exhibit, which was fun.

We checked out Freemont Street and explored so many of the different hotels.

One of my favorite moments was going to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel, which is 1/2 the scale of the real one in Paris. We saw the fountains at the Bellagio hotel, which were gorgeous.

The Bellagio fountains as seen from the 'Eiffel Tower'

We were also able to see several shows, including the Cirque Du Soleil Beatles show, which was amazing. We also saw the Jabbawockeez, who were winners on the MTV show, "Americas Best Dance Crew." That was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing their act.

Overall we had a fantastic trip. It was the first time that we had all been to Vegas, and we already want to go back.

Vacation in Vegas

Shanna and two friends are on a long-planned visit to Las Vegas.

Of course we know that what happens in Vegas, blah blah blah. But we also know Shanna makes her own rules. So she shared a couple of photos via Facebook -- the view from the "Eiffel Tower" at the Paris Hotel.

UPDATE from Shanna Saturday night 4/14: "Back in New York after a great time in Vegas!"

Easter greetings from Ohio

Christopher and Stephanie at their church on Easter Sunday. Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Christine joins cosplay crowd in Boston

A group photo at Anime Boston. Arrow points to Christine.

Christine and her RIT roommate spent the weekend in Boston, where hundreds of costumed fans of various anime series, other TV programs and video games gathered for a convention called Anime Boston. "SO much fun," Christine said.

These photos are from a meet-up of characters from the BBC programs Dr. Who, Sherlock Holmes and Torchwood. Christine is dressed as Rose from the "ninth doctor" series of Dr. Who.

That was Saturday. On Friday, Christine was a Blu Scout from the video game Team Fortress Two. Here she runs into a rival Red Scout.

A very happy Easter to all

Spring on Birch Street in New Jersey

We hope everyone in the family has a happy and blessed Easter.

Happy Easter from a pair of redheads

Let us know how you spent the holiday.

Please send along notes and/or pictures of any gatherings or activities.

Keep in touch!

Iris Field, by Tish