Moriah turns 21, and everyone celebrates

Moriah Miller turned 21 Wednesday (July 25, 2012), and decided to celebrate in spectacular fashion -- with several friends and lucky relatives (her dad, me, Zack, Noah) on a Pedal Pub in downtown Minneapolis. Never mind that it was 95 degrees with a dewpoint of 72 and rush hour downtown -- we had a great, wild time. Some snapshots:

The Pedal Pub gang.

Zack served as bartender as we all pedaled the dang thing around downtown and Dinkytown.

Moriah with pal Nick Bradac.

Oh yeah! Moriah gets wild. What a happy girl our Mo is! And she makes everyone else happy, too.

Moriah gets down! Happy Birthday, lovely, funny Mo! You make the world a better, happier place.

Hard to believe...

... that Mom (Alverna Edna Sprick Miller, 7/23/24-4/24/06) would have been 88 years old this week. The old ones stay with us, eh? A couple fav snapshots of good ol' Mom:

Mom, all glamorous, at the Lake City pier.

The triumphant Blueberry Queen at Waldesruh. You had to be there...and most of the cousins were!

Celebrating those happy "gotchas"

How happy we are to have an international family! Hereto, a celebration of Avamarie and Elizabeth Miller, both born in farflung (and far apart) provinces in China, but now running the Miller family in Minnesota, pretty much. Some snapshots from a recent "Gotcha Day" party for Avamarie and a reunion of Chinese-girl adoption families in Lake Placid, N.Y., all courtesy of Mary Miller:

Avamarie the day Mary and Moriah met her in China, and at her "Gotcha Day" celebration last week in Centerville, Minn. Avamarie is a radiant 4 now.

"Why yes, I would like to have some cake," Avamarie opined. "And soon1"

With big sis Elizabeth, 8.

Elizabeth in Lake Placid with one of the girls who was in her adoption group.

Elizabeth and some of her Chinese-born "sisters."

Such beautiful, beautiful children. There's our Elizabeth and Avamarie on the far right. We are proud to call them family.

Elizabeth, third from left, par-tays down with her Chinese-born sisters at Lake Placid.

Here's something you don't often see (in short, another Tale of Hannah)

See lovely Hannah? See that X-ray behind her? See that big screw in the X-ray? Yep, that's Hannah's little skeleton at age 2, when she swallowed that big honkin' screw. Crisis ensued, but quickly passed, quite literally, when the dangerous little item sailed harmlessly through Hannah's system. Her parents put up the X-ray as part of her high school graduation display to remind her not to have any more adventures like THAT one.

More fabulous Sprick photos

 We can never resist stealing photos from cousin Cindi Sprick O'Donohoe's Facebook page, both because she posts wonderful ones and takes great ones now. Here are a few recent thefts from Cindi:

Cousins Davy and Cindi back in 1961. They're still musical!

Cindi with niece Ashley and daughter Tanya back in the glorious 1980s. Note the Cabbage Patch doll, then all the rage.

We always knew ol' Abe was a relative! Here he is with Cindi and her sweet granddaughter, Maria Cook, during Cindi's recent trip to visit Maria's family in Colorado.

Portrait of the Noah as a young man

Your scrapblog editor's No. 1 son, Noah Miller Johnson. He turned 23 on June 17, 2012.

A few snapshots from Nick's grad party

Siblings Elizabeth, 8, and Zachary, 24, at Nick Broberg's grad party. Don't let their sweet faces fool you -- they're scamps, those two.

Old Rosie, blind and diabetic, retains her sweetness. She wags her tail whenever Nick comes near. (Postscript: Rosie passed on in late summer 2012. She was a wonderful dog, and will always be part of Dan, Cathy, Marty and especially Nick's history.)

Lavone Broberg, Nick's great-aunt, and Mary Miller chatted it up in the Brobergs' Minnetonka Mills Road living room.

LeahPalooza at cousin Pam's

 Senior cousin Leah Sprick Davidson, a very young and lively 70, came to visit Minnesota this month and regaled a new generation of Sprick cousins. Snapshots from the par-tay scene at your scrapblog editor's Robbinsdale home:

Young Teddy Hagberg and cousin Leah toast something or other.

 Cousins Leah, Jane Kirkwood Hagberg and your scrapblog editor. Doot doo, as Jane and Pam would say!

Ummmmmmmmm...is that a BEER our Moriah has? Why yes, but she was just taking it to Teddy! Mo turns 21 July 25, so she was almost legal herself.

Young cousin Noah Miller Johnson looked on wistfully as cousin Zachary Miller showed off his new Harley. Vroom vroom! Po-to-toooo!  Po-ta-tooo!

My geriatric cat, Turtle, almost 16, was very excited by the festivities, as you could tell when she briefly opened one eye.

Two very excellent little videos taken at LeahFest -- one of Zack's Harley, one of cousins Leah, Jane and Pam. The latter, taken by Hannah Miller, is outstanding except that it is almost entirely sideways.

Congrats to our graduates!

 Warm congratulations to three wonderful young cousins who graduated from high school this spring. Katie Hagberg, Nick Broberg and Hannah Miller do us all proud!

Katie, a graduate of East Ridge High School in Woodbury, Minn., with her proud mom, Jane Kirkwood Hagberg, and her grandma, Katie Sprick Kirkwood.

Katie with her grandma, Katie Sprick Kirkwood, and her Texas aunt, Sandy Kirkwood Turner.  Katie will be going to college in Phoenix, Ariz., in the fall.

Katie with her grandpa CJ Kirkwood.

Tall, handsome, thoughtful Nick Broberg, a graduate of Hopkins (Minn.) High School, will be going to North Dakota State University in the fall.

Oh, that Hannah! She's off to the University of Minnesota in the fall.

Centennial High School's (the school is in Lino Lake, Minn.) grad robes were a lovely bright red.