Another year has flown by and its time for another Holiday News Letter! (Go here to subscribe for next year's letter) This my 9th year of writing electronic Christmas letters instead of cards, this year I took all the money I saved on postage and "promoted" the letter on Facebook so that more friends would see it. ('05, '06, '07, '08, '09) '10, '11, '12,) The end of one year finishes right before the beginning of a new one. Past years I've chronicled things done month by month. This year I'll write a simpler letter. If you want to see the photo version just start with daily thumbnails on Jan 2013 on Flickr and click your way through the months.Mark
The highlights for me this year have been as they been in recent years past : family, photography ( Favs of 2013 and Portraits) and the outdoors with work filling the in between times. Our family trips this year were a spring break trip to see Washington DC and New York City. A June trip back to visit China for my work and where we saw friends and then Japan : Kyoto is amazing! And a fall family camping trip to High Camp at Scottish Lakes, in the Cascades. We were glad to have Kiah and Ramon with us for Christmas which we spent in a cabin near Stevens pass.Outdoors my favorite times were many camping trips with Miles, many with the scouts, climbing Mt Hood and the highlight an epic 50 mile canoe trip on the upper Missouri with Miles and Seth and his Father and boys. We had an amazing fall in Seattle with great weather; I was able to hike 60-70 miles over several weekends and a Friday off here or there.
I found time this year to finish off an 18 month project left over from China : a Beijing State of Mind, a rap video I shot and edited in collaboration with Andrew Dougherty and Princes Fortier, it racked up 1/2 a million views between the YouTube version in the states and the YouKou and Tudou versions in China. Service in Church has been with scouts, photographing Trek, Nativity and Santa and now Stake Technology specialist. You can follow mark on his blog, Flickr, Twitter and Facebook. (He hates Instagram)
Stacey
This has been a tough year for me with first the passing of my father, which was a great loss to our whole family and then in October I was hospitalized with pancreatitis. I've been struggling with stomach issues since living in China and in October it got worse and when I went to the ER with stomach pains, they admitted me and did surgery a few days later. Surgery opened her sphincter of oddi (see diagram here from vegetable bits from a pho lunch) and solved the immediate issues but the recovery has been extremely painful and slow. The doctors are confident that once the recovery is all good and done, that they feel the surgery will have taken care of the problems I've been having for a couple years. I'm trying to be positive and trust in the doctors. Two of my favorite memories from this past year are, first going to China and Japan in June to see friends and tag along with Mark when he went for work and then having Kiah and Ramon here for Christmas. We had a great time with them and we are so glad they have moved back from Taiwan. You can follow Stac on Instgram and Facebook.Miles
Miles hit double digits this year : the big 10. And he has continued to get big and bigger. He is (proudly) over a 100 lbs and heavier (proudly) than Sofi. He is still passionate about Legos but also obsessed with video games : Xbox and Minecraft. Miles isn't interested in sports still but gets talked to about football at church often. While he now regularly says no to hikes with Dad in the big mountains he has agreed to gohiking once a week on Sunday on Cougar Mountain with Dad and Hope. Miles still loves to camp and will often ask Dad when their next trip is, he had a fantastic time playing on the 50 mile river trip with his Dad and Seth's boys.
Sofi
Sofi is 14 and a freshman in High School, things are smoother this year than last, though she still often says how much she's misses Beijing and Issaquah is boring. Sofi is taking Chinese online for her language class and is on the gymnastics team. She does push-ups every night and claims pound for pound she is stronger than her Dad and that he is just heavier (probably true). She continues her creative pursuits, often coming up with amazing fingernail paint jobs. She made a sweater out of a shirt with a heart shaped cut out in the back and continues to love to cook and eat with her Dad. (They had three lunches together in Japan one day, eating ramen twice). You can follow Sofi on Instagram.Kiah and Ramon
(Sorry Ramon until you write your own news letter it'll be Kiah and Ramon vs. Ramon and Kiah). Kiah and Ramon are still in school at BYU-Idaho, they each have a year left to graduate, Kiah in Sociology or Social Work and Ramon in Journalism. Ramon wants an international internship so if you have connections let me know. They spent fall semester (they were off track) living in Taiwan where they taught English at a high school. They returned just in time to spend the holidays with us before flying back to Vegas to be with Ramon's family for New Years. I don’t think they are looking forward to the cold of Rexburg. You can follow Kiah on Instagram.We hope you had a very Happy Holidays and Great 2014