As we approach the year whose significance is that the first digit is incremented vice the last, our family is happy and in good health. However, we had some excitement earlier this year as our son, Connor, broke his leg at school in March. An interesting 5 weeks followed with us catering to the whims of a toddler in a body cast. Young bones heal fast and he was as good as new by his third birthday in July. He still enjoys preschool and has the added activity of swimming lessons twice a week.

Kylie turned 18 months old in November which was a key date as she then met the criteria to attend preschool with Connor. She is in a different class but they see each other on the playground. She has either taken a liking to art or just likes to make a mess with paints – too soon to tell.

Amy continued flying for United. She doesn’t like the drive up to LAX but the occasional Maui layovers make up for the hassles. At least one of us has steady employment… For a variety of reasons I chose to end my employment at Motorola in 99 and take a position as Chief Engineer at a small company named Ocean Systems. The big swinger in my decision was the entrepreneurial atmosphere. I’ve been there 5 months and it certainly seems like I made a good decision so far.

Our family vacation this year was a week in Kauai. We flew passes on United to Honolulu, which was semi-interesting, in that they gave us four seats that were not together. After some horse trading, Amy and Kylie sat together up front and Connor and I sat across the aisle from each other farther back. After a puddle jumper to Kauai we moved into a condo on Poipu beach for a week; the weather was beautiful and a great time (albeit not totally relaxing for the parents) was had by all. Next up, a sailboat charter in the Caribbean?

As we celebrate this holiday season, we wish you and your family good times and a great New Year!