Spring was filled with Broadway at the Paramount musicals, lots of “50th" Birthday parties and dinners, Girl Scout adventures (for Nora and Hailey) and business trips (Mexico-Alan, Tucson and Atlanta-Nora).  The girls ran in a couple of 5Ks this year along with many of our neighbors, the Color Run in May and the Woodinville Fun Run later in the summer.  The Color Run is a popular event with people along the route flinging colored powder at you as you run past, the girls looked like human rainbows by the time they made it to the finish line.

Dance recitals kicked off summer for us with Shannon in Hip Hop and Jazz and Hailey in Jazz this year.  We had some memorable camping trips over the summer each highlighted by water adventures.  Mid-July we joined several other neighbor families at the Bones’ cabin on Lake Wenatchee “roughing it” in their Master Bedroom while the hosts and others slept on the covered front porch and in tents on their land.  That trip was accented with a big group “River Paddleboarding” trip down the nearby Wenatchee River.  The strong river current and smattering of rapids made standing on the board a challenge with Hailey starting out on the Guide’s board (with hers in tow), but mastering the sport on her own board by the end.  The Salmon La Sac group camping trip over Labor Day weekend was punctuated by a last minute planned “Inner Tube” float down the swift, shallow, rapid strewn Cle Elum River.  Scott and I scoped it out ahead of time with what we could see from the road.  With 14 of us participating, there were about 10 slightly more treacherous rapids that we couldn’t see from the road that made for some crazy times for Hailey and I with her tube strapped to mine on the last half of the 2+ hour float.  A few tube flips, a couple of scrapes, battered legs, and several bruises later, I’m thinking Hailey won’t be doing that again for a while!

Our concert calendar was jam packed this year. Nora and Shannon saw Fall Out Boy together in June, waiting for hours afterwards outside to meet the band by their tour bus.  Well worth it in Shannon’s book, as Nora snapped off a really great picture of her with Patrick Stump, the band’s front man and her favorite musician!  Nora also saw Pat Benatar and Bon Jovi, and during Dave and Nan’s visit in August we saw Chris Issak at the Chateau St. Michelle winery with the Bechards … good times!  The girls saw Taylor Swift with Emma and Jill, and Shannon took in her first concert on her own seeing You Me At Six at El Corazon downtown with her friend Luci smashed against the center stage in the mosh pit … for that true concert experience.

We celebrated Shannon’s second straight Junior High 4.0 GPA year with a long weekend in Anaheim in September to see her two favorite bands touring together, Fall Out Boy (again) and Panic! at the Disco.  Being a Panic fan, I attended that one with her as Anaheim was as close as that tour would get to Seattle.  Nora and Hailey tagged along and we took in California Adventure and Knott’s Berry Farm (awesome roller coasters), and trekked up into the hills to see the world famous “Hollywood” sign up close.  We round out our concert schedule with the “Jingle Ball” downtown this month featuring (who else but) Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Selena Gomez, and New Politics. Should be fun!

Our big vacation this year was spent on Oahu with 4 days on Waikiki Beach (just the 4 of us) and then meeting up with 3 other neighborhood families on Maui for another week there.  While on Oahu we hiked up Diamond Head, toured the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri in Pearl Harbor, and Nora and Hailey went Ocean Paddleboarding one morning with sea turtles swimming right up next to them during that.  It was then off to Maui with our first order of business being a surf shop stop to rent snorkel gear, followed by a Costco run for boogie boards and food.  Our first group adventure was a beautiful, curvy, narrow, somewhat perilous morning drive around the northern tip of Maui for some banana bread from a lime green roadside stand tucked away off the beaten path (see Christmas card) and stopping for a swim in a natural oceanside “pool” on our way back.  The group snorkeled off Hololua Beach one morning and the “Monte Vista Surf Team” spent most of the afternoon surfing in Kapalua at a great beach with awesome waves that were perfect for boogie boarding.  Lots of beach and hotel pool time were spent together, with a dash of Lahaina shopping and restaurants thrown into the mix.  One afternoon on our beachside walk between hotels, we spotted a large school of dolphins about a 100’ off shore swimming past and flipping up in the air … one of the many reasons we love Hawaii!  Alan snuck in an afternoon of golfing with the Fergusons, eventually being chased to the 10th hole by the Course Marshall for holding up everyone behind us on the Front 9.  The following day with sadness in our hearts we found ourselves on a plane heading back home to reality, work and school.

Hailey was on a new soccer team this fall pulled together from the remnants of two old teams with great new coaches … they ruled on the field with only one loss for the season.  Kokanee Elementary that Shannon went to for 7 years and Hailey 4 stopped accepting waivers this year, so we had to go on the hunt for another school in the Northshore School District for Hailey to finish out her elementary school education.  We settled on Maywood Hills and Hailey has adapted well to the change and made some great new friends there in 4th grade.  Shannon just turned 15, in her final year at Leota Junior High (9th grade) is once again taking advanced English and Math courses and continues to excel academically.  President of the Book Club and working as a library assistant this semester, she still reads a half dozen books a month and spends endless hours on Tumblr and Spotify networking and listening to new alt music.  One of the highlights of her summer was finally retiring her 4 year old, hand-me-down G2 and getting a new iPhone 5C … she’s most definitely a gadget girl!

Football is all the rage in the Pacific Northwest this year with all the hype around the Seahawks now 11-1 after their stomping of the 9-2 New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football this week.  The UW Huskies had an up and down season with Nora and I making it to the Apple Cup game this year in the new Husky Stadium (really nice), and we were invited to our first “tailgate” party in the stadium parking lot with our neighbors Bede and Julie before the game.  With my Salmon soup in one hand and Bratwurst in the other, I turned around just in time to see Nora doing shots of Jaeger with the frat boys in the adjacent parking spot … she’s still quite the party girl!  The Apple Cup, for all you non-Washingtonians, is the last game of the season between interstate rivals University of Washington and Washington State University.  UW ended their season on a high note, barely managing to eek out the win this year!

In our endless quest of ever continuing home improvement projects, we had a covered deck design done this summer, but were hit with sticker shock when the job estimate came in.  I did a little research and found an established group of guys to do the job for roughly half the cost, and they surprised us a few weeks back when they moved up the schedule for the deck project from April to last week.  It a little over half done at this point and is looking great!

The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese! (Steven Wright-1994)  May you always be the second mouse in this life and may your cheese be everything that makes you and those around you happy.  Merry Christmas 2013, have a great and Happy New Year in 2014!
 

	Love …
P.S. – Our website has been updated with the 2013 Year in Pictures and the more memorable             Hawaii pictures under the Vacations section.