Family Time

We've been so busy with family events that I've fallen way behind on doing pictures and blogging. Here's some catch-up:

Gregg's brother Gary is a Shriner who rides in the Famous White Horse Mounted Patrol, a 90 year old institution of Sioux City, IA. A highlight of our time in IA is visiting the stables of these gorgeous horses.

That's El Dorado, one of the performing white horses nearing retirement, watching his buddies perform.






This is the branch of the Schindel family that is descended from Jacob Schindel - most of us anyway, including in-laws. We were the biggest branch contingent of the 70+ person reunion that Gregg wrote about.

Many of the Schindel reunion participants attended the Melbourne United Methodist Church service and boosted their normal attendance of about 20 to over 50, nearly filling the beautiful little 150 year old church. It sits on the site of the now-defunct town of Melbourne, that gave up the ghost after the railroad and paved highway went through Hinton instead of Melbourne, about 2 miles from the Schindel Family farm.

One of the things Gregg and I love about going to church there is seeing our friend Margaret Spies, 100 years old last February, still self-supporting in her own home and sharp as a tack. Here she is with our one year old Great-granddaughter Jordie and Fiance-Granddaughter-in-Law Katie. 100 plus 1.

One of our reunion activities was a float down the Floyd River that runs through the Schindel farm. Lots of rain this year made for a very wide fast moving river, lots of fun and lots of mud!

Then we were off for Nebraska for more time with Gregg's kids and grand-kids. Found ourselves a beautiful new city park in Omaha (not really wanting to return to the one in which we were burglarized in May!).

Weather which had been oppressively hot and humid has cooperated so nicely for us. We had a little cooler spell for the 3 days of the Iowa reunion, then more hot, then cooler again for our Nebraska visits. Nice enough for eating outside again!

Hannah got to spend two overnights with us and get a lot of fishing time in. She fishes just like Gregg and me - fishing, not catching.

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Taylor modeled for me - the knit shoulder wraps that I have been making.

Now we are in Columbus, NE at Grandson Brandon's house and will stay here for some of the boys' football games.

Then... Wichita, Kansas next. Haven't been there yet this year!

Grandkid-Land

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Schindel Family Reunion

We held a Schindel family reunion in Plymouth County, Iowa over the weekend of August 13 - 15 with over seventy people attending from all over the country. All were descendants of my great-great grandfather, Peter Schindel, who was born in a small town just south of Frankfurt, Germany in 1828. Peter came to the U.S. on a small sailing ship in 1853 at the age of 25 and lived in New York and Illinois briefly before coming to Sioux City, Iowa to homestead in Plymouth Township, Plymouth County, Iowa. My cousin, Susan Holtgrew, has traced the Schindel family history back to our ancestor, Theobald Schindel who was born in Bechtolsheim, Rheinnhessen, Hesse, Germany in 1670. We had an evening get together at the Longbranch in Hinton, Iowa on Friday evening, then a day-long picnic in the town park in Merrill, Iowa. We had ample opportunity to visit after everyone took a turn telling a little about themselves and why they had come to the reunion. The reunion was brought to a close on Sunday with a picnic at the Schindel Family farm near Merrill. Many attendees visited the Floyd Valley Cemetery near the now-defunct village of Melbourne where Peter Schindel as well as my great-grandfather Jacob Schindel, grandfather, Allen Schindel as well as my parents are buried. We had a great time meeting new relatives as well as reconnecting with others. I was proud that both son, Doug and daughter, Cindy as well as their entire families were able to attend. Great-granddaughter, Jordie Schindel, who is just sixteen months old was also in attendance with her parents Brandon and Katie.