2011 was a good year for the Taylors

The year was fun, and while I won't go over all the exciting things we did, we will try to cover some of the highlights. 

In June, we all attended "Guys Weekend" in Vermont.  We had a few days to tour Burlington with The Urdals and then split up.  Ben stayed with the guys in VT while Jeri and the girls went to Montreal with Isabel, Celeste and Vincent to stay with Isabel's parents, tour the city and even eat Poutine.

The trip to Edisto was a great one this year, with lots of family attending.  I think there were 30 of us at one point, including both my brothers families, and many of my cousins and their families.  Thanks again to Butch and Suzan for organizing such a wonderful and important family get together.  If you are one of our Rogers clan, and haven't been, you are missing out, so please join us at least once.  This year the fun included another memorable Karaoke Night, several swims to the island that only appears at low tide, and a very competitive kayak trip.  We all really enjoyed the beach and the pool, and the girls put on a fashion show for us.

We were also very fortunate to be invited to the Kruse lake house at Lake George for tubing and boat rides and some rare (for us) warm weather.

The girls had their first lemonade stand.  It was fun, educational, and profitable.  Come see us next year and we will do it again (bring some change).

We really appreciate the school (Mohawk Trails Elementary) that the girls go to.  The teachers are wonderful and the administration and PTO seem very in tune with the community.  The have gone away from trying to sell stuff to raise money, and instead had a Turtle Trot Walk-a-thon.  A much better way to raise money, the school gets all the money and we don't have to sell/buy overpriced merchandise.  The girls continue to do well in school.  They are enjoying girl scouts and both like their teachers.  Maya's class recently had a book party, where they got to write and illustrate their own book and invite parents in to be read to.  It was really neat, and Grandma Taylor got to attend.  Anna's class was involved in the 3rd grade Folk Festival.  She did a great job singing and dancing.  If you can't tell from the picture, her class was Mexico.

Our street is the best street in the nation and we enjoyed a great turnout this year at both the annual block party and our Halloween party.  We all had a great time and our two angels were adorable, even though one of them was the fallen angel.

We did have a scare this year.  The first came when a mysterious black van approached the girls while they were on their way to a friends house.  Fortunately, a neighbor saw this and checked to see if the man in the van needed anything.  The man claimed to be the girls uncle, then drove off.  When the neighbor told the girls to go home to see their uncle, the girls said "That's not our uncle."  At this point, the neighbor was concerned and brought the girls down to me to explain what had happened.  We called the police, which came quickly, having stopped a couple of black vans along the way.  The man was not found.  Of course, we notified the neighbors and the entire street was on high alert.  Then............two weeks later, Grandma Taylor visited and told us she had spoken with Ben's uncle Charlie; he had driven by our house a couple of weeks before and said "hi" to the girls.  Guess we need to spend more time with Uncle Charlie, since the girls didn't recognize him.  We definitely need to have Uncle Charlie over for a visit....soon.

Jeri and Ben actually did some stuff that didn't completely revolve around the kids too.  We went to two weddings (congrats to Sharath & Patti, Deskin & Elizabeth) and have a third the first week of 2012 (congrats to Jen & Steve).  We hadn't been to a wedding in ages and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  A special thanks to Donna and Linda for watching the kids.

During one of those trips, both Grandmas took the girls to the American Girl store in Chicago for an early Christmas present and tea party.  It sounds like they had a great time, and made some memories that the girls will never forget.

We also got to help friends and family celebrate some new babies.  Welcome Harper and Colton, Kalan, Miles, August, and Roman!

Ben is still staying at home and continuing to make daily home improvements.  He has also joined a foosball league, which he is really enjoying.  He is play golf occasionally too, so if anyone is in Indy and golfing, give him a call.

Jeri is doing great with Walgreens and is excited to be part of an Indy area test market for a whole new Walgreens model.  In addition she is enjoying volunteering at the girls school and may very well be addicted to a new web app called pinterest.

If you haven't been to visit us, please consider this an invite to do so.  We would love to have you.

Anna in the historic Rogers Family Photo Tree.

My new seaweed locks.

One of our many group fitness activities.
The California Taylors are such a good influence.

Does Jeri's skin look a little dry?
No...That's the bikini tree.

Radicool

Fun at the beach

Jon and the girls tubing on Lake George.

The Fashion Show

The Mohawk Trails Turtle Trot.

Our First Lemonade Stand.

A visit to the pumpkin patch.

Our Angels

Mays's book party +  Grandma

Anna at her folk festival

Anna at her folk festival