2008-12 Christmas Letter

December 18, 2008
Merry Christmas,
Our hope this year is that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits and able to enjoy the blessings of 2008. We hope the New Year will bring many more blessings to you and your family.

The girls have kept very busy this year. Mariah (17) is a senior at Eagan High School and is in the process of choosing where to go to college next year. She would like to double major in International Studies and Spanish and has applied to 7 schools, and is still waiting eagerly to hear from most of them, including the University of Denver—her top choice. During the fall break from school, we went on a college tour visiting colleges in Colorado and Nebraska. During spring break, she travelled to Spain with the Spanish club and stayed with a family in a small town outside of Madrid. It was a good opportunity to immerse herself in the Spanish language. She played soccer in the summer and still takes dance class during the school year. She has had the opportunity to teach some Spanish classes for an after school program in the elementary schools, and this summer was the craft leader for the Bloomington Parks and Rec Program. She went to different parks each day and was responsible for determining the crafts and purchasing all the necessary supplies. Needless to say, the car was usually full of bins and buckets and various “stuff”. During the school year, she works at the Oasis Teen Center at the Eagan Community Center.

Kara (14) has made the big jump to high school. She likes the flexibility of her schedule and being with so many different people during the course of the day. She is playing the clarinet in band, and is currently training for next year’s soccer season. She is going to take goalie lessons and share the goalie duties on her team. She has been doing a lot of babysitting this fall. She is our techie, always wanting the latest gear. She is anxiously waiting to take drivers education in the spring and get her learners permit.

Hailey (12) is the only one left in middle school. She is still playing the saxophone in band. Her passion, though, is soccer as she played summer, fall, and is now playing indoor soccer this winter. They play on hockey rink sized fields and they can pass and play the ball off the boards. She has been out snowboarding once already this year, and is anxious for the ski club at school to begin their trips in January and February. She took her babysitting skills tests this fall and is now starting to do some babysitting around the neighborhood too.

LeAnn has been busy working as a pre-school teacher for the city of Eagan. She has also been very busy preparing scrapbooks for Mariah’s graduation, and organizing our photos and scanning them all so we can work with them on the computer. She also works as a volunteer at United Hospital in St. Paul. She spends a lot of time bike riding during the nice weather in the summer. Her big new adventure was playing flag football with friends in the neighborhood.

Ray also enjoys bike riding, and along with LeAnn and others, rode in the RAGBRAI bike ride in Iowa again. He has taken up the hobby of geocaching this year, which is like an electronic treasure hunt. Caches, or treasures, are hidden all over the world and GPS coordinates are used to find the right location. He also went rock climbing for the first time at Taylors Falls. Ray and LeAnn also bowl together during the winter months. Ray continues to work for Advantek and has been travelling overseas about once a month.

During spring break, we went down to Phoenix and visited LeAnn’s mom for Easter. Easter dinner on the patio in shorts is quite a treat, especially considering it had been snowing in the Twin Cities on Good Friday. While there, we went to the Safeway LPGA golf tournament. Since we went on Pro-Am day, it was not too crowded and we could talk with the players and get autographs (including Anika Soremstan). We soaked up a lot of sun and kept busy swimming, golfing and eating!

We took a trip to Nueva Vallarta, Mexico this summer. While we were there, we spent a lot of time at the pool (and saw a lot of large iguanas), but we also toured both small towns (Bucerias) and large towns (Puerto Vallarta). We went on a full snorkeling and beach excursion to one of the local bay areas. The best time we had was when we went into the Sierra Madre Mountains for a canopy adventure. We put on harnesses and then attached ourselves to zip lines that are strung from tree to tree and then let gravity do its thing. We were about 75 feet off the ground. Besides sliding from tree to tree, we walked across a rope bridge and then repelled down to the ground from the last tree.

While we were in Colorado for the college visits, we also took some time to explore the area and enjoy the mountain views of the Rockies. We spent time in the Red Rocks area and visited the amphitheatre. There were a lot of people using the steps and bleachers for workouts. Just walking up and down them, much less running, was a good workout, but then again we are lowlanders, not highlanders.

Ray’s Grandmother, Gudrun passed away last February at the age of 104. She is missed by all of us. Ray’s mom, Karren is doing well and will host Christmas Eve for the family again this year. LeAnn’s mom, Lois is also doing well. She had knee replacement surgery over the summer and spent most of the summer recuperating up here in the Cities with her 3 daughters.

Our tree is up and the smell of pine permeates the house. We have had a lot of snow already this year, with more due tonight and this weekend, so we will have a very white Christmas. Enjoy the Christmas season.

2008-12-10 Beautiful Sunrise

The sky was alive this morning with orange color. It stretched across the western sky from north to south. Even though it is cold (about 0 degrees F), there is still beauty to behold. This photo was taken towards the northwest.

2008-12 Getting Our Christmas Tree

We headed out over the river and through the woods to pick out our Christmas Tree today. It was a beautiful day for tree hunting as there was a light snowfall coating the trees.

We headed to the local nursery and garden center to look at all the offerings. We have been getting Frasier Firs the last few years because of their short needles and lots of branches to hang ornaments on. As we looked at various trees, we wanted to make sure it was nice and full without being too wide at the bottom.

The girls found the perfect tree and we carted it out to the checkout area so it could be wrapped and trimmed. We then went roaming through the store and looking at all the lights and decorations. Santa was in the store today having pictures taken with the kids, and Mrs. Claus was telling stories by the fireplace.

After lassoing the tree onto the car, we headed home and brought the tree in and set it up in the tree stand and cut off the webbing. Because of the snow, we let it melt off and dry before we start putting on the lights and decorations

After dinner we put about 700 white lights on the tree, which gave it some depth and life. We also started to add a few ornaments, but have more to do sometime down the line.

We had put our lights outside during Thanksgiving weekend, and now with the tree in the window, we have added to what can be seen outside. We have had a few inches of snow over the last week giving the ground a smooth blanket of cover, so it is relatively bright outside due to all the reflection from the snow.

2008-11 Notre Dame

Mariah had the opportunity to visit the University of Notre Dame with her friend Megan and Megan's mom and dad. They were going to visit Megan's sister, Emily, who is a sophomore at Notre Dame. They headed out on Halloween morning and got to Norte Dame around 5:00. Mariah and Megan stayed with Emily and went to a Halloween party. The girls had to rearrange some of their schoolwork and tests to free up the Friday, but it all worked out fine. Part of the trip was spent studying, some was spent watching movies, and some was spent just watching the scenery go by.

On Saturday, they had tickets to the football game against Pitt. Before the game, they wandered around campus looking at the historic and beautiful campus buildings. they then watched the band lead the parade to the stadium. The campus was full of fans tailgating, picnicking and playing games as they awaited the start of the football game. It is truly an all day event rather than just a game.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon for football with over 80,000 loyal fans in the renowned stadium. The game was back and fourth, but Pitt ended up winning in a school record 4 overtimes. During one of the overtime periods, the sprinklers came on at one end of the field. Fortunately, this was the opposite end of the field from where the overtime play was happening.

Mariah enjoyed her visit on campus and the beauty and history of Notre Dame. She associates the football program with Rudy rather than the Gipper or Knute, but that is just a testament to the tradition and history of the program and the school.

After another night on campus, it was time to head back to MN and home. They left South Bend around 11:00 on Sunday and made it back home by about 5:00 as they got the benefit of the time zone shift back to central time. It was a tiring, but exciting experience for Mariah

2008-11 Jackie's Bat Mitzvah

Hailey, along with LeAnn and Ray, were invited to attend the service at which her friend Jackie becomes Bat Mitzvah. It was at Mt. Zion Temple in St. Paul. This was a very special service in which Jackie becomes responsible for her adherence to Jewish law and traditions. She demonstrates her ability to the entire congregation and guests by leading much of the service, including prayer and chants. Much of the service is in Hebrew, which Jackie learned during her preparation. She read verses from the Torah and also presented the lesson of the day and her personal thoughts on the lesson, which were very impressive.

We attended a luncheon afterwards at the temple. The kids all ate their food quickly and headed outside to play various games on the lawn since it was such a beautiful fall day. It was fun to see kids who were dressed up playing various games together. It looked like a modern day version of photographs I have seen from grandparents where the kids dressed up for picnics and play.

In the evening, Jackie and her family hosted a dinner and activities for everyone at Circus Juventas. During the day, it is a circus school where performers learn the arts and skills of the circus, such as trapeze, high wire, trampoline and tumbling. In the evenings they host special events that are interactive. After the dinner, kids got to try the various circus activities under the watchful eye of the schools trainers and students. Hailey and her friends thoroughly enjoyed the experience and did not want to leave at the end of the night.

2008-10 Flag Football

LeAnn joined a flag football team this fall along with her neighbors Nancy and Megan. None of them had played flag football before, but were willing to give it a try. A few practice sessions with their husbands out in the cul-de-sac gave them the confidence they needed for their first game, despite a couple sprained fingers and some bruises.

The games were played at Lake Nokomis, which has lighted fields, so games were played as late as 9:30. The highlight of the games was usually the pre- and/or post-game gatherings at the 5-8 club.

With a mix of both experienced and novice players, the team progressed through the year. Scoring became a little easier each week, and the defense tightened up.

The last game of the year was a special one game tournament for each team held at Parade Stadium in downtown Minneapolis. Parade Stadium is used for high school games during the school year and is fully lighted with and AstroTurf field. The team lost in the final game 32-25. Next year LeAnn is even thinking of letting the rest of the family come and watch (and take pictures).
I am hoping to get a team picture to add in here, so check back

2008-10 College Road Trip--Nebraska

The second part of our college visit road trip began on Friday and was spent visiting two campuses in Omaha, with the first being Creighton University. It is located near downtown. The East side of campus is all new buildings and houses the arts, administration, new apartment style housing for juniors and seniors, and some of the sports facilities such as softball, baseball and soccer. A new baseball field is being built close by to become the home of the College World Series. The screen on the admissions office wall was playing a presentation that focused on the highlights of Creighton along with welcoming the perspective students for the day, and over half were from Minnesota.

After her interview we got a tour of the campus. The tours were small group as only one other student/family was with us (and they were from Minnesota). Most of the academics and dorms were on the west side of campus. The campus is long and narrow, with a pedestrian mall running the length of campus. There were very few bikes on campus, as most people were walking. We toured 2 of the dorms and had a chance to eat at the student center (choosing that over the dorm cafeterias).

From there we went to Nebraska-Omaha. Although we had nothing scheduled her, we figured we could just walk around campus and check things out. We went into the admissions office and talked to a counselor for a few minutes. He suggested we go over the dorms and go through them. There are very few dorms on campus as this is mainly a commuter school. Some of the dorms are run by outside companies rather than the university. All are suite style with four bedrooms and 2 bathrooms dorm. This is a setup that we saw in limited amounts on other campuses, but it was the only option here. One of the dorms here had outside individual entrances to the room, and the other had a single entrance with common hallways. The campus was very quiet as it was late on a Friday afternoon preceding their fall break next Monday and Tuesday, so most people were headed home.

We headed downtown to the Old Market area. It is a restored area of shops and restaurants that are a mix of local and national. The streets are all cobblestone, and this keeps the speed of cars down, which is good since there is a lot of pedestrian traffic crossing the streets. Although it was a Friday evening, we were able to get right in to a restaurant at 5:45, but by the time we left, people were having to wait to be seated. It was nice to see a busy downtown area.

We slept in a little on Saturday morning compared to what we were doing to get everyone through a single bathroom during the rest of the week. We packed up and headed back to Minneapolis. We went through Sioux City, Iowa and then cut the corner of Iowa on Highways 75 and 60 and into St. Peter, where we made a quick visual tour through the Gustavas Adolphus campus. It was quiet on campus as the weekend was in full swing. We headed for home and pulled in about 6:00

2008-10 College Road Trip-Colorado

We headed off to Colorado and Nebraska on a college visit road trip. The kids are off school this week as the district combined MEA teacher’s conference break with school conferences.

We drove about 12 hours to Ogallala, Nebraska on Saturday. The drive was fine as Ray and LeAnn switched off driving. We did hit rain the last 2 hours and that made the last leg a little more difficult, especially when we either passed a semi or were passed by them. The trip went fast as the kids busied themselves watching movies, listening to music, playing games or even looking at scenery occasionally. We rented movies from Red Box for the trip as we found you can turn them in at any location, so we only kept them for a day then could restock with fresh movies as we made our way back and forth.

Sunday we headed into the Denver area. Our first stop would be at the University of Denver. We grabbed a bite at a nearby Chipotle. We thought it was strange because it was so different from all the ones we had been in. It was very small, had no menu board (they just gave us a paper menu), and was not laid out in the assembly line fashion. We later found out that this was the original Chipotle location!

Mariah had an admission interview set up for Sunday afternoon, along with an overnight stay over in the dorms with a student. This allowed her to get a good feel of what the actual dorm life is like in college. We met back up on Monday morning for a series of meetings with the admissions counselors, a campus tour and lunch in one of the dorm cafeterias. The campus is south of downtown (only 12 minutes by light rail as we heard many times). It is only a couple of blocks wide, but about a dozen long, with lots of open spaces. Some of the frat houses are adjacent to the main campus mall, which made them feel like the center of campus.

Tuesday we did not have any school visits scheduled, so we went down to Red Rocks amphitheatre. On the way there, we stopped at the Buffalo Herd Overlook, but today there were no buffalo on either side of the expressway. We changed our plans with no buffalo in sight and drove to the top of Genesee Park and got some wonderful views of the Rock Mountains.

The Red Rocks area was very beautiful as the large rocks jut out of the earth at about 45 degree angles. One of the lookouts we walked up to had a cross section of the geology of the area, which looked out over dinosaur ridge. We saw a couple busses over there and wanted to check it our and hopefully see some fossils, but when we drove over there, the road was closed from the direction we came, but we did see some people on the ridge working.

The Red Rocks Amphitheatre is an amazing structure built into the side of the mountain with large red outcroppings creating the side walls. There are 69 rows of seating and it has seating for about 9500 people. Even when you are at the top row, you can hear people talking or singing on the stage. There were a lot of people using the steps and bleachers for training purposes, running up and down the steps. The higher elevation makes the workout even tougher. We could even hear the sounds of the boxing gloves hitting the training mitts of the people on the stage when we were at the top. The concert season usually extends from June through September, and has been expanding each year with the number of concerts. The list of bands and acts that have played there is very impressive, from ABBA to Bruce Springsteen to the Beetles to Red Skelton. It originally opened in 1941.

Our next stop was in Golden. Our plan was to have a late lunch and then take the Coors Brewery tour. We parked and found and went to the Capital Grill for lunch and then headed to the brewery, but as we pulled into the parking lot, we discovered that they are no longer offering the tour. Now we had some additional time to kill, so we decided to drive up to Boulder to get a preview of the University of Colorado campus.

We drove around the campus and town and then parked near the Pearl Street Mall. This is an outdoor walkway mall that is about 6 blocks long. There are many performing artists along the mall. On this day, a gal was performing with her hula hoop; a guy was writing poetry on the spot for you (and typing it on a typewriter). One musician was playing a piano (it had wheels so he must have to roll it off the mall), one was playing a ukulele, and another was playing his guitar and singing loudly. There were multiple groups of kids playing hacky sack on the grass in front of the courthouse that fronts the mall. Hopefully they would clean up the area before they leave as there was a bunch of trash left in the area.

Wednesday morning we got up and headed into Boulder for our visit to the University of Colorado. The campus is about 5 times larger than Denver University, and feels a lot more crowded due to the larger number of students on campus. It lies in the shadows of the Flatiron Mountains, which give the students a lot of outdoor activities right “in their backyard”. The football stadium is right in the middle of campus, and I am sure it makes for a wonderful Saturday afternoon atmosphere. There are many dorms in the center of the campus, and they surround a large open grass field that becomes the central meeting point for kids all year long.


Later in the afternoon we headed up into the Flatirons to get an overall view of Boulder and the university. We first went to Boulder Falls, a 70 foot waterfall a short hike from the road. One boulder that had been put on display at the trailhead had a 1.5’ hole worn through the center of a 2’ thick stone.

Our next stop was the Boulder overlook, which gave some beautiful views of the valley. From there, we drove further up the mountain to the Flagstaff Summit, at an elevation of 6850 feet, about 1500’ above the University. The road was a series of switchbacks and blind curves at a steep grade. We were surprised how many bicyclists we saw going up the mountain. It would be a lot of work to ride a bike up the mountain, but it must be fun coming back down, but I’m sure a little scary.

We finished with dinner at Beau Jo’s pizza, whose specialty is Mountain Pie pizzas, which are sold by the pound and not by the diameter. They have very large crusts and they give you honey to dip the crust in when you have finished the meat and cheese portion.

Thursday morning we got up and headed up to Fort Collins for a visit to Colorado State University. This is another large school and large campus that sits at the foothills of the Rockies. Many kids ride their bikes both on campus and back and forth to school. You have to keep your eyes open. This week was focused on a food drive, so there were many canned collection points. They kicked off the drive last weekend as they attempt to line their oval drive through campus with donated food. Last year they collected over 140,000 lbs. of food.

After the tour, we headed to the Old Town area of north Fort Collins. We had lunch at the Spicy Pickle, which is a sandwich, soup and salad shop. We grabbed a couple movies for the drive to Omaha, and headed off for about 9 hours on the road. In addition, we lost an hour as we moved back into the central time zone. We stopped in North Platte and went to the Sonic Drive In. It was the kids’ first experience with drive in ordering and car hops serving the food. After sitting in the car for 4 to 5 hours to get there, it probably would have been better to eat somewhere other than the car. We arrived at our hotel in Omaha about 11:00PM.