This year has been eventful!   January-May was all about moving and getting settled.  At the start, Christian’s company Bucher Aerospace, relocated.  It is now much closer to the Boeing Plant in Everett.  We are also pleased to be first time homeowners!  In March we purchased a home close to where Christian works and got to work on some needed repairs: a new roof, windows, and sliding doors.  Our home has beautiful views of mountains, a valley with a river and train running through it, and a backyard that is on the edge of a forested greenbelt.  It’s beautiful here and we have room for guests.  Please come visit!

Before we moved, Christian did some skiing up at Mt. Baker.  He took our guest Flat Jack with him.  Our nephew Jack was doing a school project and we hosted a paper copy of him.  This is a cultural phenomena based on beginner reading curriculum used in elementary schools.  Flat Stanley stories are about a character that gets flattened so thin he can fit in an envelope and travel by mail.  Aunts and Uncles all over the US play host to paper people sent by young nieces and nephews.  The hosts take pictures of the paper person different sights.  Flat Jack went with us to the ski area at Baker and later he met up with a Flat Stanley friend at a Seattle restaurant.  Small world.

The summer involved travel and houseguests.  In June, Christian needed to renew his Swiss passport.  A trip to San Francisco was necessary and we planned it around our 4th wedding anniversary and Tanya’s 40th birthday celebration.  Quite an adventure!  The traffic through Seattle was unusually piled up for a Thursday.  We missed our flight and had to drive overnight to CA.  We arrived at the Swiss consulate in San Francisco at 8:58 AM.  Christian’s appointment was set for 9:00 AM.  Just made it.  Mission accomplished.  Some added highlights, that evening we were given free tickets for a dinner and entertainment cruise around the San Francisco Bay (nice way to celebrate two special occasions), Mom & Dad Heiple came for part of the weekend, and the weather was perfect for touring on foot all over the city.

In July we welcomed our first houseguests.  Mom & Dad Heiple stayed in the upstairs guest room and Tanya’s brother Tim and family had the downstairs to themselves.  We celebrated the annual Grandpa and Tim’s son, Jack’s birthdays.  Each day while Christian worked at Bucher, the younger Heiple family toured Seattle.  We hosted a couple of large dinner parties.  At the request of Tanya’s cousin Gene, Tanya and her mom made Pie Caken for Gene’s birthday.  Pie Caken is a humorous internet concoction of pie crossed with cake.  For Gene we made one layer of cake lemon with a blueberry pie baked inside and the second layer was cherry chip cake with a raspberry pie inside.  It had chocolate fudge icing in the middle and lemon glaze drizzled on top with some berries and chocolate chips as garnish.  Fun to make but not so good for eating!!!!!!  Blaaaaah.  It was a almost structurally sound.  Gene was very pleased.

In the fall we had some adventures and hosted a housewarming party with the help of our friend and realtor Lyle.  He helped by making pancakes for our guests.  Other adventures included hanging a very heavy Great Northern train sign in the entryway of our home, white water rafting, camping, and a road trip to eastern Oregon and back out west to the Portland area where we stayed with good friends, Mark and Anna.  Eastern Oregon has been a favorite travel destination for us.  Wallowa Lake and Joseph, OR are beautiful.  Good way to relax!  We came back to Everett briefly to get one of Christian’s teeth fixed before continuing on to Portland.

Recently we said goodbye to our friend Pete Montson.  Christian has known him for quite a long time.  Pete died on December 1 from a stroke.  He was not very old but he was quite a character with a mountain man cabin that had front doors from off a European Church.  Pete was a teacher, a tour guide, a naturalist, a wedding officiate, a landowner, an excellent party host, and an all around good friend to many.

We have been blessed this year and through the holiday season and we wish you all a happy 2014!

We are thankful to have found a wonderful church close to home, New Life Center, and we also enjoy keeping in touch with some of our long time friends. 

Dear Family and Friends, 2013