Family Reunion 2011

Every Year when we come to Michigan we have a big family get-together.
We also try to get a family picture, so here is this years picture.
It seems that every year we add more and more people to the family.
The first picture is of the whole family, the second one is only
the grandchildren with Grammy and Grandpa.

Thanks Noah for taking the pictures!

Happy Father's Day!!

We are at my Grandparents house in Michigan to celebrate Father's Day.
So my dad got to celebrate it with his Dad!
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY
to Dad, Grandpa Chapman, and Grandpa Latorella,

We LOVE you!!!

Family Trip to Michigan: Frank Lloyd Wright House

Our family is now in Michigan to visit family, after a very busy month (sorry about not writing during that time). On our first day here, we went into Grand Rapids to visit the Myer May House.This house was built in 1910 and the Frank Lloyd Wright was the designer. He designed everything from the carpets and furniture to the gardens outside.
It must have been an amazing modern marvel in the Victorian era that it was built in.
The house was soo neat, with many modern amenities in that surprised me.
I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed visiting.
Also check out the website to see the video on the 2 year renovation of this house.

This is in the living room, the skylights brought lots of light into this room

The metallic material in between the brick in the fireplace was soo neat!

The entry way

The desk on the landing

This is the original mural that was painted when the house was built

In the dining room instead of a chandelier he had lights on each corner of the table

Here are pictures of the May family who owned this house

This is looking down the stairs into the living room

This is the light fixture in the morning room upstairs, I think it is very cool!

This is the boys bedroom

The children's bathroom, the master bath look identical except it had a separate stand up shower

This is the little girls room

See you soon with more pictures!

D.C, Diarys: Day 3

Sorry it has taken me so long to get back and post more about our trip.
So day three started with Noah and Dad taking the early bus into the city so that they could go to some of the monuments. The rest of us got to sleep in and go eat breakfast at the campground cafe' (which was very good!). Mom drove(and she did a great job!) our group into Union Station. That's where we got back on the tour bus (we got a 2 day pass) to meet the boys at the Indian Museum. We enjoyed our morning there, and ate our lunch in the cafeteria, they were very nice and allowed us to eat our packed lunch there.After lunch we got back on the bus and went to Ford's Theater. This is were President Lincoln was shot. They had a very nice museum in the basement, all about the President and the conspirators in his murder.
They also had an 30 min. presentation on the events and also what became of the building afterward. It first became a three story office building until the third floor crashed in. It went through other uses until it was sold to the government and restored to it's original use as a theater and opened as part of the national park service. After our tour be got onto the Yellow line of our bus tour and started a tour up to the National Cathedral, and past all the Embassy's of other countries. We got off the bus at George Town harbor for our boat ride down the Potomac.
The whole family really enjoyed the relaxing ride down the river, we got to see many of the monuments we had visited and the Kennedy center, and also the Watergate complex.
When we returned from our boat ride we found that we were stranded, the bus that we had been riding had been the last one to make the trip to the waterfront. After a few phone calls Dad got the information on how to catch the Circulator bus that would take us back to Union Station were our car was parked. A few buses later and a few more stranded passengers like us and we were on our way back to the car. The drama continues, after we paid for the parking ticket at the terminal, I accidentally riped it up and tossed it into the trash. Well we needed that ticket to get out of the parking lot, so Dad went back to the trash can, fished out the riped remains and had to explain our dilemma to the gate keeper. After several minutes and they pieced the ticket back together and let us out. By then it was 8:30 p.m and all if us were starving, so off we were to a place to eat.We ended up at Denny's. It was very nice and we were soon home and in bed by 11:00 p.m., so maybe you can see why I did not post that night!
Check back tomorrow for the pictures from our final day in DC.

This the exterior of the Indian Museum

This is Ford's Theater

And here is the Presidential box

I would really like to come back and tour the National Cathedral,
it reminds me of something you would see in Europe

Here is the trusty boat that gave us our nice boat ride

here is the Kennedy Center

That's the Lincoln Memorial in the distance

the infamous Watergate complex

SMILE!

D.C, Diary: Day 2

I'm back again with more pictures and stories to tell of our great day in DC.
We started at 6:45 by waiting for the free shuttle bus, it comes right to the front of the campground where we are staying. Once we got into Union Station, we stopped and got some bagels for a nice treat. by 8:30 we were on tour bus and ready to roll. The tour that we chose is a hop on and off. It has 3 routes and multiple stops where you can get off and then catch the next bus that comes along.
We first took the Red Grand Tour route, and took a complete tour of the city with the detailed narration for each stop and for buildings along the way.
Then we got onto another bus and Dad,Mom,Billy,Ty,Abby,and I got off at the Air and Space Museum. Grammy,Grandpa,and Noah went to the Holocaust museum (which we didn't think was a good choice for the little ones,thus our stop to air and space).
We met back up at the World War 2 memorial were we tried to look up some relatives in the registry, but found that unless they died in the war, a relative has to input their information for them to be listed. When we get home we plan to enter my Great Grandpa Latorella and Chapman into the data base.
After a bus trip back to Union Station, we caught the free bus back "home" and had a great dinner of Chicken Nuggets, beans, salads, and watermelon. Mom and Grandma are really spoiling us! I did put on a lot of pictures, and I included some more "people" pictures.

P.S. Nicholas,Thomas,Trevor,and Derek, keep watching for tomorrows pictures.
We miss you all and hope to see you soon!!

Love,

The few pictures that follow of our "brunch/snack" at Union Station before
we got onto our tour bus

Hey Noah your breakfast sandwich sure looks good!

On our way to the bus stop

This is what our bus looked like, it was a great tour and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Billy and I sat on the roof top the entire day,
but Mom,Grammy and Grandpa chose downstairs for most of the trip

Here we are waiting in front of Union Station, (which is the Grand Central Station of DC)

getting ready for our next stop

The Smithsonian Castle


This is the "Greek Temple" exterior of the National Archives
Way in the back round you can see the white house

This is a picture of the Capital building from the opposite side that I showed you yesterday.
This is were Presidents are sworn in for office.

While Grammy,Grandpa and Noah were at the Holocaust Museum, we took the little ones to
the Air and Space Museum. They really loved it!

Here are Grammy and Grandpa standing under their States in the World War 2 Memorial


On our tour today we went by the Spy museum that we visited yesterday, so Noah snapped a picture to show you.

Here is a panorama view of our camp site (compliments of Noah's i pod)

Also most of the pictures were taken by Noah as well, check out his blog to his work.