Cannell Sisters Reunion

10/1/12 As most of you are aware, Elaine is the youngest of 6 sisters who all grew up on a farm in Illinois, outside of Rockford. Periodically they all get together, since these days they are all living in different cities. This year they had their reunion at the old Cannell farm where they were raised and where Georgeanne Daly, the 3rd sister, raised her family and still resides there. Elaine and I had just returned from our European cruises, and had left our RV on the farm while we were gone. So we wanted to help make sure that all the work didn’t fall on Georgeanne, just because the gathering was at her house. We did most of the cooking and provided most of the appetizers. The pictures that follow are mostly of interest to family members, but I will try to provide info as to who is in each one.

Dennis & Georgeanne’s oldest son, Tom Daly & his wife, Lana, live in the house next door and are owners of all the farm buildings and ½ the farm land. We so enjoyed it that they often joined us for happy hours and one night they stayed for dinner with us in our RV. Here is Dennis with his son, Tom, in our RV.

Mary Sue, the 2nd sister, used to live near us in the Bay Area, and also used to live in a house near the old farmhouse. She now lives in a retirement apartment complex in Rockford, but drives out for family events. Here she is seated, with Elaine and Georgeanne behind her.

At one of the dinners, David Daly, Georgeanne & Dennis youngest son, came with his two sons, Danny & Drew. David is a farmer in a nearby town.

David’s wife Carrie, and their 2 daughters, Holly & Emma. Carrie is a high school math teacher, a farm wife, a Mom of 4, a blogger, a great cook, and a regular runner. Don’t know how she has time for everything!

Elaine’s oldest sister, Barbara Traughber, lives in Mayville, Wisconsin. Her daughter, Lisa, drove her down for the reunion and Barb spent 4 nights staying with us in our RV. Lisa is a sweetie and so supportive of her Mom. She also brought us some chocolate truffle cookies when she came to pick Barb up. Delicious!!

One thing the sisters do when they get together is “bond” over vodka gimlets. Here are 5 of them doing that. Thomasine hadn’t arrived yet.

Frank & Thomasine arrived and here they are on the far right in this picture. They live in Aledo, IL, about a 3-4 hour drive away from the farm.

One thing the sisters try to do when they are together is have a picture taken of the 6 of them. This time I took it, instead of a professional photographer, and this is the result. On the couch from left to right: Penny McCarthy, from Tucson, Thomasine, and Elaine. In the back row, Mary Sue, Georgeanne, and Barbara. Don’t they all look great, especially considering that Elaine is the youngest at 65, Barb is the oldest at 75 (soon), and the others are all in between??!!

Since this all took place on a farm, and Tom Daly is farming all the land that used to belong to Elaine’s Mom & Dad, there is real farm equipment around. So this picture shows me climbing up on his combine, which was HUGE!

The wheels are taller than I am! The cockpit is really nice, with a whole array of controls – even more than in an RV. The corn and soybeans were looking very dry when we were there and no doubt Tom has started to harvest them by now. The reunion was totally over by midday on Saturday, so Elaine and I headed west. Today we are almost in Denver, where I will be having a reunion with my twin sister, Marsha. Check in later for some pictures of that event.