We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!We thought we would save paper this year and post our Christmas letter online! Or, maybe we are just cheap (you can choose whichever one you wish)! We will try and keep this short and sweet and fill you in on some of the highlights of our year! This has been the year of travel for our family. Shanghai, Paris, New York, Florida, Seattle, Utah, Oregon, SunValley.... We had the opportunity to take several trips, some individually, some together, some for work, and some for fun! All in all we had a lot of fun wherever we went, but we definitely all came to the realization that we really do love our home and love being all together in one place!!
ISAIAH SLADE - AGE 2Isaiah continues to be the joy of our world. He is growing and changing so much each day. We love his two-year-old interpretation of life around him. He is our Curious George and is fascinated by all the things he sees, hears, or can possibly imagine. Transportation is his current passion...trains, planes, cars, trucks...anything with wheels. He got to take a once in a lifetime trip to Seattle to ride Thomas the Train with his grandparents in July and we still hear about it almost daily. We wish he could stay this age forever...well...maybe without the diapers, or the tantrums.
ELIAS MARK - AGE 8
Eli is such a fun kid to have around. This was a big year for him. He took his very first solo plane ride to Seattle where he met his grandparents and then headed off to New York. He had an absolute blast, saw a broadway show every night and took in all the sights from the Statue of Liberty to the Natural History Museum. He also had a big day in July when he got baptized, and he loved having lots of family here to celebrate that day with him. He is loving his third grade class where he is one of the top readers. He is very interested in animals and weather. He likes riding his bike... "scouts is okay"... piano he says he doesn't much enjoy, but playing with friends, computer games, pokemon, and fun with his family top his "favorites" list. We think he might have a future on Jeopardy because he is always spouting off interesting, but little known facts.
RAMONA KATE– AGE 10
Ramona has had a stellar year. She flew with mom, her aunt, and grandparents, to Paris, France to visit her great-aunt and uncle. She had quite the whirlwind trip seeing most every interesting site and soaking up the French atmosphere. She says she wants to be a designer of some sort, "or a movie star", so Paris was just the city for her. She also flew to Seattle solo for the first time to help take care of her newest cousin. Ramona took a brave step and transferred to a magnet art school for fifth grade. She gets to take the flute, and study Spanish as well as Art, and they even learned Karate in PE. She is really enjoying the alternative teaching style at this school and is top of her class in everything!!
ALEXANDRIA EVE – AGE 12
Alex is our first middle schooler. Although mom and dad were quite nervous for her to take this big step, Alex has loved every minute of it. She has amazing teachers and is managing to get fantastic grades, even as one of the only sixth graders in her Algebra class. She continues to love music and dance. She is taking several dance classes as well as saxophone and piano. WE love the fact that her piano playing is now quite beautiful to listen to and fills our home with music. She also lived –it-up during her trip to Paris and brought back some stylish outfits to wear! She was the youngest participant in our church's "pioneer trek" and spent 5 days pushing a handcart in pioneer clothing. Wow!! Alex’s act of bravery for 2006 was getting her ears pierced! She is a HUGE help around the house and we couldn’t get much done without her! If mom or papa isn’t around Alex is the one Isaiah wants for comfort!
OKAY.... WE KNOW YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE PICTURES OF JON AND I
so we will skip the glamour shots and give you a quick snapshot of the year.
Last December just before Christmas, Jon and I made our first cross-country road trip. Unfortunately we had to make it in about 3 days, but we still had fun. Jon bought a Jetta TDI on ebay and we flew to Florida (minus the kids) and drove the car home to beautiful Boise, Idaho. Jon continues working at HP, playing basketball, and spending time with the family. He took a trip to Shanghai in February for work and spent another 2 weeks adjusting to the time change. China was "fine", but he loved coming home. He also trained for the Seattle to Portland bike ride and was able to complete it in one day. The funnest part of the ride for him was being with his brothers. I (Brooke) had my share of adventures from the trip to Paris, going on the Pioneer Trek reenactment with the church youth, to taking 15 girlscouts to Lagoon (in Utah). I had the small discomfort of wearing a walking cast for two months after suffering a stress fracture running. After 6 months of rest and rehab, I think I am finally ready to train again...anyone up for Robie Creek - the toughest half marathon in the west?
All in all, we feel like 2006 raced by us in a whirlwind. We know we will look back on all of our adventures and love every minute of them, but we are really looking forward to making 2007 a bit more relaxing and home-based. Is that possible with 4 kids? We want all of our family and friends to know how blessed we feel to be surrounded by such incredible people. Our lives are richer for knowing you! Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season!
Love from Jon, Brooke, Alex, Mona, Eli, and Isaiah
