Sharon has a second grandbaby!

Benjamin Tate Wilder

Jeff Wilder (son of Sharon Firsich) and wife Heidi Andrus welcomed Benjamin into their family August 12, 2008 at 7:08 a.m.  Benjamin weighed 9lb 8oz at birth. 

Ruby is delighted to have a baby brother.

 

 

 

 

Ann and John are grandparents!

October 24, 2007

Ewan Beaulieu is now 2 months old!

 

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Herschelb Ewan Beaulieu was born to Matt and Emily Beaulieu (daughter of Ann and John Beaulieu) August 23, 2007 at 4:58p.m.  His stats:  weight 7lb 7oz, length 20 1/2inches.  Grammy is a tad late entering this, hence the pictures are of Ewan at 1 month plus.

     

Ann was able to spend the first two weeks with the Beaulieu family in Lexington, KY and had a wonderful time cuddling her new GRAND baby!   She returned home Sept. 16th and John flew to KY to meet his grandson Oct. 4th.   He is only staying 4 days.  Then Grammy will fly back to KY on the 13th to stay another month.  (Someone had to stay home with Toby who sat on my suitcase when I came home and looked at me as if to say, no more travels!)

The Smith family in England

In late December, 2006, Jeremy, Bridgie, Madeleine, Fiona, Isaac, and Naomi Smith flew to what would be their home for the next two or three years….London area!   Jeremy’s work with Xerox gave him the opportunity to work abroad on a project and the family jumped at the chance for this new experience.  Jeremy and Bridgie had flown over prior to the move and located a wonderful older home in Harpenden which is about 30 minutes N of London.

(I must apologize for the quality of the pictures in this posting.  I don’t know why the lovely pictures provided by Sheila and Bridgie are not coming through as cooperatively for me.  But I am just learning about this Blogging business and am hopeful I will get better with time!  …AB)

The children are enrolled in local schools.  Unfortunately Isaac is in a different school and hence much of Bridgie’s day is spend  delivering and fetching children from the two school which are in opposite directions and neither is close to the house.  Here are the three oldest in their school uniforms.

They have been enjoying visiting different areas of England and this picture was taken up in the huge ferris wheel in London.

Here they are on a treasure hunt at Leeds Castle at the “burning bench” that the dragon torched….this trip over Easter weekend took them also to Canterbury.

The family also had a week in Tunsia.  Bridgie is planning to travel to the Isle of Man for the family reunion the first weekend in August, 2007 and the entire family will help Grandpa Cullen celebrate his birthday in Ireland mid August.  Meanwhile they are running a brisk B&B on their own premises and Sharon, Kathleen, and I are on their register for July 24  departing early July 27th!

You Ai Hope School Dedication

Julian, his two sisters, Christine and Geraldine and all three spouses, plus Julian’s daughter Susan traveled to China for the March 9, 2007 dedication of a school whose existence is owed largely to the hard work and generosity of these folks. (Ann said that, Julian wouldn’t) 

Now here are a few pictures from the dedication with Julian’s words.  (By the way, Julian has many, many wonderful pictures of this event which he has generously offered to share if you will just contact him at jtaplin@dca.net) 

First the folks on the bus to Tiangquan, southwest of Chengdu. 

Julian:

Susan & Carolyn (with Chinese friend):

Christine & Claude:

 

John & Geraldine:

The last part of the drive is over barely passable track, through poor but beautiful countryside.

Alert photographers capture first views of the finished building.  More beautiful than I had ever hoped!

Only twelve months before, this was the view from the same place.

The dedication begins……

Students make us members in the school by vesting us with a Red Scarf.

All eyes turn to top student LiChong, who, with GaoHuan and friend holding, flawlessly reads the students’ proclamation and letter of thanks.

I make remarks with Zhang Xiang Rong.

Others make remarks.  Then teachers present the ribbon to be cut.  We line up and cut the ribbon to the expertly timed roar of fireworks.

We are formally open! 

After more ceremony with wonderful student dancers, the school newspaper wants an interview — They include, “Will you continue to support us?”

Later we go to the roof and see at the back the 300 year old building, first a temple, then the first school.  For safety, it will be gone when next we visit.  It served as best it could for a long, long time.

Children begin to make their way home over the roads and paths, some an hour and more from home.

But when the children come back tomorrow, the new building stands ready to serve them, hopefully for decades.

You Ai means, “Have affection” or “Have love”.  The name was selected by the students.

Acknowledgements. Many family and friends have given generously, very generously indeed, to make this project a reality.

Next steps: We are collecting for the kitchen.  With it, children with more than 3 hour walks each day can start 5-day boarding.

The Newsletter Blog Begins!

From Ann Cannell Beaulieu:

With the help of dear Heather Bolesh, the artistic wonder-gal who created and maintains the Cannells-of-simi website, I am starting a new deal for the Newsletter portion of the website.  We are going BLOGGING!  Heather suggested this as I way I could maintain the Newsletter portion myself.  And I have to tell you, that spoke to my burning desire to be a reporter!

Of course it will be up to the rest of you to give me material so that my first grandson is not the only item featured on this blog (warning, he arrives in August so get ready)!

There IS one other important event coming in August:  Several of us “Cannell cousins” are traveling to the Isle of Man for a first-ever reunion with cousins who live on the Isle of Man. For those unable to attend we will fill you in with news and pictures at this site. 

This year the Isle of Man reunion will take the place of the annual family reunion which is held at cousin Ruthie’s family farm the first Sunday in August.