Family

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We wish you a Merry Christmas…

January 8, 2010 in Family, Travel, Updates by melissa | 1 comment

…and a Happy New Year!

Okay, so this post is a little late, but at least I’m getting pictures from Christmas and New Years up on the site. If you head on over to the 2009 Holiday Gallery, you’ll see three sets of pictures. The first is us (me, really) decorating our small, crooked, table top tree. His name was Gil and he was very cute!

The second set is from our trip to Midland, MI to see Chad’s parents (and other family) for Christmas. I would just like to share that when we left Virginia on the 23rd, there was more snow on the ground than we had landing in Michigan. And then it had to go and rain on Christmas! In Michigan! So much for my white Christmas. Ah well. For Christmas dinner, I made garlic prime rib, blue cheese mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, Yorkshire pudding, and a salad with pear and carmelized onion. Beth made a fantastic eggnog cake for dessert – all in all, it was a delicious Christmas. =)

The final set of pictures is from New Years Eve. Alin, Christina, King, Nif, Michelle, Mike, Chad and I all got gussied up and headed out to the Willard Intercontinental for a great big party and had a great time. You can also check out the professional photos here, if you’re interested (our crazy prom photo is 5131 and 5132).

Finally, since I know some people are interested, I’m currently 56 out of 63 on the Consular Register. I’ll get there one of these days!

And by the way – I’ve added some new links on the left. Check them out!

This Memorial Day

May 25, 2009 in Family by melissa | No comments

Mark (Marcos) DaAton was a Philippines Scout in World War II , POW, Baatan Death March survivor, and my grandfather. He passed away a little over ten years ago, but it wasn’t until recently that I realized his role in WWII, and I still don’t know very much about it besides the above. However, I’m working on finding out more. One of the reasons I’d like to take a post in Manilla one day (not our first post), is so I can find out a little bit more about my mom’s side of the family.

Last year, my Tito Rob sent this out to the family, and I would like to share it with you:

Attached are some photo’s I took at the museum last weekend of some display changes we made.

An honor to the Veterans of WWII, Korea & Vietnam. The bayonet I brought back from Seaside is used to anchor the display. The flag is a 48 star flag.

Dad’s uniform I took from Seaside and put on display. The cap is mine from when I was stationed in Michigan (1967-60) Both are dated around 1950’s (Korean War) is the reason it is in the Korean period display.

Here is the uniform display, click on the picture for the rest. The album is a little barren right now, but Tito Rob is going to send me a few more pictures, which I’ll post in the near future.


Dad Daaton on display.JPG

VonHinkens in the South!

May 7, 2009 in Family by melissa | No comments

Recently, Mom and Dad V. went down to Alabama to visit Chrissy and Brandon before heading of to Florida to see Uncle Fred and Aunt Lynne. Mom V. sent us some pictures of the ever growing Streu Farm, and the following:

Just that I’d clarify a little bit about the the menagerie (sp?) of animals at Christine & Brandon’s. Mind you that out of the 4 adult & 2 baby goats only one adult & one baby is theirs — the two donkeys & a horse belong to the neighbor — but all of them share each other’s pastures — so they are often right up in the fenced pasture next to the house. The baby goat with horns (it’s the brown & white one) would let me pet her but as Brandon warned me, she would nibble at my jeans. Which she did. :) But the chickens (2 roosters & 4 chickens) — 6 quail (that started laying eggs while I was there) and 2 dogs are Christine & Brandon’s. I learned some of the upkeep & helped feed them some. As Brandon’s sister Jen says, “we’ll never get him to move back to Michigan if he keeps adding to the farm!!”.

Go Look at the cute animals!

01 - Streu Farm - Goats!