Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Everyone loves Christmas.. except for maybe Ava when she has to get her picture taken with Santa....

We wanted to use this for our xmas card this year but apparently this is poor taste?

Wishing everyone the best this holiday season, we love you!

Allan, Kathleen & Ava

Macy's Parade

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

This morning we went to Diana's cousin's apartment to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The apartment is on the 7th floor overlooking Central Park West, and we had a nice view of the bands and floats and balloons.

You'll all be happy to know that Neil Diamond (not shown) is alive and well, at least well enough to stand on one of the floats from 80th down to 34th St.

Snoopy (also not shown below) was looking particularly worn, from our vantage point, perhaps even more weathered than Neil.

A few pictures:


Margaret with her step-cousin Georgia and (floating behind) Ugly Doll.

Lachlan missed Smurf and Spiderman and a few others due to a minor faceplant stepping out onto the balcony. His noggin was not fit for publishing without an NC-17 rating.

The parade just kept going and going and going...

New Orleans was well represented at the parade this year.

These are southern belles dressed up like candy.

Lachlan's Trip to the Barber

Here is Lachlan at the kid barber, watching Elmo on the tv, driving his car, and wondering which toy he should pick out next (answer: bubble stuff).

Just like I remember from my haircuts when I was a boy.

River Road House

Hey, it's the same as last time! Look closer, Holmes. Upper roof has shingles, eaves, soffits and finished dormers. No need to climb up there again. Electric service, water and septic all installed. Isn't missing much now, just windows, plumbing, wiring, insulation, appliances, doors, floor-wall-ceiling coverings, hand rails, driveway, siding and TV screen.

James' Scottish Vacation

In a moment of weakness this summer, James agreed to go on a family vacation to Scotland.

Here's his story...

James allows himself to be chauffeured everywhere...

James explores the

Kintyre peninsula...

James relaxes on the Isle of Mull...

James marvels at the ancient Callenish Stones....

James shops for Harris tweed...

Ava Uh Oh

Allan tried to upload this and had problems so now I'm giving it a try because it's so cute we want everyone to see Ava.

On August 6, 1991 the world changed...

It was 20 years ago today that British physicist Tim Berners-Lee posted a description of a project he called the "World Wide Web" to an online newsgroup, effectively revolutionizing modern life. Working for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, Berners-Lee invented his service to allow scientists to easily share and access information via the Internet. Although the infrastructure of the "Net" had been growing for years, it was until then a highly technical system known mostly to academics and scientists like Berners-Lee. The World Wide Web, as Berners-Lee conceived it, would use the Net to connect documents with clickable links — or hypertext — and make them searchable.
Under the encouraging headline "Try it," Berners-Lee's post included information on accessing the first Web server and a Web browser prototype, and gave the address — or "coordinates," as he called it then — of an example website he'd created. This Web page — the world's very first — further explained the project he'd nicknamed "W3," explaining how to search the Web and how to build your own page. Academia began using the service first, then industry. In early 1993, Mosaic was released, the first Web-browsing software for PCs and Apple Macintosh computers. Anyone with an Internet connection could now surf — and help create — the Web.
Berners-Lee had written in that first post: "The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone." Today the word "much" seems quite an understatement, and "academic" almost laughable. But it is astonishing to be reminded that so much of what's on the Web is "freely available" because Berners-Lee created the Web for free. For his donation, he was named by Time magazine as one of the top 20 thinkers of the 20th century, and was awarded a knighthood in 2004.
Berners-Lee said: "The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished."

The Presidentials

Bill has given me permisson to publish this email he sent to us:

This picture was taken yesterday (July 12) afternoon. I was less than 10 feet away when I took it. There is nothing wrong with the camera--just a typical day on Mt. Washington: 25 ft. visibility and 40-50 mph winds.

We did all 11 peaks in the Presidential Range. We started at 6:30 AM and finished at 9:30 PM. The fog finally cleared around 4 PM. Danielle did great and had a great time. However, she now knows what it feels like to "hit the wall."

Advanced Roofing 101

The work continues...three sides are done!

Saturday, June 18, on our way to Allison and Pete's, Dad and I visited the Saint Gaudens National Historic Site where artist and sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens worked in Cornish. Here is a picture of Dad imagining himself in a big battle.

This picture shows 1/7th of our kids with 1/4th of our Grands.
From the left: Libby, Leslie, Ava with Allan, Brianna and Michael

And, here's Brianna showing us all her she's taking on her six month trip to Southeast Asia and India. You rock, Brianna!

Aunt Geanna, Uncle Nilson and Dad

Aunt Geanna blew into town from AZ and wanted to see as much family as she could and to eat seafood and have a tour of the River Road house...in that order. So, that's the order it happened in. Nilson and Judy came with their oldest daughter, Susan. Bill, Melanie and Brianna came. Cy came. Allison, Leslie and Libby came. Geanna brought pictures from waayyyyy back...many stories etc. I managed to get one picture of the siblings together.

Snowbird 2011

This winter I went skiing with Emmaline and Elliot at the local Snowbird resort. This year they've had over 60' of snow. On this particular snowy day there was three feet of new powder and I felt sorry for anyone who had the misfortune of falling down. Some were half-buried in snow, others searching hopelessly for lost skis, etc.

On one run I pulled up next to Emmaline and through the blizzard we observed an especially stricken skier 50 yards away who only had a few pieces of clothing sticking up out of the snow. After about 10 seconds Emmaline said, "That's Elliot".

"What??!!!" I let fly a few choice words for not saying anything sooner and skied over to Elliot. Sure enough, there he was, totally covered in snow. He couldn't really get up on his own but to my relief he was ok - and seemed comfortable enough.

I had to get a photo, so here it is...

While I was taking the photo some guy 20 yds down the hill said, "Hey look, that guy's taking a photo of him!"

When I was done I put my camera away and worked on digging him out. When I got him out I realized to my surprise that it wasn't Elliot after all, but some other kid wearing the same color helmet and coat.

I stammered some mumbo-jumbo about how I thought he was my kid. Then Emmaline, who had skied over with me said, "Dad, I was trying to tell you it wasn't Elliot!" Apparently she had recognized immediately that it wasn't him and had tried to tell me.

I chewed her out again, this time for not trying harder to tell me. Confusion reigned on the mountain that day, I can tell you. The 'unknown kid' got rescued in any case.

Where was Elliot? Already safely down the slope waiting for us...

Rare photo of Sasquatch and his campfire near Belknap Mountain.

Today is...

Allan's birthday! Happy birthday, Allan!

Missing any mail?

This year it'll be ten years since we bought the Sprucewood house. Recently we rented it out and had all mail forwarded to Utah. Weeks went by and no mail arrived. Finally the US Mail service managed to get one piece to us... addressed to William Tidd of Tirel Corporation.

Then came the Christmas card to Betty & Jim Tidd from their good friends the Ewells who live in the town next to us here in Utah. It was strange getting a card that had traveled so far for someone else and from someone so close. We didn't get many Christmas cards this year so it was appreciated nonetheless.

Since then we've gotten shopping fliers for Cy, a BYU magazine for John, something for Allan (can't remember what) and an AARP card for.... well, let's not reveal anyone's age here...

The really strange thing is why we don't get anything for Allison. Doesn't she care about us?

Oh, and eventually we did get some mail for Jeff & Monique Tidd.

Happy Valentine's Day

What? No chocolate for me on Valentine's Day??? I'll get you!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

-Ava

Adrian Comes Home

After serving as a missionary for two years in Washington state, Adrian arrived in Salt Lake City Tuesday afternoon...

Kimball Family Line

Here's the Kimball line as best as I can tell... A little town information follows...

Elizabeth Nelson Kimball

Born 26, June 19?, Haverhill, Mass.

Herbert Amos Kimball

Born 30 May, 1915, Haverhill, Mass.

Leonard Hazen Kimball

Born 24 July, 1879, Haverhill, Mass.

Frederick Kimball

Born 31 July, 1841, Haverhill, Mass.

Hazen Kimball

Born 26 Nov, 1792, Haverhill, Mass.

Benjamin Kimball

Born 26 Aug, 1756, Haverhill, Mass.

Richard Kimball

Born 13 October, 1732, Bradford, Mass.

Richard Kimball

Born 30 December, 1654, Ipswich, Mass. or Rowley, Mass.

Benjamin Kimball

Born 16 May, 1637, Ipswich, Mass.

Richard Kimball

Born 1595, Rattlesden, Suffolk, England

Henry Harrye Kimball

Born 4 January, 1565, Brettenham, England

Henry Kimball

Born about 1510, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

Henry Kimball

Born about 1460, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

John Kimball

Born about 1428, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

Thomas Kimball

Born about 1396, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

Thomas Kimball

Born 1370, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

William Kembold

Born about 1337, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

Simon Kembold

Born about 1307, Hitcham, Suffolk, England

Bradford was originally part of the town of Rowley, and was called "Rowley on the Merrimack", "Rowley Village by the Merrimack", "Merrimac Lands", or just "Merrimack". The east parish of Bradford (established in 1726) separated in 1850 and was incorporated as the town of Groveland on March 8, 1850. The remaining west part of Bradford was annexed to the city of Haverhill in 1897.

Ipswich was founded in 1630, 7 years before Benjamin Kimball was born there.

Hitcham, England is 80 miles NE of London.

The Tidds

Here's the Tidd family line as best as I can tell. I'd like to verify the older portion of the line in England because the locations jump around a bit too much for my liking. Coming up next.... the Kimball line back to 1307....

James Alfred Tidd

Born 16 Jun, 1944, Georgetown, Mass.

Ellsworth Hartley Tidd

Born 16 Feb, 1920, Boston Mass

Alfred Elmer Tidd

Born 27 August, 1893, Monson, ME

Elmer Ellsworth Tidd

Born 12 Mar, 1864, Haverhill, Mass.

Cyrus Tidd

Born 5 Nov, 1828, Georgetown, Mass.

Samuel Charles Tidd

Born 1784, Woburn, Mass.

Samuel Tidd

Born 1758, Rowley, Mass.

(Lieut) Jonathan Tidd

Born 7 Nov, 1724, Woburn, Mass.

Ebenezer Tidd

Born 1690, Woburn, Mass.

John Tidd

Born 26 Feb, 1654, Woburn, Mass.

John Tidd

Born 1618, Ipswich, England

John Tidd

Christening 1594, West Riding, Yorkshire, England

John Tidd

Born 1563, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England

Mr. Tidd

Born 4 May, 1534, Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, England

South of Libreville?

From Joe Wilson's book the Politics of Truth:

"In August, 1992, I arrived in Libreville, the capital of Gabon as the newly minted ambassador...

...Gabon is best known internationally as the site of the leper hospital and mission of Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, in Lamberene. The country sits astride the equator on the west coast of Africa. On the north side of the equator, water goes down the drains counterclockwise; on the south side, clockwise, and on the equator itself, straight down, a phenomenon easily tested by driving just an hour from Libreville. A mere flush of a toilet would tell you which hemisphere you were in - that is, if you could find a proper flush toilet in the lightly populated nation."

Tidds in Barbados

After a delightful and relaxing California Christmas we put the girls on a plane to Boston (where a 2nd Christmas awaited them) and, following some rather inconvenient and uncomfortable travel delays, we packed Lachlan on another plane and headed south. We arrived in Barbados a day late, Lachlan and myself laden with colds of the sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can't rest variety, despite which we had a wonderful few days of warm weather. Here are some photos:

1. Lachlan ready for action in his certified "Sun and Food Particle Resistant" body suit




2. Diana and Lachlan at the beach on the West Coast.

3. Lachlan investigates the ocean for the first time, the only time he needed any encouragement.

4. Diana and Lachlan at the cliffs on the North Coast.

5. Peering over the edge. The spray can shoot 50 feet on a calm day.

6. Lachlan and Dada at the wildlife preserve. What do you see, Lachlan?

7. I don't know, Dad. What is it?

Don't look at me, Lachie, I haven't the foggiest idea.

8. We saw lots of turtles, many laying in the path, and a monster python (not shown, not laying in the path)

9. And we saw lots and lots of monkeys. They roam free on the preserve and were jumping on the hood of the car, running around underfoot, and generally acting like aggressive squirrels. Except for the grooming, I haven't seen squirrels scratch each others backs like this.

10. Probably better if you stay up high, Lachlan. Most of these critters are bigger than you.

11. On Sunday we drove over to the East Coast, directly on the Atlantic. The undertow is too strong for swimming, but its a hot international surfing spot.

12. Despite the rigors of babysitting, we did enjoy a nice meal or two. This is the view from Sunday Brunch at the Atlantic Hotel, on the East Coast.

We spent the last day/night on the South Coast, probably the most relaxing of all (we had a babysitter, go figure) to the point that we took no pictures. We flew home feeling spoiled, hoping we'll go back again someday.

Ava at the Museum

January 2011