Nicoll Footprints

Dear Friends and Family,

I want to tell you what an amazing family I have. This past Saturday was a success due to the talents and the help of a lot of Nicolls. I know that we would not have been able to do this without each of you, even those that couldn't be here but encouraged us to go forward.

Ann (Nick) Shreeve and her daughters, Mindy and Miriam, were awesome. Ann and Mindy handled the food assignments and let me tell you, we ate like rich kings. The spread was fantastic. Miriam volunteered to do something with the younger kids to keep them busy. She really came prepared and those young ones that sat with her enjoyed her offerings. Miriam also had a winning Reunion "Momento". Thank you!

If you didn't get one of these, contact Miriam at purpleyum@gmail.com , she is making more and selling them for $2.00 each.

Another talented family member brought her great items to the Reunion for a Silent Auction. Thank you Patti. These were great.

After reimbursing several people for some of their expenses, I am opening an account at WF for the Nicoll Family Reunion so that we have funds to help with the 2010 gathering.

I hope more of us can contribute next year. If you want to be a part of this, let me know. I think the best way to do it is split the proceeds with you and the family but we can talk about it later.

Marla Olson had made arrangements to use their Ward building and then called as soon as she could get home from church last Sunday, to tell me we had to find another location (just one week prior to the Reunion). I started calling all family members in the Mesa area to see if we could useget another building and Steve Nicoll came through. Steve was able to make the arrangemenst to use his Ward building on short notice and we really appreciate both of their help.

A big thanks to Ashley (Darren) for being swept into "official photographer" for the family groups. If you are looking for a great Mother's Day gift, visit her blog http://embraceyourcreativity.blogspot.com/2009/04/mothers-day-mini-sessions.html.






A special thanks to everyone that showed up early to help set-up and those that stayed late to help clear and clean. All of you are the reason we had a successful Reunion.

And a big thank you to Rodney and Denise Standage for volunteering to put together the 2010 Don & Ethel Nicoll Reunion- Saturday, November 27th. That is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We look forward to seeing all of you then. As soon as I can get an E-mail contact for them, I will share it with you.

To my friends who read my blog that do not have a large extended family, I don't know what to say except that I am sorry you are missing one of life's richest blessings

To my family members who live too far away to attend this year, do try to join us in 2010. I want to get to know you, we want to get to know you!


Don and Ethel Nicoll struggled everyday of their married lives to meet the needs of their large family and we are rich for it. We are growing outward and older so fast.

On Saturday we recognized these events that enforces the need of regular family gatherings:

• Susan passed away 15 years ago on April 25th.
• Barbara and her family were attending the wedding of one of her grandsons. Did I say we were growing fast?
• We took 2 group pictures of Phyllis with 5 generations. (for those of you that don't count-that's 6 generations for Don & Ethel.)
• Shirley just celebrated her 62nd birthday. (Yes, we are getting better, aren't we!)
• We have so many members of the family we don't know or recognize, that we had to spend 30 to 45 minutes just going around the room introducing ourselves and updating, as quickly as we could, our families and a little about those that could not be attend.

Now I have to work on spelling every one's name correctly (Glorya, y not i; Phyllis, 2 l's; Corey, with an e; so far)!


Here are some pictures I didn't post on Facebook-my grandchildren had my camera and took pictures of their view of the reunion.


I'm not sure who "kick-a-pooed his joy-juice", but Stu (Marla) was happy to be there.





This is a picture that only a grandmother could love. Nikki assures me that he is only laying his finger at the side of his nose, trying to make the big decision: 'Which dessert do I want now?'

And the sweat and rosy cheeks on this 10 year old is from making the church hallways unsafe to walk.

By the way, I heard that Jordan (Megan's husband) and the kids were doing karaoke in the RS room. Why weren't we invited?

I've got a lot to do today so I'll close for now.

Love Jan