Candy Cane Lane

Jeremy has long thought that the fates intended him to live in southern Illinois--what, with its being half-way between the region whose literature he studies, the South, and the region in which he learned to study it, the Midwest. Amy has never bought that argument. Until now. We spent tonight in West Frankfort, a little town about a half hour north of Carbondale. It's where Amy works occasionally at a branch office of her clinic. More important, it's the home of Candy Cane Lane, a local tradition that began a few years ago when one family decorated their home and, over time, the rest of the neighborhood joined in. It's now a kind of museum of recent trends in kiddie pop culture, with displays ranging from Ren & Stimpy to Lilo & Stitch to Shrek & Donkey to the Incredibles.

Here, then, is a guided tour of the neighborhood that, at least for one night, has made us happier to live in the middle of nowhere.

Presidential Aspirations?

Jeremy is now old enough to run for president. (Hard to believe with parents so young and naturally beautiful huh?)

Saturday. In the Park.

You'd think it was the 4th of July. Almost. It was certainly warm for mid-December, much to Zachary's delight.

Christmas Party

Two videos from the Christmas party Zachary and his parents attended last night. Kind of dark, but clearly: the big guy in red is Santa.

Holiday Magic On The Mountain

Friday - We took Doree, Katie and Guerin to this on an extremely cold night!

I Saw Mommy . . .

Leave It To Zachary

A video of Zachary helping out with the late-fall duties:

Stuff To Do in Gatlinburg

It's 37 degrees tonight in Huntsville, 23 in Carbondale, which means . . . it's time to start thinking about summer vacation! This seems to be the best events calendar. There are even some events already listed for next July.

http://eventsgatlinburg.com/

Zachary's Thanksgiving 2006

Zachary, Amy, and Jeremy traveled by car from Illinois through Alabama to South Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving. Here are a few photos documenting some of the things Zachary was thankful for along the way: cookies, his cousins Guerin and Kennedy, outdoor fireplaces, s'mores, sandboxes, and sleep. (Truth be told, it was his parents who were most thankful for the last photo.)

Summer Vacation 2007

Our summer vacation is confirmed!
http://www.gatlinburgtownsquare.com/

The dates are 07/17/2007-07/24/2007

Mark your calendars now!

Welcome to inkwells!

This is the place to come to keep up with the Wells family--the one who lives in, or whose members at least once lived in, Huntsville, Alabama. We'll post pictures, stories, music, etc. regularly.

We discussed several potential names for this blog before voting, more or less unanimously, on "inkwells." Among the rejects: wellsreunion, wellsgazette, wellstales, wellstells, wellsbucket, wellspoken, and wellscrubbed. Also rejected was wellsendowed. (The more obvious names--wellsfamily, wellstimes, wellsville, etc.--were already taken by somebody else in the blogosphere.)

But inkwells ought to be memorable enough. File it away in your memory and check back every now and then. We'll try to keep it up to date.