I’m hoping you’re enjoying these opt-in Christmas newsletters! That way I guess you have the choice to read about what we’re doing or not!
This has been SOME year! We kept with our annual tradition of a major surgery in the early part of the year, when Ilene went into the hospital in the first part of January (2002). Everything went fine, and after 6-8 weeks of being spoiled by me and the kids (well … maybe not!) she was ready to go! SO, we obliged her, and Sarah (15) and I took off in mid-February, during Sarah’s mid-winter break, for her Christmas present. We told her that her Christmas present would be to head down to Phoenix to stay with my mother and sister. In the middle of all the planning Camilla (18) called from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and said "Hey! The Olympics are going to be here, and we’re out of school. Why don’t you drive down, pick me up and we’ll do the Olympics and then go to Arizona!" I gave Sarah the choice… and she chose Olympics + Arizona … so off we went (DRIVING!). Let’s see, 18 hours from Washington to Salt Lake City/Provo, where we stayed with Ilene’s sister in Bountiful, then another 10-12 to Phoenix. And me the only driver! YIKES! But Sarah kept me awake!
Due to the largess of an AT&T Wireless employee (where I worked) (until November… but that’s another story) who was responsible for our promotion of the Olympics, we got to see Brooks & Dunn perform at the medal ceremony the first night (Saturday) we got there. THAT was amazing! Then Sunday we recovered from the trip. Monday we went to Park City area & saw mens’ team ski jumping. Then drove around trying to find the very cool ROOTS USA berets (hard to find!) … hung out in Park City for a while. Monday evening we saw Germany play Sweden in Provo in Men’s hockey. The only tickets we bought… we spent about $15 for $40 tickets! Tuesday we went back up to the Park City area and watched the men’s aerials in skiing. Wow! Then that evening … off we went to Phoenix. The only interesting thing that happened on that trip was we hit a bit of snow (about the only snowfall we saw all trip!) and … a deer! That’s right! I was driving through Kanab, in Southern Utah, known for being a speed trap, so I slowed WAY down. Suddenly I saw a deer right in front of me, right in the middle of the town! So I slowed WAY down until he passed. BIG mule deer! So then I started up … forgetting that deer (in the winter at least) frequently travel in herds! SO BANG!!! At about 15 mph I tagged the next deer! But he jumped up and ran off… with no damage to the mini-van!
Phoenix was great! We had a wonderful time visiting my sisters Mary & Nance, my mother, and getting acquainted with other relatives (Mother’s cousins) and their families! We also went to a Renaissance Fair, and then had a GREAT trip down into Nogales, a Mexican border town, where the girls got their hair braided, bought leather goods, and learned the fine art of haggling!
The trip back home was uneventful, except that Sarah used her newly-acquired skills of haggling in Salt Lake, after she bought 5 Roots Berets, she sold several of them at a major profit, basically allowing her to get her and her mom’s hat for free!
March saw Seth and I flying back down to Arizona for baseball’s spring training! Seth (10) managed to learn the best ways to get autographs from the players (here he's with All-Star pitcher Freddy Garcia), 
and he had a fabulous time, getting about 100 Mariners (and other players) autographs, including about 10 from All-Star outfielder Mike Cameron of the M’s! We caught about 4-5 games, which were a lot of fun (except when I got yelled at by an obnoxious A’s fan for talking too much – imagine that!
A highlight of the trip was heading down to the Air Force’s "boneyard" where my cousin, Jon, an F-4 pilot with the Air Force, works in Tucson. We saw a lot of different planes, Seth tried on Jon’s pilot jumpsuit and learned a lot
about the Air Force and about what Jon and the others have to do. One of the great parts of any trip I’ve ever been on!
After THAT start to the year (WOW!) what else was left?!?! Kristian (20) moved to Redmond with some friends, worked for a while teaching swimming lessons, went to school for a while, then in mid-summer got a job as a customer care rep at AT&T Wireless, where by all accounts he’s doing great (he’s had a lot of practice on the phones I got him!) Camilla worked during the summer (back from BYU) at a day-care as a teacher. Although she loved the kids, I think she learned a little about the day care industry and dealing with parents that made her reconsider going into teaching as a profession! Ilene took her back down to BYU at the end of the summer… shortly after Ilene was asked to be an early-morning seminary teacher, teaching church history to 14-15 year olds every morning from 6:30-7:15 a.m.! So she’s been busy doing that! Sarah is busy in the Church’s Young Women’s Auxiliary, Seth is a Webelos Cub Scout, and both kids are very active in all kinds of sports and activities, from Seth’s being in a school musical, to Sarah’s snowboarding, to Seth’s baseball, to summer swimming, to soccer, to basketball! I dropped coaching Sarah’s soccer team for the first time in 10 years … and of course they then went undefeated! But I kept coaching Seth’s team, and they took 4th in the league for their age group, so that was fun.
Other than that… in mid-November AT&T Wireless had a major cutback in their marketing staff … and I was one of the casualties. Since then I’ve faced a miserable economy here in the Seattle area, but I got a very nice severance, so we’re okay for a little while. (Samples of my work and my resume are on