MORE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION

Dear Family,

We had three more graduations last week making the total of five high school graduations among the grand kids.  Here is a picture of the Wirthlin 2012 graduating class. there are Madeline, Douglas, Natalie, Rachel and Madeline.  Madeline on the left is going to the Sorbonne, and Madeline on the right is going to the University of Utah.

First we went to the graduation of Douglas held at an Arena where they usually do the rodeo.  This was a huge graduation with about 600 graduating, the men in orange robes.  Am not sure they had a Merit Scholar in the group but ten also graduated from a junior college with advanced placement classes taken  through the summer.

Here is also  a picture of Kristina Douglas and Doug the Dad. All during this graduations, the class managed to keep about a  dozen beach balls in the air during the graduation. We celebrated with a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and it was good!

A few days later we attended two more graduations held in the Hunstman Center on the university of Utah campus.

 First was Madeline's graduation from West High School. There were about 300 graduates there.  Gemina's sisters from New York, and California came for the event and we all sat together.  The class president was a large Tongan Guy who will play football for University of Michigan this fall.

Here  is a shot the way some of the Tongans came to the graduation.  They had these beautiful wreaths wrapped around them so you could hardly see their faces with interwoven cash bills.  Couldn't resist taking their picture.  Not sure this would have floated at an Andover graduation.

The parking was terrible at the U so I waited there for Madeline's graduation.  Mom took Rick and Gemina home and Rick sent a subway sandwich and drink for resuscitation.

Then there was Madeline's graduation from Highland High School.  
I  had to hurriedly take this photo of Maddie before she rushed off to her seat.  Paul, Cheryl, Johnny, Lauren  Mary Claire and Mom joined me at the  top of the Huntsman Center.  Little Johnny played with my iPhone the entire time.  Maddie will go to the U and start this summer.  I am getting to be a connoisseur of High School graduations having sat through 16 of our own and now five more here in Utah.

I reflected that we did not do so much celebrating after the graduations in Michigan; they were always on Sunday so there were no big resteraunt get togethers afterward.  They all went to the senior all night party which was pretty well chaperoned and the kids had a great time.

This time, Rick and Gemina threw a big party at the Porcupine  when all the graduations was over celebrating all graduates. And here is the gang: Rick, Paul, Cheryl, Emily, Gemina, Madeline, Douglas. Natalie, Rachel , Madeline, John, Rayanne, Mike and the Mom.  It was really fun and so good to sit and visit with the graduates sitting at the end writing in each others yearbook.  Kinda heart warming!

Well this is all a preview of the Family Reunion coming up the fourth of July on which there have been innumerable phone calls, emails and constant discussion and planning.  We look so forward to seeing everyone then.

We are proud of our High School graduates and proud of all you are doing.

Bis Dann, Mom and Dad

MINI VACATION IN SPOKANE

Dear Family ,

We went up to Spokane again.  Rob gave me another treatment for my left eye which has remarkably improved the vision.  He injected an anti-angiogensis drug that cuts down on macular edema. My associate at the Mass. General Hospital, Judah Volkman, discovered the process while he was in the Navy as a resident and then did much research on this phenomenon.  I thought he might get a Nobel Prize for this but he passed away.

Anyway, Rob and Jeff and their families worked out a stay at a resort on Priest Lake in Northern Idaho close to Canada.  Here is a picture of the lake on a rainy morning.  The area reminded me so much of our family vacations camping out in a large tent on lake Sabaeo in upper Maine.  We all stayed in an apartment complex.

They were full of surprises: we got up at 5:30 AM and got ready for a fishing trip on the lake.  They reserved a boat and a captain who really knew the lake and we fished for lake trout.

We caught a lot of fish!!!!  Here is Julius with his Dad's lucky fishing hat and one of the fish he caught.

There were a lot of fish marked on the monitor.  We were the only ones on this lake which was 30 miles long complete with islands and bald eagles.

Here is Zander, Anna and Julius with a few of the eighteen fish we caught ranging from three to eight pounds.

We got back and immediately had a fish fry and it was great.

More surprises as Jeff had some Maine Lobsters flown in fed express and then I really felt like I was back in Maine.

We used to have these great vacations in Maine.  First thing I bought when I got on the staff at the Mass. General was buy a 12' x 14' tent and an Old Town canoe and we would take ten or eleven kids up there camping in the wilds.  Cheryl was up there as a baby even.. We fished, swam, picked tons of wild blueberries and one morning, back then, I cooked 110 blueberry pancakes.

This trip to upper Idaho was very nostalgic.  Well the next day, Mom and Eva drove down to Spokane so Anna and Julia could participate in they ballet dress rehearsal.  We spent the time pushing another hobby and it was total fun.

Here was a great place for target shooting and plinking and a safe place to do a job on some tannerite, not as dramatic as this video but a two pounder sent up a plume about 20 feet and the reaction is universal.  Jeff got one with open iron sights also spectacular.

Well it was a truly great time.  I am trying to find a medical excuse to go up there regularly.. maybe they should try the right eye!

Thanks to Rob, Eva, Jeff, Tammy and all the cute kids for a truly great mini vacation!!

Alles Gute, Dad and Mom