5 Generations

Dorothy Dean Zander November 1913- July 2010

On July 18th at 4:25 am we lost the oldest member of our family at the age of 96. A loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother. I think I can speak for the entire family when I say we were so incredibly blessed to have her with us for that long. She really left a lot of memories on my heart, that will never be forgotten. I was very lucky to have a close relationship with both my great gram and great grandpa. So many people never even meet their great grandparents. I spent so much time with them when I was younger.

The last time I got to see Great Gram was in November 2009. Our family drove out to Illinois for thanksgiving. Before that, I feel like I hadn't seen her in a couple years. With the distance between us, it makes it really hard to got back to Illinois to see my family. Donny and I had the job of picking up the ladies for Thanksgiving day. We picked up Aunt Martha and Great Gram.

When Great Gram got into my car she said, "You're old enough to drive?!?" She had kept me in her mind as only being a teenager. Then a little while later she said " Who's car is this, yours Lauren?" I told her yes, that I bought this car about 2 years back. "This is really nice." she said. She always made me smile, even with the little things she said.

5 Generations:

Dorothy Dean Zander, C. William Zander Jr.. Elizabeth Zander Hale, Lauren Hale, & Maya McMullen

We really had something special. We will miss her greatly and never forget the love and support she gave us.


Rest in Peace Great Gram.

Maya has turned into a fish!

Well she's back at it again. We can't keep this girl out of the water. After dinner we all went over to Sonja & Randy's house to hang out and go swimming. Although we didn't know we were going so Maya didn't have her swimsuit. So she just went swimming in her underwear.

It didn't take her long to get brave enough to start jumping into the pool from the side. And once she started that, she didn't stop. She really wore me out.

Mommy & Maya swimming

Catching a beetle bug

Dinner with MeeMee & GeeDad

It was one of those days when you just feel like you have NOTHING to do. No plans, you feel like doing something, but can't find anything worth getting up and doing. We were having that day on Saturday, and then GeeDad called and asked us to go out to dinner. We went to a great little Mexican place that we all love, El Toro Bravo. After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the block, the long way back to the car.

GeeDad, Maya & MeeMee

Maya is always entertaining. She was dancing & making up her own song on the steps of this business.

Taking a stroll on the historic streets of Annapolis.

I loved these flowers and asked Maya to pose next to them. But, she had to be the line leader and sometimes that involves running to make sure of that. So I snapped this picture and was still able to get the pretty flowers and Maya.

Lunch with Great Grandma

We had to drive right past Great Grandma's house on the way home from Ohio, so we decided to stop and have lunch with her. Also we thought it would be nice to stop and take a break from driving. Her house is about a 4 hour drive from our house, so it was a nice halfway point.

Great Grandma made cupcakes for dessert, and she saved the icing job for Maya to do. She did a pretty good job putting the chocolate icing on. And the cupcakes were delicious.

After lunch we took a walk down to the creek in the woods behind Grandma's house.

Then we were ready to take a ride on the 4 wheelers. Here is Maya posing in her helmet, she was ready to go.

Daddy & Maya with the 4 wheelers

We rode down to the pond, but we didn't catch anything but rocks in our net.

We broke out the sidewalk chalk and decorated Grandma's carport floor.

We spent about 3 hours at Grandma's house before hitting the road again. I think we wore Maya out with all the activity. Here she is on the last leg of our trip.

Happy Birthday Uncle Robert!

As I told you in the previous post, we took a road trip this weekend. It was Uncle Robert's 50th birthday bash on Saturday, and I'm so glad that we didn't miss it. It really was a Hale family reunion. I saw relatives that I hadn't seen in 17 years. Aunt T did a really nice job of putting everything together and it all turned out great!

We got up early on Friday morning and were on the road at 4 am. The trip is about an 8 hour drive, so we got to the house around 11:30 am. Uncle Ryan and his family were already there, so we got to spend some extra time with them on Friday. The house was FULL of people all weekend, as Aunt T's sister and her family were in town to help celebrate too. I think on Friday night there were about 18 people that slept at Uncle Robert & Aunt T's house.

Poppi & Maya

The party wasn't until Saturday, but we were anxiously awaiting the rest of the family to get there. Everyone came in on Friday night, so we didn't get to see them until Saturday. One of the people Maya was really waiting on was her Poppi.

Maya loved playing with all of her cousins, but she really loved the trampoline! Anytime she had a chance to get on, she took full advantage. I think we all ended up taking turns jumping with her. Now she thinks that she needs one in our yard. I guess we'll see what happens with that in the future.

Jumping with Poppi

Maya had to "teach" Poppi how to jump on a trampoline. So she kept him on that trampoline for hours. Then she told me "Poppi has to practice jumping so that he will get better, because if he does not practice, he'll forget how to jump." I'm pretty sure she wore him out by the end of the day.

She also wore herself out, and we're okay with that too. She didn't want to lay down inside while the party was going on, so she laid on the swing and passed out. Even with all of the noise of everyone being outside, she slept for a good 2 hours right through it all.

I really wish I would have gotten some family pictures with everyone together, but it got dark before we remembered. So I guess that will have to wait until November.

Sunday morning we got back on the road around 8:30 am and headed back to MD. On the way we decided to stop and have lunch with Donny's grandma in Deep Creek.

Another Road Trip

We are preparing to take another road trip this weekend. Uncle Robert will be celebrating his 50th birthday and they are having a big birthday bash. The plan is to get up a 4am on Friday to jump in the car and go. Our destination is Columbus, OH, that's about an 8 hour drive from our house. Which seems like a lot, but I am comparing it to the 16 hour drive it is for me to get home to Illinois. So this should be a breeze.

We are really excited mainly because Uncle Robert's birthday had turned into more of a family reunion for the Hale side of the family. I'm told that all of my uncles, aunts, and cousins will be there. Which is pretty impressive because we are coming from all over the place. There are 2 uncles that I have not seen in over 4 years & they have never met Maya, so I am excited to introduce them, and I just know they are going to be impressed with her. Both of these uncles have gotten married since I last saw them, so I also get to meet 2 new Aunts and a little cousin. Not to mention that Poppi will be there too, and we LOVE to visit with him! I am also looking forward to Donny finally meeting the rest of the family because I am not sure that they will all be out for the wedding in a few months.

This morning while I was getting Maya ready for school, she was doing her usual complaining "I'm tired. I just want to lay down. I don't want to go to school." ( Hate to admit that she sounds just like me in the morning, apparently we are not morning people.) So I told her that this would be her last day of school this week and that tomorrow we were going to her cousin's house, Kenady, Mason & Ryleigh. Her eyes lit up and she says "Its Uncle Robert's birthday & he is having a party." Then she goes on to say "and we'll get to see his dogs. Their names are Sunny, Rosco, and... (she couldn't remember the last one right away, then she blurts out) and Smurphy!" All I could do was laugh at her. Then I said "Smurphy? That's not his name, his name is Murphy." But I was surprised that she had remembered all of that information. She gave me a good start to my day, and I am always grateful for that.

(Make sure you come back soon to see the fun we'll have this weekend in OH. I will be taking lots of pictures and try to update the blog next week.)

Happy 4th of July!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. We certainly did! On the 3rd of July (Saturday), we headed south of our house to Harrington on the Bay. It's a huge marina area with a hotel, restaurant, pool & bar. This is the first year we have gone down there. They had vendors set up selling all kinds of food & drinks, and the blow-up obstacle courses and slides for the kids. It is right on the bay and has a nice beach area as well. They put on one of the best fireworks shows I have seen in such a long time & they had the stereo system set-up all throughout the grounds, so they had music playing during the show. It was a lot of fun! We are so glad that Aunt Jeanette told us about this. We met up with her and her family, Uncle John, Jessie, and Maya's favorite Josh. :)

Maya and Daddy

Mommy & Maya

The start of the fireworks scared Maya - she didn't like the really loud ones that you can feel in your chest. But after a few minutes she warmed up to the idea and loved watching them. She says her favorite ones were the purple, blue, red, & green ones. Even though it started out rough for her, I think she truly enjoyed the show and just being there with our family.

A sailing we will go!

As a company get together for my office, my boss asked everyone to come out on his boat to watch the Wednesday night sailboat races and have dinner. We had the best view of the races, because at times we felt like we were right in the middle of the race. The amount of sailboats surrounding us was amazing. I'm glad I brought my camera!

We had such a great time out in the bay! Maya loved every minute of it! The boat we were on was a catamaran, so it had the trampoline in the front of the boat. That was instantly Maya's favorite part of the boat. For the rest of the time out on the water she was jumping all over the place. At one point she started chanting "I'm jumping on the water, I'm jumping on the water, I'm jumping on the Chesapeake Bay!"

I just loved this picture. She almost looks superimposed into it.

To Great Grandma's house we go..

We haven't been to Great Grandma's house in a long time. Probably since last summer. So finally we got a chance to get up there and visit her. She lives in a place called Deep Creek, in the winter the mountain she lives about a mile from is a ski resort called Wisp. In the summer it's all about Deep Creek Lake. So it has lots of things to do and lots of nature to explore.

Gee Dad, Maya, & Great Grandma

We went to a store called the School House, and they have every type of crafted item you could imagine. They also had a feeding area in the back for the goats, llamas & chickens. Maya had a good time feeding the goats. They seemed so hungry!

Our family riding the merry-go round

We tried to fit as many things into the 1 full day we had in Deep Creek. So, of course we needed to stop by Funland and ride the merry-go round. Daddy stood next to us, while Maya and I rode the horses.

We also packed in a trip to the beach. The beach we went to was in a state park, so we had to walk through the woods to get there.

Daddy and Maya walking to the beach

Maya's first 4-wheeler ride


Great Grandma lives in the mountains and has a lot of fun "toys," including her 4-wheelers. Donny & I were riding them through the trails around her house for a little while, since they hadn't been used, and just like a car they need to be run every once in a while. After Maya watched us ride past her a few times, she decided that she would like to go for a ride as well. So Gee Dad said he would ride around slowly with her. She put on a snow helmet that use to belong to her older cousins when they were her age. It fit perfectly, so I think we'll be taking her skiing this year too. She instructed Gee Dad "I want to go slow." And after a couple loops around it was "Okay, I want to go a little fast." I think she is hooked, something else to check off her list of big girl accomplishments.

All in all we had a fabulous time in the mountains with Great Grandma. The ride there and back can be long (about 3 1/2 hours), but the time spent there is always worth it! Hopefully we will get another chance to go again soon.