Huffman Cousins’ Reunion—July, 2010

Our initial “ cousins’ “ reunion was held in Lexington, KY, on the weekend of July 4th. Nineteen attended and Tom came the greatest distance (Utah). John Paul was next (Texas).
Robert E. Huffman’s descendants, Robert and Laura came from Knoxville.
Lois Elizabeth (Anderson) descendants, Mary Barbara and fiancé’ Joe Reed drove from Shelbyville
Roy S. Huffman’s family, John Paul (Texas) and his brother Tom’s family—Tom (Utah), Leslie (Knoxville), Kevin and Marsha (VA Beach), Karen and Jeff with Ben, Phillip and Sarah attended from Knoxville.
Hugh L. Huffman, Sr.’s family: Hugh and Pat (Lexington, KY) and Lorene’s children—James and Merrily (AL), and Kenneth (VA) were present.

Over the course of the weekend we gathered to eat as a family. From Saturday’s make your own sandwiches for lunch to grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner to Sunday’s purchased chicken and bar-b-cue and pizza at Joe Bologna’s, we had a grand time. Folks went to various events during the day and returned for the meals. Four went to Keeneland’s track kitchen for breakfast and a walk-through of the horse barns—even giving a couple of horses a peppermint provided by an attendant. One group renewed acquaintance with Berea and found grandparents’ graves and toured campus. Another set went to the KY Horse Park and saw the Arabian Horse exhibit on loan from Saudia Arabia. Several of us walked through the UK Arboretum, too. And of course, a good contingent went to the Fireworks display in downtown Lexington.

We had a grand time looking through photo albums and learning how each of us is related. Be sure to ask Tom about his flight adventures (delayed, then canceled and delayed again) through Houston, and Bob about his PPE (purple paper eater) and its featured handout from the Knoxville Recycling Coalition (‘Bob and the Purple Paper Eater’).

Waiting for a table at Joe B’s.
Front to back: Pat, Kenneth, James, Mary Barbara, Joe, Phillip, Karen, Laura, Bob, Merrily (?), and Tom. Other cousins are behind the photographer.
l-r: Kenneth, Pat, Marsha, Kevin, Leslie, John

So remember the ground rules—when one of us feels the urge to host a reunion, it will be that cousin’s responsibility to arrange the location, date, any other incidentals and then communicate to the rest of the family. This means that the traditional first Saturday in August will not likely be the day for our gathering and the location will also vary! Pat has constructed a file with email addresses…just let us know when you’d like a copy!
We look forward to the next event! Affectionately, Hugh and Pat

(Now a note from Ashley...If you read this and you attended the reunion, please send me your pictures. I'm sure everyone would enjoy seeing more pictures from the event. Also, if you weren't able to go to the reunion, but you'd like to tell everyone hello...Guess what? You can do that too! Just send me an email at ashleybwilliams@live.com. I can post your update easily! THANKS in advance for your contribution!)

Huffman Cousins' Reunion 2010

Greetings, family!

We’re going to try something different for family reunions—cousins’ reunions. When one of us feels the urge to host a reunion, it will be up to that cousin to arrange the location, date, and any other incidentals and then communicate to the rest of the family. So the traditional first Saturday in August will not likely be the day for our gathering. With this arrangement, we may also not gather every year and the location will mostly likely change from gathering to gathering. Should two of us decide to host a cousins’ reunion, we can possibly gather twice or simply defer to the first one to get the information out.

So to kick things off, Pat and I invite you to come to Lexington, KY for Saturday July 3rd and Sunday, July 4th. We live about 3 miles off I-75 and there is a Best Western at the interstate junction with Richmond Road—a direct drive to our house. Jacobson Park is just across the highway and I’ll need to know if you are coming so I can reserve a pavilion; otherwise, we’ll grill in our tiny back yard. So please write, call, or email us when you know your plans.

There is a pool at the Best Western and other activities around Lexington include: tour of Henry Clay’s home (small fee) and gardens (free) walk at The Arboretum (free, two mile paved trail), breakfast at Keeneland’s track kitchen and walk through the barns, the KY Horse Park (takes about 3 hours and costs about $15), visit Shaker Village (about $15 and 45 minutes away), as well as visiting among ourselves and ‘catching up’. Longer trips and possible to do within a day are Mammoth Cave and Cumberland Falls…each about a 4 hour drive one-way; the Cincinnati Zoo is about two hours each way.
So when you know your plans, also let us know which activities appeal to you. We’ll plan to have sandwich materials for Saturday’s lunch and grill out Saturday’s dinner meal. We’ll each be on our own for Sunday’s breakfast and we’ll decide on Sunday’s lunch pending the activities people want to do. Note that Lexington is on Eastern Daylight Time. We look forward to hearing from you by June15th and seeing you Saturday/Sunday July 3-4.

Love to all, Hugh and Pat Huffman
180 Somersly Place
Lexington, KY 40515
(859)-523-6952
(859)-684-9063 (c)

Hugh & Pat Huffman's Trans-Canada Train Trip, Aug. 2008‏

Here are selected photos from our trip this past summer. We fulfilled a long-time dream of taking the train from Toronto to Vancouver, a 4 day/3 night trip! Since we had never been to the Pacific Northwest, we spent time in Victoria and Seattle before flying back to Lexington.

Briefly, we flew to Buffalo and took a van/taxi to St. Catherines, Ontario where we stayed a couple of days with a friend from graduate school days. We took the local train to Toronto and stayed in a hotel just across the street from the train terminal and toured Toronto. One of the photos is through the glass floor of the CN Tower...yikes!...guess who doesn't like heights? !!

Once on our train for the longer trip, we were surprised at how large Ontario is...northern Ontario is full of lakes and when we awakened the next morning, we were in the plains and wheat fields! Our room had two bunk beds that pulled down from the wall, a small sink and a bathroom--like an airplane's toilet. The sleeper car had a community bath just down the hall. The dining car was one car away and just beyond it was one of the dome cars. Meals were in 3 shifts (calls) and we tried to eat in the first or second call, so we could go to the dome car and watch the sunset. Then we'd take our showers and turn in.

West of Edmonton we got into the mountains. The view from the dining car and the river (Thompson, I think) give an idea of some of the scenes we got while eating. There were several groups rafting and about 2 minutes downstream a huge rock and narrow passage awaited them; I wish we could have seen them navigate that section!

Shortly after seeing the rafters, we came to the section where the Thompson River merges with another...and the longer river is more silt laden which shows clearly at the confluence. There were also several tunnels along this section and we saw some mountain goats near one of them, though I couldn't get to the camera quickly enough to photo them.

After arriving in Vancouver (almost 12 hours late!) we spent two days touring the city and its HUGE public park with gardens, marinas, beaches, nature trails, and open areas. One of the bus tours took us by the Vancouver library which has an interesting shape.

From Vancouver we took a bus/ferry ride to Victoria and spent a couple of days there. Part of our travel arrangements included the Empress Hotel where we had 'high tea' one day. The museum of British Columbia was just across the street from the Empress and we spent the better part of a day there with its many totem poles and history of Canada's 'First Nations' peoples. We also learned that one needs more than two hours at Butchart Gardens! The flowers were at their peak and the gardens were well manicured.

We took a 'clipper' from Victoria to Seattle and spent a couple of days visiting the highlights of that city, too. We had lunch at the Space Needle and walked through the Pike Street Market where we saw the 'flying fish' and the cafe where Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks sat for the scene in Sleepless in Seattle.

It is perhaps fitting that the very last frame on my camera was Mount Saint Helens from our airplane window as we flew home!

It's hard to compress a 15 day trip into a few words and select a few kilobytes of photos from over 2 gigabytes, and here is an attempt to do so!! Want more? Ask about flushing the toilet on the train, the BIG RED button in the train's shower room, the couple from France who spoke no English (we speak no French!), climbing into the upper bunk, the flying fish (& 'one dozen'), the center of the universe, the grandparents going to their grandson's wedding in Vancouver (remember the train was almost 12 hrs LATE!), the salmon ladders, and do they really play the theme song for the Jetson's at Seattle's Space Needle?

New Additions

Just wanted to share our good news! Walker & I (Ashley) have a new addition to our family. We welcomed Eli Marshall Williams on Oct. 26, 2008. My twin sister, Allyson, and her husband, Wes, also have a new addition, Caleb Michael Harper. Caleb was born December 19th.
We're all doing really well, and we're glad they're here!
Here's a picture of Eli taken this week.
And Here's Sweet Caleb...

Subscribe to the Huffman Family Blog

There was a problem with subscribing to the blog. So Sorry! I think I have cleared up the problem now. Thanks, Molly! If you would like to "subscribe" to the Huffman Blog, please follow these steps.

Step 1: Type in your email address in the box on the right column.
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Hugh Huffman's Mother's Day Trip to CA

Hugh Huffman emailed me this last week. Hope you enjoy!

Here are some photos from our Mother's Day trip to CA. Hugh L. Huffman, Sr. was my father. I am Hugh L. Huffman, Jr. and am in the photo reading to my grandsons, Jonah (2.5 yrs.) and Aaron ( 4.5 yrs.) Knuth. My wife is Pat and is holding Tamar (9 mos.). Rachel is our daughter and Nathan is her husband. Jonah loves yummy yogurt and Aaron is always seeking to help, in this case with the painting. The Knuths live in Sebastopol, CA; Pat and I are retired and live in Lexington, KY.

I fondly remember the summer reunion where you and your sisters swam with our daughters, Rachel and Emily at the motel pool in Shelbyville. Emily lives in Birmingham, works as an Account Exec for Clinique and is single; she has a horse and two Jack Russell terriers that keep her busy!

Thanks so much for maintaining the blogspot for the family! Give our love to your family! Hugh (& Pat) Huffman

Hello Huffmans!

After the email about the Huffman family reunion being postponed until 2010, I thought a blog site might be a good way to keep in touch. This is a free site. There is no cost involved. So, when you have news to share with the Huffmans, pictures, or videos, email me at ashleyb306@hotmail.com. I'll be happy to add your information for all the Huffmans to see.

By the way...I'm Ashley Brown Williams. I am one of Betty Lynn's daughters (one of the twins).
So, I'll start off with a quick tribute to my grandmother, Grace Huffman, who passed away last Thursday. The memorial services were held on Sunday, and I thought it truly was a testimony to her life. It wasn't a sad event. Grandmother was 91 years old, and her old body was just worn out. She had made it clear she was ready to go. She had a strong faith and a desire to be with her Lord. The preacher at the service talked about her willingness to serve in the church and her openess to talk about how God had gotten her through so many things in her life.
She left her family an example of a Christian life that I would do good to follow.

Here's Grandmother with my little boy, Sawyer. This was taken November 2007.

On another personal note, my husband, Walker, and I found out yesterday we will have another little boy in November. Sawyer is 16 months, so we'll have two little boys very close in age! We're excited.

I included this picture just for fun. This is Sawyer last week.

A blog allows you to make comments about what the author of the post has written. So, if you would like to make a comment, simply click on the word, "comments" below. You can create a blogger account (for free!) or sign in as anonymous. Just remember to sign your name at the bottom of your comment. If you have any questions about this blog, any suggestions, or if you're ready to make a post, please email me.

This blog will only be fun if everyone will contribute. I think the more posts, the better! I look forward to hearing from the Huffmans.