Lake and the Norris clan part 1/2

We went to the lake house of Cam's fam to meet up with my brother as well. It was a fun trip with such an amazing setting. Imagine waking up to this scene every morning, life is beautiful.

My brother beat us there and rearranged the fridge to welcome everyone else. Not many letters were left!

Speaking of which, here is my brother with his son, Liam playing with cups on the couch. 

There was a bit of cousin rivalry between Nevlin & Liam, especially when it came to the attention of their Busha and Gran Tat.

"Come on Busha, this way..."

200th post! Nashville, TN

We've had the pleasure of blogging for cyberspace for 199 posts, with this one to be a real knock-out. Cam & I headed to Tennessee for a little get-a-way for us as a couple of days. My parents did us the very kind favor of looking after little Nev. We ate like royalty with pancake breakfast and BBQ dinners.

To Tex-Mex lunches and ice tea with lemon aid a flowing.

We went to the capital building full of its classical architecture. I particularly enjoyed the grounds including all of the fountains.

Of course what trip to Music City USA would be complete without flying pigs adjacent to a famous theater.

They Ryman Theater was expecting Nash Bridges the night we visited. His name is on the sign behind Cam, but you can't see it here.

We also saw the Music hall of fame with all of its inductees. I didn't know most of them, but found this wicked cool car complete with over a dozen guns.

After a long day of walking around, we took a spell to listen to some live music from the Hard Rock Cafe right on the water while sipping a lemonade.

In addition to a morning where we almost escaped from a game, we spent our last morning at President Jackson's house, the Hermitage. It was a modest building, but extensive grounds. It would have been nice to spend more time, but we needed to get back to Nevlin and my parents. More family visits to Maryland on the horizon!

HAPPY 200th POST EVERYONE!

Party for 40 second part

Nevlin is the fourth generation of both my and Cam's family. He was very lucky to be able to meet one maternal grandmother, Babci & see Busha again. Here are the four generations. He also got to meet his Cam's Ggpa (Cam's mom's father) who you will see in a later post.

What party would be complete without a puppy! Here's my cousin Jim's newest family addition.

Many of my dad's first cousins were able to join us to celebrate the wedding from a few decades ago. All of these people are related through their mothers, who were the 5 snoop sisters.

Nev even had a little play buddy for part of the afternoon. He doesn't exactly play "with" his friends yet, but at least he is trying to learn how to share and get along, most of the time.

Those glasses remained a hit, even after the festivities.

NEXT POST: 200th!!! That one will be a throw back to some of our earliest posts, just about C & E! Stayed tuned.

40 year party

My parents celebrated 40 yrs of being married in Sept of this year and we surprised them with a party while I was home with Cam & Nev. It turned out to be a great time, with lots of food of course. 

Nevlin was able to recover and maintain control over all of the balls available. He even scored a turn with Busha's glasses.

A photo that my parents took 40 years ago on their wedding day was similar to this shot. I was about as close to an official photographer as they ever had!

This was the bridal party from those many years ago. Still looking pretty good!

Cleve-berg family time

Most evenings, ok all evenings, concluded in story time. Nevlin had the choice of several different voices and stories. Some nights he even got to have two different people read to him at the same time. 

He also got to spend some QT with cousins like Jess. Teach me chop sticks please!

Lots of good food and hearty laughs with all the cuzes at Cioci's new place over some chicken paprikash.

There was even time for a bowling night out with friends. Here's Cam about to roll a spare. Knock 'em down partner!

Nevlin had a play date with my high school friend Moc's daughter and son. Here is Lauren and Nev sharing some sand play. It was a fun sunny day to share with friends. 

Zoo & Aquarium

We went to the Cleveland zoo and were able to act a bit younger than we generally get to do. Many of my family have listened out of these ears...they can be donkey ears, or kangaroo ears or you decide.

We all headed to the zoo, my parents, grandmother, Cam, Nev & I and took turns pulling or pushing or carrying the snacks. Cam was in charge of the camera. 

Not sure if you've noticed over the few years, but I am obsessed with cutouts. I'm going to create an entire photo album of them one of these days, once I'm finished collecting. 

Lucky for us, we found another cutout at the Cleveland Aquarium. It was Captain Nemo and the sea monster he befriended.

The aquarium had many fresh and exotic fish. Nevlin got to pet a turtle, which he was quite fascinated with but unsure to touch. There also was a walk-through tunnel where sea creatures were both next to you and above you.

The best was when the octopus decided to move from one side of the tank over your head to the other. He was particularly busy opening plastic jars full of treats put into the tank by the staff.

Next up: the family in Ohio and then a P-A-R-T-Y!

Head "West" young man

We basically went so far west that we went around the world to get to Ohio. Driving downtown back home in Cleveland, I got to see some of the old familiar sites, like the theatre. 

 And a new one in the same neighborhood, this gorgeous chandelier.

The market is always one of my go-to places in the home town and it never disappoints. Nevlin enjoyed the sights and sounds and of course all the food. Here he is enjoying a kabinosa or smokee.

There were lots of things to try, so we went twice while we were in Cleveland. This used to be near my brother's high school and also Gram's house. Tat was having a blast showing Nevlin around. Sweet butter, yum.

They opened up the balcony area where you can look at everything from above. It was virtually impossible to grab a great photo of all three of us, especially when Nev is so obsessed with balls and distracted by the smallest of things. More Cleveland family posts to come.