2009 Highlights...Apr...May...June

It has finally started to warm up. We have been busy doing the typical Spring chores,
Cleaning up outside, mowing etc. I will have to say we are looking forward to warm weather.
Celebrating birthdays in April were Jack Vanover on the 5th, Earl Vanover 7th, P A Bowler 13th,Ron Vanover and Tim Vanover 14th, Ronnie Deel 22nd, Gorgeous, Beautiful and great cook my aunt Kate Pass (as opposed to Sonny's aunt Kate Pass) 23rd, Jennifer Vanover 29th, and Jessica Vanover 30th.

2009 Highlights...Jan...Feb...Mar...Continued

February was a very busy month, thanks to Margaret she helped me keep my sanity.

A group of 19 from our church met at a local restaurant for an early Valentines day dinner on February 7th. We had a great meal as well as fellowship.

We met Jake and Tammy at Winterplace Ski Lodge in Beckley W. Va. on February 14th. It was a beautiful February day with temps in the 5o's. Margaret and I along with Jake, Tammy and their children and a couple of their freinds had a day of fun. Margaret zipped down the tubing lanes with the best of them.We left for Nashville on February 16th and arrived at Aunt Kate's early in the evening.
Guess what..............She had dinner ready. She had prepared an awesome meal. We ate and had a great visit. Unfortunately, Sheila was sick and unable to make it. ( I ate her portion) The next day was a long one as we left early the next morning and drove to Dickson and Franklin. We had good visits with Uncle Jack and Anita, Uncle Charles and Jean and James and Azelia. Later that day we headed back to Nashville and went to dinner with Uncle Luther and Aunt Ray. Aunt Kate was her courteous self. Not only did she open her house to us but she drove us to the airport the next morning. We landed in LA around 11:30 and immediately headed for the Princess cruise terminal in San Pedro, Ca. The ship headed out for Hawaii at 4 pm that afternoon. We enjoyed good food and great entertainment. We were on the water for 4 days and nights without seeing land. ( 3,000 miles) Our first port was Hilo, known as "The Big Island". On our shore excursionwe drove to the Volcanoes National Park. That trip included a trip up Mount Mauna Kea. The summit was 13,796 feet, which is the highest peak in Hawaii. We visited the Kilauea volcano, one of only a few active volcanoes in the world. Later that day we had lunch at the Volcanoes Restaurant and had a great view of Kilauea Volcano. On our way back to the ship we visitedAkaka Falls and visited several lava fields. The tour concluded with a tour through a 400 footlava tube that was over 300 years old.
Our second port the next day was the island of Oahu in Honolulu. We visited the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, the USS Oklahoma Memorial and the USS Missouri "The Mighty MO" where the declaration of surrender for WWII was signed. On our way back to the ship we visited the US Nationl Cemetery.
Our third port of call in Kauai was cancelled because of high seas with waves over 14 feet. Princess Cruiselines gave us the royal treatment because of this and pampered us with food and entertainment.Our last port of call in Hawaii was the island of Maui. We enjoyed whale watching and an Atlantis Submarine dive trip. This was one of the highlights of our entire trip. The submarine went down to 128 feet and we saw some unusual aquatic sights. We ate at a sandwich shop and visited some of the shops while in Maui before heading back to the ship.
We headed back to LA and made our last port of call stop in Ensenada, Mexico. Even though we did disembark the ship, we were advised against any shore excursions because of the political unrest and drug wars going on at that time.
We docked back at LA on March 4th and headed back to Nashville. Sheila picked us up at the airport and Yes Aunt Kate had dinner ready again.....what a woman. Margaret and I both said we were ready for some good home cooking. Aunt Kate must have known......She had soup beans and corn bread. I love that woman!!!!! After a good nights rest we headed back to reality. We made it home safe and sound on the 5th. (Thank you God)
Celebrating birthdays in February were Mary Vanover on the 1st, Charlie Vanover 5th,
Jonathan Vanover 16th and Elaine Deel on the 27th.
After returning home from our cruise on March 5th, we decided to chill out for a while. We got back to church and visited with family and friends. We are ready for Spring.
Celebrating birthdays in March were Donna Edwards and Piper Bowler, both on the 1st,
Montana McCallister 2nd, J C Owens 3rd, Alexandra Welch and Mikayla Stovall 5th,
Bill Pass 7th, Delaney Goodall 9th, James Pass and Amelya Bostic on the 26th.

2009 Highlights...Jan...Feb...Mar


As I mentioned earlier, 2009 started out very cold. We had temps reaching down to -9.....cold...cold...cold... We did enjoy our trip to Gatlinburg even though we did not get to go
snow tubing. Again congrats go out to Patrick, Sabrina and Chloe and the newest addition to
the family.

Celebrating birthdays in January were, Becky Deel on the 4th, Chloe Deel 5th, Jarod Deel 7th, Michele Bowler Welch 10th, George Mike Jordan and Landon Carter Williams 23rd, Yours truly on the 24th and Blair Thompson 26th.

Is it ever going to quit snowing???

Today we decided to adopt the philosophy "if you can't beat em ,join em" with that in mind Margaret and I bundled up in our warm clothes and went sleigh riding. This was one of the most beautiful snows we have seen, the flakes were
huge. I fired up the four-wheeler and tied a rope to the sleigh and off we went. Even though it was cold we had a blast. You can see from the pictures,
Margaret could not resist making a snow angel. We are getting ready for Jonathan, Jen, Amber ,Asia, Jake, Tammy, Brooke, and Brianna to meet us
at Winter Place Ski Lodge and hit the new snow tubing park. We are all looking forward to that trip.

Stork strikes again! Congrats! Patrick and Sabrina

I am sure most of you know by now that we have a new addition to the clan. Patrick and Sabrina are the proud parents of a BEAUTIFUL new baby girl. Sabrina gave birth to Chloe Faith Deel
on January 5th. She weighed 6lbs 5 1/2 ozs. She is absolutely beautiful. Check out the dimples.
They sure know how to do it right. Congratulations to Patrick and Sabrina, and lets not forget about ma maw and papaw. Sis I know you and Darrell are very proud. Again, Congratulations!!!!!

Vanover update 2009

A brand new year 2009 begins!!!
We have been enjoying the extreme cold weather...right...Our temperatures have been
extremely cold reaching all the way down to -9 degrees this week. We just got back from Gatlinburg with Dathan, Jessica and Kaden. We were going to visit the new snow tubing park at Ober Gatlinburg, Unfortunately it was not open yet due to construction delays. Dathan, Jessica and Kaden did ice skate and they had a great time. We managed to go to Dollywood for the final weekending their season. We saw some good plays and Kaden especially enjoyed the Polar Express. Any way back home and back to reality.Margaret and I are getting ready for our trip to Hawaii. We will be going on a two week cruise,leaving from LA February 18th. We are very excited and booked some of our shore excursions this week. Going for now... more later.

2008 Highlights...Oct...Nov...Dec...continued

Margaret and I flew out of Tri Cities to St Pete on December 4th. We were very excited to see Shana, Matt and Sam. Little Sam is absolutely beautiful. Matt and Shana are going to be great parents.
Matt's father, Terry and mother, Karen came by for a visit and a chicken casserole that was awesome. We visited with Margaret's uncle and aunt Bill and Bonnie Shortridge in Port Richey Florida. They were very nice and opened their house to us while we were there. Margaret and I visited some of the old neighborhoods I lived when I was in Florida from 1981 until 1993.

When we returned home we started getting ready for Christmas. By the time we put up our Christmas decoration it was here. Our children and grandchildren came for the holidays. We had a total of 20 people for Christmas. Most all children and grandchildren were able to come in except for illness or work circumstances. Overall we had a great Christmas with lots of food,
gifts and conversation.

All in all 2008 was a great year, God blessed our family and we look forward to 2009.

2008 Highlights...Oct...Nov...Dec...continued

Uncle Charles came in November to deer hunt and visit. His son in law, James came with him. Uncle Charles is 81 and still knows how to slay the deer. He killed a spike and shot another one we could not find. We had a wonderful time and he promised to come back and do some smallmouth fishing next summer at New River.
Not only did we celebrate a Happy Thanksgiving but we celebrated the birth of Samuel Gregory Burmood. He was born November 25th. He weighed 7lbs 8ozs and was 21 inches long. Matt and Shana are two proud parents, with good reason. Margaret and I are going to Florida the 1st of December to check him out and congratulate his mommy and daddy.

Shana and Her little Sam share birthday's in November.

2008 Highlights...Oct...Nov...Dec

Enough about the apples, its October and the beginning of deer archery season. Margaret won't get much out of me for the next few weeks. Dathan and I have spent the last few weekends putting up tree stands and clearing shooting lanes. Looks like food plots and QDMA is working.
Dathan and I both passed on several decent bucks, including untold number of spikes and smaller bucks. We did each take does for the overall deer management. I did manage to kill a turkey and a nice 7 point buck later in the season. Dathan passed on several nice bucks, opting to let them grow another year. We have been watching a nice 9 point piebald buck for the last three seasons. We did get several pictures on the game cameras but did not see during the season. Maybe next year???

We took time away from hunting for Kaden to "trick or treat" He was SPIDER MAN for Halloween and was pumped. He still has not taken the costume off. We went to church and someone ask him how he was doing and he told them he was not doing good at all. They ask him why and he said he got bit by a spider (like peter parker in spider man) he was so serious and they believed he had been bit by a spider.

2008 Highlights...July...Aug...Sept...continued

With September fall rolls in and we are getting excited about the fall foilage. Nights are starting to get a little colder. This year has been a great year for apples. Guess what! Margaret loves apples, so we spent most of September picking apples and freezing apples and canning apples and eating apples....get the picture. We did really enjoy working with the apples, it seems like Margaret found a new tree every other day. She kept me busy. Uncle Luther was surprised with a birthday party by Ann and Darrell. Again lots of good food and visitation. Luther , Ray, Brenda, and JC all came in from Nashville. Several of Luthers Brothers and Sisters came as well. Patrick came from Bristol. He is getting excited about their baby. Sabrina is about 6 months now.

Ashley had her 19th birthday in September. Donna that means you are getting older as well.

2008 Highlights...July...Aug...Sept

As summer begins, now we start to complain about the heat and lack of rain....can we ever be satisfied. With the heat and dry conditions, it sure isn't helping Dathan's deer food plots. One plot is doing well for the most part while some others are not doing so well. Margaret and I have enjoyed several trips to Barter Theatre and Gatlinburg over the last few weeks. Amber, Brianna, Brittney, Hannah and Greg all shared birthday's in July.Dathan and I prepared the ground for our fall deer plots and worked hard, we are starting to get excited about archery deer season. We took some time away from working and enjoyed a few days at Myrtle Beach with Jake and Tammy. Brianna is a real water dog and Brooke, Tammy and Margaret soaked up the rays. Jake Brianna and I enjoyed riding the waves.Later in the month we went to Gatlinburg with Rodney, Kitty, Dathan, Jessica and Kaden. Kitty had reserved a condo on the strip and we all had a super time. We all went to Dollywood, Splash Country and Wonder Works. Kaden had a blast at Splash Country and didn't want to leave. Shana and Matt and the rest of us are getting really excited about the baby. Shana is about 6 months now. Tammy and Ashley had birthday's in August.

2008 Highlights...April...May...June..continued

In June Dathan, Jessica and Kaden enjoyed their vacation in Myrtle Beach and had a fantastic time. Kaden could not get enough of Margareta Ville. Charlie and Brenda Vanover hosted our Vanover/Pass reunion. It was held at Hungry Mother's State Park. They certainly went all out and it was a great success. It was very well attended and great food was there to be had......let the belt out and start eating. James and Linda spent the week with us in Tazewell and we had the best time ever. Awesome time with good memories, Kaden fell in love with Linda and we all loved watching her roll down the yard. James helped with the game cameras and enjoyed the 4-wheeler. Betty and Mike were able to stay a couple of nights and Again I can't tell you what a great visit we had. Unfortunately it had to end and we took James and Linda back to Raleigh to catch a plane back to Arizona. Mike and Betty headed back to Florida.

Margaret and I attended the Boyd family reunion at Poplar Gap the last of June. Good food(is it any wonder why we are so fat and happy).
Jake, Brooke and Matt celebrated birthday's in June.

2008 Highlights...April...May...June

April rolled around and we started to enjoy the warm weather. Margaret talked me into planting a garden this year. We planted corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes and cucumbers. Dathan and I joined the QDMA (quality deer management association)and decided to try our hand with some deer food plots and deer management.

Ron, Jen and Jessica celebrated birthdays in April
I decided to surprise Margaret with a trip to Las Vegas for her birthday in May. We flew out of

Raleigh, NC. We stayed at Planet Hollywood in Vegas and really enjoyed ourselves. We saw a couple of shows and enjoyed a tour at Hoover Dam. This was a third trip out west. We visited Uncle Harold and stayed with Sonny and Mary in 2007 when they hosted the Vanover/Pass
family reunion. They did a fantastic job, our family has to be blessed with some of the best people ever.
Margaret's brother, Brad and his wife Kat held their family reunion in May and again we had some great food and visitation. There were well over a 100 people that attended.Along with Margaret, Alaura, Brody, Asia and Dathan all had birthday's in May.

2008 highlights...Jan...Feb...Mar...continued

Jonathan hit the big 40 in February, but still acts like a teenager, I love it!!!
Margaret and I decided to take our 1st cruise in February. We had a great visit with Donna on our way to the cruise port in Mobile, Alabama. We had sea food to celebrate Donna's upcoming birthday in March. We wont tell her age (Looks about 20)
We went to Cancun and Calica Mexico. The sea was a little rough, but we still had a great time.Great food and we forgot about the calories. Margaret liked the cruise so much that we decided to book another one to Hawaii in 2009.
We welcomed spring and the warm weather in March. Getting ready to plant a garden.

2008 Highlights...Jan...Feb...Mar

As 2008 rolled in we found ourselves reeling from the end of 2007. Margaret and I celebrated our 1st anniversary in November by going to the CMA Awards in Nashville. Aunt Kate opened her door to us and as usual we had a great visit with her. We had a blast at the CMA awards, I
think we saw just about every country star out there. We also visited the Country Music Hall Of Fame and Ryman Auditorium.We celebrated Christmas two times. We went to Jake and Tammy's for Christmas with Margaret's family and then had Christmas here in Tazewell with the Vanover clan.

As January rolled in, several birthdays were celebrated. Jerod, Becky and I all grew another year older.In February Ron and Becky were married. All had a great day with some awesome food. Of course, it was Ron and Becky's day but alaura stole the show. She is precious.