Happy New Year and All that Jazz!

Photo by Suzanne Kennard  (Thank you!  We love it!!!)


Well, another year has come and gone and somehow it's already March. I intended to publish this picture with a nice "Happy New Year" letter at the first of January. Then I rationalized that the Chinese New Year wasn't until February 14th, so that gave me a bit more time. But with all the holidays in February (Martin Luther King Jr Day, Valentines Day, Mardi Gras, and the Chinese New Year) I somehow forgot about posting again until now.  So, late or not:  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 was a wonderful year for our family.  Matt and I took our first cruise in celebration of our 10-year anniversary. It was a 15-day Trans Atlantic Cruise that was fabulous!  Not only did I get to spend every minute of every day with Matt, but I got to go to my favorite places in the world: Florence, Italy and the French Riviera.  We met locals, explored, sampled food and languages, and had a simply marvelous time.


Of course, we missed our kids terribly and before we knew it, we had booked a cruise to take them on as well. It was a bit early (actually it was our 2010 vacation taken early), and quite unexpected (Matt found a deal where kids cruise for free with paying adults and when Dixie and Steve agreed to go with us, we felt it was too good to pass up).  So over Thanksgiving we went to the Caribbean for 10-days enjoying all of our first stop in South America (Columbia) and a couple stops in Central America as well (Panama and Mexico). Wow! What an adventure!!!  We may be staycationing for the next 10 years, but it was well worth it!


Other than that, here's a quick recap of 2010: The kids are growing up way to fast and are such a joy.

• Nathan graduated from RadKIDS and did a great job with his Pinewood derby car. 
• Shadrach outshone everyone on the swimming lessons we crammed in last fall. 
• Crispin is reading and loving it and begs me to "do school" with him everyday.  
• Eden learned to walk and is now running and speaking too! 
• Matt got elected to City Council, did several more century rides on his bike, and got called to be the secretary for the Stake Young Men's organization. 
• I ran my second marathon, The Top of Utah, in 4 hours 6 minutes and got another calling as well (visiting teaching coordinator). 
• We spent the spring saying good-bye to my sister Emily as a house guest (she has a new roommate now).  The summer was spent at Lagoon, 4H camp, temple dedications, and in Denver.  In the fall we finished a basketball court in our back yard. All in all a fun and full year!

What adventures are in store for us this year? Only time will tell. But I will say that staycationing may be interpreted differently by me than by others because I've already scheduled a trip to Boise, Idaho and another to Denver, Colorado and Dallas, Texas!  Happy New Year!