2009 Christmas Letter

We started out 2009 in one of our favorite ways: Camping! As a family or in parts we went on 10 different trips this year. We camped in the new year with my folks, Joel & Becky and the dogs in
San Diego, under airplanes departing LAX with the Schlesingers, through the wind and rain in Pismo with the Corbetts, with all of Flipside back in San Diego, bikin it up in Ventura with my folks, hiking up the mountainous trail from the beach in San Clemente with Ryan’s extended family, next to the train tracks in Carpentaria with tons of friends and then back down to San Diego for Harvest Weekend. All GREAT trips! Ryan took just Nate to tent camp on the beach at Point Mugu and went on his annual trip to the Channel Islands for the 5th straight year but decided to wait one more year until he takes Nate on that trip.
Nate is almost 5 now. He is really into drawing and will spend hours with a dry erase board. Nate is in his second year of pre-school and is learning to read and write basic words. Nate got to do a summer session of Tae Kwon Do and loved it, Key-ya! He was really good at statue time! In July Nate had a surgery on his cheek to remove a funny bump - Nate was so brave during the surgery and laid perfectly still the whole time. Nate’s favorite color is dark blue, favorite animal is a bat and favorite food is mashed potatoes and chicken bread (breaded chicken.)
Zach is a wild and crazy 2 ½ year old. He is now wearing big boy undies everyday but still has an occasional oops. He got his big boy bed this year, a blue racecar to match brother’s. Zach loves big trucks and motorcycles, Cars, Toy Story, Wall-e and rockin out on his little toy guitar (He makes the best hard-core faces!). Zach’s favorite food is pasta shells. Zachy is our little helper. Whenever Ryan works on cars or builds something he grabs his plastic tools and "helps." He also likes to help mommy cook and clean!
Ryan is still working at Options For Youth and was promoted in July to a Senior Teacher position in Fontana. He also started an organization at his work called Jumpstart collecting and distributing necessary baby items for teen parents at the school. I (Jane) spend my days with the boys as well as volunteering for Flipside and RC Momtourage (a mommy group) My new tattoo I got this year around my wrist says my boys’ names and yes, it hurt. I also learned that I shouldn’t run away and join the circus when I went to trapeze school. I made the big transfer but really I was more into how cute my outfit was than the massive bruises afterward.