Merry Christmas to All! Love, The Wells Family

Winter Dance

Tonight was Madison's first Junior High dance. Here she is all dressed up!

School Newsletter Snippets

Here are three snippets of Canaan Middle School and JAJHS newsletters this month. Way to go kids!

School Pictures

Here are this years school pictures...the best the scanner can do.

Dalton - 5th grade


Madison - 7th grade

Happy Birthday Cash!

Halloween Pasts

The kids decided they didn't want to Trick or Treat anymore. For the past two years Madison has been a bit embarrassed on beggars night, but she said she would go this year for Dalton. Well, Dalton declared he didn't want to go trick or treating and then Madison said, "I'm fine with that". Mom is fine with that too. A person at work asked me if I would miss dressing the kids up for Halloween and going out traipsing thru neighborhoods (not my own), for candy? No, I won't. Yes, we had fun with the kids over the years, but I won't miss it. So, since I have no pictures this year, I thought I'd share some from the past. I don't have all of them handy (I scanned a couple). The other ones are bound in scrapbooks that I really didn't want to put any effort into posting. Enjoy!

1999


2001 (Mushu from the movie Mulan)


2002


2003


2004


2005 (Madison wanted to go as a beautiful witch, but Daddy painted her face scary...she wasn't happy!)


2006 (Dalton's mask oozed blood)


2007 (Daddy joined in the picture...he's the tall one *wink*)

October Outing

Cedar Cliff Falls

Today we ventured not far from home to Cedar Cliff Falls in Cedarville. This natural resource is created with a blend of the gorge, meadow, woods, river and marsh...quite a view.



Clifton Gorge

Then we headed for Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve. Located along the Little Miami Scenic River, Clifton Gorge is famous for its rushing waters that flow through a remarkable narrow gorge.

We headed down the trail towards the information kiosk—the kiosk, near a gathering place called the Bear’s Den, displays a map of the trails available for hiking. After reviewing our choices, we decided to take the John L. Rich Trail where the scenery really is beautiful.



It starts at the rim of the gorge via a wooden staircase with about 23 steps down.

Sheltered by long-reaching lush green branches, towering trees and cooled by the waters rush down the river, this canyon is home to hundreds of plants and wildflowers, many which are rare in the region. Once called one of the nation's 50 most beautiful places by National Geographic, the Clifton Gorge is a natural wonder steeped in history.

Hartman's Rock Garden

On the way home we stopped in Springfield at Hartman's Rock Garden.



Yes, this is actually someone's backyard. From 1932-1939, H.G. Hartman built a 35’ x 140’ rock garden in Springfield which contains approximately 20,000 individual stones. Hartman started with a fish pond and then filled his yard with statues, miniature stone castles, cathedrals, and other historic buildings. There are models of the White House, tributes to boxer Joe Louis and the Dionne Quintuplets, as well as religious scenes. Since his death in 1944, the property was maintained by Ben Hartman, H.G.'s youngest son. However, Ben passed away in 2007 and in 2008, the property was put up for sale. The place hasn't been kept up too much and it felt like we were trespassing...but we got a couple of pictures.

Flashback Fun!

Remnants of Hurricane Ike

Well what a day! It started out nice, but the wind gusts close to 70 mph in the afternoon and early evening gave us quite a scare. While thankfully, we and our house are OK, we had a couple close calls. The picture is one of two big branches that were blown from huge trees in our back yard. Kelley was able to tow them to the back of the property with the Allis Chalmers tractor. They did hit the house, but no real damage. We also lost one of our apple trees. Several branches broke from that. We lost power many times but it always came back on within a minute. All in all, we are blessed that we missed the worst and our hearts go out to the families in Texas who lost so much more than an apple tree.

End of Summer?

It's supposed to be hot this week and we started it off by having fun swimming today. It may be our last week in the pool, who knows, but we all enjoyed the day. Here Kelley and Dalton are playing pool basketball.

First Day of School

Well it's that time of year, and today was the first day of school. Traditional pictures were taken. Kids are getting to the age where this is becoming more of a hassle than something to look forward to, still I took their picture. Both kids are starting a new school this year and riding the same bus. The bus stops at our house about 7:05am.

Dalton is in the fifth grade this year and starting Canaan Middle School. He will be switching three classes this year, Language Arts, Math and Science/Social Studies. Dalton didn't want school to start too much, he was having too fun a summer. But I really think that riding the "early" bus is cool to him...that he seems older (even though he is the youngest grade on the bus).



Madison is in the seventh grade this year and starting Jonathan Alder Junior High School. She will be switching classes for all periods this year. Her first three classes are probably her biggest concern with Pre-Algebra, World History and Science. She ends her day with Honors English, but has a study hall right before that, so hopefully can work on homework in there. Madison is hesitant about school starting. While she really wants to see her friends, she is scared about switching all classes and not being caught by the tardy bell.

Fishing

Kelley and Dalton went fishing today at Aunt Mary's house. They had a nice guys day out catching Large-Mouth Bass. Dalton caught four and Kelley caught two.

Sign

This sign is located at the Truck stop near London @ I-70 and SR42. This Taco Bell does have a London address. Why is this sign picture worthy? Well I agree, it is the best Taco Bell in London. However, it is also the only Taco Bell in London!!

Air Force Museum

We went to the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum back in July. Madison decided not to go with us this trip. We haven't been for five years and they have new displays from time to time and who could argue with the price of admission — free. Always a nice place to visit.

Summer Vacation 2008

We headed for Maine with a stop in New York and a stay in Massachusetts for our trip this year. Rather a different vacation for us, as we generally go to one destination and stay the entire time. This was going to be a driving trip. The kids were extremely good, especially since we took a smaller car to save on gas (we usually take the F150 -- roomier).

Sylvan Beach, New York

The first stop was at Oneida Lake in New York. We had driven for about eight hours and to rest at the lake was nice. The water was a bit cold. Kelley and the kids got in the water - at least walked in waist deep. I sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun and took pictures. A women sitting nearby asked if we would all like our picture taken and took this picture. She was very nice. No one has ever asked that before..can't say I have either. Maybe I will start doing that since we don't have many vacation pictures where we are all together. I'm sure other families have the same problem.

Massachusetts

Got up the next morning, and it was raining. Kelley said, "I hope this doesn't follow us to the East Coast." We had a five hour drive to Plymouth Massachusetts. Plymouth was very nice, quaint and very New Englandish. I really liked the area and Madison said she wouldn't mind if we moved there (if she could bring her friends too!).

We toured the Mayflower II. It's a full-scale reproduction of the Mayflower. Pretty cool, but very hot on board. Can't imagine how the costumed guides representing the passengers and crew can stand it.



National Monument to the Forefathers. The names of the 102 passengers who crossed over on the Mayflower are engraved into this 81-foot statue. It is one of the largest statues in the U.S.

We visited many other attractions in the area as well.



Cape Cod was a nice place to visit. Wouldn't want to live there.


We stayed at a hotel right on the beach with a balcony and it had an indoor and outdoor swimming pool.



The ocean was very cold. We knew the ocean water in the New England states would be much cooler so the pools made up for it.



Maine

After a few days in Massachusetts we left for Maine, specifically Mount Desert Island. It was raining when we left that morning. Did the rain finally make it here? We drove six hours to Maine and stayed at Bass Harbor Cottages, in the Boat House. It was a nice change from the hotel rooms. We had two bedrooms, living room, kitchen with dining table, two full baths (thank goodness!!) and a balcony overlooking the tide pools and lobster fishermen.


After we got to Maine the news stated there was a huge storm in Massachusetts with a tornado in Cape Cod. There was also a tornado in New Hampshire. Maine got rain and fog from these storms. So, yes, the storms finally reached us. We had a brilliant light storm the first night we were there. I have never seen so much lightning as I did there.

Bass Harbor Head Light House.


Unfortunately, this was the only light house we got to see. Everyday we were there, the fog was so bad from the weather, that you could barely see out to sea. The whale watch, lighthouse and coastline cruises in Bar Harbor were cancelled each day as no one would be able to see anything.

Bar Harbor was fun. We enjoyed our time there.

But Acadia National Park was absolutely beautiful what we could see of it. Several trips up Cadillac Mountain were to no avail as fog covered everything and you could barely see 30 feet in front of you. But I hear the views are incredible from up there. Maybe another year...



The temperature probably was high 70's, maybe 80 degrees at the most during the day. We didn't have air conditioning in the boat house and never needed it. It got very cool at night. In Acadia National Park we observed the strangest thing. The ocean water was very cold and at one of the beaches in the park people were swimming in it like it was a heated pool. Then they would lay out on the beach like the sun was shining down (which it wasn't), while cold fog swirled all about them. We just couldn't get over that, and we still talk about it.





It rained the whole day the last day we were there. We have been blessed with wonderful weather in prior vacations, so we were only due. Despite the weather we truly had a great time. And we will return some day...maybe in the fall season next time.