The MASSEY FAMILY Doings!

Updated 3/22/2015

Kevin and Kara married on 6/2/2013	Colleen and Dave married on 5/24/2014
Click here for wedding pictures.	Click here for wedding pictures.

Our little town of Black Mountain. NC , 15, miles east of Asheville, is advertised as the Front Porch of Western North Carolina. Well, this view below is taken from OUR front porch.

                                                                                                        in the FALL

                                                                                          and in the winter

We started building (actually rebuilding) the log cabin that we found west of Asheville, then a year later built the main part of the house.

The view looking towards our home on Wallace Mountain ,that small cone shape hill at the far end of the lake.

This is our Christmas 2011 picture. Barbara has a few more years until she retires, but after 7 years of teaching High School math in Tampa, FL and 15 years teaching Math and Computer Science at Montreat College  in Montreat NC  and 26 years at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC in the Computer Science Dept as of May, 2011, I have entered the busy world of retirement! Any free time that Barbara and I can find, we take trips to hike with Colleen  in California, watch Kevin and Patrick perform in New York City and Boston  See more below

The Wedding of 2014 gathering of the Mountain Masseys and their significant others. Videos Basement Bell ringing of Massey  Ringy Dingys (Watch the faces!!) 2013   Away In a Manger Version 1   Away in a Manger Version 2   Hark How the  Bells Ring OK version   Hark How the Bells Ring better version Massey Bottle Band 2014 Kevin and two other Memphis cast members at the end of the Christmas Eve performance.

Colleen is our busy bee in the family. Right after graduating from Samford University it was 3 months backpacking around Europe with her college roommate Colleen's European Fling, then working on the ski slopes in Durango and Vail Colorado in the winters and as a river raft guide on the upper Colorado river in the summer.  One of her adventures was a 45 day leadership Outward Bound Experience. She loved every pound of her backpack, every hot day, rainy afternoon and cold nights and every other activity that most people would consider Miserable! She learned physical, mental, and interpersonal skills gained only through experiences in the tough wilderness setting. She used these experiences along with her Psychology degree to work for over a year  with the Second Nature Therapeutic Wilderness Program as a Wilderness leader and counselor with “at risk” teens in the Utah desert.  Later while living in Berkeley,CA, she attended JFK University in nearby Pleasant Hill to obtain a Masters degree in Holistic Health Education to combine and enhance her Psychology degree.While working on her degree she worked part-time for a biofuels research company and  the Berkeley marina teaching kayaking part time for Cal Adventures at UC Berkeley. On week ends she ran ropes courses. For some other Colleen's Adventures	Colleen Age 5	Colleen in Montana 2011	Colleen and Dave Gordon
	She left her position of two years as Outdoor Coordinator for the U of Cal San Francisco Medical School.in the fall of 2011 to move to Montana in June for the 8 months over the winter. After the winter in Montana she was ready  for sun so headed to Europe in June of 2012 for a 5 month backpaking trip with Dave through Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Albania, Coatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and Greece. Upon returning stateside she worked a short time for a recruiting company in Berkeley before she landed another great job in tghe Outdoor Rec industry. Currently she is the Recreation Supervisor for the East Bay Regional Parks District  which is a public park system of Alameda and Contra Costa counties on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. Dave also landed an amazing job in the same park system a Park Ranger. Both are enhoying working to get people outside and adventuring in between their own personal excusioins to the moiuntains and beyound!
Kevin. Can't you just see it in his eyes at 5 years old, that he was thinking about being a star on Broadway! Well, he he did make it,,,four times. The first  was part of the cast in the Tony awarded musical, Big River. The second time he performed as Tarzan  in the Disney Broadway musical Tarzan in 2006. He was called a year later to perform many more times as Tarzan in the Hamburg, Germany production where the dialog and songs were in GERMAN. The third time he went on as the lead, Huey, many times in the 2010 Tony Awarded Best musical, Memphis.   Currently he is the ensemble in the 2014 Tony Awarded Best Musical, Gentlman's Guide to Love and Murder . He was Almanzo in musical version  of Little House on the Prairie with Melissa Gilbert as Ma and a year tour of the US in this production followed. Kara, his now wife, was his opposite Luara. Other regional productions: Willard in Footloose in Kansas City -Ted in Bonnie and Clyde in Sarasota, FL -D'Artagnan in "The Three Musketeers" in Chicago. -Kinky Po in the Mikado in Fargo, ND. -Fred in A Christmas Carol  in Boston. I-n the musical version of Macbeth with the Memphis Opera in TN -"Doody" in two European Tours of  "Grease" -Dickon in "The Secret Garden" and Charlie in Brigadoon with the Utah Opera Festival in Logan, Utah. -Pippin in Pippin in the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. -Marius in  Les Miserables in Milwaukee Along with his performances he has formed and led several Musical Theater Workshops in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and NYC	Kevin Age 5	Kevin as Almanzo in Little House on Prairie 2010	Kevin and Kara
	Kevin along with his brother,Patrick and a Memphis friend  formed trio called the  Manhatten Moonshine Band and have song gigs arround Manhatten. His full resume, blog and other pictures can be found on his Web  page http://www.kevinmassey.com. Kevin did very well academically and musically at UNC Chapel Hill. He won both the state and South East regional competitions in Musical Theater and Men's Classical  levels. He was the musical director of the UNC Clef Hangers Men's a Capella group  for his last two years. One spring break they had a great tour singing through the London and Wales area. Another year they went to Switzerland for a week. The last two years  they had both a Fall and Spring concert which sold out the largest concert hall on campus (2500 people) in two days. Here is Kevin on his Clef Hanger Fall Break Trip to Atlanta by the way of NC. I don't know whether Kevin lost his paddle or lost his MIND!!Immediately after graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 2001 he made Queens, NY his home. Currently he is  living in Jackson Heights on Long Island, NY with his wife Kara, who is appearning on the Braodway stage for the second time as the  good witch Glinda in Wicked. Her first Broadway role was in 2013-14 as the female lead in "Newsies". Kara and Kevin met on stage as Luara and Almanzo in the musical Little House on the Prairie where they were married 400 times.  I finally made it official when I performed the REAL marriage ceremony on June 2, 2013. Click here for photos of the proposal Kevin and Kara in Little House on the Prairie, MN 2008 Utah Shakespearean Festival Fall 2005 Our  trip to see Kevin in Germany March 2002
Patrick:   How quickly they grow, and grow and grow!  Patrick is now a 6' 2" graduate of the Boston Conservatory with a Masters degree in Vocal Performance where was the lead tenor in many of their operas. A list of those can be found in his resume.  He is finished his first professional acting tour of the Southeast with Chamber Theater Productions out of Boston. He graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2008 with a double major in Vocal Performance and Religious Studies.   In his undergraduate time at UNC he was the lead tenor in the musical "Into the Woods", Rev. Salvation in "The Cradle Will Rock" and  Chanticleer in "Chanticleer" ,  "Cosi Fan Tutti" and "Parade" .. The men's a Capella group the "Achordants" was also a major part of his college life.In the summer of 2007 he was in Falmouth, Cape Cod singing in 8 productions with the College Light Opera Company Summer 2007 having the tenor lead in 4 of them. He was Charley Dylrimple in Brigadoon In Lancaster, PA March to May, 2013 In the summer of 2014 he was Marius in Les Miserables	Patrick age 3	Patrick 2011	Patrick as Marius in 2014
	the summer of 2005 (and again in 2006) found him in Chicago in the unexpected role of being responsible for running the largest inner city Little League in the US. . The summer of 2008 was with Dad on a bike trip through Germany and Austria. .  Other pictures and facts can be found in his Web site. http://www.patrickmassey.com . He is now living in Brooklyn, NY just a subway ride away from Kevin. He sang the part of

Here is our Spring 2000 Travel Escapade out to Colorado to visit Colleen, but to mostly SKI Purgatory!!!!! The next year we visited her in Vail and skied the slopes with the rich and famous.

Ask me about our children and their spouses and then give me a couple hours!!!!   We treasure the few days that we are all together. We spent one of those days on the  Nantahala River before Colleen and Kevin had to go back to college

Here is my mother and father, Charles and Emily Massey, the look of a couple who on November 13, 2007  celebrated 69 years together in Tampa.  Dad  preached and taught bible studies several times a month until Mom died in Feb 2008.. His mind was still sharp until just a few weeks before he joined Mom in heaven on Nov. 7, 2008 two days after his 89th birthday.Mom and Dad Massey