Mele Kalikimaka MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Aloha family and friends,
2010 was very exciting and fulfilling. June was the month of moving our beloved Mollie to a retirement village apartment. She has lots of new friends and her living room overlooks the pool....to see all the guys in bathing suits?!? Mollie celebrated her 87th birthday, July 4th. What an experience with Tai Chi lessons and a big party where Mr. Han, a music professor at UT, and his family, serenaded Mollie with lovely songs and a performance just for her!

"On the way home" from TX, I stopped in Denver to visit Summer. Sweet Basil, her puppy of 10 years, passed away. It was good to be with her during that time and spent 4 wonderful days just hanging out. Later in the year, Summer got Gracie to keep Reggie company. An extra Colorado treat was spending Maria's July birthday dinner with her and Tom. Sure wish Bob was with us.

Mitch and Julie are hard at work. The Springfield Academy has taken off and Julie now has a growing staff to manage. Mitch is positioning his already-successful-website for military training support to go live in 2011. Both Mitch and Julie are serving to create huge legacy. Aunt Jane and Uncle Mark generously had the traditional Morris gathering for Thanksgiving. We all miss
Vincent and surely his spirit was at this annual Morris event. Mendel "Skinny" was there with sweet Bobbie. Bobbie and Mendel are, along with Kay and Fred, the A+ KY grandparents.

This year Bob and I enjoyed a HUGE family trip. In August, we went to Phoenix, visited all the friends and family and had a wonderful dinner at Blue Adobe with Patrick, Sheri, Evalyn, Chuck, Michelle, and friends, Carrie and Grace. Then, to a golf resort in Sedona for a week and visited with Verletta, Bonnie and Barry. Back to Phoenix where Trish picked us up for an awesome birthday dinner with her, Michelle, Heather and Marilyn (see pics). We miss seeing Taeven but delight in all the positive changes for him and beautiful Michelle.

We drove with Evalyn and Chuck to a special Labor Day memorial for Cathy. It was held at a ranch in NM near El Paso. We celebrated Cathy's life with good music (live band), good food (Dave's BBQ) and lots of friends and family(Angela, Elora, Garrison, Mollie, Tom & Maria). Laurie rode Sunny (Cathy's horse) to a special place at sunset and scattered Cathy's ashes. We felt her spirit there with us, celebratin' too. God Bless her and may we keep her wisdom in our hearts to pass on. We are all grateful to have spent a little more time with Cathy. Much mahalo to Angela, Laurie, Tom and Maria for putting this event together for family and friends.

From Phx, Bob went to Las Vegas to celebrate his NY cousin Joey's birthday, along with cousin Angela and Joey's wife, Stephanie. A good time was had by all. I went straight to KY where Mark Aaron, age 6, and I played serious soldiers, Jacob, age 2 1/2, and I read books together and we visited with Caylyn, now a grown-up 15, as she was on her way to band practice, church, hanging out with friends (Benji), etc. We had several family dinners with Ray, Lee, Frank, Constance, Austin, Tony, Kim, Sara, Ashley, Beth, Liv and the Morris crew. Awesome!

As a grandparent tradition, Bob and I took Evan for his 11th birthday trip. We drove from KY to West Virginia, played golf there, then went to Virginia for a 3 day historical trip. We visited Jamestown, Williamsburg, and the Lost World Caverns in Lewisburg WV on the way back to KY. Evan is a handsome and polite young man and we truly enjoyed the trip with him. Whew...lots of people in costume showing history skits, beautiful old buildings, cannons, caves, breakfast at Waffle House almost every day and swimming at the hotel indoor pool/hot tub. What a fun trip for everyone, but we hope it was especially fun for Evan.

From Ky, I went to visit Tyson in Long Beach and his friend, Dawn Van Landingham. I stayed with Dawn's gracious parents, Susan and Steve, and had a wonderful day of garage sales with Ty. Ty is now working at United Health and he is planning to finish another university degree.

We are especially grateful for Ray's returned health. After chemo, he was given a second chance to enjoy more time with pretty Lee and the family. Thank God for this special holiday blessing.

We enjoyed visitors this year...Verletta, Michelle, Frank, Constance and Austin, Steve and Barbara Coffin, and pretty Dawn. Bob and I toured the Laie Temple with Steve and Barbara and Bob was very impressed. It was a glimpse into eternity to share. I was blessed to have a ticket for an inside-the-Temple seat when Pres. Monson rededicated it Nov 21. Families are Forever!

Summer is spending the 2010 holidays with us while Mitch, Julie and family spend the holidays in Denver at her place. Snow fun for them! Sun for her! We are truly blessed with health, prosperity and much aloha in the family. Bob continues to be the hero with his hard work and great contributions to community and family. He is the love of my life and keeps everyone informed via FaceBook with pictures of our trips. We celebrate our 11th anniversary 1/1/11 and we are thankful for all the opportunities to love and grow here in Hawaii. May the Christmas season be celebrated for the gift Christ gave for all of us to share.
LOVE!

Reunion

Almost the end of April and lots going on. Just reunited with my friend, Mary Richter-Brown, who now lives in Oregon. We last saw each other 20 years ago. How wonderful to pick up where we left off....with lots of details (grown children, new grandchildren, new partners, health issues) to discuss....NEVER to be parted again! We have 20+ yrs of catching up to do.

My brother, Frank, his wife Constance, and their son, Austin, arrived April 2 for a 9 day visit. We went to the Easter sunrise service at Punchbowl cemetery that was lovely with music, despite the rain. Frank calls it "liquid sunshine". We did all the tourist things, celebrated Constance's birthday, they took a day trip to Kauai and wrapped up the visit by attending the Highland Celtic Games on 4/10 before they left. Another wonderful reunion and Bob took time off to enjoy too.

Miss Caylyn is receiving her prom dress directly from China this week...but g'ma got nervous, so I sent her a back-up dress. She is soooo lovely and promises pictures of the winter formal and prom after the May 8th event (that I will certainly post!). Constance is loving the participation as auntie after all those boy events of Trent and Austin. So glad she is willing to help Julie with this since the school takes much of Julie's time these days. And the school is a huge success!

Mitch is still working on launching his new business.....everything looks great! Patrick and Sheri went to CA on some business and visited Ty. Summer is branching out by taking a court steno course that will be an asset to her appraisal business. Michelle is working lots and still finds time to completely redecorate her kitchen better than Martha Stewart. Taeven is in our hearts.

May 9 Bob is going on a 2 week trip to Guam and maybe I can catch up emails to friends (Verletta, Zelda).... I will miss him mucho and must keep busy. He is still the love of my life! My brother Ray may NOT need to have surgery, but I've offered to come to KY if he needs me.

Hilo, Kona, Thompson visit, Happy B'day Summer!

ok...so I'm a little slow on updating....been busy!
Bob and I spent Christmas in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. We were only there 3 or 4 days, so we maxed activities. Before sunrise boat ride to see the lava pouring into the ocean....then a helicopter ride later that day to see volcano action from the air...what a great Christmas present to each other. For our "official" (1/1/10) tenth wedding anniversary celebration, we went to the Polynesian cultural center for new year's eve, lots of fireworks and next day a fancy lunch at The Willows, then the movie Avatar, plus a romantic sunset at the beach. See?....busy!
In Feb, Tony and Connie came to visit from AZ and we toured the Mighty Missouri battleship...then, Valentine's weekend, we went to a world class wedding celebration (cute couple, Jim and Stephanie) at the Prince Hotel, Kona and hung out with awesome friends, CA Jim, Betsy, MA Ron and his lovely wife, Ann, sister to the groom.
We had an AZ Thompson visit the end of Feb and Michelle and I were determined to get a tan, even with all the wind left over from tsunami action. It was truly a sweet reunion visit, Bob took the week off, and we did something fun every day and hugged / talked a lot. Oh yea, and ate!
March 6th, beautiful Summer's birthday. When we called, she was flying a kite with Hanna (age 3) and had ladybug cupcakes to celebrate after Sean and Jessica take her to dinner.....uh, there was some jewelry involved too! Life is good and Miss Summer looks 28 at the most!