Hello all, and yes, Happy New year (as it's almost February). We had fun in Utah for New Years in the massive snowstorm of the century.

We will be at Jake's wedding. Can't wait to travel to Utah again...ahem. We'll see you all there!

And in other news. Not having anywhere else to write this, I will now brag about my kids. They all tried out for the Missoula Children's Theater again this year. Only Lacey made the cut. She worked hard all week learning her part, which consisted of jumping up and down and yelling "baaaaaa", (she was a lamb). Come performance time, she nailed her part. So, she was a star for a day. Alan got straight A's, which was almost more than Jordan could stand. Alan's report card was like something out of the twilight zone for someone like myself who always looked for ways to change the F's into B's. My teachers always wondered why I wasn't a good student, "like Tyler". Alan got that similar rare genetic defect where he actually cares what his teacher thinks and tries to please them. They have spelling tests and, trying to challenge Alan, the teacher had to add bonus words. The spelling lists look like this: call, ball, wall, mall, hall, and bonus words, philanthropist, cellular, circuit, and dodecahedron. True. Alan has yet to miss any of the bonus words to date. I guess it's okay for now, but it is kind of eerie. Jordan, is not stupid either. He got second place in his school (which goes to 8th grade) in the Geography Bee. He was in the paper for that one. Actually, I sit back in amazement as Julie does so much work helping these kids reach their potential. It's exhausting just to watch. Jordan is getting better at basketball, too. His team came back to win a game where they were down 11 points at the half. He is no real offensive threat, but he's a great leader and rallied the troops on defense and hustled up and down the court. I told him I wanted to see him beat everyone up and down all day long, and he darn near succeeded. That was one of the few times I saw his face go flush because he was actually working hard. They are now 2-0.

So, that's the news.