Happy Holidays 2023

Donovan (who still goes by Dono most of the time) turned 10 in August and celebrated with his friends at Elitch Gardens, an amusement park in Denver. He also did his first overnight camp this summer where he camped by the Arkansas River and did river sports for 5 days. He started 5th grade in the fall and we've been talking about which middle school he will go to next fall.

Dono still loves skiing, played baseball in the spring and fall, and started basketball for the first time this fall. He joined the band for the first time and has really enjoyed learning the clarinet. He likes kayaking, rock climbing, and reading (LOTS of reading!)

Eleanor (who still goes by Nora) turned 7 in October and started 2nd grade in the fall. She is a firecracker! She has a great group of friends and she also makes friends wherever she goes in about 2 minutes.

Nora has always loved helping Nate in the kitchen but she has started cooking more independently this year. She can now make some breakfast foods, like pancakes and scrambled eggs, all by herself! 

Nora played softball for the first time in the spring and continued playing soccer in the spring and fall, when she was joined by Nate as one of her coaches. She started dance lessons in the fall and had her first performance with her beginning ballet class. She still loves skiing, rock climbing, and has recently started mountain biking with Dono and Nate.

Kelly spent the first half of the year working part-time as a contractor for Colorado Gives Foundation, then joined them full-time in June as the Director of Process Excellence and PMO (Project Management Organization). She got some extra skiing in over the winter and spent some extra time with the kids while she had the time. Kelly continued taking riding lessons and has improved her dressage skills, but mostly it has helped her to keep her sanity and makes her very happy.

Nate had a very active year, including skiing, kayaking, and mountain biking. He competed in the Salida 3P -pole (cross-country skiing), pedal (mountain biking), paddle (kayaking) in April and mountain biked Moab for four days in September.

He still works for Array Technologies as the Senior Manager of Mechanical Engineering and achieved 5 patents this year.

Our crazy dog Hoodoo turned 2 years old in October. He drives us crazy but we also love him like crazy.

We had a fun time in northern California this summer visiting family and being tourists. We had fun in Santa Cruz, showed the kids around San Francisco, stayed on the Russian River with Alex and Anastasia, and stayed at Beth and Ron's house in Santa Rosa. In September Alex and Anastasia welcomed a baby girl, Simona, and Nate and Kelly took a long weekend trip to meet her in November. 

We spent a lot of time at the cabin this year, enjoying skiing, hiking, rafting, and the beautiful autumn colors. Nora spent most of her time on the ninja course and we added another ninja set for her birthday. We hosted a lot of friends and family with the extra space we gained by enclosing the back patio.

Our family believes strongly in sustainable living and we try to make changes as often as possible. This year we started a compost bin, minimized the amount of plastic we use by switching to bars and concentrated refills for toiletries, and replacing our gas lawn mower with an electric one. Oh, and we replaced our Subaru Ascent with a Rivian R1S! It's only been a week but we simply love this car and can't wait for all the memories it will help us make.