Hey Curt, thanks for doing this!
We're so excited to see everyone for the reunion in Idaho this summer! We were all sad to miss the reunion in 2015 and sure miss seeing everyone. We did our fair share of traveling in 2015. We took the kids camping at the Grand Canyon after school got out and had an amazing time. We've lived in Arizona almost 10 years and we figured it was about time we saw the sights. Laurie and I also got to ditch the kids for a week while we went to Niagara Falls and Toronto. We saw the Maple Leafs home opener, the Blue Jays in a playoff game, we went up the CN Tower and walked on a glass floor 113 floors high, went on the Hornblower right under the Niagara Falls, and got to see where Laurie grew up. A few days after getting home from Toronto, we packed up the kids for fall break at Disneyland and the beach.
Mercy is 11.5 going on 20, at least she seems to think so. She's in 6th grade and doing great at school. She's in honors band for trumpet and decided she wanted to learn percussion this year as well. Mercy is part of the Heroes Club at school, basically like a prefect in the Harry Potter books, responsible for helping keep the peace and helping the younger students. She played soccer this fall, and loved it so much that in December Laurie and Mercy went to Phoenix to watch the US Womens Soccer team play China. She earned her Faith in God award at church and is looking forward to becoming a Beehive in August.
Porter is 10 and usually can be found with a soccer ball and Pokemon cards (the bane of Laurie's existence). He's a good student no matter how much he claims he hates school, and is an easy-going kid that gets along with everyone. Porter's on a travel soccer team that plays in tournaments about once a month, which works great for us because then we have a reason to be in Tucson and near Costco. He's working on his Webelos now in Cub Scouts.
Jameson is 8 and was baptized in November. He's thrilled to be a Wolf Cub Scout now, since most of his good friends are LDS they're in the same pack and it's like free playtime to him. Jamie played soccer this fall and enjoyed it much more than he tried to let on. He's also an emergency sub for Porter's travel team, but Laurie emphasizes emergency use only for him. He'd much rather be digging in the ground than running on it.
Quinn turns 5 in March and will start kindergarten in August. She's in prekindergarten class now and is thriving. She had a hard time adjusting to Laurie as a teacher's aide and not mom, but she's happy with her there now. Quinn takes dance and loves it, like all pink princess loving girls do. She also played soccer this fall (do you see a trend here?) and loved it, especially playing tag on the field with her best friend instead of actually chasing the ball, but at least she didn't scream and cry, right?
I will have been working for the Border Patrol for 10 years when July hits. Seems like yesterday that we moved here, but time flies and all. Jameson and I have gotten into dirt bikes, now Laurie has even less space in the garage but they're sure fun. I wiped out on my dirt bike and ended up dislocating my thumb and tearing my ligaments, I had to work light duty for two months while it healed up. Laurie calls that karma but I say it was worth it. I've also been playing rec ball and my team came in second place in our playoffs. The refs told us that logistically we shouldn't have made it that far with our old school style of play. Now that basketball is over, I joined the Border Patrol soccer team. I'm still Cub Master and collect coins and other than that, I'm super boring.
Laurie started working at the preschool that Quinn goes to. It's only 4 hours a day, 4 days a week but she sure seems tired after dealing with 16 preschoolers. She's also still on the PTO and loves to help out in the kids classrooms. She's the Wolf Den Leader at church and gets a kick out of working with Jameson and the other Wolf Scouts. Somehow Laurie survived the soccer season and my basketball season, and thinks she's earned a girls only trip to Disneyland. Or maybe just a weekend at a hotel so she can just sleep for 24 hours straight.
Well for the other part- Here is one of my fondest memories.
I remember my favorite campout ever was the horse pack trip that uncle Gerald and Shawn and Shane took me on. I think it was Palisades Lake. I remember how good Gerald's cooking was, how great the fishing was, and I remember it was the coldest camping I've ever done, I had to cuddle Shawn and Shane to stay warm at night. I remember being really nervous riding a horse for my first pack trip.
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