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November 28, 2009
 What
do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite.
OK, you say, enough with the seasonal “Twilight” humor. “Twilight”
for those of you without pre-pubescent or teenage daughters is a
very popular book series about the love of a teenage vampire boy
with a normal high school girl in rural Forks, WA. Shannon asked
this year if we could go to Forks for our vacation. “It’s not that
long of a drive, Dad!” When Nora and I informed her that Forks was
an old rundown logging town with nothing to do there, her
disappointment was as substantial as Edward’s love for Bella.
2009 began with our bi-annual Christmas excursion to Orlando to
holiday with family and do up the Disney theme parks (Magic Kingdom
and Epcot this time around). We stuck around to celebrate New Years
with my brother Dave and his wife Nan … a rare treat complete with
party hats, noise makers, champagne and driveway fireworks display. Thanks for sharing, big brother … we live much too far away from
you! Our New Years Eves are usually very low key.
The ski season kicked in shortly after returning to Seattle. Last
year I negotiated free lift tickets for us and lessons for the girls
with the owners of Clancy’s Ski School at Steven’s Pass in return
for redesigning their website with a professional new look. Check
out http://www.clancysskischool.com. The redesign project kept
growing in scope eventually taking me 50+ hours to complete, which
assured us of free tickets and lessons for the next 2 years as well. This certainly takes the edge off what is typically a very expensive
sport. Hailey began skiing this year and after 3 lessons had Nora,
Shannon and I following her down “Daisy” (the bunny slope) which she
easily mastered. Shannon, riding up the lift with me after class one
Saturday in February, expressed an interest in skiing down 7th
Heaven (a steep, deep mogul strewn, double-black diamond run) with
me. This was a very momentous occasion having my 10-year-old
offspring follow in her father’s “Ski-To-Die” footsteps. She
survived the run with little difficulty and made me a very proud
parental unit that day.
My youngest nephew Zach moved to Denver late in 2008, taking a job
near some of his other college friends who had settled in the area. I leapt on that opportunity and suggested that his Uncle Alan visit
and we sneak in some skiing together. That idea became a reality in
mid-February when Zach, Matt (his brother), Matt’s wife Kristen and
I ended up renting a condo in Breckenridge for a long weekend
together. We skied Copper Mountain several times and spent the
evenings beering it up in town. Zach’s friends from Denver joined us
at Copper on our last day. In an attempt to show off my skiing
prowess doing 360s down a cat track at full speed while skiing in
front of the group, I managed to catch a tip and do a major wipeout
getting all tangled up in the brush and trees to the edge of the
run. This, in turn, garnered an “Are you OK, Mr. Steffens?” from
Zach’s female friends with Zach standing in the background laughing
and watching his uncle mumble that only his pride was suffering from
that embarrassing little episode. Hopefully I redeemed myself in
Zach’s eyes with my clean run the previous day down “Too Much”, one
of the longest, deepest mogul field runs I have ever seen in my 25+
years of skiing.
 Spring Break this year led us to sunny, warm Cabo San Lucas with 6
other families from our fun-loving circle of friends.
We had a great time there on our group Western Mexico Coast Cruise
together back in 2007, so we decided to go back for a longer stay
this time and enjoy the area adventures and the vibrant night life.
We all stayed at Casa Dorada, a beautiful resort on the main stretch
of beach overlooking the famous Cabo Arch, and spent lazy days
lounging by the pool and beach, exploring the area and some fairly
wild evenings out clubbing. We managed to sneak out several nights
hitting Cabo Wabo, El Squid Roe and the Giggling Marlin, where
Scarlett got yanked into their very entertaining and somewhat
embarrassing nightly floor show, what a memorable, tequila-enhanced
experience that was! One of the advantages of these group trips is
that Nora and I can go out and party it up with the other parents
while the children all hang together at the hotel doing their thing.
Summer camping trips have become a tradition for us over the last 10
years. This year saw a long weekend at Deception Pass State Park, a
beautiful campground in a majestic setting on the Puget Sound
discovered by European explorer George Vancouver in 1792. We camped
there with 6 other families with backwoods Bocce Ball games and the
late night campfire socializing as the core events when we all get
together. This year we finally made it to the Robinson’s annual
Friday Harbor (San Juan Islands) camping event, pitching our tent
with a few dozen of their friends and enjoying a weekend of outdoor
and indoor fun with their parent’s waterfront house serving as the
main activity center.
Nora and I celebrated our 15th year anniversary in June … still
amazed that she has stuck it out with me that long! Life is pretty
crazy with us both working, a house and yard to tend to and young
kids to shuttle around. We are very lucky to have such great
fun-loving friends to help us keep it all in perspective!
 The year was also packed with friends and family visits, major home
improvement projects, concerts and kids sports. My Mom and “Papa”
Denton made in out in August and we filled the week “Ridin’ the
Duck”, Northwest Garden Touring and attending one wild, raucous
evening at Teatro Zinzanni - a dinner/comedy show that mixes
juggling, acrobats, music and humor, as they yank audience members
into the storyline to provide a very unique experience. In May we
dove into a Master Bathroom remodel and having a large, custom built
entertainment center and fireplace mantel added to our Family Room. The summer was one big blur of tile, granite, lighting, plumbing,
fixture and furniture shopping, purchasing and design decisions. By
late August, the contractors were finally gone, the dust settled and
we now have 2 completely transformed living spaces that we both
love.
Shannon and her BBF Emma’s big concert experience this year was
seeing Taylor Swift in June (the moms enjoyed it as well). Nora and
her BFF Heather took a short weekend drive to Portland and saw
Coldplay there in July and we also added the Moody Blues, Chris Issak and Steely Dan with friends at the Chateau St Michelle Winery
and the Paramount to the 2009 musical calendar. Steely Dan’s first
concert ever was at the Paramount as the lead-in band for the James
Gang back in 1969, so they decided to start their tour there this
year exactly 40 years later. How cool is that?
In August Hailey graduated from daycare to kindergarten at Kokanee,
the same school Shannon goes to. This was very good news to our
finances as it meant no more large monthly daycare payments! Feels
weird not stopping at the Learning Garden for drop-off or pickup
after 10 solid years between Shannon and Hailey going there exactly
5 years apart. Hailey made the transition well and both she and
Shannon continue to thrive both academically and socially at Kokanee. Shannon’s 5th grade teacher at a parent-teacher conference last
month told us he wishes he could clone her and have 20 just like her
in his classroom. Comments just don’t come any better than that!
Shannon hadn’t cut her hair in over 6 years, with her long blonde
locks cascading all the way down past her belt. In November she
finally decided it was time, got it cut and donated 2 one foot-long
braids to Locks of Love. She continues to be involved in Girl
Scouts, where they earned enough with this year’s cookie sales to
pay for a November weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge for all of them
and a few of the Troop mothers. They had a great time splashing
around in the attached indoor waterpark and doing several of the
other kid-based lodge activities. Shannon is in her 4th year of
piano lessons and just finished her 6th year of soccer. Hailey began
soccer this year as well and added swimming lessons (and skiing) to
her sports repertoire.
Halloween saw a vampiress and a bumble bee touring the neighborhood
with friends Wednesday (Addams Family) and a deranged prom queen
slasher. Along the neighborhood trick-or-treat route I managed to
snag a beer and a shot of Jägermeister (drinking them through my ape
mask), so around here the parents get “treats”, too! Nora and I
decided to sign up for a few snowboard lessons in 2010 while Shannon
is in her 7th and Hailey her 2nd year of ski lessons. We’ll see
after 25+ years of skiing if you really can “teach an old dog new
tricks”. I’ve been warned, so I’m planning to go to the lessons
fully padded!
You’ve got to enjoy watching those flat-lined 401K investments
starting to show signs of life … that dream of retiring while we
still have our real teeth may still be alive! That just brings
up another joke. Why are vampires like false teeth?
Because they both come out at night. Mwahaha. May you
all have a prosperous 2010 surrounded by those you love and someday
enjoy a denture-free retirement! Merry Christmas 2009!
 Love
...
 
P.S. – Our website has been updated with this year’s pictures. Check
them out at http://www.digital-vision.com/alan.
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