It is hard to believe that another year has passed, but here we are, writing another Christmas letter! This year was full of the unexpected and the unplanned - life keeps us on our toes!

2018 started off the way most of our years do - skiing! We spent a lot of days at our local ski area, Loveland, but we also took some fun trips. In February we went to Winter Park and stayed in a house with two other families, for a total of six adults and six kids aged 4 and under. Talk about fun AND crazy! Then in March we took a family ski trip to Steamboat - also fun, but a little more calm.

March also brought a momentous occasion - Kelly turned the big 4-0! Nate threw a great surprise birthday party and it was really fun to celebrate getting old with so many friends. But with a birthday that big, you can’t just celebrate it for one night, so we took the whole family plus Mama and Papa to Costa Rica in mid-April. What an amazing trip! We had a beach house just steps from the ocean, everything was gorgeous, the people were super nice, and the food was excellent. We highly recommend a trip there and hope we can go back someday.

Right after we got back from Costa Rica, Nate and Donovan took a late-season hut trip. Nate pulled a pulk with their gear and sometimes Donovan (when he wasn’t skiing) along a 2-mile trail to a hut with some friends. Donovan had a blast and we hope to do this again as a family soon.

On Memorial Day, Kelly completed the Bolder Boulder! This was only her second 10k ever and although her time was not all that great, it still felt like a great way to continue the celebration of turning 40.

In June we headed to Santa Rosa to celebrate the marriage of Kelly’s niece, Sarah, and her new husband Kyle. It was wonderful seeing family and fun having Donovan and Eleanor be in the wedding party, and we are so happy for the newlyweds! It was also bittersweet seeing all of the devastation that still remains in Santa Rosa after the fires, and our hearts go out to everyone who was (and still is) affected.

We only managed to go on one camping trip this summer due to our crazy schedules, but it was a great one! We visited a part of Colorado that is new to us near Leadville and we hope to spend more time there in the future. We did watch quite a lot of soccer over the summer between Donovan’s team, our Rapids season tickets, and the World Cup.

August brought a huge milestone for our family; Donovan started kindergarten! We are very happy with his new school and teacher and Donovan is absolutely thriving. He loves showing off everything he is learning, and he loves doing his “homework” so much that he begs us to let him work on it! Although it took a couple of months to settle in to our new normal in this chapter of his life, we are excited to watch him continue to grow in school.

After school started we took it easy for a little while, but in November Kelly and Nate were able to get away for a weekend in Palisade. Thanks to Mama and Papa for watching the kids! This is another part of Colorado that we had not previously visited and hope to go back to in the future.

As we wrap up the year, ski season is again upon us and we are looking forward to teaching Eleanor how to ski. Nate and Kelly have already had 3 days on the slopes and we got Eleanor on her first bunny hill over the Thanksgiving weekend. She loved it! Donovan was also happy to get back out on his skis and wants to ski every weekend.

Kelly is still a manager in the PMO (Project Management Office) at FirstBank and Nate is still working for SkyFuel as the Director of Engineering.

Finn and Darcy are another year older and the kids had some fun times running around in the back yard with them this summer. Nate just built a dog run for them so they can have some access to the outdoors while we’re gone all day.

We created so many memories this year and cannot wait for the memories yet to be made in 2019! We wish your family joy and happiness for the holidays and in the new year!

Happy Holidays!

The Schuknechts