Christmas Letter 2023

 December 2023

Dear Friends & Family, 

I’ve been thinking about the last two years; 2022 was so difficult for us health-wise. In 2023, things started looking up. We were able to travel again and in February, my sweetie and I visited the Carolinas, using the tickets we planned for in November 2022.The Carolinas are so beautiful! The Dog Walker fulfilled a lifelong dream of flying out to New Jersey to stay for a week with his sisters. We bought Get-Out passes this year and we had many adventures, including a long weekend stay in St. George with the kids. Baby Doll played competitive volleyball on the GSL Elect 12U team and Curly played a long and amazing season of baseball with a Corner Canyon Club team. 

We made a quick trip to New Jersey in May to see Teach graduate with her MA from Rowan University. We had our first official Family Reunion with a campout at Hobble Creek. We stayed for 2 nights and the kids from New Jersey even flew in to join us. Teach and the girls flew in again in August when my sweetie's mom passed away.

Curly played football for Bingham on the Sophomore team. He was the starting Center and he did an amazing job for them every game. He also earned his Eagle and we are looking for a time in the new year to plan a court of honor. Baby Doll continued to play volleyball in the summer and then she played Middle on Bingham’s top feeder team. She just earned a position on the 13U Elect team for next year. She gave up most of her dance classes for volleyball, but she still does Tap because it is her favorite.  

Scout is working hard at the rec center and also working on graduating and getting her Gold Award done. She is writing an app for kids with depression. We are super excited about the outcome. She has spent most of her time at JATC, earning her certificate as a Nail Technician. 

Sport was on his mission in North Dakota for most of the year. He came home just before Thanksgiving after serving 25 months. He stepped right into a job at EnerBank and he will be starting at BYU in January. If you haven’t seen him, you might not recognize him. During the last 6 months of his mission, he lost 93 pounds. He and Curly are the same size. Crafty is also at BYU and working at EnerBank. She works hard in her neuroscience major and looks forward to grad school and graduation.

The Dog Walker is still with us, making my life easier every day. He is still putting up Christmas lights and he loves playing with the grandkids. He still works at Walmart and he is getting ready to publish his 3rd book (Samy Kind on Amazon) as soon as he finishes the pictures.

Grandpa is still with us and going strong. He turned 88 in September and he continues to build puzzles and watch the same episodes of Blue Bloods over and over. 

My sweetie is still recovering from the staph infection, but he works hard and he takes care of our family and yard. The older kids are off on their own, so I will let them write their own letters. We had a beautiful trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in November. I am still blogging and forever running Stake Sports.

We hope you have an amazing and healthy 2024.