Entries Tagged as 'mitch'

Christmas Dinner at Auntie Gail’s

December 27th, 2009 · No Comments


Derek & Mitch


Tommy was tickling Kate and Kate was giggling like crazy.


Derek playing the pinball machine that’s so old his dad and uncles used to play it at his age.


Ben, Derek, Chris, Mitch – Nintendo DSi was a popular gift this year.


Chris & Kenji setting up for the adult’s gift bag swap.


Mitch in the midst of the swap


Aly was excited to win a Snuggie in the swap. Cool, because we brought it!


Aly modeling her new Snuggie


Kids are all ready to go home and to bed: Derek, Tommy, Ben, Kenji, Kate

On Christmas day we always go to Dallas’ Auntie Gail’s house in Mt. Prospect. This was the first year we had a car to actually drive ourselves out, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but in the past it’s always been a hassle to try to get a ride.

Auntie Gail made the same dinner she makes every year: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and her mom’s lettuce/mayo/crab/pea/something salad. Not a huge fan of the salad but everything else was fantastic, as always.

All of the adults have a $10 gift bag exchange after dinner. This year didn’t get too crazy, except when someone took away Aly’s gift. She had her eye on one and it turned out to be a Snuggie, which she was really psyched about. And it was awesome for us because that was one of the gifts we brought. Dallas ended up getting a metal water bottle and I got a scrapbook with two $5 bills taped on it. Not sure how that works out. Aly brought it and tried to explain it to me, but I wasn’t following. Ha.

Previous Christmases at Auntie Gail’s:
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005

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Fun With Sparklers

July 10th, 2009 · 1 Comment

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Kyle & Kate

At the house in Michigan, we had a bunch of fireworks to light off on the fourth of july. The older kids, Chris (13) and Mitch (10), were really into the big explosives and spraying tubes and crazy displays. Tommy and Kate, who are only 3 years old were very reserved. Their dads helped them with a sparkler, but they didn’t seem to be into it much at all.

The middle kids? All they wanted were more FIRE STICKS.. aka, sparklers. More, more, more! Light it on fire! I don’t think they even cared about the big fireworks. Just the sparklers and the snake fireworks, which they loved because they thought it looked like poo. POO ON FIRE! Oh, and those little snap things you throw on the ground. I’m afraid we may have turned Ben into a pyro. After the sparklers were all gone he just wanted to light things on fire. Have fun with that back home in California, Kyle & Winnie!

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Ben

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Derek

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Derek

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Kids on the Lawn

July 9th, 2009 · 1 Comment

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After the Camp Fukuda photos, Uncle Neil went to the shed to get out his riding lawn mower. Not to mow the lawn, but to give the kids – Mitch, Ben, Kate, Hideto, Derek & Tommy – a in the ride in the trailer that was attached.

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The kids loved it!

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I think Uncle Neil may have liked it more!

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Caroline & Mitch :: Brighton, MI

Dallas and I spotted these familiar tubes in Aunty Peggy & Uncle Neil’s garage. It was the same ladder golf game that my dad made for us. Aunty Peggy said that someone made it and gave them the game but they never played it before. Dallas and Mitch, who’d played at our house before, set the game up and we showed everyone how to play. Aunty Peggy and I won 5 games in a row before she purposely lost so that she could go refill her wine!

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Chris & Dallas :: Brighton, MI

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2009 Camp Fukuda

July 8th, 2009 · No Comments

After golfing we headed over to Aunty Peggy and Uncle Neil’s house. For the last two July Fourth holidays Dallas’s family has gotten Camp Fukuda tshirts made and then taken family photographs in them.

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Trying to assemble 25+ people can be maddening. People walk off.

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Other people pose together.

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Kids run around.

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Finally. Only Heather and I are missing. Heather was setting up her camera on a tripod so I took that time to make my own photo. There’s a photo floating around somewhere that has all of us.

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Back: Caroline, Aunty Glenna, Uncle BB, Jeff, Cory, Chris, Caroline, Danny, Aunty Gail, Naoko, Kenji, Doug, Tommy, Derek, Krystyn, Hideto, Scotty, Peggy, Neil. Front: Adam, Chris, Dallas, Kathy, Laura, Mitch, Kyle, Kate, Winnie, Ben.

Aunty Laura’s Family -

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Cory, Chris, Danny, Caroline, Aunty Laura, Krystyn, Hideto, Scotty

Kathy’s Family -

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Kathy, Caroline, Dallas, Rachelle

Shaka!

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Caroline, Dallas

Aunty Peggy & Uncle Neil’s Family –

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Aunty Peggy, Derek, Uncle Neil, Kyle, Kate, Ben, Winnie

Dallas & his sister, still goofing-

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Caroline, Dallas

Aunty Gail’s Family -

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Jeff, Heather, Chris, Mitch, Auny Gail, Tommy, Doug, Kenji, Naoko

Aunty Glenna & Uncle BB’s (sort of) family-

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Uncle BB & Aunty Glenna’s kids didn’t arrive til later in the night so they got Adam, a family friend, in their photo.

These are the people that won the 2009 Fukuda Cup earlier in the day. Notice that they changed into their winning shirts.

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Kyle, Jeff, Adam, Chris, Aunty Gail, Danny

I poured my beer into the award cup and each winning team member had to drink from the cup. Notice that Chris’s shirt is all wet. Doug, a sore loser, sprayed the hose all over the winners while they were posing for photos.

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Chris, Aunty Gail

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Adam, Jeff

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Kyle

These are the people who lost the 2009 Fukuda Cup. Dallas was giving “the finger” in some of the photos. He told his mom to do it and she gave thumbs up… wrong finger.. and everyone started laughing.

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Dallas, Doug, Kathy, Uncle BB, Uncle Neil, Scotty

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Dallas

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Glenna

After photos we spent the afternoon and evening eating delicious gumbo that Danny made, drinking, and visiting in the yard. Or inside. The mosquitoes were kind of brutal in Michigan.

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Cory & Chris’s Wedding Reception

July 2nd, 2009 · 1 Comment

Cory and Chris’s wedding reception was held at Maxim’s de Paris in the Gold Coast. It’s a unique venue, decorated in the stylin’ art deco style. Cory wrote a bit about Maxim’s here if you’re interested.

After busting open the sake and cutting the cake we all had dinner and drank and ate and drank and drank and danced and danced and drank and danced and danced. It was a super fun time. You can tell from everyone’s huge smiles in the photos below.

(Click on photos below to see them bigger.)

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