Massachusetts Family

As stated in this post, the main purpose for our trip to Massachusetts was to see family. Don's Aunt Elva is 99 years young. Her birthday is in July, but we missed it due to our summer adventures and Ashley's summer adventures. We found a rare quiet weekend and made the drive to New England, spotting only the earliest glimpses of fall.

We had a lovely visit with Aunt Elva and her children, Martin and Helen, and their spouses, Franca and Paul. Unfortunately Elva's hearing aid was not working well, but she still smiled and was as engaged as possible in our lively conversations. Since she has been wheelchair and bed bound following her stroke, we visited in her nursing home.

We like capturing a picture of the oldest and youngest Pillsbury.

Her other daughter, Nancy, and her husband, Rich, live in another state.

Behind her nursing home is Jamaica Pond, a park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. If you don't know who that is, look him up. He has designed some of the most famous, and most beautiful, parks in the country.

The next day we visited my newest cousin. So new, I call her NCB -- New Cousin Barbara. She was an Ancestry.com find. Unfortunately she couldn't stop at the realization of being part of our awesome family, she had to do more research and discovered we are not biologically related after all. We love her and her family anyway.

This time we did not leave without getting a picture together.

We finally met "Mahk" a Bostonian who loves Bruce Springsteen. 

Brett hung out at home checking out the construction equipment while we went on a walk around the reservoir behind their house. I'm already in the park about a mile from our house several times a week, could you imagine how often I would be running and walking on these trails?

 They lent Ashley Mark's bike and Even gave Ashley the guided tour around the loop while the adults chatted. 

Ahh... simply beautiful.

Unfortunately we had to head back into the car for the drive home. We made it back just in time to make the first WiNK service of the new year.

Perhaps not a very exciting blog post, but I was excited to see family and wanted to share that excitement with the few of you who actually read the Pillsbury Press.