Rather than a lengthy list of the year’s events, we’ll just count down the highlights starting with six…
SIX Family Happenings. Our year was full of family excitement. We –
- Enjoyed daughter Brooke’s articles in the Charleston, IL and Mattoon IL newspapers.
- Relaxed at the Reade/Johnson reunion on the Buffalo River in Arkansas.
- Enjoyed son Ben’s enthusiasm over transferring to Illinois State University.
- Attended the beautiful wedding of Allison and Ed (Annette’s sister and new brother-in-law) in Tucson over Labor Day.
- Congratulated Arrion and Ben (Annette’s sister and brother-in-law) on the announcement of May 18, 2004 as the due date for their first baby.
- Welcomed son Blake back from a year studying in Germany and attended his college graduation (Dec 2003) from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois.
FIVE New Courses. Annette has been teaching online for IUPUI for a year, and Larry will be teaching courses starting in January 2004 — so we spent most of the year in front of our computers developing and supervising five, new online university courses. FOUR Travel Highlights. We really enjoyed our wintering spot in southern Utah near Zion National Park. We started the year in Utah and ended in Utah, but during the year we flew over or drove through dozens of states. Here are our top four events:
- Hiked in a remote, beautiful wilderness area on the Utah/Arizona border called “The Wave.”
- Were stranded on Highway 50 “the loneliest highway in America” when our alternator went out shutting off the electronic transmission on HarveyRV.
- Caught in a foot of snow at Easter near Reno on the California/Nevada border.
- Explored the states of Washington, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
THREE New Technologies. Although we don’t have much room in our motorhome, we still like our technology tools. Our three favorites for 2003 include:
- Enjoyed the SLR digital camera from last Christmas by taking zillions of photos.
- Welcomed a new “baby” to our motorhome, a high-speed satellite dish for Internet called F3 weighing 175 pounds and 1.2 meters wide.
- Discovered the joys of Bose headphones, MP3 music, and Internet radio.
TWO Holiday Gatherings. We arrived at our cabin in Hollister, Missouri for Thanksgiving. This month we’ll be traveling to Illinois and Texas to spend the holidays with both sides of our family.
ONE Wish. Finally, we just have one wish. Have a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season!
Annette & Larry