Davis Family Newspaper

The Mark A. Davis Family in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

2010 Year in Review

  • Eric in Afghanistan - This terrific picture has been shared over Facebook and I need to post it here as well.  This is our son Eric in Afghanistan.  Eric is a Navy SeeBea doing construction at several forward operating bases in Afghanistan.  These are hot-zone areas, so we'd appreciate your prayers for his safety.

    Take a look at the thermometer on the wall behind Eric - over 120 degrees.  He's working very long days doing construction in that heat.  We are very very proud of him.

    Today is Eric's 28th birthday.  Congratulations Eric!  We love you.      Last Updated 08/25/2010



      

  • Gabriella Nicole Davis - Born 3/25/2010 to Brian and Susie Davis.  She is absolutely beautiful, and already showing signs of being a terrific and healthy baby.  Congratulations to Brian and Susie.  Last Updated 03/27/10
  • Disney World 2010 - Our 2010 trip to Disney World 2010 has come and gone all too quickly.  It was fun, and we were able to spend some terrific time with family and friends, but we were limited by sickness and bad weather.  Read about it on our blog. 

    This is a picture of Jeanne and her best friend from high school, Barb Sarcinelli.  Her husband, Frank, is in the background with the jacket tied around his waste.  Barb and Frank live in Orlando.  This was the day that Ty was very sick, though the wheelchair was more for Mark as I was having a difficult time walking and standing during the week.  Last Updated 03/14/10

  • Virginia Beach 2010  Menu has been finalized and updated on the planning page.  We think we're all set with planning.

    The house comes with a gas grill, but we've also rented an additional grill considering the large number of people for whom we are cooking.  We've altered the menu to do a bit more outdoor cooking with typical and popular picnic-type foods.  As we've done in the past, there will be a clipboard in the kitchen if anyone has special requests. 

    We'd appreciate your input on cereals that your family will eat for breakfast.  We've noticed over the past two trips that no one seems interested in a full cooked breakfast.  We'll have some eggs there, but won't be planning formal meals.  Again, if someone wants something special we can get it. 

    One other change this year is that we intend to bring the large blue drink container that we usually have when camping.  We'll try to keep this filled with cold CrystalLite lemonade and, if we can find a good location, will keep in on the outside deck with a stack of cups.  Hopefully this will reduce people going in and out of the house, and reduce soda costs.  From the house pictures it appears that the only way to the kitchen is through the inside of the house.  We don't see any outside steps. This might be something we need to think about, especially with all the kids with wet and sandy feet.

    We have 22 adults, 13 youth, and 2 babies coming to the beach.  That's 37 people.  This is a terrific turnout.  I'm thinking we might develop a little problem if people leave personal items on tables, countertops, etc.  During the week, please help police this with all kids, not just your own.   

    The houses are just a few blocks north of the community park at the south end of the island.  They are beautiful.  Check them out.  They are named     Grandview South and Dominion.  See the Virginia Beach 2010 Planning Page.  Last Updated 06/19/2010

  • Pictures from MDC 2010 With 14 cameras flashing away we ended up with over 1500 pictures from MDC 2010.  We had to delete 500 of them to fit into the maximum photos allowed in a Picasa online album.  Which ones will Matt chose to turn into a funny one? 

    This campout will likely be best remembered for the terrific 1st Annual Clivas Multram Baseball Game.  Everyone involved seemed to have a tremendous time.

    Another memory will be our very successful "Turkey in a TrashCan".  We cooked a huge 28lb turkey in a new trashcan, and it came our perfect!  It was juicy, perfectly done, and falling off the bone.  Next time we'll remember to make gravy.  It was part of a Thanksgiving Dinner that included this 28lb turkey, an 18lb turkey that Brian deep fried, and another 18lb turkey that we did rotisserie style over the fire.  All of them came out great and were served with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, Susie's cheezy green beans, and Matt Houtz's terrific sweet potato cassarole. It was an incredible meal and a wonderful weekend with family and friends. Last Updated 06/05/2010 

  • TY WINS CAKE CONTEST - Ty and Mark baked a cake to compete in the Cub Scout Pack 160 annual cake contest.  Ty's cake won the "Funniest Cake" award out of the 38 cakes entered.  All cakes needed to be 100% edible.

    Ty's cake was done to look like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.  The idea for the cake came from Debi Brown and she had done a smaller version with cupcakes.

    The "spaghetti" was really icing colored with a little cocoa and yellow food coloring.  We squeezed it onto the cake using a ziploc bag with a small hole cut in the corner.  The "sauce" was really strawberry jelly.  We used a suger-free jelly that had a brighter red color and sprinkled it on top of the spaghetti with our fingers..  The "meatballs" were Ferrero Rochert candies, which also had a meatball-like texture.  We rolled the candies in strawberry jelly before placing on the sauce.

    The "shredded cheese" is really shredded white chocolate.

    Ty and Dad had a great time making the cake together, and Jeanne was standing by to make sure we knew what to do.  Ty was thrilled to win the funniest cake prize.      Updated 04/21/10 

  • Ty and Dave Jones - Ty is in Cub Scouts.  It incredible to think that Dave Jones was my scout leader when I was young, and now he's going to be involved with Ty as a scout. Last Updated 02/20/10

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