Merry Christmas everyone! We're keeping the web site more simplified this year. Last year's site took so much time that Deb was burnt out on it and didn't touch it for a year (right, Jon B.?!).
Year 2000 was a fun one! Here are some highlights:
The Other Coast
In February, we all headed to San Francisco to see Mike, Nancy, and Baby Sara Hetrick. We spent a day in Monterey where we visited the Monterey Aquarium (really worth seeing!) and some incredible scenery along the coast (including Pebble Beach). The highlight of the trip was going skiing in Tahoe! OK, it was more of a highlight for Deb and Nancy. The guys got to stay in the hotel room watching the kids (one that was sick and cranky) while the girls were enjoying the scenery and incredible skiing.
Three Weddings and a Big Birthday Party (photos)
It was a year of weddings. In July, we drove up to Tonya Bakewell and Steve Dreher's wedding in Francestown, New Hampshire. What a beautiful area! It was fun to see a lot of family and friends from Minnesota at the wedding. In August, Cathy Hetrick (Aunt CJ) and Dave Mikulas (Mr. Dave) got married at our church. It was so nice to have the wedding come to us! Amanda was a flower girl, and Matthew took it upon himself to be an "unofficial" ring-bearer as he headed down the aisle when Amanda was being reluctant in the back of the church. Then in September, Melanie Shulke and Eric Legatt got married at Dad and Lynne's. It was a beautiful day - from the weather to the romantic, lakeside dance floor.
Grandma Schumacher had a big 85th birthday party with 100 of her closest friends. We should all hope we have that many friends and relatives to invite when we turn 85! Us younger folk (the grandkids) were amazed at how prompt this party crowd was - everyone arrived exactly when the party was schedule to start (give or take 5 minutes) and the place cleared out completely at the ending time noted on the invitations. At our parties, we usually get people coming in around an hour "fashionably" late, and we're still feeding people breakfast the next morning! (For our friends reading this - you know we love every minute of it!!)
Matthew (click for photos)
Matthew turned 1 on April 29. Our "Little Guy" continues to be a big kid. He's consistently well ahead of John's growth schedule as a baby, and considering that John is 6' 4", we are expecting Matthew to be a really big boy someday! Matthew is typically very smiley, but has his serious days. And this will be no surprise to anyone with a son, but man are boys busy!!! Making messes and getting into everything he is not supposed to are his specialties. More recently he has become obsessed with Blues Clues. Having him be mesmerized by his Blues Clues video gives Mommy a break from him getting into her make-up drawer or pulling all of the books off the book shelf.
Amanda (click for photos)
Amanda turned 4 on July 17. She took her first ballet class last summer. She loves to dance, but didn't seem to be too thrilled with the class. We are signing her up for swimming classes this winter which she is very excited about. She is a sweet and sensitive (at times, very sensitive) little girl. After being surprisingly close to a fireworks display on the fourth of July (we didn't realize how close we were until the first one went off), Amanda went into this "scared-of-just-about-any-loud-noise-or-strange-thing" phase. So when she grabbed a toad off of the ground at Papa's woods and fell instantly in love with it, we were all shocked. "Froggy" made the trip home from Minnesota as a stow-away in our carry-on luggage, and we even bought a little aquarium for him to live in. It was getting a little annoying to be out catching bugs every night so that we could feed Froggy. Then Mom Bakewell sends an article on how toads eat around 15,000 bugs a season - that's not happening for our toad! Unfortunately, "Froggy" went to glory when the cold weather set in. Amanda didn't seem to care, but Mommy was sad that day. Some strange bonding took place during those evenings of swatting a fish net in the air trying to catch the bugs flying around the porch light.
John and Deb
We're so excited about our little family. It's sad to leave the baby stage, but it's fun to have kids that can do more with us. John continues to be a designer at Brandywine Nurseries. He'll also be teaching a landscape installation and construction course at DelTech this Spring. Deb made it through another reorg at ServiceMaster and continues to work 32 hours to give her more time at home with the kids.
We hope everyone has a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
Love,
John, Deb, Amanda and Matthew
