Another year.... goodbye 2012
Again, here is our last year's review in our annual Christmas card.
Seasonal Felicitations to you and to yours, December 10, 2012
Another year has come and gone. As we bid farewell to 2012 and welcome 2013, a pause and reflection on the last year seems necessary. This year there were many trials, tribulations, and triumphs, some of which I would like to share in our holiday letter to you.
Drake has done a tremendous amount of growing in the past year. He is now 18 months old, and is into everything. He is our little tornado. He is now walking, and has about 10-12 words and signs he uses regularly. He has begun parroting a lot lately and we hope this helps his vocabulary grow. He likes to hang out with his buddy Cody a lot, and with the kids at the nursery while we are in church. He definitely has brown eyes, but his hair color has lightened in the past year and is now a light brown with shades of red. People often say he looks so much like Gryphon.
Speaking of, Gryphon has been a wonderful big brother this past year. Always so helpful with Drake and they both enjoy spending time with each other. Gryphon turned 7 this past year and is now in the 2nd grade. He's grown a lot and currently stands at just under 4 ½ feet tall. Last year at school wasn't the best for him, and we are hoping that he does better with the remainder of the 2nd grade, so far, so good. He continues to get extra therapy at school to help him with his Aspergers-related issues. We enrolled him in FAIM this past semester which is the Fine Arts Institute at Manitou. He took two classes, piano and choir. He very much enjoyed them and looks forward to next semester. He successfully finished his first year of scouts, and earned his Tiger rank. He is now a wolf scout and continues to do well in that.
Duncan is still working at L3, and is enjoying it for the most part. He hopes that there will be more opportunities next year at his current job to expand and apply some of his other talents and skills in his field. Other than work, Duncan has enjoyed playing the piano and teaching Gryphon how to play. He is using the same books and methods he learned so many years ago. Duncan has recently found a new love affair with hats, especially fedoras. He currently has two that he wears quite often, and would love the opportunity to try other types, colors, and styles. When he has spare time, he enjoys playing WOW, and spending time with his kids.
Liz currently remains extremely busy. After Drake was born, she started school again in the fall of 2011 and in May of 2012 graduated with her certification in medical billing and coding. Aside from tending to Drake and his needs during the daytime, she has joined numerous committees at church, scouts, and Gryphon's school. As of this writing, she is involved in 7 separate committees or groups, not counting her job and other short-term events she assists in when she has the time. One of her main commitments at the moment is Gryphon's scout pack. She has recently taken on the role of pack committee chair, as well as being the popcorn chair during the popcorn selling months, and an assistant to the wonderful wolf-den leader, Mandy. With all of her side commitments, Liz also started a new job in May of this year. For three days during the week, she works at home doing medical transcription as an independent contractor for an orthopaedic surgeon. In September of this year, Liz had PRK eye surgery done to correct her vision. As of this writing she has 20/20 vision in both eyes. When she isn't running in circles, Liz enjoys relaxing at home with a good cup of coffee and her tablet, catching up with friends on Facebook, or playing WOW.
We, as a family, enjoyed some away-from-home time this year. We took a couple of mini-vacations to visit friends and family in Ft. Collins and Denver, and fishing and hiking near Leadville, CO. During the fall, Liz & Duncan got the opportunity to go with their church to view some ancient bibles and texts that were on display at the Glen Eyrie castle. It was a very fun and informative afternoon, rich with history. We also took some rather large vacations this year as well. During spring break we drove to Missouri and Illinois to visit friends and to see Liz's parents and grandparents. In November, we went to Orlando to visit friends and spent the days at Universal Studios. We couldn't get enough of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was truly, a magical vacation.
Life would not be the same without friends. We spent a lot of fun times this past year with friends, old and new. We would like to thank them for their friendship, and hope that we have many more good times ahead in the New Year. Especially noteworthy this past year was when Brandy and David came out to visit. We enjoyed spending time together and had some fun at the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur. We've also enjoyed spending time with friends from church, Deanna, Barb & Mark, especially at their Oktoberfest celebration this past fall. Liz threw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for Gryphon this past year. However, she couldn't have done it without the help of all the parents who assisted her, especially her friend Vanessa who made all the little, perfect touches possible.
As with the joy of friends, also comes the joy of family. Liz's parents are quite distant now but they come down to visit every once in a while. They did visit them during spring break, as well as Liz's Grandparents who live in Kankakee, IL. It had been such a long time since they saw them. It was a good opportunity for them to see how big Gryphon had gotten, and to meet their newest great grandson, Drake. They also especially enjoyed visiting Liz's Aunt Sissy who was visiting from Tennessee a few months back in Loveland, CO.
Normally, this paragraph about our home isn't in our Christmas letter. Usually, things around here don't happen all that often, or are noteworthy enough to talk about it. However, this past year was quite different. In February, two arsons burned down our town hall. Even though it was rebuilt, we lost a valuable piece of history and a beautiful landmark. In June, another fire hit, this time it was east of us but threatened our homes, and all within. The Waldo Canyon Fire burned 18,247 acres and got less than two miles from our home. We were evacuated for 8 days and when we returned we found that a large brown bear had invaded our home, and messed up the house. The day after we were allowed to return home, the bear came back while we were in the house during the middle of the night. Luckily nobody was hurt, but it was a very scary thing to have happened. We are very thankful to still have our home, even with the wildlife invading it periodically.
Our furry family has lost one of its members this past year. Ciara our black kitty was lost during the evacuation of the Waldo Canyon Fire. We miss her, and hope wherever she is, she is happy. We still have Auren our white kitty, Sirius our pup, and our two Guinea pigs Tribble and Blackberry.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this past year and life together just keeps getting better.
We hope this letter finds you all well and happy. If you have made it this far, we congratulate you. We know it was a very long letter this year, but we hope it was worth the read. Thank you for allowing us to share our year's journey with you.
A very Merry Christmas to you and a wonderful New Year.
God Bless
Seasonal Felicitations to you and to yours, December 10, 2012
Another year has come and gone. As we bid farewell to 2012 and welcome 2013, a pause and reflection on the last year seems necessary. This year there were many trials, tribulations, and triumphs, some of which I would like to share in our holiday letter to you.
Drake has done a tremendous amount of growing in the past year. He is now 18 months old, and is into everything. He is our little tornado. He is now walking, and has about 10-12 words and signs he uses regularly. He has begun parroting a lot lately and we hope this helps his vocabulary grow. He likes to hang out with his buddy Cody a lot, and with the kids at the nursery while we are in church. He definitely has brown eyes, but his hair color has lightened in the past year and is now a light brown with shades of red. People often say he looks so much like Gryphon.
Speaking of, Gryphon has been a wonderful big brother this past year. Always so helpful with Drake and they both enjoy spending time with each other. Gryphon turned 7 this past year and is now in the 2nd grade. He's grown a lot and currently stands at just under 4 ½ feet tall. Last year at school wasn't the best for him, and we are hoping that he does better with the remainder of the 2nd grade, so far, so good. He continues to get extra therapy at school to help him with his Aspergers-related issues. We enrolled him in FAIM this past semester which is the Fine Arts Institute at Manitou. He took two classes, piano and choir. He very much enjoyed them and looks forward to next semester. He successfully finished his first year of scouts, and earned his Tiger rank. He is now a wolf scout and continues to do well in that.
Duncan is still working at L3, and is enjoying it for the most part. He hopes that there will be more opportunities next year at his current job to expand and apply some of his other talents and skills in his field. Other than work, Duncan has enjoyed playing the piano and teaching Gryphon how to play. He is using the same books and methods he learned so many years ago. Duncan has recently found a new love affair with hats, especially fedoras. He currently has two that he wears quite often, and would love the opportunity to try other types, colors, and styles. When he has spare time, he enjoys playing WOW, and spending time with his kids.
Liz currently remains extremely busy. After Drake was born, she started school again in the fall of 2011 and in May of 2012 graduated with her certification in medical billing and coding. Aside from tending to Drake and his needs during the daytime, she has joined numerous committees at church, scouts, and Gryphon's school. As of this writing, she is involved in 7 separate committees or groups, not counting her job and other short-term events she assists in when she has the time. One of her main commitments at the moment is Gryphon's scout pack. She has recently taken on the role of pack committee chair, as well as being the popcorn chair during the popcorn selling months, and an assistant to the wonderful wolf-den leader, Mandy. With all of her side commitments, Liz also started a new job in May of this year. For three days during the week, she works at home doing medical transcription as an independent contractor for an orthopaedic surgeon. In September of this year, Liz had PRK eye surgery done to correct her vision. As of this writing she has 20/20 vision in both eyes. When she isn't running in circles, Liz enjoys relaxing at home with a good cup of coffee and her tablet, catching up with friends on Facebook, or playing WOW.
We, as a family, enjoyed some away-from-home time this year. We took a couple of mini-vacations to visit friends and family in Ft. Collins and Denver, and fishing and hiking near Leadville, CO. During the fall, Liz & Duncan got the opportunity to go with their church to view some ancient bibles and texts that were on display at the Glen Eyrie castle. It was a very fun and informative afternoon, rich with history. We also took some rather large vacations this year as well. During spring break we drove to Missouri and Illinois to visit friends and to see Liz's parents and grandparents. In November, we went to Orlando to visit friends and spent the days at Universal Studios. We couldn't get enough of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It was truly, a magical vacation.
Life would not be the same without friends. We spent a lot of fun times this past year with friends, old and new. We would like to thank them for their friendship, and hope that we have many more good times ahead in the New Year. Especially noteworthy this past year was when Brandy and David came out to visit. We enjoyed spending time together and had some fun at the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur. We've also enjoyed spending time with friends from church, Deanna, Barb & Mark, especially at their Oktoberfest celebration this past fall. Liz threw an amazing Harry Potter birthday party for Gryphon this past year. However, she couldn't have done it without the help of all the parents who assisted her, especially her friend Vanessa who made all the little, perfect touches possible.
As with the joy of friends, also comes the joy of family. Liz's parents are quite distant now but they come down to visit every once in a while. They did visit them during spring break, as well as Liz's Grandparents who live in Kankakee, IL. It had been such a long time since they saw them. It was a good opportunity for them to see how big Gryphon had gotten, and to meet their newest great grandson, Drake. They also especially enjoyed visiting Liz's Aunt Sissy who was visiting from Tennessee a few months back in Loveland, CO.
Normally, this paragraph about our home isn't in our Christmas letter. Usually, things around here don't happen all that often, or are noteworthy enough to talk about it. However, this past year was quite different. In February, two arsons burned down our town hall. Even though it was rebuilt, we lost a valuable piece of history and a beautiful landmark. In June, another fire hit, this time it was east of us but threatened our homes, and all within. The Waldo Canyon Fire burned 18,247 acres and got less than two miles from our home. We were evacuated for 8 days and when we returned we found that a large brown bear had invaded our home, and messed up the house. The day after we were allowed to return home, the bear came back while we were in the house during the middle of the night. Luckily nobody was hurt, but it was a very scary thing to have happened. We are very thankful to still have our home, even with the wildlife invading it periodically.
Our furry family has lost one of its members this past year. Ciara our black kitty was lost during the evacuation of the Waldo Canyon Fire. We miss her, and hope wherever she is, she is happy. We still have Auren our white kitty, Sirius our pup, and our two Guinea pigs Tribble and Blackberry.
We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this past year and life together just keeps getting better.
We hope this letter finds you all well and happy. If you have made it this far, we congratulate you. We know it was a very long letter this year, but we hope it was worth the read. Thank you for allowing us to share our year's journey with you.
A very Merry Christmas to you and a wonderful New Year.
God Bless