A wonderful New Year's Eve spent with Kirk and Lindsey at Andy
and Danielle's.
We were so lucky to be able to spend Christmas 2007 in Hawaii
with Christian's family as well as Tara's brothers. We stayed at
the Marriott on Waikiki and enjoyed visiting the Hilton Hawaiian
Village where Tara's brothers were staying. We surfed, spent lots
of time on the beach, climbed to the top of Diamond Head, at delicious
food and relaxed to our hearts content.
We had an early Christmas in Huntington Beach with Roland and
Daniel. During our time there we got to see The Christmas Pagent
at the Crystal Cathedral.
Tara and Christian spent some time in Huntington Beach over
Christmas break. While we were there we had the wonderful
opportunity of taking Keira to Disneyland. We had a ton of
fun! It's always a joy to spend time with our niece.
Tara and Janet spent a day in San Francisco together to get
some Christmas shopping done. Their shopping day has become
something of a tradition for the two of them. After a fun-filled
day of shopping and eating, Christian
joined them that evening for dinner at the Matterhorn and then on to
Handel's Messiah at Davies Hall.
This year we spent Thanksgiving with Tara's family in Quincy,
IL. We were happy to have her brother, Kurt, back from Iraq and
her grandparents were also visiting from Michigan. We were even
there in time to celebrate Bret's birthday!
Birthday celebration for Janet and Grandma Gail in San
Francisco.
Another great week at Oracle OpenWorld. Lots of long hours
spent working but we were rewarded with a chance to go to the OpenWorld
Party and see Elton John. It was an amazing show.
To celebrate his special day, Janet, Gary, Kirk and Lindsey
joined us in Capitola for the weekend. We had a wonderful dinner
at the Shadowbrook Restaurant, a favorite of ours.
While in Iraq, Kurt communicated with students from Tara's
kindergarten class and their third grade buddies. They wrote many
letters back and forth and Kurt even sent video messages to the
kids. Upon his return, those kindergartners were in first grade,
the third graders now fourth graders and they all were estatic to meet
him! We were also estatic to have him home and have the
opportunity to spend time together.
Tara's brother, Kurt, had been serving in Baghdad, Iraq for a
year and was finally home! We were blessed to be able to be at
Tara's parents house to celebrate his homecoming with family and
friends.
One of Tara's lifelong goals has been to run a half marathon,
maybe even more than one! She was able to accomplish that goal
thanks to sister-in-law, Kelly. Kelly had been planning to
participate in the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon but got sick the weekend of
the race. Tara was happy to fill in for her! She got up
early Monday morning and began the race with Christian's Uncle Danny
and cousin Rick. She had the best time running through
Disneyland, California Disney, Anaheim and finally finishing back at
the entrance to Disneyland. She made pretty good time, finishing
in just over two hours!
Once again we headed to Galt and spent some time skiing on the
Delta.
After returning from Michigan and Shanghai, the two of us
packed up again and headed to Las Vegas for eight days! Christian
was working at Cisco Global Sales and Tara was there to relax before
school began. The highlight of the week was the opportunity to
attend the Aerosmith concert with several of Christian's
co-workers. We had the best time!!
Although Christian had to be in Shanghai, Tara was able to fly
to Michigan to spend a week with her brothers, parents and grandparents
at The Farm in Calumet. Chad and Keira made a surprise visit
which pleased us all to have them there. It was a wonderful week!
Christian visits Shanghai for Oracle OpenWorld event.
Another trip to Southern California. This time to watch
Christian's cousin's compete in the annual Long Beach to Catalina
race. We spent the morning and afternoon with the Anderson's at
the Long Beach pier watching the race on the JumboTron. We had a
ton of fun playing with the little cousins, catching up with the
newlyweds and celebrating Andy and Glen's accomplishments. We
were so glad that Chad and Keira were able to come spend the afternoon
and evening with us as well.
We traveled to Southern California to celebrate the wedding of
Christian's brother, Kirk, to Lindsey Johnston. It was a
beautiful weekend filled with family, friends, food and fun. They
were married in a quaint chapel at The Mission Inn. The bride was
stunning and the groom, completely smitten. Congratulations Kirk
and Lindsey!! We love you!
The perfect kick-off to summer vacation! We spent a week
at the Marriott Resort in Kauai. It was a beautiful, relaxing
setting and we enjoyed every minute of it! Surprisingly, Tara
took the opportunity to brave SCUBA diving for the first time.
She took a four hour lesson in the hotel pool, then headed out the next
day with Christian and the instructor. It was quite the
experience and although she's glad she tried it, she's not sure when
she would ever do it again!
The theme was to choose your favorite decade. We were
never able to fully appreciate the Disco Era but we love the clothes
and the music! We had a very fun night with staff and parents
from Woodside Elementary. Tara was offered $200 for the
boots...but she still has them.
After having taken Keira to Disneyland numerous times, Tara
decided it would be the ideal place to celebrate her 28th
birthday. Chad, Kelly and Keira joined us for the day as did
Kirk, Lindsey, Roland, Daniel and even Janet who was there for a Dental
Convention. What a fun memory!
We flew down to Southern California to spend time with
Christian's dad, Roland who had recently returned from Africa. We
were able to spend time with the Anderson's as well as Chad and Keira,
Tara's brother and niece.
Christian worked the Cisco Partner Summit event in Las
Vegas. Tara flew down for the weekend to enjoy the hotel and
visit with Kirk and Lindsey who drove over from Loma Linda.
Tara had the opportunity to spend the weekend in Southern
California celebrating niece, Keira's, first birthday! She was
very excited to be there on the actual day and be able to take her out
and show her a good time. Where else would you take a
one-year-old than....Rodeo Drive, baby! They were joined by
Daniel and all three had a wonderful time without doing too much damage.
Christian got Tara a Nintendo Wii for Valentine's Day this
year. We thought it would be fun to have our niece, Brandon,
break it in with us. She came over and had a sleepover at our
place in Redwood City.
Christian flew to Orlando for a week to work at the Citrix
event.