Christmas Letter 2007

Brian, Susan, Daniel and David (and goats Wheezer and Striper and cat Puss)

Daniel

Daniel graduated from his post-graduate senior year at Proctor Academy in New Hampshire in June. He discovered new passions for whitewater kayaking and arguing Adventist doctrine on Facebook, built a beautiful wood sea-kayak, worked very hard in 3 AP courses and decided to attend University of Puget Sound in Tacoma in the fall. He's enjoying his courses there, kayaking, playing bass in a Christian band and coming home most weekends to sleep and do his laundry.
Kayaking on the Nooksack
Inverted over Boott Spur
In Christmas igloo entrance

At Proctor Daniel did ceramics on his own, helping other students to perfect their technique. At UPS in the fall he took Introduction to Ceramics. At the end of the semester his teacher remarked that if he graded on a curve, Daniel would have received an A and everyone else would have failed. Here are photos of some of his pots.
Vases at Proctor, spring 2007
Glazing a large plate, fall 2007
Mugs and vase, fall 2007

David

David began his senior year at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma. He's enjoying drawing and painting on his laptop (over 200 drawings in 2007), playing Halo with friends at home and
with friends, fall 2007
with Daniel at the fair, fall 2007
with Silas on South Sister, Aug 2007
giving backrubs to all his friends at school. He's applying to half-a-dozen colleges around the country. We don't know where he'll end up next year, but we do know that we will miss him.
Look At It
Sunrise Crucible
Alone, or Maybe Not

Brian & Susan

Brian has been running quite a few marathons, including Boston in April as a charity runner for the Tufts PMC team and Maine in October where on his 44th marathon he finally achieved a
with niece Kirsten after Boston qualifier
Day 2 of Tahoe Triple marathon
Heartbreak Hill, Boston marathon
Boston qualifying time and a new personal best. While not running he's still working as a database developer at Expedia.com and doing a little programming on the side for the Marathon Maniacs.
Steller's Jay
Red Top Mountain Agate
Birdwatching (88 species from our property in Auburn in 2007) and an occasional rockhunting trip provide additional distractions from work.
Still together
Susan w/ Silas, Kirsten and Bridget
Susan is taking care of us all and delighting in still having David at home. We've enjoyed several little vacations together during the year. Our marriage continues to grow richer and our love deeper by God's goodness and grace.
Puss continues to put up with a lot of affectionate abuse from her humans in exchange for
Puss
Goat
room and board. She's useless as an indoor mouser but is soft and cuddly so we keep her
Hover Fly
around. Our two goats didn't manage to break into the garden in 2007 but had a pretty good year nonetheless. It was a good garden too - lots of tomatoes and zucchini but no raspberries - Brian was too busy running to harvest them.
Brian's parents
Happy Rock

We also enjoyed several visits with Brian's extended family in New Hampshire; his parents are still very active, skiing in the winter, bicycling in the summer, busy with local politics and historical society.