Letter

Another year, another Christmas letter. I'm mostly going to work chronologically, but we had two big dog-related events that kinda book-ended the year so I'm going to address those first. Then I'll work through the rest of the year.

First, we had a fairly rough March, when we had to unexpectedly say goodbye to our spectacular dog, Splash. Steph wrote a very poignant letter to many of you when it happened, so I'm just going repeat it here:

Dear friends and family,

I’m writing to share sudden and devastatingly sad family news; today we said goodbye to our incredibly good dog, Splash. Since you’re receiving this you probably know to some extent how much she’s been an important part of our family since we first adopted her in the Covid summer. For the past nearly four years she has been a constant source of joy, laughter, comfort, and the forging of new friendships, canine and human alike.

I still can’t wrap my head and my heart around this. Four weeks ago she was perfectly healthy; we went on a sunset walk at Ed Levin county park; they’re my last ‘normal’ photos of her. Over the past three weeks she suddenly developed an autoimmune disease called pemphigus vulgaris, in which the skin and mucous membranes break down, painfully. We sought every answer and solution possible; it took over two weeks to really get a diagnosis. We took her to specialist vets; we treated her there and nursed her at home. This is a very rare disease, and the treatments didn’t work. She held up and held on, but after another hospital stay and a lack of a miracle, we helped her let go.

She was a remarkably clever dog, AND loved to eat anything and everything-- which helped her learn lots of tricks as well as the names of all of her family members, many of her dog/human friends from our extended neighborhood dog community (and she knew, of course, which dog went with which person), and she could identify by name and bring over many of her toys. It seemed like she understood compound sentences; at least she certainly learned ways to get what she wanted by paying attention to what paid off. She was affectionate; she was barky when excited, although she could also ‘whisper’ if there was food in it for her. When you would stop patting her she’d paw at your hand for more. She will be missed.

We will never know if it was a genetic disease waiting like a ticking time bomb, or if it was triggered by something external; none of the testing revealed any source. We have to settle, somehow, for the nearly four years we had. Her fourth birthday would have been tomorrow.

It has been terribly hard on our whole family, and we’ll get through it bit by bit. If you see us soon, just hug us through bouts of sobbing, or else give us a moment to figure out what we need. Her presence was felt through every part of our lives, so there are dog-shaped holes all over the place. I didn’t want to have to explain it over and over, thus the somewhat impersonal email.

Here is a sampling of pictures we took of her earlier in the year, before she got sick (those last two are from the sunset walk Steph mentioned in her letter):

We took the Spring and Summer to mourn her passing, and I'll confess there were some benefits to not having a furry friend to take care of everyday. We are kind of a dog family, though, and as Fall rolled around (and Steph finished installing her big solo art show In The Glow... more on that below) we started looking more earnestly at puppies that were out there in the world.

After we returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest visiting colleges in early October (more on that below too) Steph connected online with a breeder of Australian Shepherds in Turlock who had one puppy in her litter that unexpectedly became available (the person who was going to take her backed out at the last minute), and two days later Steph was coming home with Reese:

Reese was 8 weeks old at the time, so she's almost 4 months old as I'm writing this. She's turning into a wonderful little dog (although she obviously won't be little forever, we're expecting her to top out a smidge under 50lbs when all is said and done), but the first month we had her was rough. Having a young puppy is somewhat akin to having a mobile infant with very sharp teeth, and Reese was extremely willing to use her teeth. Just in the last few weeks it's gotten a lot better, though, and we spend significantly more time with her snuggling than we do being nipped at.

Anyway, here are a few more pictures of her the first week or so she was home:

OK, so that's our big dog news, the bad and the good. Now, on to the rest of the year....

On New Year's Day we went up to Fort Funston with Splash and some dog friends (sadly, it turns out this would be our last trip to the beach with Splash).

Walking at Fort Funston.

On MLK Day Alex and some friends wanted to go hiking at Alum Rock Park, and I somehow got elected as the one parent who would accompany them.

Hayden and Alex hiking with some of his friends at Alum Rock Park.

At the end of January Steph and I took our annual trip to Las Vegas to see friends for Super Bowl weekend (this year since the Super Bowl was in Las Vegas we went for the conference championship games instead).

Hayden, Steph, and Elizabeth at the Year of the Dragon display at the Bellagio.

We also went hiking at Red Rock Canyon at the end of the weekend, which has become pretty much a tradition as part of this trip. If you click on the second picture to make it bigger you can see the Strip in the background down in the valley.

Steph and Hayden hiking at Red Rock Canyon.

Steph and Hayden at Red Rock Canyon w/ the Vegas Strip in the background.

We went skiing a few days at Northstar this year for our annual Ski Week trip. I remember not really liking Northstar that much when I was coming up to Tahoe a lot more often back in grad school, but we had a great time there on this trip. I think it probably helped that I found us a condo where we could ski-in/ski-out, so we just came back to the condo for lunch. Fingers crossed that we can find something similar next year.

On the slopes at Northstar.

The rest of the Spring was relatively uneventful (at least as far as the family photo album is concerned). Alex graduated from middle school in June, though, which kicked off a busy start of Summer.

Outside the stadium gate for Alex's middle school promotion ceremony.

Our big vacation this summer was a trip to the east coast to see my extended Metz family and celebrate multiple milestone birthdays (my cousin and I both turning 50, and my aunt 75, all within a month of each other). We were meeting everyone in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, which meant the closest airport was Norfolk, VA. We spent an extra day in Norfolk before driving to NC and visited Colonial Williamsburg.

Visiting Colonial Williamsburg.

Then it was on to Corolla, NC in the Outer Banks with the extended family. We rented a huge house  (14 bedrooms) right on the beach together, all 26 of us, and spent a week doing beachy things.

Hayden and Steph in the gazebo at the end of our private boardwalk to the beach.

Steph can't help but sculpt things, even on vacation.

The boys got to do a little ocean fishing.

Evan and Alex with their cousins Dylan and Finn.

The wild horses that live in the Outer Banks dunes came up on our deck at one point!

We all went go carting one day.

Hayden and the boys with our beach vacation towels on the pool deck.

Back home, Steph and I went to see Toad the Wet Sprocket (a favorite of Steph's from high school) perform at a small outdoor venue in Novato, Hopmonk Tavern.

Steph and Hayden at the Toad show in Novato.

At the end of summer Steph was up on Whidbey Island in the Seattle area teaching at the Pacific NorthWest Art School. While she was there she also got to visit with some friends and family before and after her class. 

Steph with her cousin Aaron on a beach hike.

Steph kayaking around the Johnson-Pate's cabin on Marrowstone Island.

Then the summer was over and it was time to start school. Both boys are in high school this year, Evan a senior and Alex a freshman, so this is the last year that they'll both be at the same school (barring attending the same college, I suppose).

First day of school.

August and September were largely consumed with doing final preparations (including finishing the artwork) for In The Glow, Steph's big installation and solo show at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. Obviously Steph was doing all the real work, but the family helped with getting the art ready to transport to the museum (among other things).

At Steph's studio getting artwork ready for In The Glow.

We had another date night around then to see Foo Fighters (one of my favorite bands) in Concord. 

Hayden and Steph at the Foo Fighters show at Toyota Pavilion in Concord.

Content Magazine did a profile of Steph in their Fall issue, so they wanted to show a few of her pieces at the magazine pickup party.

Steph at the Content Magazine Fall issue pickup party.

We got Alex a new (to him) mountain bike over the summer (he'd long outgrown his previous bike and was always stealing mine or Evan's), and the family went on a biking excursion around the summit of Mt. Umunhum. A not entirely successful excursion... the climb killed us all, and my bike popped a tire early on in the descent. Still, we had a good time, and got some exercise. ;-)

Mountain biking Mt. Umunhum (Steph and Evan are pointing at the old radar tower).

The Mesa Contemporary Art Center featured several of the Hanging Pods from In Touch in a show that opened at the same time as In The Glow (it was a very busy summer and early fall for Steph!). The opening reception happened to be on our wedding anniversary, so we flew to Phoenix for the weekend, stayed with my parents, and brought both sets of parents to the opening.

The week after our Phoenix trip Steph went down to San Diego for the weekend for her friend's birthday with her high school friends, and they all went to see Indigo Girls (we went to more concerts this past year than we have in a while).

Steph seeing Indigo Girls in San Diego with friends from high school.

The opening reception for In The Glow was the following weekend, and Steph's sisters Melissa and Kim both flew in to town to attend.

Melissa, Steph, and Kim in the City the night before the opening.

Uncle Roger, Aunt Linda, Melissa, Steph, Kim, and Cousin Lauren at the opening.

Kim, Evan, Alex, and Melissa at Alex's soccer tournament the same weekend.

For the boys' Fall Break we went up to the Pacific Northwest to visit a few colleges, University of Oregon, Oregon State University (the winner of the weekend), and University of Washington. We also got to see some friends in both Portland and Seattle, and most importantly PLAY WHIRLYBALL! For those of you who don't know (probably most of the non-Metzes out there), Whirlyball is sort of a cross between lacrosse and basketball played in bumper cars, and it's awesome. We used to go every year to play at a place in Detroit for Thanksgiving when I was a kid, but that was well over 20 years ago. It was a blast to get to do it again, and take our kids this time.

Visiting University of Oregon, Steph's alma mater.

Playing Whirlyball!

Walking around downtown Seattle after taking the Underground Tour.

For Halloween the boys didn't want to get dressed up or go out trick-or-treating, but they did have a bunch of friends over to carve pumpkins, cook for each other (and us!) and give out candy. Given Reese's name we had to get her a little dressed up, though.

Reese in her "costume".

The kids' pumpkins lined up on the front porch.

We didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving and it was just the four of us at home, but my sister Hallie and her family came up from Monterey for the day after.

Hayden, Steph, Parker, Finn, Alex, Evan, Hallie, and David on Thanksgiving Friday.

Both boys made the high school soccer team (Alex the JV, Evan is captain of the Varsity team), which means twice a week all winter we're going to be watching cold soccer games in the dark for 4 hours. So far Reese is doing pretty well as a soccer dog... it helps that she loves the cold. ;-)

And that pretty much brings us up to now. Well, once I add in or Christmas card photo (taken outside the Triton) and one of us posing in front of In The Glow.

Our Christmas card photo.

Standing in front of In The Glow at the Triton Museum of Art.

2024 was certainly busy, and had some pretty dramatic ups and downs. Easily more ups than downs, though, and you can't ask for much more than that. We hope you had a wonderful year as well.