Updates. December 2015

The year has been tremendous.  Olivia posted amazing grades at school and has enjoyed playing oboe in the band.  She continues to enjoy gymnastics, softball, dance and soccer.  In Girls Scouts she has completed the requirements for the Bronze Award.  In May we took a 10 day vacation to Maui...thank goodness for frequent flyer miles!  Olivia met two new friends, both from California, and is planning to be pen pals with them until they meet again in person.  Lots of pictures to post!

Miss O at the Maui Ocean Center....Three visits!

Beachcombing!

This a turtle who just decided to come up on the beach for a rest.  While we watched, 14 turtles came up.

 Our favorite beach was Makena Bay.  The first three days the ocean was fairly churned up with high waves...after that we had tremendous snorkeling opportunities.

The favorite pastime time was engineering sand castles.  These are two of the beauties the girls built.

The second of two amazing sand castles.

The "Mini Cardinals" softball team.

Another big event in the family was that we are able to purchase our dream vacation condo in Estes Park, Colorado.  We hope to be spending more and more time there as the years roll on.

Alaska 2012

We headed to Alaska in late May for a week-long cruise.  AMAZING!  The first day was rough as we traveled out into the Pacific....eight foot swells rocked the ship a bit....quite a few folks were green around the gills.  Whales and dolphins were a common sight.  The naturalist on board came on the loudspeaker at regular intervals pointing out the various wildlife.

 This was the pilot's boat that met us as we entered the Inside Passage.  At this point the mountain were all around us and there was ice in the water.

 A happy family!

Miss O and Barb rafting a fairly swollen river in Skagway.  We hiked a short time on the Chilkoot Trail, which was one of the main trails that the Klondike Gold Rush prospectors used to reach the Yukon River.  From there they built boats to float their 2000 lbs of supplies to Dawson City.  Of the 100,000 miners to start the trip only about 30,000 actually reached their destination.  Of these, we were told that only 300 or so actually found gold.

 At the base of the Mindenhall Glacier runoff. 

My girl!

Colorado 2011-Estes Park

It's been a long time since we have been able to visit Colorado and stay at the YMCA of the Rockies, in Estes Park. The Y is situated right outside of the gate to Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the jewels in the National Park system. We hiked, rode horses, ate, hiked, ate, hiked, ate....you get the picture. We may be looking for a condo to purchase so that we can spend more time here. Olivia's comment after the first day of hiking was "That's hard!" It did not stop her from accompanying mom and dad the next day on a 10 mile round tripper though! What a trooper! The school year has now started and we'll be posting soon about activities and the like. Gymnastics still reigns high on Olivia's list and now we are adding band......OBOE is her chosen instrument. We hope that all have a great fall.

Holland 2011

We have made our annual pilgrimage to Holland, Michigan for a few days of warm days and cool nights. Ms. O has a new friend, Narissa, from Indianapolis, Indiana. The standard and yearly photo of the girls waving through the window in the pool is attached. Also included is the yearly sand castle project. Those who follow this blog know that Barb (Momma) and O/Emily/Matt/Shaughn always build a world class sand castle. Home today and life tomorrow. Wahhhhhhhhhhh........BUT! Colorado in about three weeks!

The Indy 500 (Holland, MI Edition)

Ms. O tries her hand at driving. It's only just beginning.

It's been a long time since we posted. Olivia is coming up on her 9th BD and we held her party today. Ten girls attended as we held an "Old Fashioned Birthday Party" here in our backyard. Pin the Tail on the Donkey, sack races, water balloon toss, slip-n-slide, hot dogs and real homemade ice cream were the events of the day. Olivia is involved in several activities. She continues to enjoy gymnastics and will be competing for the second season at US Gymnastics level 4. Her level 5 skills are coming along well but another year at level 4 will allow her to have an opportunity to hone her skills before jumping in to the more demanding level 5. Girl Scouts continues to hold her interest as Mom (Barb) is her leader. Barb has 28 girls registered for her troop next fall. It's as she says "We are the pig going down the boa constrictor." re: her troop and the local council. No other troop in the council is as large or as active. This is Barb's second go around with Girl Scouts as she was the leader for Olivia's older sister's troop....12 girls earned Gold Award. That's almost unheard of. Olivia is looking forward to 4th grade. Academically she fared well in 3rd, earning mostly As. Her reading skills improve weekly and we have her doing extra work at the local Sylvan Learning Center. Olivia enjoys this extra work and looks forward to reading more demanding literature. Olivia loves her animal friends....the three dogs and five cats that have taken up residence with out family. This picture is of Scout at Christmas.....the cats mostly left the tree and ornaments alone. Scout is our lone boy kitty....he never met a meal he didn't like....and is the most lovable cat we've ever seen. The newest adventure is Olivia starting band in the fall. She has selected oboe as her instrument. Should be fun. That's it for now. We continue to love every day with our terrific daughter. Never a dull moment.

November 2009

Thanksgiving 2009 has come and gone as we prepare for Christmas. The lights went up today on the house..... it seems like yesterday that we were taking them down after Christmas 2008. Olivia has been with us for two years and it seems as though she has always been here. She was, in reality.... here always in our hearts. She continues to develop her vocabulary and her academics are excellent. She asked to learn guitar as both her big brothers play. She takes weekly lessons and is doing well. She started gymnastics at the YMCA this past fall and has been advanced by invitation to join the "preteam". We are not sure really what this designation means as she will compete at level 3 (of 8) starting in January. She loves gymnastics and smiles constantly when she is doing her routines. The attached pictures include Halloween, Olivia and Emily at Disney last May, Olivia and Emily at "A Bug's Life (3D glasses), and Olivia and her brother Matthew. Fun times.

End of the school year

We are at the end of the school year. John's responsibilities are over for the time being. He will be judging DCI some this summer as well as teaching a research class.... but now has a few weeks off to pursue GOLF! Barb is gearing up to go to National Camp School for recertification as a BSA waterfront director, following which she will be running the pool for several weekends of Cub Scout camp as well as working her "hobby" job at Splash City. Emily and Matthew (with a freshly minted masters degree in International Relations and Commerce from the Patterson School for International Relations) are home. Emily for the summer and Matthew until his summer job starts, we think in Virginia. Emily will be working at Splash City as a lifeguard this summer while her boyfriend, Andrew, will be most likely working a roofing job in Connecticut. Olivia has a few weeks of school left but then will be attending summer school for six weeks half-days. We think this is good as she needs to continue to catch up. Reading is coming along but is a bit slow for what we thought it might be. She loves to have books read to her and we are most happy to do so. Spelling is excellent in school but sometimes retention several weeks down the road is a problem. We need to do more review with her on words she has already had. Math is fine.... she understands concepts well. She has been especially excited in school about space and the solar system. We later sawa book at Boarders that had an austronaut on the cover. She wanted me to buy the book because she said she was going to be an austronaut. Cool. She got the book. We believe that she is an exceptionally bright person with an amazing personality. Her guitar teacher asked if she was always this bossy at home...... to that we said , well, yes. She apparently told him he needed to clean up his studio. Olivia and Emily continue to bond. Emily is an amazing teacher and is very patient, explaining all that Olivia does not understand. Watching them do homework at the dinner table is a joy. Sisters. No doubt. We have a Disney trip planned in a couple of week. This is the girls 2008 Christmas present. We are hoping that it will be warm but not too crowded. The above photo is of Matthew and Olivia. What a pair. The other is Matthew and Ambassador Cavanaugh at Matt's graduation. Ambassador Cavanaugh is the Director of the Patterson School. Is anyone looking to hire a smart, politically savvy good looking 24 year old?

The Holidays

The holidays were very good for the Bell/Hunter clan. Olivia learned how Baba cooked rib roast. She wanted to wear his traditional chef's hat (Baba was given this hat as a gift several years ago). All of the kids were home for Christmas as well as John's Mom. Dick and Marie along with Barb's brother Van and the twins, Grant and Gwinn, came for a visit on the 27th. Emily's boyfriend Andrew was here as well. A full house. One day Olivia came downstairs saw Grandpa and hopped right up next to him for some snuggles. Grandpa thought this was about the best Christmas gift ever. Matthew, Emily, Andrew and Olivia went to the zoo one day resulting in a terrific picture of the three on a giant bug. The zoo is one of out favorite places. Matthew has been a Zoo Parent for many year for two bears, Greg and Gary. They were apparently quite animated this visit. Santa left one of his reindeer following his visit on Christmas Eve. He looks strangely like Bradley. Hope Santa doesn't miss him. Olivia was the "Christmas Elf" this year. This position is traditionally given to the youngest family member and is a most important role. The Elf reads the names on presents and passes them out to the correct recipient. A big responsibility. Emily has been the Christmas Elf for many years but this year passed the hat. We are now back to school (A+ on a big spelling test last week!) All is good.

Bradley has made himself right at home. Somehow he knows that Olivia is her mistress. He immediately laid down next to her in bed and slept with her all night. We don't know the breed. Several are present but we think some Golden Retriever and English Setter....maybe some Springer as well. We love having our dogs with us. They are all great spirits and wonderful company.

Bradley Wonderdog

Here is the newest addition to the Hunter/Bell family. BRADLEY WONDERDOG!

Holland 2

Michigan Vacation Part 1-August 2008

It has been a very busy summer for all of us. Barb has worked as the waterfront director for the Boy Scouts at Camp Warren Levis, Emily has worked non-stop as a lifeguard at Splash City, a local water park, Olivia attended five weeks of summer school and then YMCA day camp, and JB taught a class and judged for Drum Corps International, culminating in judging Championship semi finals. After all this frantic activity we decided that a few down days were in order. A trip all in our family have enjoyed is going to Lake Ranch condos in Holland, Michigan.  Holland is about an eight hour drive from Edwardsville, located on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Barb has been going to Lark Ranch since she was a little girl and one of the first vacations we took when Shaughn, Matthew and Emily were young was to Lake Ranch.  We thought this would be a great place to show Olivia her first beach.  As you can see from the video, she had no trouble getting right into the spirit of it all.  What a beach bunny!  Holland, Michigan, is a beautiful city on Lake Michigan.  Our condo was right on the water.  One morning we were awakened to a very loud WHOOOOOOOOOOT  WHOOOOOOOOOOT of a very large Lake Michigan ship transiting the canal next to the condo.  That will get you right out of bed!  Other attractions in Holland (as one might imagine) are the Dutch Village and Windmill Island.  Olivia had a terrific time discovering yet another culture.... I am sure that her head is spinning right about now.  We watched the Olympics at night and played at the beach all day.  After dinner each evening we walked to a small general store for ice cream.  All in all this was a fabulous vacation. Part two video to come soon!

Some Photos

A beautiful girl with her new yellow outfit. Her favorite color!



Olivia and Mama blowing bubbles!