Our very own U.S. Marine

We're very proud of young cousin Nathan Pepin, who is now a U.S. Marine after graduating from basic training in San Diego, where he excelled in marksmanship. Nathan, a 2007 graduate of Goodhue (Minn.) High School, came home this month to Red Wing for a brief visit, then returned to Camp Pendleton, where he'll stay until the end of May. Next he'll go for a year of schooling in California, Florida or perhaps on a ship for ground electrician, his military occupational specialty (MOS), and after that be assigned to his duty station, which could be Iraq, his mother reports. Among the very proudest family members are Nathan's parents, Patty and Steve Pepin; his grandma, Florence Sprick Bye, and his great-aunt, Anna Sprick Smith, who has installed an extremely large photo of him in her living room, dwarfing photos of all of us other cousins. And rightly so!

A rugged rugby player ... and a championship!

Spring is (allegedly) here, and one sign is that cousin M. Broberg has switched from indoor wrestling to outdoor rugby. Can spring flowers and baby ducks be far behind? Some photos ...

The three photos below were posted in June, when Marty's team won the championship! Congrats, Marty!

In memory of...

... Mom/Aunt Alverna, drive carefully, elders and cousins!

Alverna Edna Sprick Miller July 23, 1924-April 24, 2006

******************************************************************** And in memory of two others killed in automobile accidents...

Adelaide Anna Margareta Sprick Detlefsen Sept. 15, 1908-Aug. 23, 1973

Clyde Clifton Miller (May 30, 1894-Aug. 5, 1938), father of Uncle Bill Miller and grandfather of cousins Pam, Chris and Cathy. He's shown here with wife Mamie Louella Jackson Miller shortly before he was killed in a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus being test-driven by a mechanic who had forgotten to reconnect the brakes.

DRIVE CAREFULLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pam and Mom on the March 2006 Miller family cruise.

Dear and Moose

The scrapblog editor's favorite son, Noah, came home from UMD this weekend to visit his parents and go to two Twins games with his pals. Here he is with his UMD buddy Patrick "Moose" Laubis. Noah will move south to the University of Minnesota's Minneapolis campus come fall.

A very fine young gymnast

The young lady above is, of course, the scrapblog editor's niece H.B., who looks exactly like the scrapblog editor. Princessa H. is an excellent gymnast and an A student. By the way, the scrapblog editor has undertaken to hire the fellow at right to serve as a bodyguard for her beautiful nieces.

Belles of the ball

Cousin Mo and several friends went to the Centennial High School prom this past weekend and had a great time. Aren't they beautiful?

Happy Birthday to Mary!

Happy Birthday to Mary, who, unbelievably, is 50 today! Some photos of her we love:

Extremely funny cat video

Scrapblog mascots Lucille and Turtleicious highly recommend this YouTube cat video, also a hit in the Star Tribune newsroom. The way the guys in this video handle their cats is similar to the way Noah and his friends treat Lucy and Turtle. Be sure to have your computer's sound on when you watch it.

Shocking truth about Miller family tree revealed!

Your scrapblog editor was rummaging around for old photos of dear old Dad, Uncle Bill to you cousins, on Sunday, which would have been his 83rd birthday, when she ran into something that dropped her perfectly square Sprick-Miller jaw. In the back of two old notebooks of Miller family history, she found Dad's family tree, complete with vignettes about his forebears going back to the Revolutionary War and beyond to Scotland. There was a lot of fascinating stuff, but this took the cake: Noah, Zachary, Mo, H.B. and Elizabeth, here's a tidbit for you in case you have to write a history paper or watch video historian Ken Burns' masterpiece "The Civil War" (available from Auntie Pam's lending library): Your paternal great-great- great-great-grandpa was a Confederate infantryman who died in the Civil War. Here's how this unfortunate fella, John Madison Jackson, is connected to you: He was the father of John Hamilton Jackson, who was the father of Millie Ward Jackson, who was the mother of Mamie Louella Jackson, who was the mother of William Alton Miller, aka Pipe Grandpa. Here's his story: John Madison Jackson was born in the Beaver Island area of Stokes County, N.C., in 1823, the son of John Jackson and Nancy Dearing. In 1850, he married Julie Ann Richardson (1832-1895, daughter of John W. Richardson and Ruthy Gann). They had five children, the fourth of whom was your great-great-great-grandpa, John Hamilton Jackson (1859-1924). On Feb. 12, 1863, at age 40, John Madison Jackson, then a farmer in Stokes County, enlisted in Company G, 22nd Regiment of the North Carolina infantry of the Confederate army. On May 28 or 31, 1864, he was captured by the Union army in or near Mechanicsville, Va., and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Md., a huge, overcrowded, fetid Union prison camp (now a state park; you can Google it for gruesome details) where he died of wounds and/or disease and/or starvation on June 27, 1864. It is not known where he was buried. It's quite possible he was captured and doomed in one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, Cold Harbor, which happened at that time near Mechanicsville. I Googled that battle and found many, many grisly Matthew Brady photos from it. Below is a painting of that battle that sanitizes it a little: It's one of the strange truths of American history that many U.S. families are descended from people who fought on different sides in the Civil War. Not so in our case, since our maternal Spricks and Augustines, who would have indeed been Yankees had they been here, cleverly arrived in what they called Amerika after the gory Civil War and before the great wars of the 20th century that wiped out whole generations and populations in Europe. Still, it's eerie to know the Miller cousins are descended from such disparate quarters. Every cousin, bio or adopted, has an intriguing family history, somewhere back there. Usually such things are obscured in the mists of time, which may be just as well. The main thing is, if you go back far enough, all of us, bio or adopted, are blood cousins.

Kansas cousins, American Idol-style

Ever wonder what Chats and Michael Northrup are up to in Kansas? Here are two shocking glimpses. They were stars in a "Dancing With the Clergy" routine in which Michael was the pope and Chats was a Presbyterian minister much like ... herself. They were a big hit!

The boys of winter

Unlike the rest of us, cousin Dan and sons aren't quite ready to let go of winter. Snapshots from their spring break: N. slept in a snow cave for a school science experiment testing outdoor vs. indoor-snow-house temperatures. Dad Dan and dog Rosie kept him company. N., M. and friends skied in the mountains near Whitefish, Mont. They took Amtrak out there with Dan.

Lake Pepin turns deadly: The story of the Sea Wing

We haven't delved into history for a while, but this week a great opportunity to do so cropped up. Ben Welter, a work friend of the scrapblog editor who tends a wonderful historical blog built around old Star Tribune stories, found an 117-year-old article about the July 14, 1890 Sea Wing disaster on Lake Pepin. About 130 people died when a powerful tornadic storm sank the excursion boat, above. Some of you cousins may remember Grandma Maria Augustine Sprick, at left above, talking about that shrieking 1890 "cyclone," which created her first memory -- of hiding terrified in her mother's long skirts. She was about 5 years old then. (Her mother, our great-grandmother, Anna Ahlers Augustine, is pictured at right.) The Sea Wing story Ben found is written in an old-fashioned dramatic style that lacks what we modern journalists would call a "nut graf" but makes for a great read. Check it out here. To make the list of dead larger and easier to read, click on it. You can read more about the Sea Wing and other cool historical things our forebears might have encountered at the Goodhue County Historical Society website.

Spring? What spring?

This time of year, the Minnesota cousins are usually watching crocuses creep up and enjoying strengthening sunshine. Not this year! We've had two bouts of wet, heavy snow in the last week here in lovely Robbinsdale. But that's nothing compared to what Duluth got. The blizzard there even inspired UMD student Noah to wear socks for once! Here are a couple of photos Duluthians took during "the frozen hurricane," as it was dubbed (technically, wind speeds during Duluth's blizzard reached tropical-storm levels, not quite cyclone speed): Confused robins adorn a snowy tree. Canal Park, where Noah and his friends like to hang out, was overrun by giant waves. Luckily, the goofs in this photo aren't Noah and his friends.

A beautiful gesture

We love this picture of Texas cousin Kelly Turner, who generously donated four years' growth of her long, beautiful hair for a project that makes hairpieces for cancer patients, which she also did four years ago (cousin Mo of Centerville recently did the same thing). Love your new haircut too, Kelly!

Perfectness incarnated

Cousin Tuck Kirkwood sent this delightful photo from his recent vacation in Hawaii. Wish we'd been there with him! And bet he wishes he'd had all the cousins with him too on that slide! Right, Tuck? In an e-mail accompanying his vacation photos, Tuck spelled his name "Tuck" after spelling it "Tuk" last time. What th--?? We suspect he's trying to drive the scrapblog editor insane. Or perhaps he has an alias? Does Tuck/Tuk lead a secret life? Is he even who he says he is? But, we digress. Tuck/Tuk included the following line in his e-mail, which said he and the lovely Sheila will attend the gala Burnt Wienie Award party May 31 in Lake City: "In my infamous perfectness, I don't believe there are any nominations for me for the coveted Burnt Wienie." Is perfectness even a word? Didn't he mean perfection? (Note to self: Nominate Tuck/Tuk for making up words.)

Living vicariously through Tuck and Sheila

Cousins Tuck and Sheila went to Hawaii last month. Wish we'd been there with them, partly because Hawaii is so very, very lovely, and partly because Tuck and Sheila are such kind, delightful people, really fun to be around. A couple of snapshots from their trip to paradise:

Which of these is not a cousin?

Cousins Chris and Mary and their rambunctious offspring have returned from their Caribbean cruise sun-kissed and happy. They submitted this stellar photo of Chris, Mary and Mo with major famous celebrity Merrill Osmond of the Osmond Brothers!! We were very impressed, especially when Chris reminded us of their immortal hit, "One Bad Apple Doesn't Spoil the Whole Bunch Girl." Mary allowed as to how Donny is her favorite Osmond, but we won't tell Merrill that.

Glamour shots

Auntie Mary Miller and her beautiful daughters, M., H. and E., all of whom look exactly like their Auntie Pam, posed for several great photos during their cruise last week:

Happy belated birthday to a dear cousin!

Your scrapblog editor, whose memory is less than stellar, completely forgot to post an important birthday on March 31, cousin Jane's. We'd thought Jane was the same age as the scrapblog editor, who was born in 1956, but looking at her photo, we realize she's actually only 28. Happy hatcha-batcha birthday, Janie!

Wildlife encounters

Inspired by some delightful postings by friend Laurie Hertzel on her very cool blog, here are some wildlife encounter photos taken through the years. Laurie before a hike on the Eagle Valley wildlife trail north of Anchorage in July 1987. There was a recent moose kill site in the area that brown bears had been feeding on. We survived the hike without a bear sighting. Lazy urban bears often hung out in the garbage dumpster behind my Duluth apartment. Here I scolded a little one in September 1986. Pretty stupid. (Me, not the bear.) On a different day, I had the good sense to wait till this even larger one departed before taking out my trash. Heading out on that Anchorage trail in July 1987. The caption on the back of this photo says, "Bearly worried." In August 1987, Dad and Mom visited, and Steve and I took them out on the same dangerous trail. They, too, survived. Biking near our house in Anchorage was always an adventure. We often had to turn back because of moose on the trail. We were even more leery of moose than we were of bears, because we'd heard many tales of them chasing and hurting joggers and sometimes killing dogs with their sharp kicks. Our yard in Anchorage was up against a greenbelt. Moose went through almost daily, especially in the winter. There's a grizzly bear in this photo on the median, but you can hardly see it. The scrapblog editor doesn't like to get any closer to grizzlies than this! I took this photo in May 1987 on a hike near Toklat Lake in Denali National Park in Alaska. Saw many grizzlies, thankfully from afar, on that and other trips to Denali.