Letter

Another year, another minimalist Christmas letter / photo gallery. We'll just go through some pictures in chronological order... it's easier to organize that way....

We went up to Fort Funston again several times this year so Splash can play in the ocean. Here we all are back in the parking lot for lunch on one of those trips early in the year:

Eating lunch after walking along the beach at Ft. Funston.

Some of our friends from our first dog walking group back when Peekay was just a puppy (so, close to 20 years ago!) finally decided to get a new dog, and when they went to pick him up they mistakenly brought home two puppies instead of just one. (Actually, I'm mostly kidding... getting two dogs wasn't their original plan, but Hachi and BaoBao were the last two puppies in the litter and they didn't want to split the brothers up, so they took them both.) And we're always willing to help socialize puppies!

Alex and Evan with the puppies.

Steph and Hayden were able to resume their annual trip to Las Vegas for Superbowl weekend this year after it didn't happen in 2021, although we had to reschedule for conference championship weekend (two weeks earlier) since Steph had a show opening in Santa Monica that weekend. Watching the game is just an excuse to get together with friends, anyway, and this way we actually had two games to watch instead of one! (Huh, that's the second time the idea of two-for-one came up. I didn't plan it that way, but maybe I'll have to make it a theme of this letter... I'll see what I can do there.) Here we are at the Venetian on dress-up dinner night:

Steph and Hayden at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

We rented a condo in South Lake Tahoe and went skiing/snowboarding at Heavenly for a few days over Presidents' Day week:

Skiing and snowboarding at Heavenly.

This picture isn't of anything particular, it's just Evan giving Splash the "chin" command (where she's supposed to rest her chin on whatever's in front of her, including your hand if necessary), and someone thought it was cute enough to capture:

Evan hanging out with Splash.

On one of our trips to Fort Funston we also visited Sutro Baths and Lands End for the first time (we usually don't make it that far up into The City on our Fort Funston trips, but for some reason we did this time):

Fighting the wind at Sutro Baths.

For Hayden's birthday we all went indoor skydiving together. Steph and Hayden had done it once before (back in 2008!), but this time we brought the boys along as well:

Indoor skydiving at iFly for Hayden's birthday.

Hayden's family rented a house (an estate, really) on the Virginia eastern shore this summer to get everyone together to celebrate his parents' 50th anniversary (a year late... this trip was supposed to be to Europe, and it was supposed to happen last year, but it wasn't and it didn't). We chose to extend the trip a bit and see Washington, D.C. first, to which the boys had never been:

On the National Mall, with the Washington Monument in the background.

Getting ice cream outside the International Spy Museum.

Steph and Alex at a fountain in D.C.

After three days in the District we stayed with friends of Hayden's from college for a few days, including a visit to the University of Maryland campus:

Rubbing Testudo's nose for good luck.

From there we drove down to the Virginia eastern shore for a week of extended family time at The Laughing King. The property had a main house with five bedrooms, a separate tiny house (where Steph and Hayden slept), and an Airstream trailer (where Alex and a cousin slept two nights before they came in to stay on the couch). It also had a pool and a dock on the Chesapeake Bay with several kayaks and paddle boards. It was a great place for us all to hang out for a week and get some good cousin time in.

Looking out over the Chesapeake Bay from the top of the dock at sunset.

The main house and Airstream trailer looking back from the top of the dock.

Evan, Alex, Finn and Parker in Cape Charles.

Walking thru the bay at low tide looking for interesting wildlife.

Evan, Alex, and Graysen hiking at Savage Neck Dunes.

After a week in Virginia we flew up to Boston for a few days because Steph had some of the Hanging Pods from her InTouch project in a show in Brattleboro, VT. Since we were already on the other side of the country we figured we'd take the chance to see the exhibit and do some more sightseeing along the way (another two-for-one!).

We were only in Boston for a day and a half, but we had time to do some walking around and take a hop-on/hop-off bus tour (since it was raining on-and-off during our full day in town) to see a good chunk of the old part of the city:

In front of the Longfellow Bridge (with Cambridge behind) at sunset.

On the hop-on/hop-off bus tour around town.

Hayden and Evan in front of the Bunker Hill Monument.

Steph and the boys in front of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

We then drove three hours across Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Brattleboro, Vermont to see Felt Experience at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center. It was a beautiful venue, and Steph's pieces looked wonderful under a skylight with big picture windows looking over the Connecticut River to New Hampshire behind:

Steph's Hanging Pods in the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center.

In addition to allowing Steph to give an artist's talk about InTouch and making these pieces we also got to see Steph's sister Kim, who drove up from New Jersey with her girls Lola and Ruby and our niece Riley who was staying with them:

All the family that joined us in Brattleboro.

One more thing before moving on from our summer trip... I wanted to mention that Steph wrote a much longer blog post about the trip on her website, including several more pictures and anecdotes, if you're interested.

It was our 20th anniversary this year, and we went away for the weekend to Austin, TX to visit some friends of ours who moved there from the Bay Area a few years ago (the same friends we meet in Vegas every year). We'd never been to Austin before (aside from the airport) and had a great time there:

Steph and Hayden with Chad and Elizabeth in Austin.

Steph and Hayden on the Boardwalk with downtown Austin behind.

The boys weren't too interested in getting dressed up for Halloween again (I think those days are done, at least until they go away to college), but Steph bought a roll of caution tape at the hardware store earlier in the month so they wrapped a few strands around themselves and called it a costume:

Evan and Alex in their Halloween attire.

I guess Evan spends a lot of time on the ground with the dog, because we seem to have several pictures of the two of them:

Evan and Splash discussing his AP History textbook.

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year, and the boys helped cook:

Evan mashing potatoes and Alex making cookies for Thanksgiving.

Our Thanksgiving spread  (we made ham instead of turkey).

And now it's early December and it's almost Christmas. We hope your 2022 was filled with laughter and love, and you have more of the same in 2023. Happy Holidays!

Our Christmas card picture.