Family Reunion!

Hey All-- sorry, i've dropped the ball on the planning of the reunion recently. I blame it on the holidays. But anyways, I have started looking at rental properties in Nags Head and all it has done is succeed in overwhelming me! So much to figure out!

So first off-- we've chosen the first week of August as our travel week!

2. Nags Head, NC as the destination

Now I have some questions for you all:

a. how many houses do we want to rent
b. what is the price range we are willing to work with
c. how are we going to split up the families? I have an idea, but I don't want to force any particular grouping on everybody. So my thought was Crothers in one house with a few stragglers from the Helsel, Joseph, Coghlan grouping and then the leftovers from the HJC into another house. Please let me know if you have other ideas.
d. I was thinking once we figure out the house groupings, we can have a "house captain" from each house to work with me to figure out the best choice of rental for us all...and close together.

And lastly, if anyone has tips for how to rent in OBX (cough cough aunt nancy and uncle thom, mom and dad) please don't hesitate to share or lend your expertise...we all know the dumps that you can end up with after looking at a perfectly lovely photo in the magazines (eeew).

Hope everyone is having a great week!
Love,
Lauren

Greetings from California!

Hey everyone! Meredith I think this is an awesome idea. I just have to teach my mom how to post on it now. :)

Everything is going well in California for the Machaceks. I am wrapping up my second to last semester of law school and Ken is loving his work editing reality television programming for TLC and Discovery. We are headed to Cleveland for the holidays this year and I couldn't be more excited.

Today we are celebrating our four year wedding anniversary. Can you believe it has been four years since we had you all in snowy Cleveland?

Love you all, and I hope to see some of you in the upcoming year.

Molly

GREETINGS FROM AZ

What's Up Helsels?

Great Idea, I like it.

I really want to use this blog to discuss mindless chatter ( just kidding with you Jane!! )

Things in AZ are great, adjusting to owning/developing a business, the kids are enjoying school, and the mountain biking, at 63 degrees, is wonderful this time of year. Mountains have snow, valleys are sunny. Laura is hunting for a job/employment, and we are getting ready for Laura's parents to come visit for Christmas. Rumor has it Joan and Jim, AKA Mom and Dad, are coming out in early January, so it will be great to see them.

AZ Crothers

Well, thank you, Mere! Great initiative. Barbara was right, we did have a great time last weekend in Richmond. One of the highlights for me was spending time in the company of Meredith and Lauren -- it's so nice to enjoy our offspring as adults.

A big thank you to Barbara and Tom for hosting so many "Helsels"(Helsel/Smith family, Crothers family, including Seth and his, all the Coghlans) for Thanksgiving. Everything was delicious and beautiful and I know they worked hard to make it so. And, speaking of "offspring," Jim and I so enjoyed our time with Kara, Seth and their boys. Ryan would put Martha Stewart through her paces -- you should have seen the very careful way he decorated their Christmas tree! It's symmetrical, balanced, and beautiful! And his little brother Evan is a delight. Always laughing and smiling -- he's such a happy baby. We are so proud of the wonderful parents both our sons and dils have become.

Now back to wrapping the Arizona Christmas box. Looking forward to hearing from all the rest, whenever.

Tuesday Dec 7

Hi Helsels!

Not quite sure where this is going but I will give it a try. Last weekend Joanie and I traveled to the Helsel-Smith residence and shopped at Bizarre Bazarre. It was great fun and Joanie wants to make it an annual event!

Thanks to Meredith for inviting us all to post!

Our New Family Blog!

Hello Helsel Family!!

Aunt Janie had a fabulous idea to start a family blog so I took it upon myself to create one! We can use this to post pictures, family news, reunion updates and other things such as recipes and movie reviews. Here is the link to the article she read that gave her the idea: http://www.americanprofile.com/article/43480.html
I'm trying to figure this whole blog thing out and how to allow everyone to post.

Love and miss you all!
Meredith