Cha, Cha, Cha, Chia, Riley

December 29th

Happy Birthday, Beth!!!!!!!

A Visit to Town Center

91 Year Old Skier!

Gardner Clark on the slopes of Waterville Valley the day after Christmas! Go Gardie!

Dinner at William Tell

Cousins Christmas 2008

End of Junior Fall

Just finished junior fall semester and am excited to be going abroad to Niger in about a month. This fall was my best semester yet at Cornell. Fall semester was very fun. I enjoyed spending time with friends and taking more focused upper level courses on development. I spent a lot of the semester preparing for Niger and organizing my thoughts for potential honors thesis research. Now, I'm back in Boston just in time for an incredible snowstorm. On Monday I am fortunate to be having my wisdom teeth removed and will most likely look like a chipmunk on Christmas, making for some great photo-ops. Can't wait to get skiing in NH and to see the Mckellops! Photo caption: Enjoying a hayride with a friend this fall in Ithaca

We are hunkered down here in a full winter storm, with another one predicted for Sunday. Emily and her grandparents arrived late last night from Ithaca--having left earlier than anticipated to get ahead of the weather. Sean Breen just came in the door so I will sign off. Looking forward to seeing everyone in a few days for what will certainly be a white Christmas!

Merry Christmas Family!

Behold, McKellop's Year in Review. Love to All!

Boston Half Marathon

Art finishes the Boston Half Marathon in great form!!!!!

Final Week at Yankee Stadium

Leah was able to get two tickets to Yankee Stadium in the final home-stand(ever!) at the old park. Leah and I went to the game on Mon. night. It was sold out and just great. It's been an awful season for the Yanks but, boy, their fans love them and all the lore of the Stadium.

Costa Rica

Wedding of Carolyn and Geoff, June 2008

Check out these photos of Carolyn and Geoff's wedding! Art, Beth, and Emily were there for it along with about 75 other friends and family.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bethclarkg/CarolynAndGeoffSWedding

Major Anniversaries

Happy 25th Anniversary to Liz and Jim.

Happy 34th Anniversary to Beth and Art!

Mairi and Emily come in 12th overall!

Going to Linz

The team is on its way!

Hike at Quarry Head Park in North Wilton

A short hike in North Wilton over the 4th of July Weekend.

McKellop Girls Go International

It will be an exciting second half of the the summer for Leah and Mairi.

Leah leaves in about 3 weeks for Costa Rica with her friend Elly (from our long term family friends down the street). They will be working on a small rural farm through the WWOOFs organization (World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers, http://www.argos.net.mx/wwoofcr/). They will work in exchange for room and board. Sounds awesome!

Mairi leaves mid-July for Linz, Austria. She will be competing at the Junior World Rowing Championship in a double with her partner, Emily Eiffert of Rochester, NY. They qualified for the US Junior National Rowing Team earlier this week. What an amazing opportunity!

Hope all are well. Sue

City of dreams

Jim and Art are just back from a long weekend in LaLa Land. We stayed at the legendary Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, the Beverly Hills Hotel where Marilyn Monroe died, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel right across from Grauman's Chinese Theatre on the famous boulevard of stars. As you can expect knowing us, it was a museum marathon, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Villa plus The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, the Norton Simon Museum, LACMA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and others. Along the way we visited numerous locations used for films and TV shows, such as the exterior for Jerry Seinfield’s apartment and the House on Haunted Hill (1959). The high point had to be dinner at the legendary Pink’s—well worth the hour wait and a must do on your next itinerary. All in all a fine time was had by all.

Junior Nationals 2008

Back from Ohio. GMS had a very successful regatta with two silver metals and two eighth places finishes. Nice accomplishment for a small team in a very, very competitive regatta this year. Every race was thrilling. Mairi's quad came in eighth overall. After racing 2K's, the spread between 4th and 8th place was .7 of a second. A few of the teams races were so close they required a photo finish. Things didn't go so well for her singles event. She hit a buoy with her oar in one of the heats and the boat flipped so naturally she had to scratch. Very tough break as this is her favorite event. Oh well...looks like she still has a good chance of trying out for Junior National team in a double with a girl from another team some time next week. Keep your fingers crossed! -Sue

Sue's For Dinner 5/29/08

It was great to see everyone. I'm having trouble figuring out how to put in text. Sue, I need an advanced blogging lesson!

Memorial Day Weekend Amy's

Sue's Plant of the Week

Plant of the Week

Sue has urged me to post "Plant of the Week" from our garden. I hope you enjoy the pics.
Amy

Jim & Pat in Watertown 5/08

We had a nice visit with Jim and Pat. It was great to see them. Amy (1bigfoot)

The GMS Rowing team had a great regatta. Three of the girls boats qualified for nationals in Cincinatti in June. Mairi came in first in her single and as you can see, it was pouring during the race. Her quad came in third and also qualified. Very, very exciting. More pictures below if you are interested.

goofy April skiers (new outfits needed)

Emily returned from Ithaca yesterday (May 9), just in time to see Jim & Pat Milford. They drove up from Florida en route to Chicago via Boston, so Jim can attend a surgery conference to keep his license to practice medicine. They stopped by to see Amy and Mike on the way. We went out to dinner at Le Petit Bistrot in Kenmore Square and had a great time.

Beth is taking a new job as the associate director of International Programs at BU. This is for the next three years probably, after which she will return to the faculty. Emily is off to NYC soon for her summer internship, as field investigator for the juvenile rights division of the Legal Aid Society.

Rowing Update

The GMS rowing team is off to a great start this spring. Mairi got two silver medals at the Cooper Cup, one for the women's varsity quad event and the other in a women's varsity single. Next regatta is coming up this weekend and is a qualifier to move on to Junior Nationals in Cincinnati so the pressure is on! (If you are interested, you can track the teams results at https://www.regattacentral.com/index.jsp?tab=regattas)

Film recommendations

There have been a lot of good films recently. Just saw There Will be Blood, with Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano (a young actor who graduated from Wilton High a couple of years back). This film (still in limited distribution) evokes a little bit of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Citizen Kane and even 2001. Not sure about the ending, and some think the acting is a bit over the top, but it has already won a lot of awards. Some really striking images here too. Definitely worth a look on the big screen.

What was the last book you read?

Let everyone know the last book you read and how you liked it. Is it worth reading?

If you are not sure how to add it to the list, email Sue at suzymac@gmail.com and she'll update the list.

Happy Reading!

Sue

Greetings from Mexico to everyone!