As we prepare for our 8th Christmas in California (a new record for us!), we find ourselves grateful for a year full of memories of time spent with family and friends. That’s thanks in large part to a long-planned investment: in January, we bought a travel trailer (it’s an RV that we tow behind Robin’s SUV). Eager to get the most out of our new addition, we took the trailer all over the western US. This year, we visited Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, cities all throughout California (Angels Camp, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, Salinas), and the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
Time continues to go quickly for us – our 14 year-old dropped the ‘y’ in his name when he started high school, so Rick would appreciate you updating your address book if you haven’t already. While on our summer vacation, he took his first solo flight, to see his grandparents in Colorado. He’s thriving in high school at Cal High – he’s enjoying all of his classes, but math, biology, and English are the standouts. He joined both the coding and video games clubs, where he’s made a bunch of friends and is even learning a few things. Next summer, he’ll attend the ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit as one of our church’s youth representatives (something his Mom did when she was his age!).
Time continues to go quickly for us – our 14 year-old dropped the ‘y’ in his name when he started high school, so Rick would appreciate you updating your address book if you haven’t already. While on our summer vacation, he took his first solo flight, to see his grandparents in Colorado. He’s thriving in high school at Cal High – he’s enjoying all of his classes, but math, biology, and English are the standouts. He joined both the coding and video games clubs, where he’s made a bunch of friends and is even learning a few things. Next summer, he’ll attend the ELCA Youth Gathering in Detroit as one of our church’s youth representatives (something his Mom did when she was his age!).
Robby (his ‘y’ is in tact… “for now”, he reports) is just a few months shy of being a teenager and is in his second year at Windemere Ranch. He’s made huge progress as a clarinetist in the middle school band, and he’s excited to start acting and improv classes next month. (He’ll be in the Bay Area Children’s Theater’s production of Pinocchio – can’t wait to find out which role he’ll play!) Along with his brother, he’ll be confirmed next year at Holy Cross Lutheran. And just like Rick, his 12th birthday present was a concert of his choosing – he picked well, and we saw Imagine Dragons together.
Becca turned 9 in October and is in 4th grade at Live Oak. Gymnastics remains a focus for her, but basketball is her real passion. As a second year member of the KM Huskies, she’s competed all over northern California, and it’s been a real joy to watch the girls progress week after week. In June, she bridged from being a Brownie to her first year as a Junior in the Girl Scouts. She started learning the clarinet (4 out of 5 of us play the clarinet now!) and was terrific in her first concert last week.
As for us? I’m in my fourth year at Google Ventures, a job I love with the best team in tech. Robin’s volunteering has her serving as the President of the Live Oak PTA and the leader for Becca’s Girl Scouts troop.
If we haven’t seen you in a while, we hope 2015 gives us a chance to catch up.
With love and blessings,
R5
