Tag Archives: heritage

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure

In Remembrance

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A second cousin (twice removed? He is the son of my dad’s cousin?) posted this on Facebook yesterday, Memorial Day. I don’t know exactly where the Major fits into my family tree, but I know he’s there on one of the branches!
I thought it was pretty interesting – and maybe you will too!

Maj Carlos William Dwinell
Born: East Calais, Vt. Sept 8, 1838
Died: Charlestown, Va. Aug 24, 1864

Carlos Dwinell served in the 1st Vermont Brigade from 1861-1864. He survived 9 major battles, receiving four promotions in the field. He was severely wounded at the 2nd Wilderness. While still recovering from a bullet lodged near his spine, he returned to his regiment. He perished of additional wounds in action near Charlestown Va. Aug, 24th 1864. Age 27

“The First Vermont Brigade was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. It suffered the highest casualty count of any brigade in the history of the United States Army, with some 1,172 killed in action.”

(Fox, William, Regimental Losses)

Family and Friends, Pictures of the Adventure, The Adventure, The Cabin

Family Weekend Fun

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Wedding. Family. Heritage.

Sometimes everything just comes together is a super-special way, and you’re left with more precious memories than you’d ever imagined!

Wedding
Our youngest niece, Sydney, got married on Saturday to the love of her life, Nate. The wedding was at a beautiful barn in central Vermont – the Cyr Barn.
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It was one of those (typical) Vermont summer days where if you looked in one direction it looked like a beautiful day.
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Check out the blue sky!
But as the wedding progressed, the clouds over the mountain took on a bit more threatening look.
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The weather did not squelch any of the joy of the day however!
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The reception was in the barn, which was whimsically decorated with white lights and white tulle.
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We loved being able to share in the joy of the day, and we LOVED being able to spend the day with my siblings and their spouses.
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We clean up pretty nicely, don’t we??

Family
So we spent Saturday at that lovely wedding, not only being able to celebrate with Syd and Nate, but also enjoying sweet visits with the sibs. Such a precious day. But then on Sunday, with no advance planning whatsoever, we were able to connect with our Canadian family who ‘just happened’ to be in Vermont over the weekend. What a delight!!
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Dewey and Sharon couldn’t join us since they were in post-wedding recovery mode, but it was so grand to see these folks. We even gave it a Senior Citizen attempt at a 10 person selfie.
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Where’s that selfie stick when you need it!!

Heritage
Usually, if we are in Vermont we are staying at the cabin. This time, though, the cabin was being used for the rehearsal dinner and housing for the groomsmen, so we opted to stay at another piece of our family history – the Dwinell Homestead.
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This home was built by my great-grandfather and his brother, and 5 generations later it’s still in the family. It wasn’t being used this weekend, so we made arrangements to stay there. It’s only used in the summer, and in many ways has remained just as it was at the turn of the century. (Think lots and lots of extension cords!) We poked around in the genealogy books, checked out the vast array of old pictures, and tried to conjure up just who might have sat in what chair last century.
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Super special to stay there!
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Wedding, Family, Heritage. What a beautiful weekend!
If you’d like to see a few additional pictures of our glorious weekend, you can check them out HERE!

The Adventure, The Cabin

First Day of Vacay

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God gave us a wonderful gift for our first day of our Cabin Vacation – RAIN!
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Although it didn’t rain ALL day, it certainly rained for the better part of it and kept us inside. It ruled out getting started on any projects (other than unpacking) and MADE us sit still and read and take naps. Sitting still is not something that comes easily to some of us in this marriage, but sitting still is what God gave us yesterday. He also gave us an early morning power outage
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which reinforced our divine directive to step back and be still.
Then, as we were enjoying a bit of a snooze, we heard some noises on the back lawn. Continue reading First Day of Vacay →