Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas, friends & family!

We are still living in Salt Lake and loving it.

This year, Jake completed his associate’s degree from LDS Business College, and was accepted into the chemical engineering program at the University of Utah.  He’s busy with classes, but doing really well.  He’s now working part-time for Delta Airlines at the SLC airport so he can focus on his studies for the next few years.  Fortunately, Jake’s health has been top-notch this year, and he’s enjoyed golfing, rock climbing, and snowboarding with Heather and his friends.

Heather graduated with her bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in May.  As a little graduation celebration, she spent some time traveling at the beginning of the summer.  She spent two weeks in Siena, Italy practicing her Italian and visiting friends there.  On the way home, she stopped in Copenhagen, Denmark for a few days to explore the city with a good friend.  After returning, she hit the pavement hard in the search of a full-time job with her new, shiny diploma.  At the end of the summer, she began working for the University of Utah Health Sciences as a Strategy Writer.  You’ll have to ask her what that means.  She is also still teaching Italian language classes for the Italian Club of Salt Lake once a week, and acquired a darling flute student from our ward, teaching just one lesson a week and enjoying the opportunity to dust off her beloved old flute.

As always, travel and adventure are an important part of what makes us tick.

We rang in the year rather romantically in Paris, France.  We loved seeing the city decorated for the holidays, and, of course, Heather brought home a bag full of macarons from Laduree.

In February, Jake surprised Heather with a trip to San Francisco for Valentine’s weekend.  We spent two days roaming the city, and being disgustingly adorable.

In June, we celebrated our 5th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!  How is it possible that we’ve already been married for five years?!  We celebrated with a week-long trip to Maui, Hawaii.  We snorkeled, hiked, played in the ocean, and just relaxed.  Heather got a nasty jellyfish sting one day while snorkeling, but it didn’t hold us back for long.

With the summer waning, we decided to get one more adventure in before Jake went back to school, and Heather started working full time.  We flew to Portland, Oregon to celebrate Heather’s oldest brother’s (Chad) 40th birthday.  From there, we flew to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and drove to Banff National Park.  The park was absolutely stunning.  We camped, hiked, and tried to avoid bears.  Luckily, we returned home with all limbs intact (though we really would’ve like to see a bear from a distance!).

At the end of August, Heather was able to go on a quick trip with her mom, Cathy.  They visited the new Philadelphia LDS temple, and spent a weekend exploring Philadelphia and the nearby “Amish Country” of Eastern Pennsylvania.

Over Labor Day weekend, Heather went to Southern California with a few of her girlfriends.  They camped for two days at Carlsbad State Beach, watched the Padres play the Red Sox at Petco Field, and got some good girl time in.  Jake is still wondering when he gets to go on a boys trip with his friends. ;)

For fall break in October, we took Jake’s little sister, Sammi, to Zion National Park for four days.  It’s one of our favorite places in the world, and we loved sharing it with her.  We camped, canyoneered, rapelled, and hiked.  It was an absolute blast.

When Thanksgiving rolled around and we both had some time off, we headed south for some family time and warmer weather.  Heather’s cousins, Bryan & Atsuko, hosted us and Heather’s parents for the Thanksgiving holiday.  It was a great weekend of catching up, relaxing, and more food than anyone ever needs to eat.

Recently, Heather was sadly released from her responsibilities working with the young women in our ward, but that made room for a new opportunity.  We were called to serve together in the Brighton Gardens Branch, an LDS congregation at an assisted living center in our area.  Jake will be working as the branch clerk, and Heather is the assistant secretary in the Relief Society presidency.  If you are looking for service opportunities this year, let us know.  We’d love for you to come and visit the 60 new grandmas and grandpas that we just adopted!

We are always up for visitors.  If you are ever in SLC and you are reading this, you have an open invitation at our casa.  It’s small, but we have an air mattress with your name on it.  Whether it’s warm weather or cold, we’ll show you why we dig Utah.  And if you live somewhere else, we’d love to come visit you.  Let us know, and we’ll come play! Love you all, and Merry Christmas!