A very Merry Christmas to all! We hope you are all experiencing the joy of renewing your Christian faith at this time of the year. This on-line version of our Christmas letter is just a primer to get you to check our blog site throughout the year for updated pictures. Please leave a comment (link at the bottom of the page) and let us know how
YOU'RE doing.
2005: A pictorial summary of our year
We had LOTS of snow last Winter:
Karen LOVES the snow...and was nice enough to shovel it often!
We really enjoyed the sledding hill over at Virginia Kendall park, about five miles away. This is what our North Carolina friends are missing out on -- ha ha!
Sam played indoor soccer during the winter:
Elise the composer, enjoyed collaborating with Daniella, daughter of our friends Chris (also co-worker) & Lisa Engelmann.
The Eskridges, our good NC friends, brought their kids, Robert and Stephanie, to visit for Easter. They hunted for eggs on the green in Hudson.
Sam's 2nd grade class adopted "Bob" and each student took him home for a while. Elise really loved Bob, who happened to be a female.
Sam enjoys reading and often reads to Elise at bedtime--what a great helper! A.J. learned to read on his own after he started kindergarten this fall.
A.J. enjoys the swingset that dad and I struggled building over three days last year.
Finally SPRING CAME -- and Elise looked so grown up at 1 and 1/2 years old!
Our Cub Scout troop visited the Air Force Museum in Dayton. Dad came along for the day. We were supposed to camp overnight, but we had a blizzard that day in April; we'll wait until Boy Scouts to camp in those conditions.
Sam celebrated his birthday in May at Fun-n-stuff's putt-putt course. It was REALLY HOT that day.
Once again, RoviSys sponsored our family day at Cedar Point. This is always a big hit with our family every year.
Sam and his Wolf Den enjoyed Cub Scout summer camp at camp Butler in July.
Our den actually got some exercise at Scout camp; no nintendo here, dudes!
We took a mini-vacation in July to see the Eskridges in NC and went to Hanging Rock State Park close to Mt. Airy.
Mom and Elise enjoyed the Great Lakes Science Center over Labor Day. The Cleveland Air Show also coincided with our visit to make for some ear-splitting moments of action just outside.
Elise(2), Sam(8) and A.J.(6) strike a pose together:
What are we doing in velcro suits? Sasha, Sam's school buddy, came with us to a Christian Rock concert and fair in September.
Our good friends, the Voslers, joined us for a humid hike at Virginia Kendall -- the same hills we were sledding down back in January. We also camped out together just before school started.
Elise's 2nd birthday party was a hit with perfect weather at our neighborhood Cascade park. The Reichards and Morris families blessed us with their presence at the picnic.
Elise and her (mostly bigger) friends (like her grandma Martin) helped make it a fun birthday party.
My parents were kind enough to give us first bid on their minivan which made it possible to transport more than just our family on outings...Thanks mom & dad!
Sam started reading to Elise this fall to help with bedtime routines. Elise prefers Sam for bedtime stories now to us parents.
I took a trip out to Pueblo, Colorado for a project startup in September and toured Bishop's Castle in the Rockies on our break, thanks to Chris Cohoon. This place looks like something right out of "Riven" and was extremely scary (if you're afraid of heights, that is). See the Bishop Castle web site for some interesting facts on this single-person project:
http://www.bishopcastle.org/
Just before flying back home, I stopped by Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs to get in a HOT run.
Karen ran a 6-mile leg of the Roadrunner Marathon on Oct. 2nd and we joined her for a kids 1 mile fun run just after her leg. Great weather!
A.J.'s kindergarten class had their fill of doughnuts after their Halloween party: don't try this at home, kids.
A.J. had a ball at his 6th birthday party with his little buddies:
A close contender for our Christmas card after a near-Thanksgiving snow:
Jacob Engelmann and Sam paused for a picture with Santa's helper (Leah) at the RoviSys kids Christmas party. One of the little boys said "she's so beautiful!". Many thanks go to John Robertson (RoviSys's President) for sponsoring this annual event.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night! We hope you all have a blessed 2006!
