Happy Birthday Grandpa!!!

For gramp’s birthday we wanted to write a little piece on his life and include a few pictures.

Grandpa Daniel Robert Fulton was born in August 29, 1924 in Grand Rapids Michigan. He married grandma or Barbara Cleve on June 15th 1946 at Belden Baptist Church in Chicago Illinois and were married for 57 years. They were a great testimony in trusting in the Lord for all things and serving each other under divine principles. Both grandpa and gram are great examples to their children and grandchildren and have considerable impact in their lives. While gram is in heaven now, she leaves a wonderful heritage impact on us all while grandpa continues a personal impact.

He joined the Air Force in 1944. After serving in Europe as a co-pilot of the World War II B-26 Bomber for the Ninth Air Force, he graduated from Northwestern University Technological Institute with a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering.

Gramp has always been a hard worker (he still mows his own lawn and shovels the snow off his driveway!). He made sure he provided for his family and allowed gram to stay home with the three children.

His career includes:

• 20 years at Roots Connersville Blower Division of Dresser Industries, Connersville IN
• 2 1/2 years at George M Hill & Assoc, Oxford OH
• 20 years at Mercury Instruments Inc, Cincinnati OH
• 9 years part time Miami University, Oxford OH
• At present: enjoying retirement!!

Highlighting his wonderful accomplishments is fun for us and gives us hope and direction. However, we understand the driving power behind his life is his spiritual life to which he nurtures to this day with steady feeding on the Word of God and applying it in his life. Very often I thank the Lord for our grandparents and our entire family in general for the wonderful opportunities and accommodations that we have had to make the right choices and follow good examples within our family. I also specifically thank Him for letting us enjoy our grandfather for this amount of time and for the things the He teaches us about life through this man.

With love and respect,

Cameron & Caroline

Wedding date: June 15, 1946

Cameron with Gramp and Gram:

Gramp and his sister Eunie at Cameron's college graduation:

Enjoying an airshow in Ohio:

Celebrating 82nd birthday at Mexican restaurant:

Gramp's visit to Texas in 2007:

During our visit to Ohio - May 2008:

B-26 Bomber of WWII at Dayton's Air Force Museum:

Nancy & John, Caro & Cam, Gramp & aunt Jan at Vinoklet winery in Ohio:

Happy Birthday Gramp!!! We love you!

The Hottest Half

Last weekend we went to Dallas and stayed at Matt & Jenny’s house. The purpose of our visit was The Hottest Half race; this is a half marathon at White Rock Lake in Dallas. Cameron and Matt were training really hard for this race and if you are familiar with the Dallas area, you know how hot and humid it is!

We got there Friday evening and as soon as we walked inside the door, Aaron and Isabelle came over to greet us (they were so excited to see us and we were too). We played with them in the backyard for a while; Isabelle was showing us that she can do the monkey bars and Aaron was just having fun with uncle Cam.

Running towards uncle Cam:

Jumping over Aaron:

Aaron the farmer, Cameron the cowboy/horse:

On Saturday we went to Texas Woman’s University for Isabelle’s Nut Cracker ballet audition. Parents weren’t allowed to be in the auditions, so we all had to wait outside the main auditorium. Isabelle didn’t seem nervous; she was just there to have fun and to do her best.

At Texas Woman's University for Isabelle's ballet audition:

Before the audition:

Waiting in line:

Getting measured:

We also visited two antique stores. Cameron and I wanted to buy a bench and two side tables for our bedroom. We found the bench at a very good price (Cameron tried to negotiate the price and we got an additional 10% off) and in an excellent condition.

Cameron examining the bench at the antique store:

Bench in our room:

Saturday night Jenny made a delicious fettuccini chicken alfredo for dinner (she made the sauce from scratch…it was so good!).

The race was on Sunday at 7:00 AM; being about an hour away, the guys left the house at around 5:15 AM. Jenny and I decided to stay home and go to church with the kids. We girls were having cinnamon rolls and coffee while the guys were finishing up their race. By the end of the race, Matt and Cameron were soaked! It was an extremely hot morning! Their official times: Matt 1:45:15 - Cameron 1:46:22.

The next race will be Dallas White Rock Marathon and Half Marathon in December. Matt and Cameron will be running the half marathon and I will be running a relay leg for the full marathon.

Matt & Cameron before the race (notice that it is still dark outside!):

Weekend Getaway - Final Part

After visiting the Capitol building, we walked down to Sixth Street and had lunch at one of the local restaurants. As we were walking on the sidewalk of Sixth Street, we noticed the dried beer smell coming from the pavement spilled from the night before.

Our last stop was the University of Texas. Cameron and I felt like college students one more time! Walking around the campus brought great memories of our college years (suddenly I feel so old! I can’t believe I’ve been out of school for four years!). The campus is beautiful and you can feel the patriotic long-horn spirit among the students that were there.

Nancy, my mother-in-law, told us to look for a Scripture verse on the university’s bell tower. I’m sure thousands of students walk by it without even knowing that this is the verse in John 8:32 “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (NIV).

Bell Tower - UT Austin:

Look closer (you might want to click on the picture to make it larger): "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free":

South view from the Bell Tower - Capitol Building:

Sunday morning we visited the botanical gardens close to the Town Lake. We got there early and we pretty much had the park to ourselves. There were all kinds of plants and flowers (we even saw a chile piquin plant!). The oriental gardens were our favorite; they had a beautiful display of ponds with lots of gold fish and coi fish that were two feet long!

The Oriental Gardens:

Grwoing up in the dessert, I thought this little rodent was very cute (Cameron thought it was insignificant):

There was an area dedicated to the butterflies:

This brick wall/window was part of a historical house in Austin:

Visiting our first winery - Texas Hills Vineyard in Johnson City:

You can see the vineyards behind me:

We made a quick stop to buy some home grown tomatoes and squash:

Second winery - Becker Vineyards:

This is their tasting room:

The gift shop is an antique bar originally from the Green Tree Saloon in San Antonio:

Our visit to the nursery - Wildseed Farms:

We also did a little wine tasting:

This picture was taken in Fredericksburg; take a look at the three flags (US, Texas, Germany):

Cooking and Baking for Cameron

Time has gone by so fast! I can’t believe we’ve been married for ten months! One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most is cooking for Cameron. He enjoys all of the dishes I’ve made for him especially the Mexican food. One of his favorite dishes is caldo de pollo con arroz rojo (chicken soup with Spanish rice). I think Cameron is used to eating Mexican food every day; he even makes our salsa (roasting and pealing jalapeños and tomatoes)! My good friend Ana Laura says I’m “Mexicanizing” Cameron.

I think I’ve done more baking in the past ten months that I did when I was single! I’ve baked him cookies (snicker doodles, oatmeal cookies, and peanut butter cookies), cakes (chocolate cake with cream filling – this is Aunt Mary’s Sommer recipe and chocolate-flan cake), apple pie and other goodies (cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, zucchini bread, Amish bread and brownies).

I can’t take credit for knowing how to cook or bake, my mom deserves all the credit for teaching me. She also taught me to plan the meals ahead; this has saved us time and money whenever we go grocery shopping. Thanks mom!

Picture taken Dec 2005 (me, grandma, mom):

Weekend Getaway (Part 1)

Cameron surprised me by planning a weekend getaway to Austin; we left Friday evening and came back Sunday afternoon. Our drive was very pleasant; it is always fun and interesting to see how the scenery and climate change.

We stayed at The Star of Texas, a bed and breakfast (B&B) close to the University of Texas and near downtown. This was my first time staying at a bed and breakfast and I was a little hesitant in having this experience. Fortunately, Cameron convinced me that it would be a good experience for me and he was absolutely right! The bed was so comfortable, the sheets were so soft, and the breakfast was outstanding!

View from our balcony - The Bell Tower from Texas University:

Our first night in Austin we walked around and found a great Japanese/Thai restaurant; this was our opportunity to have sushi and pad Thai (unfortunately we can’t find this type of food in Abilene!). We had to go to bed early because we were running the next morning.

Early Saturday morning we headed down to Austin’s Town Lake Metropolitan Park for our daily run. This park is huge; it has 10 miles of hiking trails! Cameron and I were scheduled to run for 10 miles and 6 miles, respectively. Since we were running together, Cameron was going at a slower pace than usual; we agreed to run together at a comfortable pace. We ended up running only 7 miles (not to bad for me since it was the first time I had gone over 6 miles but it was a little short for Cameron’s scheduled run). We were both amazed at how many people were running that morning at the lake (probably in the hundreds).

Here’s our picture after our run (you can see the lake behind us):

After going back to our B&B, we got ready and ate a delicious homemade breakfast! The second thing in our agenda was to visit the Texas State History Museum. This museum is incredible; we spent over three hours reading and learning of Texas’s journey to what it is today.

Cameron’s view: “I wish we were a Republic today. Texas became a Republic when Mexico dissolved their responsibilities as a government for the people and their protection. Maybe this will happen again. I think we would be able to support an economy unlike in those days when our debt played a big part on becoming a state.”

Picture taken in front of the museum:

This statue used to be on top of the Capitol Building -

Original Goddess of Liberty (behind me):

After we saturated our brains with Texas’s history, we walked to Texas’s State Capitol building. As we were approaching the Capitol, Cameron pointed me all of the beautiful granite that surrounds the building. We were able to go inside and take pictures; we visited the Senate and House of Representatives chambers.

Rear view of the Capitol:

House of Representatives:

The doors in the Capitol were VERY tall (10 to 12 feet):

The level of detail in the building is amazing; the door hinges:

Senate:

"In God we trust"

In the press room:

"I'll take your question now..."

If you look closely, you can see the word "Texas" in the ceiling:

More from our trip later this week!