Lights!

 

A local treasure put up holiday lights and we went to see them (before Christmas).  (The place does this every year, I think but we just learned of it.)  (A new tradition for us?)

Holiday Card

Happy Holidays to everyone.  

2017 -- We hope to end it smiling -- it was kind of crazy.

Most of the highlights from the year were recorded here on the blog. Bullet points by Judi:

• January -- A broken foot and a very sick kitty.
• February -- Recovery for both of the tall boys and skiing for the girls.
• March -- Almost back to normal -- the first part of the year went by very quickly; a dance show.
• April -- Yosemite! 
• May -- Ballet and more dance!
• June -- More dance! A trip to Philly and NY to see friends and family.
• July -- More ballet! Lots of horse, hanging out, and rock climbing. (Kelly, Gerard, and Kristina visit and a hike with Heather!)
• August -- Seattle, 75, and School -- Happy Birthday Ted. And then a broken leg (poor Tia).
• September -- Sickness, losing Sedona, and a big meeting 
• October -- I (Judi) left my company after 20 years and joined a new one with 7 of the same people--we are having a lot of fun setting up our new research center.
• November -- Trying to get into a new groove, Thanksgiving, friends, family!  (Joe visits)
• December -- more dance -- Nutcracker for Kira and Nat starts tapping with the Company.  Of course it's crazy getting ready for Christmas with lots of baking of cookies.

The girls are working super hard.  Nat is a sophomore, Kira is an 8th grader, and Tia is a 7th grader. Next year, we have to start visiting colleges.  Yikes! 

Thoughts from the rest of the crew...Nick:

I appreciate walking like I never have before.  I celebrated 30 years of programming bliss with the same company.

Natalie:

I started playing Ukulele this fall and am hoping to learn guitar soon!  Tap is super fun--come to my show in March!  I started riding English last winter (after riding Western for many years) and am learning to jump.

Kira:

I'm hoping to see Hamilton in 2018!  (Life goal.)  Lots of ballet all year and high school for me in the fall.

Tia:

I discovered rock climbing this year and really got into it this fall!  I am working hard and hope to join a team next year. 

The Kitties:

Yay, you finally started instagramming us.  About time lazy hoomins. 

Empire selfie

Late at night floor 86 the open air observatory.

Happy New Year!

How does one summarize a year in a page or less? (with 11 point font, few extra line spaces, and .5 margins--but since this is the blog version, not the one mailed in the Holiday card to family, we'll add spaces.)

Highlights for Natalie  

• 2 trips to Disneyland (one with the fam and one with the school band)
• The 8th grade trip to Yosemite
• Girl Scout camp with her sister Tia and the fun high rope activities there
• High school isn’t as bad as she feared
• Jazz band camp this summer
• Dancing and Tumbling

Highlights for Kira

• Learning to do an aerial
• Going to the Ballet Summer Intensive and more ballet
• Being on pointe (she went on pointe last year so this is not something new)
• Performing in The Nutcracker
• Doing high jump for the track team and going to the county-wide competition
• 7th grade (not sure this is a highlight, but it’s an update for you)

Highlights for Tia

• Learning to do an aerial
• Getting a Swagtron
• Girl Scout camp with her sister Natalie
• Learning to solve the Rubik’s cube
• Science Camp in 5th grade (early 2016)
• 6th grade (definitely not a highlight--she liked elementary school better than middle, just an update)

Highlights for Nick

• Giving an epic talk at the conference for his work -- the auditorium was packed and it was live streamed around the world. (Judi and the girls got to watch him from home!) If you work with the things he does let us know and we can send you a link to the talk.
• Reading awesome books
• Adding more solar panels (so the house should be net zero for the year!)
  
  

Highlights for Judi

• Dancing with my girls
• Teaching -- my students are awesome!
• Having a great year at ____ doing lots of exciting work with teachers on the topic of learning; my amazing colleagues (and my bestest colleague, Patti). (My colleagues are so cool we did 2 hikes and a couple of parties this year! It is great when you like the people at work.)

Highlights everyone agreed on!

• A trip to Seattle to see family and celebrate Nick’s Mom 80th birthday and a trip to see our friends in New Hampshire (Thanks, KJ!)
• Family visits (Kelly & Gerard, Rob and Liana, Don, Audrey and Lasse, Joe, Brett, Geraldine, Olivia -- Come hang out with us!) & friends who came to visit from near and far.
• An excellent ski trip in February; a family trip to Disneyland with a wonderful friend/Disney expert

Nick and Judi have a shared highlight of celebrating 20 years of hanging out and 18 years of marriage this year. (The girls are pretty happy about this, too.)  Judi wanted Nick to have a highlight of our amazing garden thanks to his awesome gardening skills, but he didn't want that so we'll just stick that here and see if any one notices.

All the best to you and yours for 2017!  

Love,   

The K Company

 

Forgot to post this in April

Our New Year's hike

New Year's day (I just found these again). Photos by my friend Patti with our friend Avron. The girls are so good at posing for photos.

A rare occurrence

 

All 5 of us in one picture... And no one making an AWFUL face... (could be more smiley, but not bad... baby steps).  (2/7/16) 

(Note it's also a rare occurrence that it's Leap Year! Convergence in title and day.)

Get a clue!

 

We read about Clue, the game, and the girls wanted to play it. We all played, but two hid from the camera.  

Adventures

The girls had off last week; it was spring break. One of the things we did was go visit the Marine Mammal Center. We saw lots of seals getting rehabilitated. For various reasons, these guys were either separated from their mothers or didn't learn to eat for some reason. They are learning to eat fish at the Center and will be released in a few weeks.

Our duck boat photo! (11/17)

Love http://www.bostonducktours.com!

Tap!

This has been a crazy weekend!

On Friday we had Kira's birthday, a field trip, swim team practice, a violin lesson, and dinner out at Kira's favorite restaurant.

On Saturday gymnastics, dance, a little party for Kira, and we attended a party for Nat's friend.

Today, we've had girl scouts, have been tapping (all of the girls and me and I LOVE it!), and are getting ready to go take a little hike. We hope to clean out my car soon, too. (I really hope for that.)

I'll share more pictures of Kira's birthday, the field trip, and Mother's Day as soon as I get the camera downloaded. I will say, don't hold your breath, though. This week, I'm organizing teacher appreciation week at the girls' school so I'm going to be busy. (Oh, and I have to finish up a report for work... It keeps me out of trouble.)

More soon!

A play day

We went to a kid's museum that we'd never been to before. It was fun, but it also showed us how much the girls are growing up. After the museum, we took a little walk by the bay. Like the family photo? (It probably won't be the one on the Christmas card this year. Poor little Tia is almost cut off.)

Annual trip to the Beach

We finally got around to heading to the beach, yesterday. After our trip to Hawaii in February, it's been hard to want to go to a not-so-warm beach.

The girls didn't have a problem with the cooler temps and within moments of arriving....

Notice how dry and sand free he is?

When they were cold, they played in the sand.

There was a cool structure on the beach and the girls had a blast playing around it and "fixing it up."

Nat was trying to get warm...
Then she went back in the water and froze.

We saw dolphins playing around later in the day and we loved watching the pelicans dive bomb the water for fish!

They sleep on the way home... or do they? What do you think?

Thanksgiving week 2010

It looked like fall....

Then, there was the surgery...

The cutest guy rolled into the OR.


Then, it was COLD..... (33 degrees outside, 61 degrees inside)

Then, there was pie!

Lazy Saturday

We went to the school and the girls rode their bikes.

Nick and I walked around the track; then, he rested.

Flying K shots!

The birthday girl!



Kira said it was a little less scary than last year.



All he needs is the cape.



Tia is a natural flyer!



Flying Judi.