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2005 Letter

                                                       Happy Holidays to our Friends and Relatives

We promised you more changes for 2005, and there have been several.  The major one for Pete is that, on September 9th, he retired from Southern California Edison after seventeen years at the same job. We are enjoying not having a fixed vacation schedule (Beau, the dog, likes it too since he has more “people” time). Katie is still substitute teaching two or three days a week when we are at home.

A new truck with a unit called a JetTrax came home with us in December to haul, without a trailer, our new Blue 4-cycle Sea Doos.  We have already had them in the ocean a couple of times and to Laughlin three times this summer. We equate them to a Cadillac – bigger, heavier and longer giving a smoother ride that is needed in our old age.

Our first trip of the year was to Disneyworld and Universal Studios in Orlando where our friends from Tennessee, Lee and Rose Ann Wilkinson, joined us. We then took a relaxing seven-day Caribbean cruise.

Daughter Jennifer was married in August, two down, two to go!  She and her new husband, Hugo, enjoyed a weeklong honeymoon in Aruba.  They are at home in Thousand Oaks, CA. She is the Human Resources manager at Ryland Mortgage (a division of Ryland Homes where she worked previously) and Hugo is a finish superintendent for a competing homebuilder.

Our incredible grandchild, Kaitlyn, celebrated her first birthday in August with a swim party. She continues to grow and is now running everywhere and starting to talk.  Katie can’t buy enough toys nor plan enough activities for when Kaitlyn is old enough to enjoy them.  We truly cherish spending time with her.

In September we traveled to San Antonio, Texas. Pictures of the river walk do not do it justice! Walking along the river with hundreds of other people and no guardrails amazed us with no dunking seen (we were told that its only 3’ deep so if you fall in, just walk out).  One day we went to a “drive through feed the animals from your car” wild animal park where Katie was almost eaten by an Ostrich. Bob and Charlotte Kuhn joined us from Galveston for a few days. They are in the process of selling their 65’ yacht home and moving into a brand new riverfront home in Victoria, Texas.

Karen is taking pre-nursing classes at Mount Sac Junior College and is earning great grades.  She and John are engaged and planning for their July, 2007 wedding.

Son Kevin has just purchased a house in Whittier with his girlfriend, Anne.  They are learning all about the fun things that home ownership includes.  He is presently contracting at Edison on the NetComm project where Pete worked before he retired.

In November, we traveled to Maui, Hawaii and spent another wonderful week with Liberty and son-in-law Kevin.  This year Liberty found another Tiki for her collection.  We had a relaxing time, just lazing around the three-acre pool with time-out for a drive to Hana and a Luau. We then flew to Kauai for another week in the Poipu area and were joined by Mike Toft and his daughter Lisa.
Thanksgiving morning we received a call from daughter Liberty with great news. She and her Kevin are expecting their first baby in early July.

We are home for three weeks and then……

Katie has put together a grand celebration for her parent’s 60th anniversary.  On December 17, 14 of us will board a Princess ship in Los Angeles Harbor for a weeklong Mexican cruise.  The group includes Katie’s parents, children, their children, two great-grand children and significant others (five of whom are flying in from Minnesota).  After the cruise we will all celebrate Christmas here in Hacienda Heights.

Pete is looking for interesting activities for all his “free” time.  He has joined VOP, Volunteers on Patrol, through the local Sheriff’s station. It entails driving around our area looking for and documenting problems

(graffiti, strangers around schools, etc.)   Pete has to take a Los Angeles County driving class before moving into the left seat.  For now, Pete is riding around with our neighbor, Walt Tarvin, who has been in the program for many years. He has also started a group location on the Internet for our street, tracking who is on vacation, suspicious persons and vehicles, etc.

We wish everyone a joyous and healthy holiday season and a Happy New Year

Key to Picture Page (from upper left across):

1. Katie and Pete at the Cable Car Museum San Francisco, December 2004
2. Karen, Kaitlyn, John, Christmas day 2004
3. Kaitlyn trying to get Beau’s yellow ball from him
4. Kaitlyn on her Baptism day, May
5. Jennifer with Pete walking her down the aisle, August 6th
6. Pete and Katie at Gruene, Texas, October
7. Lee and Rose Ann Wilkinson at Epcot Orlando, March
8. Kaitlyn and Karen at Kaitlyn’s 1st birthday party, August 5
9. Kevin Nagel and Anne taking a gondola ride, Long Beach
10. Jennifer and Hugo Gutierres at their wedding, August 6th
11. Kaitlyn “boating” around the pool
12. Our truck with the Sea Doos aboard, Laughlin, Nevada
13. Karen showing off her engagement ring
14. Katie’s parents at Hacienda Heights by the pool, August
15. Kaitlyn looking for a new pet at the Los Angeles County Fair, September
16. Kaitlyn trick-or-treating in her Tigger outfit (she is standing in the treat pot)
17. Kaitlyn with great-grandmother Ordung, August
18. Mike and Lisa Toft, Kauai during the tour of the sugar cane plantation, November
19. Pete in his VOP uniform while Walt and he were reporting some Graffiti
20. Liberty showing off her 2005 Tiki at Kaanapali, Maui
 

 

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