Hello All. To save on postage and "Go Green" this year, this is our Christmas/New Years letter. For those of you who may have just been added to our BLOG Update group, or for those of you who only look at the photos, but don't have time to read; here is a recap of 2009 for you.
January-Leah & I travelled to Chicago to visit my sister while Scott and the grandma's took care of Nolan and held down the fort in Rescue. It was hard to believe it had been 1 year since Nolan's open-heart surgery. At 14 months he was not walking but he did speed crawl everywhere.
February-Jill turned 36 and all 4 of us passed around germs and colds.
March-Scott ended up with pneumonia, but the kids & Jill were fine. All four of us travelled to Monterey for a weekend with Scott's parents for a short getaway. At then end of March, Scott's Grandpa lost his battle with Cancer and passed away at home surrounded by his family.
April-We celebrated Easter with Jill's sister and family from Chicago and the the older girls (3 years & 4 years) really got into hunting for Easter eggs this year.
May-Scott turned 43 and we were all FINALLY ALL healthy!
June-We started out June with our annual trip to Fort Bragg abalone diving with friends and family. Jill celebrated 19 years since her heart transplant on June 8th. A week later we left on a road trip to Kansas & Chicago. First stop was Ottawa, Kansas to celebrate Jill's Granny's 90th birthday with a family reunion. Then on to Chicago for a quick visit with her sister and family in their new condo.
July-At the end of July we went camping at Stillwater Cove and have a nice "family" vacation.
August-Finished up camping the first few days of August & then Scott geared up for overseeing the "cook crew" for his annual "Hot August Nite" at the Rescue Fire Station.
September-We celebrated Nolan's 2nd birthday with a family party on the 23rd.
October-A very eventful month. Scott was notified on Oct. 1st that his last day with Pulte/Centex would be October 30th. Scott & I celebrated our 9th anniversary by going to Genoa, NV and an Oktoberfest at Squaw Valley while Mema & Grandpa watched the kids. While we were gone they went to choose our 2 new lab/golden retriever mix puppies-Jake & Daisy. On October 31st the puppies were picked up and brought to the "Thorne compound" and Jill's Granny passed away that morning at home surrounded by her daughters and son. (We were so grateful we got to see her in June-but quite surprised at her sudden turn for the worse. Could have sworn we'd celebrate her 100th birthday.) Jill's mom had flown to Kansas almost 2 weeks before and was there through the funeral. She was gone 3 weeks and this was the longest time Nolan and Leah had gone without seeing their Grammy.
November-Scott's first month without work and he was busy with our new addition to the house and working on business start-up stuff. My sister & niece came for a visit from Chicago.
December-We spent Leah's 5th birthday at Disneyland. She loved it! This December seemed more low-key than others as we obviously had less holiday parties to attend since 1) we were gone for one weekend and 2) no company parties. Christmas was very relaxing this year.
In the New Year we are hoping for continued health for our family and friends, an income for the many families out of work in some shape or form, and happiness and peace in all things said and done. Happy New Year!
-Jill, Scott, Leah & Nolan
