Year in Review

Merry Christmas

Welcome to the Pike's year in review. I hope you have had a wonderful year, and if you are visiting our blog because you got our Christmas card, cool. We're new to the blogging scene, and have found that since the world is now on-line, why not. This is first year doing our year in review on our blog, so we hope you enjoy it.

This has been a good year for us. My "new" job at ATK is going well. I like the work that I'm doing, and the environment is so much more professional and stress free than my last job. I've been riding the motorcycle between Rancho Cucamonga and Woodland Hills a lot, so the drive isn't too bad. I try not to think about it too much, because I'm sure if I did, it would ruin the job for me. This year, my manager asked me if I wanted to work a compressed week, 4-10's, so I could have every Friday off. It seems to be working out for us, and it keeps me from having to drive out there on Fridays.

Angie started working at Flipside part time as the Flipt administrative assistant. Flipt is our children's ministry, so Angie spends most of her time preparing the lessons for the weekend and coordinating the volunteers with Paul, our imprompto family pastor. She enjoys the work, and the schedule is flexible enough that she is still able to be available for the boys when they aren't in school. It also gives Me an excuse to hang around the building on my days off doing minor handyman stuff or working on fixing and/or improving our tech equipment.

The boys are both doing well in school. We just had conferences, and they are both working at or above grade level, even though they are both showing slight signs of being underachievers (like their daddy). They both started Cub Scouts this year, so they are excited about the projects they get to work on. Other than that, not much new is happening with them except normal boy stuff - breaking stuff, taking things apart, banging plants to death - stuff like that.

One sad thing that happend this year - we lost Obsidian, our dog. She had been with us for 10 years, and aparently develped a tumor or somthing in her belly. To make a long story short, she spent her last night breathing heavy, laying on the floor with Angie and I. Angie was with her when she stopped breathing. What made her loss even harder was Caleb's birthday two days later, so we spent the next day driving around getting party supplies, grieving in between stores. And that night myself and five other crazy guys did a night hike to the top of Cucamonga Peak. I got back just in time for Caleb's party, but since Angie had it under control, I crashed on the couch at her parents and slept until it was time to leave.

Some highlights of our year have been:

Hiking - we have been hiking as a family a lot. We spent most weekends in the summer doing at least the Claremont Wilderness Trail with our friends the Armstrongs, the Clairs, and the Curriers. Josh likes "exploring" and hanging out with his friends. Caleb likes hanging out with friends and the snacks, but hasn't really shown an aptitude to the whole hiking scene, yet.

Glen Aulin - Angie and I did our first overnight hike to Glen Aulin with our friends the

Armstrongs. 6 miles from the road to the camp, most of the trail was flooded, another 3 1/2 miles to Waterwheel Falls, and 9 bazillion mosquitoes later, we decided we could get into this hiking thing, so we want to do more trips like that. We are scheming to start doing the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada, so hopefully we'll get started on that sometime soon. We were also very, very sore after carrying 40 pound packs on the trail for three days.


Sedona - We spent a week in Sedona with Dan and Mindi. We were there right after the fires, so the Coconico and Red Rock forests were closed most of the week, which meant not too much hiking and a lot of together time in the condo. We grew closer as a family.

Caprenteria - We spent a week in Carpenteria with the Clairs, Curriers, and Troxels. Angie's cousins Tim and Melinda, who both work at the State Park, and live within walking distance of the campground, made us all muffins the first day, and had us all over for B-B-Q tri-tip later in the week. Most of the week was spent in the water or on the sand just hanging out. I learned that week that the Smirnoff coolers are good, so I guess I drink now.

San Diego - We were in San Diego for Veteren's day weekend with the same crew, plus a bunch of other families from the Church. It was kind of an end of the summer bash and last hurah before the holidays consumed our lives.


And now - Christmas (oooh, fun with colors). For the first time in about 9 years, I am really getting into the Christmas spirit. I think not working for a psycho boss, and having an little extra income to lavish on others has helped. I'm finding December to be a little hectic, but this too will pass.

So that's about it. I look forward to hearing from everybody. I want to know what's going on with everybody, expecially those of you with whom I haven't been in touch with for a while. Leave me comments, or better yet, call. We'll be seeing you.

With much love and hopes for a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year,

- The Pikes