Letter

As we've done most years recently, we're going to take the easy way out with this end-of-year letter and basically just post a bunch of pictures in lieu of any real narrative about the year. At 1,000 words/picture, though, I figure this is just as good as a nearly 30k word essay! So, here we go through 2017 in pictures....

Apparently not much happened in January that was photo-worthy, but this picture of the boys and Hayden after getting haircuts was kinda cute:

In February we went to a San Jose Barracudas (the Sharks minor league hockey team) game for a friend's birthday:

We did some hiking at Pinnacles National Park in March, which was a new experience for all of us -- it was the boys' first time, and even though Hayden and Steph had been there several times before (back when it was just a National Monument) it was always to go rock climbing, so the hiking was just something in the way of our reason for being there.

Later in the month Hayden and Steph spent a weekend away, although we just went to Danville. Here we are at the top of Mt. Diablo:

For our first big trip of the year we went to Maui for spring break with our old next-door neighbors. We hadn't been to Hawaii in over 10 years, so the boys has obviously never been. Now that they're old enough to go snorkeling we figured it was finally time, and it was a great trip!

When we got back we tried to keep the island vibes going by drinking Maui Mules (just a Moscow Mule with some POG added, which we made up on the trip) and eating Hawaiian chips in the backyard:

Here are Steph and the boys at Evan's school band spring recital (he plays the clarinet):

Hayden had to travel back east for work several times in the late spring and early summer, and on one trip his flight home was on Evan's 10th birthday:

We didn't have any big adventures over the summer break, but among a variety of day excursions we went to the Exploratorium in SF:

the Alameda County Fair:

and the California Rodeo in Salinas:

For Steph's birthday we went to a recording of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me at Davies Symphony Hall in SF:

The end of August brought the start of a new school year. Evan is now in 5th grade, and Alex 2nd, meaning this is the last year they'll both be in the same school until their Senior/Freshman years in high school:

In October Alex turned 8, and he insisted on having his birthday party at the house:

Also in October the entire 5th grade went away to Science Camp for the week, which was a big hit:

Alex and I went to the last San Jose Earthquakes game of the season, which ended up being quite an exciting last-second 3-2 win that sent the Quakes to the playoffs:

Steph is starting on a big new project in her art practice, InTouch, that's going to need a lot more space than she had at her old studio, so she took an opportunity to move to a bigger studio downtown:

For Halloween, Evan was a penguin and Alex a Pikachu:

We spent most of our Halloween prep time working on the boys' costumes, so the adult costumes consisted of Steph making a Wonder Woman tiara/headband:

For the first time in several years we made the trek back to Columbus, Ohio to see Hayden's side of the family for Thanksgiving:

We needed a picture that included Peekay for the Christmas card, so after we got back he staged on on the front porch:

And finally, here we are with our Christmas tree:

All told, we had a pretty great 2017, and we're already looking forward to 2018. We hope you all had a wonderful year too!

Letter

It's that time of year again when I'm supposed to write a Christmas letter.  I've been dragging my feet getting around to it, but the Christmas cards will be arriving any day now so I've procrastinated as long as I can!

As most of you know (although not from this forum, as I didn't write a letter last year) we moved a few miles north of our old house at the end of last summer.  We're still in the same basic neighborhood in northeast San Jose, in fact the boys are still in the same school, but it's a bigger house with a bigger yard, which we appreciate since we have to accommodate ever-bigger boys.  The new house was in good shape structurally, but in addition to refreshing pretty much every surface in the house we took on a few significant remodeling projects and did a lot of the work ourselves (the boys even helped!).  It wasn't until the end of this summer that we considered our move-in/remodel effort "done".  Of course, there's always something else to do when you own a home, and we have a project list that's pages long, but all the big stuff we planned on doing "right away" is done. ;-)

To prove Evan and Alex helped (some), here are a few pictures of them in action, redoing the stucco under the new studio French doors with Steph:

and helping Hayden build the stairs up to those same French doors:

Of course, remodeling a house wasn't the only thing we did this past year, it just felt like that to us!  We also had our normal lives to lead, Alex (7 years old) in 1st grade and Evan (9) in 4th.  Steph turned 40 this year (who knew 40 could be so young!) and is still making her way through the Bay Area art scene.  Hayden (42) is still working at Northrop Grumman, although on a new program for the first time in the last 8 years or so.  All us boys are soccer players, but Steph prefers roller hockey for her athletic fix.  Oh, and Peekay (13) is still going strong, just with more white hairs in her muzzle.

And now, photographic evidence that we did some interesting things besides day-to-day life throughout the year....

Super Bowl 50 was in Santa Clara this year at the 49ers new stadium, so I took the boys up to Super Bowl City in San Francisco with some friends for the day back in January:

Evan turned 9 in June, and as is our tradition Steph made a nigh-indestructible piñata for the party:

We made a point of going to the Alameda County Fair around the 4th of July, as we do every year.  We tried going in the evening this year instead of in the morning to see some bonus fireworks before Independence Day.  Being there later in the day meant we also got to see a demolition derby:

In August Evan managed to break himself at a local playground, falling off one concrete stump and smashing his forehead on the neighboring stump on the way to the ground.  It was quite a trying experience for kid and mom alike, and Evan had to get 20+ stitches put in by a plastic surgeon in the ER to sew his forehead back together!  He was a trooper at the hospital, though, and has been a very conscientious patient throughout the process, so 4 months later the scar is fading nicely:

Just a few days later we went camping with friends at Sunset Beach outside Santa Cruz:

Then another few days after that we went to Breckenridge, Colorado for the week to spend some time with Hayden's family and celebrate his dad's 70th birthday.  While we were there, among other things, the boys did a small ropes course at the resort:

We all took one of the lifts and hiked around up on the ski mountain (and there was some snow up there even in mid-August!):

We rented bikes one day and rode down from Vail Pass into Frisco (that's Hayden's sister Hallie and her son Finn you can see there... her youngest Parker was there too, but he's blocked by Evan in the picture):

All the boys (well, the bigger boys... cousins Finn and Parker had to take naps) went Frisbee golfing one afternoon (this is Evan and Alex with Hayden's dad):

It was Breckenridge's art festival week the week we were there (called BreckCreate).  One of the coolest events we saw was called Saurus, which was a few artists walking around in these "life-sized" dinosaur-like costumes that looked like something from a movie special effects department.  Here are Steph and the boys down by the Blue River with the dinosaurs in the plaza behind them:

Back at home, Alex turned 7 in October, and he needed a piñata for his birthday party too:

Near the end of October we traveled back east for a week to attend Hayden's cousin Dan's wedding in New York City (you can catch a glimpse of the groom over Steph's shoulder in the mirror!):

We only stayed in Manhattan for 2 days, but we made sure to visit the top of the Empire State Building while we were there (which was super windy on a rainy October day):

After the wedding we traveled down to Allentown, Pennsylvania to stay with Hayden's sister Hilary and her family to keep the Metz reunion going another few days.  While we were there we did some hiking at Blue Rocks, a glacial moraine that Hayden remembered from his childhood growing up in Bethlehem (Evan and Alex are sitting with their cousins Henley, Finn, and Graysen on one of the bigger boulders):

Next we drove to Park Ridge, New Jersey to stay with Steph's sister Kim and her family before flying home.  While we were there we visited the Liberty Science Center, among other fun activities:

And that was about it (or at least all I bothered to select pictures of).  I figured I'd throw in a few bonus pictures of the boys doing boy things throughout the year, just because....

And last, but not least, this is the family picture we used for our Christmas card this year, taken on the front porch of our new house:

2016 was a great year for us, and we hope it brought happiness and joy to you and your family as well.  Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Metzes!