November 29, 2012

Frosty the Snowman was a jolly, happy soul,       With a corncob pipe and a button nose,       And two eyes made out of coal.       Frosty the Snowman is a fairy tale, they say,       He was made of snow, but the children know       How he came to life one day. Winter came in with a “blast” to the Pacific NW in mid-January with a lingering snowstorm that proceeded to dump about 18” of the best packing snow we’ve had around here in 20 years.  There was only one thing to do at that point … build a huge snowman in the front yard that we affectionately named “Frosty”.  Notice the resemblance?

At the end of 2011, Nora and her friend Kori started up a Girl Scout Troop for Hailey and Ashley and planned some fun adventures for the girls in their first year together.  Among them were a Woodinville Fire Station visit, an overnight at the Woodland Park Zoo (with a special nocturnal tour), and a Dance Party along with crafts, cookie sales, and their other traditional activities.   Winter means just one thing here … skiing!  We linked our ski schedule up last season with many of our Montare and Highland Vista neighbors mixing the social aspects of that in with the sport.  We enjoyed our time together so much that the “Monte Vista Ski Club” (a play off our neighborhood names) just had me design us a cool logo this season that is currently being embroidered onto fleece jackets for the group.  In February we spent the girl’s mid-winter break from school trekking up to Whistler/Blackcomb in BC to sneak some new terrain into our family skiing adventures.  Nora would return 3 weeks later on Jodi’s annual “Whistler Girls Weekend”.  The “Peak-2-Peak” chair up there is quite an experience - a gondola that holds 25 people linking the two mountain peaks which at one point has you 1400’ in the air with almost a 2 mile span between lift towers.  What a marvel of modern engineering! Lots of social and sporting events filled up our calendar this year.  We attended several memorable birthday parties with Perry’s amazing self-catered birthday feast for Jill and friends, Heather’s “Electric Boat” birthday cruise, Greg’s 50th Tropical Birthday bash, and Kirsten’s birthday dinner followed by watching James Bond in the cush lounge-chair seats at the iPic Theatre.  We had a great time catching up with Reg and friends at the Haller Lake Pig Roast, at the annual Laster’s Academy Awards and Apple Cup parties, Lisa’s Kentucky Derby party, Halloween parties at the Stanley’s and Carroll’s, among a few others.  We whooped it up as the UW Huskies upset Stanford at CenturyLink (Seahawks stadium) … I screamed so much at the game I couldn’t talk at work the following day.  The girls took me to a Father’s Day Mariners game, we scored free box seats to a few Emerald Downs horse races, went to a few weakly played (but fun) Everett Silvertips hockey games, and spent several warm weekends swimming at Marcia’s.   Concerts this year included Coldplay with an amazing audience wristband-based synchronized light show, Hell’s Belles (incredible all-girl AC/DC tribute band) at the EMP Sky Church as part of the AC/DC Exhibit Premier and Joe Walsh with Heather and Scott, Jackie Evancho at the Puyallup Fair, and finished the season up with Nora and Heather’s tradition of attending Madonna album tours.  Nora bought season tickets to “Broadway at the Paramount” to sneak a little culture into our lives, so we slipped in a few plays and musicals this year as well. The result of about a half year of research and planning (all Nora), we took a 3-week vacation to Europe in early July starting out with a week in London staying at a nice hotel along the Thames across from St Paul’s Cathedral.  Nora deftly navigated the “Tubes” and double-decker buses so we could hit all standard tourist attractions including Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, but somehow we never managed to run into the Queen:)  The Harry Potter Studio Tour in Leavesden, where the movies were filmed, was my personal favorite.  The Great Hall, Diagon Alley, Privet Drive, Hogwarts (50’ diameter intricately detailed scale model) were still intact and magnificent among dozens of other memorable sets and thousands of “brilliant” movie props, costumes and creature effects on display.  On a bus tour to Bath and Stonehenge, the beauty of the English countryside was in full array with its endless miles of 500 year-old stacked stone fences and quaint thatched-roof farm cottages sprinkled across the verdant green rolling hills.   A Eurostar train under the Chunnel to Paris was next on the agenda, staying in a condo near the Champs de Elysses in the city center for a week there.  We loved all the sidewalk bistros, atmosphere, history, and art, touring several museums, with the most notable being d’Orsay (all the classic Impressionists) and the Louvre.  Notre Dame and a boat trip down the Seine were also memorable with beautiful weather for our entire stay in France.  We spent a day at Versailles enjoying the palace and miles of beautiful gardens and fountains on the grounds.  Bypassing 3 hour lines at the Eiffel Tower, we walked up the 720 steps to the second level, then rode the elevator to the top, staying until dusk to see it lit up at night.  Nora’s Paris itinerary included a few reprieves for the girls with days at Disneyland Paris and Aquaboulevard (waterpark outside of Paris).  Our last stop was Nice on the southern French Riviera where we spent our last week relaxing, shopping and hiking with a daily diet of baguettes and ice cream!  We took a boat tour of the coastal shoreline with all the colorful mansions terraced up the hillsides, and short bus trips to Monaco and Antibes while there.  The week flew by and with a bit of sadness in our hearts we flew back to Paris followed by our trip home.   Nora’s friends Kittie and Debi both got married this year with Nora, Shannon and Hailey all in Debi’s wedding party.  Nora and Shannon both wearing the same bridesmaid dress, about the same height, and standing next to each other was a sobering sight for me … how grown up she is getting - Shannon, that is!   I achieved my career goal of an IT Director title and doubled my staff this year at ATS, including 2 Mexican employees that keep our Hermosillo, Mexico production facility running … my high school Spanish is getting a serious workout these days.  “Donde esta los banos?” just doesn’t cut it anymore!  Nora continues to manage the IT department at Universal Avionics-Redmond as she closes in on 25 years with the company.      Shannon finally got her braces off, the day before our Europe trip in July.  She added Challenge Social Studies to her advanced English and Math classes in 8th grade and her diligence at trudging through hours of homework every night is amazing.  Shannon continues her acting and writing this year with a part in this year’s Leota production of “The Princess Who Had No Name” premiering next weekend after months of rehearsals, and she just won a “National Novel Writing Month” award for writing 50,000 words (about 110 pages) toward a novel over the month of November.  Her eighth soccer season just ended and she is in her third year of dance.  Shannon turns 14 in a few days.   Hailey turned 8 in June.  She continues to enjoy school (3rd grade now), took piano lessons, learned to ride a bike this summer, and made big strides in her swimming this year.  Hailey also played soccer on the mighty “Pink Panthers” team and is taking dance after school like her sister.  She is growing into a witty, fun-loving, sweet young girl.   Nora and the girls fly out on December 19 to Punta Gorda, Florida to spend a few days with my Mom and their Papa Denton.  They meet me 3 days later at Orlando’s airport and so begins our every other year trip spending the Christmas holidays with my both my brothers and their families there.   As for Frosty the Snowman, well we all know how the story ends.  May your seasons melt slowly into one another and you live life to the fullest in the short time we all have with each other.  Merry Christmas 2012!                                                                     Love …                                                                            P.S. – Our website has been updated with the 2012 Year in Pictures and the more memorable London, Paris and              Nice pictures under the Vacations section.  Check it all out at http://www.digital-vision.com/alan.