He Will Be Missed

On August 17th and 18th the Morris and Moore clans got together to honor Bill.  The vigil was Friday night and many got up and spoke about Bill - his craziness, his good heart, his love of Connie, his love of golf, and many more attributes!  We all gathered at Connie's for a lasagna dinner which was a blast.  Those Morris people really know how to party.  They were serving up Dirty Girls like crazy!  Friday we gathered at the church for Mass and a final farewell.  Fr. Jim, a friend and golfing buddy of Connie and Bill's, gave the eulogy and it was special.  Connie bought two spots in the Columbarium at Holy Spirit out in the courtyard.  She joined the parish and is now part of a BIG family!  Fr. Dick Schlosser was the officiant of the service and it was great to have him be a part of it.  He is retired now after many years with the parish.  He officiated at Mom's funeral and it was nice to have him as part of Bill's.  Later that afternoon we all gathered at Mary and Jim's for dinner with some of the same and some different folks from the Morris family.  They generously bought dinner and of course we bought the booze!!  A good time was had by all.  Saturday morning those of us still around (13 in all) met for breakfast and had a great time.  We love you, Billy, and we will miss you!!

Total Eclipse

Ann and I went to Dubois ID for the eclipse.  We had a great time!  Met some nice folks from Bozeman (formerly Conrad) who were our camping neighbors in the city park.  Here's Ann trying on a viewer for size, courtesy of our neighbor (a shop teacher).  The eclipse was a marvelous spectacle, a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The Big Weekend

Seems mighty quiet on the blog after last weekend – rehearsal dinner and party, wedding and reception, family picnic.  Good golly, you'd think y'all didn't have any fun.  Well, I did.  And I hope you did, too.  Here are some randomly chosen photos ...

More treehouse trivia

After I left San Diego, Abe built support for the rope ladder. (It was hard to climb, as it swung under the deck.)  Then he enlisted help (I hope) to apply stain / sealant to most surfaces.  The result looks good.  He also installed a roof cap, which you can't see in this photo.

Backyard Project

Tom stopped by while driving from California to Montana and helped with a backyard project.  Not quite as impressive as John and Abe's tree house but it will at least get my garbage cans out of my garage.

The TreeHouse

Abe and I worked from Jun 28 – July 3 to build a treehouse in Desiree's folks' yard near San Diego.  Here are some photos of the daily progress ...

End of Day 1 -- supplies

End of Day 2 -- some framing and part of deck


End of Day 3 -- more framing and start of rafters


 End of Day 4 -- rafters done and start of siding

End of Day 5 -- siding and railing completed

 Day 6 -- toasting the completed project

The Two Newest

I've been in San Diego nearly a week.  The day I got here (at Desirée's folks), Michael and Melissa came to visit.  Here's a photo of Jude (left) and Bo – cousins born about 7 weeks apart.  Later on I'll post some photos of the treehouse Abe and I are building in the Furmans' yard.

Bonnie's Memorial

Marc and I attended the Bonnie Moore Willis memorial at the ranch on Friday.  We drove down Thursday and had dinner with 16 other family members at the Graves Hotel.  We stayed at the motel on the highway coming in, parked our car and walked all around Harlo.  Marc had never walked down main street before.  After dinner, Tana, Ginger, Roy, Terry and Pack Tice, Marc and I gathered in the Bilile room for a drink and some visiting.  Saturday morning we all gathered at the old Wade's drive in for breakfast which was really good!!  We drove out the ranch and got into Roy's truck and drove up to the Shepherder's Memorial which was a favorite spot of Bonnie's.  The Cosgriffe girls arranged all of this and Colleen was the one who spoke.  Aunt Ellen told a few stories as did Jerry Gleason and a couple of others.  It was really nice.  At a later time, Tim, Bonnie's son, is going to go scatter her ashes up there but wanted to do it privately.  Some of us walked up to the memorial and the view was amazing.  I am posting some pictures.  The group of people were at the memorial and the pile of rocks is the memorial.  We all gathered at the TwoDot bar for lunch and drinks.  It was a great time and so good to see the last of the older generation on the Moore side.

Bo Buyske!!

Boaz (Bo) Arnold entered the world at 4:55 a.m. on June 19th.  Mom and baby are doing well and Michael is sliding right into the daddy role.  He is a cute little guy and we are so glad he is here!! (via Jan)

Birthday Girls!

Celebrating Jen and Molly!!  Thank you girls for including us in your birthday weekend!  We had a great time!!  Marc and I went to Bozeman on Saturday and hung out with the girls!  We shopped, walked the MSU campus (Marc was feeling a little woozy then), went to a fun little brewery tucked back - The Bunkhouse Brewery, sat outside and drank some of their great beers, and took them to dinner at the Copper Whiskey which was amazing!!  It was such a fun time with these fun girls and Shane, of course!

Belated Birthday Wish!

We also have Jen who celebrated her 32nd birthday yesterday!  She flew out on Thursday to surprise Molly for her 30th.  Meg and I drove down Friday and we girls had a great time celebrating the girls! Happy belated to this special, loving, giving daughter of ours!  We love you Jenny Pepper!!

Birthday Girl

We haven't seen too many birthday posts lately!  We are celebrating Molly's 30th today and wanted to wish her the VERY best as she goes on to a new decade of adventure!  We love you, little girl!  Happy Birthday!

Memorial Stadium Great Falls

First Notre Dame Stadium, now the Great Falls High Memorial Stadium ... the growth of artificial turf spreads!  I remember years ago, Uncle Buck was on the Great Falls School Board and took particular interest in the condition of the football field.  Aunt Bobbi, with her typical dry humor, referred to it as "Buck's lawn."  That was precious.

RSVP reminder

Hello all!!! I hope you are all doing well and starting to enjoy the summer months!! The heat has finally hit CT so we are trying to stay cool in 90 degree weather after enjoying some moderate spring temperatures the past week.

I am just putting up this post to remind everyone to please RSVP on our website for the wedding. I will include the link in this post so that everyone can use that. It is important to have numbers for purposes of the caterer, especially those of you who have young kids, since they get a discounted price on the meal.

Another update, the wedding site recently lost a battle to keep their RV sites. What this means is that they do not have the ability to have RVs on site and hooked up.  I know there were a few people who were planning on bringing RVs, and I apologize if this creates an inconvenience for anyone, this was a new development that happened and the lady called us very apologetic about it.  If anyone needs input on sites that are available for RVs, please let me know. The Bozeman Hot Springs Campground is only about 2 miles from the wedding site, and last I checked, they still had spots available for the weekend of the wedding.

We are definitely looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of months! I hope that you all have a wonderful summer!

Here is the link: www.bit.ly/B-BWedding

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Love always,
Jen

Family Flashback

Rescanned, with a little better quality.  Here's a photo of the Buck and John Moore families.  This was taken in 2001 on the day of Bobbi's graveside service.

Jim Moore's Service

The combined factions of the Moore and Cosgriffe families, along with the communities of Two Dot, Harlowton, Bozeman, and elsewhere gave Jim a very good send-off today.  I think he would be pleased at the stories, the camaraderie, the memories, and the moments.

We gathered at Resurrection University for the full-blown Catholic funeral mass, then repaired to the parish hall for visits and victuals.  Perry Moore (IV) delivered a wonderful tribute to his dad, and Jim's former law partner and his publisher chimed in with laudatory recollections.

After overstaying our welcome at the parish hall, a number of folks met up at a local brewery for more visits and story-swapping.  All of these photos reflect that "after event," most of them taken by Ann.

I hope others will share their memories and photos; I know Susan had her camera there, and she has proven to be a sharp shutterbug.

Jim – we love you and we miss you.