2013 Christmas Letter

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by.  Didn't I just write a Christmas letter a couple of months ago?  But, it's been a very good year for me and my family with lots of good things happening.

 The highlight for the family this year was another wedding!  Christine and Clint were married in October.  Like Teresa and John last year, they scheduled an outdoor wedding for the fall, except Christine and Clint's was in Seattle.  What were they thinking!  I've decided their mother must be looking out for them and has a close connection to The Lord because the weather was exceptional.    Christine has chosen well as Clint is a great man and we're all happy for the both of them.  And my kids sure to know how to through a party!  What can I say, the wedding was phenomenal.

This is now the family.  

Here is a quick rundown of what everyone has been doing this past year:

Christine and Clint had their honeymoon trip early trekking to Everest with her Everest climbing guide friend, Melissa and her husband.  They also officiated the wedding ceremony.  Christine continues to work for Remote Medical where she is their human resources manager among other things.  Clint is a supervisor at Boeing. 

Teresa and John likewise are very active with outdoor adventures including their annual spring trip to Moab, UT for mountain biking.  Teresa still loves teaching 1st grade.  I”m really proud of her as I keep getting comments as to what a great teacher she is. I take pictures of her students for their Christmas presents to their parents.   I always feel bad afterwards because so many of her student's families are impoverished.  She periodically needs to repair some of their clothes so they are wearable.  

Eric has been dating Angela for a well over a year.  Eric is still a manager at Boeing.  His passions outside of Boeing and Angela mainly evolve around boating.  Just about any time Seattle has some nice weather will find them out on the boat somewhere, even in winter.  And my friends thought that I was crazy about being on the water.  I now do it vicariously through them.  By the way, the picture of Teresa and John was on his boat.  

And this is the Goode's.  Michele continues to work as an RN at the local hospital.  Stan has a new position in the forest service where he has something to do with servicing fire fighting aircraft at the tanker base which is located at the local airport.  And their kids remain the cutest grand children ever.  Saray's in 3rd grade.  Raif's almost 4 and is at that age where just about everything he does and says is cute.  Celine just turned 1, is walking, and, of course, has taken over everything in the house lower than 3 feet off the ground. 

I took a winter trip to the southwest again this year going to the usual places plus visiting some new, Lake Havasu and the Organ Pipes National Monument being the most interesting.  For the summer I traveled back to Alaska in the motor home and in November spent most of the month on the Big Island of Hawaii.  More detail for all these adventures are on my blog: www.knotaklu.blogspot.com.  

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and please stop by if you're ever passing by Rose Lake on I-90.  I'm just 2 miles from the freeway.

Happy Holidays

Mark