The Kieffers - Family

Pictures from 2007

chad — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:37:45 +0000

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We were pretty busy this year, but you wouldn't know it by looking at our photos. I finally got around to uploading nearly a year's worth of pictures from things we've done since Thanksgiving last year.

New pictures include albums for New Year's Eve in Durango for Bob and Jane's 60th wedding anniversay, Owen's t-ball season, Owen's 6th birthday, some shots from around the yard, and few other odds and ends.

I finally picked up a DSLR that I'd been wanting for a while and I plan to make picture posts to the site a bit more regularly :)

Yes, We're Still Alive

chad — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 04:44:00 +0000

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It's been awhile, much too long in fact. But we are all alive and kicking and enjoying springtime, with the exception of the notorious winds of New Mexico.Â

We enjoyed a well-deserved vacation Tuscon where we visited the Desert Museum, Colossal Cave, and the Pima Air and Space Museum. The pool was by far the boy's favorite thing about the week.

Owen's started t-ball. Ryan's working on his North Carolina state report for school. Amy's still putting up with living with three boys and I'm keeping busy with projects.Â

How are you?

Go team!

chad — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 16:52:39 +0000

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Owen's getting his first taste of team sports through a Saturday morning YMCA program. The program is teaching kids the basics of sports, started with soccer fundamentals, and the kids are now playing t-ball.

All of the kids, including Owen, are totally into it and it's fun to watch all of the energy they put into it. Owen has played a bit of soccer with his big brother so passing and stopping the ball seemed to come pretty easily to him. I was a bit worried about bruised shins watching the the free-for-all soccer mob frantically kick at anythiny and everything they could. Miraculously, no one has been injured to date.

The kids finish up t-ball this week and will start with basketball the weekend after Thanksgiving. Watch out Kobe, D-Wade, and Lebron!

The first week of

chad — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:51:23 +0000

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Ryan finished up his first week in the fourth grade and I completed my first week at the new job. I'm happy to report that Ryan and I have only good things to report so far.

Ryan spent his first week back catching up with friends he hadn't seen all summer. His teacher didn't waste any time handing out homework and much of the week was spent reviewing math operations. Ryan has enjoyed the silent reading sessions in class more than anything else.

I started my week filling out paperwork for my new job which I started on Wednesday. Most of my first day was spent in a marathon project meeting which was actually a comfortable way to learn about the people I'll be working with and the projects they're working on. Folks in the office gave me a warm welcome and I really feel good about my decision to leave the Lab.

I absolutely love my commute which is no more than 30 minutes round trip, down from the one hour and 35 minutes I've driven to Los Alamos for the past ten years. I'm able to drop Ryan off at school and be in the office by 8:00.

Owen starts back to school on Tuesday and I'll have a report on his first week back soon.

A busy end to quiet summer

Amy — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 03:16:11 +0000

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This summer started quietly. Ryan finished the third grade and Owen completed another year of preschool. Amy stayed home with the boys over the summer and for the most part, we've stayed close to Santa Fe.

At the end of June, the boys went to Bartlesville to spend a week with Nana and "Ferg" Ferguson. They spent time at the lake, went to Woolaroc, went to a Tulsa Drillers baseball game, spent time with the kitties at the local animal shelter, road tons of cool rides at Kiddie Park, and visited a zoo—among other things. All in all, a fine time was had by all. The boys came back with arrowheads, marbles, stories, and much more.

Before the boys went to Oklahoma, Amy choreographed a most intricate exchange of people—how she pulled it off, I'll never know, but she did. While dropping the boys off to her parents, she arranged to pick up her best friend Chris Patterson (and Chris's baby, Sean) in Texas. Long story short: Chris currently lives in Sumatra, Indonesia, but was going to be visiting her in-laws in Borger, TX. So Amy and boys drove to Borger, TX and spent the night with the Pattersons. The next morning they all headed to Amarillo and met Jayne ("Nana"), where the Kieffer boys were more than happy to get in Nana's car and merely wave "bye" to Amy.

So then Amy, Chris, and one-year-old son Sean headed back to Santa Fe. Amy and Chris hadn't seen each other in almost three years, and Amy had certainly never met Sean and was excited to have a "little guy" in the house again. The girls were looking forward to some time together to catch up ... and it was almost a perfect visit, except once they got to Santa Fe, baby Sean suffered a nasty allergic reaction to a chicken pox vaccine he'd recently had! So Amy, Chris, and Chad all spent some time nursing little guy Sean and trying to keep him happy. Once the worst of Sean's reaction was over, Chris and Amy did get to go to the grocery store sans children, where they had a "double blonde" moment, which no one will repeat unless they're threatened.

When Chris and baby Sean left to go home to Indonesia, Amy and Chad celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary with a dinner at El Farol, which is a restaurant that is special to them. Then the next day, Amy drove back to Amarillo to meet Nana, who had two happy boys but who were ready to come home. That ended June.

July started out quiet but with a lot of much-needed rain in Santa Fe. Amy's tomato plant grew like mad, and our new trees enjoyed getting real rain instead of water from the hose. At the end of July, Grandma Sue Kieffer came to visit, and Ryan started swimming lessons at the Santa Fe Community College. We had a great time with Grandma Sue, who took the boys for walks and relieved Amy many times of being on duty. Grandma Sue was also there to support Chad when he went for his second interview with a company that he has since decided to work for! More details about this follow later.

So the end of our summer is winding down ... Amy will take the boys to Durango soon so they can spend some time with Abuelita Phoebe while she and Chad go to Las Vegas, NV. Then, alas, school starts for the boys, and Chad will start his new job. It has been a quiet, yet eventful, season for all of us.

We went back to Ohio

chad — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 07:20:33 +0000

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Chrissy Hynde summed up my experience pretty well in the song My City Was Gone.

Downtown Toledo hasn't changed much since my last visit four years ago, but the town of Sylvania is growing like crazy. More and more housing developments are being planted in fields where corn and soybeans once grew.

My parents have put their house on the market and are packing up to move closer to my sister in North Carolina. Most of my mom's side of the family is still in or near Toledo. My cousin Derek and his family are now the only remaining Kieffers in Northwest Ohio, where my great great great grandfather first settled after coming from Germany in the 1820s.

This was Owen's first trip to Ohio and he and Ryan kept busy watching the squirrels and developing squirrel-like habits? Amy and I are still finding acorns in their pockets. We had a nice birthday dinner out to celebrate my sister's birthday and all of us spent an afternoon at the Toledo Zoo.

I was able to hang out with my Dad, Dominic, Derek, J., and Steve to watch a lot of the NCAA tournament and had breakfast with my old friend Brian Green, his wife Jean, and son Avery. Apologies to Tim and Molly in Cincinnati who I had planned on visiting before developing a bug (Hope you had a great time in NYC!).

Our trip back was smooth and we're happy to be away from the midwest's gray winter skies and under the bright blue sky of New Mexico. View picts from the trip.

Kieffer Family Reunion '05

chad — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:15:04 +0000

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It's been quite sometime since I've posted anything, it's been a busy summer. To break my online silence, here's a long over due report from the Kieffer family reunion. Yes, the "Northern Kieffers" and "Southern Kieffers" descended on Sunset Beach, North Carolina for a week of fun at the beach. My sister did a great job finding a rental that 13 of us could fit into. My mom and dad broke in their new RV at a nearby campground and parked a couple of spots down from Uncle Bill and Aunt Peg's rig. The rest of the Kieffers stayed at cousin Marc's rental home which was on the inland-side of the inter-coastal waterway. The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too humid. It was a picture-perfect week with lot's of time at the beach, a quick trip down to Myrtle Beach, and some crabbin' at cousin Marc's. Ryan found some great shells, a few hermit crabs, a sea slug in a beautiful conch shell, and I found a live starfish. Of course all of us were scorched the first day with Ryan getting the worst of it. Owen had a blast playing with his cousin Kadin and Kari. Amy and I enjoyed catching up with my cousins and meeting some of their kids for the very first time. The trip made us realize how much we miss family and what a complete goof my cousin Jimmy can be. Check out the picts from the trip!

Yet another year

chad — Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:15:27 +0000

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Happy New Year! The boys had two weeks off while I only had one and Amy actually had to go into the office a few days between Christmas and New Years. We stayed home to have our first family Christmas in New Mexico in a few years and our "first Christmas morning at our current address. Owen is happy to have received several remote control cars which he now chases around the house daily. Ryan's busy building geodesic models and bionicles. We enjoyed a pre-Christmas visit from Amy's folks and after Christmas spent a few days in Durango with Phoebe. Ryan and I went skiing at Durango Mountain Resort (aka Purgatory). I enjoyed my first full-day of skiing in several years while Ryan attended ski school. The highlight for Ryan was taking his first chair lift ride. Both of us hope to get out on the slopes again soon. We spent New Year's Eve with our friends in the neighborhood and had a great time eating fried shrimp and guessing the artists and titles of songs from the 80s. Before we knew it, the break was over. The best word to describe our first day back to work on the 3rd was "foggy" but we're getting back into the swing of things. We hope all of our friends and family had a great holiday break.

Friends and Family

chad — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 03:20:26 +0000

Here are some links to the web sites of friends, family, and acquaintances.

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Help grow the family tree

chad — Thu, 12 Aug 2004 06:33:01 +0000

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Note: I was forced to take down the genealogy section of the site after it was hacked. I'm currently waiting for an upgrade of the family.module for Drupal 4.7.

Come on, I know some of you are visiting the site. I see your visits in the server logs :). I had posted a message back in August hoping to get some of you involved. So far, Kris K. is the only person who's signed up.

Go to the genealogy section of the site.
Click on the "Request New User Account" link near the bottom of the page.
Browse throught the charts or lists.
Once I've activated your account you'll be able to edit information about yourself or immediate family!

Save a comment here or on in the geneology section if you have questions and please let me know if you have any problems setting up an account.