Thanksgiving Weekend

Well another Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone. This year we had the chance to celebrate Travis' 19th Birthday. Hard to believe that he's 19, again, where has the time gone.

We didn't do the normal shopping this year after Thanksgiving, this year we chose to drive over to Wyoming, (only an 1 hour 30 minute drive) and find our Christmas tree in the forest. You can stop at one of the stations and buy a permit for $10.00 and go up into Ashley National Forest and cut any tree you'd like, max is 12 foot, not a problem for us. There was about a foot or so of snow in the mountains. We finally found ours in a grove of trees at 9500 feet elevation.

After loading it on the car and took off for home, taking some scenic back roads till we finally hit I-80 just East of Evanston WY. I think a fun time was had by all. Only one little misfortune with the tree, last night, we were ready for bed and kids yelled "the tree fell over" so after a little cleaning up all was back to normal.

Trav's Birthday was uneventful, he wanted something homemade for dinner and then Frogurt afterwards. Later that evening he spent it doing College homework.

Have a great Christmas season everyone. More later.

Sue and Dan

well here it is one year later

Happy 20th Anniversary to my lovely wife!!

I love you more and more each day.

Dan

Yes, we're a little late in updating

It is October now, wow, where does the time go.

Well, Travis is doing well in College down at the U. Ali is finally back to playing volleyball for Juan Diego H.S. after a lengthy recovery from surgery on her leg in July and August and Justin is tearing up the field for the Lacrosse team.

Sue and I are now responsible for driving and picking up since Travis is staying at the U, oh how do we miss him....It makes for a long day however, in a year, it'll all be forgotten when Ali gets her license.

Sue is getting ready to attend the Nat'l Conference for Cystic Fibrosis in Minneapolis MN this week. One of her perks for working in that Department.

Qwest is going well, sales are increasing and telecom is now coming quite natural to me, it's been a year now since I've been out of Real Estate and I thank God every day for that.

One month from today, Sue and I will celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary, seems like only yesterday that we were still in College, yet we have one there now.

Until then....

Well, he's off.......

Travis is now a College Freshman, damn, where did the time go? Seems like only yesterday that he was riding the bus to Indian Prairie in Crystal Lake, now he's in his dorm room.

His new address is

Travis Meihls

Univ of Utah

810 Heritage Center

Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Send him a note if you can.

Last Sunday before school starts....

Sunday the 16th, what's happening today? Well, we're heading out to the stores for last minute shopping for Ali and Justin, they start school tomorrow. Ali will be a Freshman and Justin will be in 8th Grade. Ali is still laid up with her knee from her surgery almost 3 weeks ago. One of these days it will heal and she can "officially" try out for the Freshman volleyball team, sure hope they wait, otherwise this year will be written off. Justin should start fall Lacrosse soon, look forward to those games on Saturday's

Off to shop, send us a note sometime.

Dan

Wow, where have we been and what have we been doing

Well since the last post some 3+ months ago, we've gone through Travis graduating High School, Ali graduating 8th grade and Justin advancing out of 7th grade. Where have the years gone?

We've had my family visit us during Graduation week, my mom and dad and sister Tori and her family all came out, had a good time with them here. We've also managed a surprise visit to Chicago to walk in on Sue's brothers and sisters and also Mom/Dad, none of them knowing we were coming. It was good to spend time back in Chicago, but oh man,the traffic....

As for hikes, we've done a couple of them, pics to come later, maybe I need to find a way to update the blog from the phone with the pics on them, it'd make life a lot less hectic.

We just completed our first backpacking overnight trip. Went with our friends the Benson's and our neighbors the Rasmussen's. Went about 2.4 miles in to Notch Lake up near Bald Mountain in the Uintah's. Weather was great, expecting rain, but camping at 10,200 feet, hail was more in store. Steve woke up in his tent Sunday morning to a chill of 31 degrees, ours on the other hand was a balmy 35 degrees. Thank god for good sleeping bags.

What's in store for the next few weeks: Travis moves to the University of Utah in a week and a half, Ali is trying out for Volleyball at Juan Diego and Fall Lacrosse starts for Justin. Sue and I will continually drive and pick up :)

That's it in a nutshell, I'll try to write more on what we've been doing later and post some pics.

Dan

Ali's Confirmation

Ali's long 4 month journey to be confirmed in the Catholic Faith is now over. After many Monday nights, it's now over. Sue was the Catechist teacher for Ali's class of approx 15 kids. Sue got involved because she didn't want Ali to have to attend class on Sunday's, right in the middle of ski season so Sue volunteered to teach. I think she enjoyed it, even though it was many Monday Nights.

As you can see in the picture, Lucinda was Ali's sponsor, thanks Lucinda!!!

Overall, there were 128 kids Confirmed at St. John the Baptist Middle School, not bad where the obvious religion is not Catholic :)

Enjoy the pictures, next up, 8th Grade Graduation on the 20th of May and then Travis's H.S. graduation on the 23rd of May.

Cystic Fibrosis - GREAT STRIDES

http://www.cff.org/great_strides/SueMeihls

If this link doesn't work, please copy and paste into your browser.

I am writing to ask for your help and enlist your support. I recently signed up to participate in GREAT STRIDES: Taking Steps to Cure Cystic Fibrosis, which is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s annual, nationwide walk.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-threatening genetic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system. More than 10 million Americans are symptomless carriers of the defective CF gene. Much progress has been made toward finding a cure for CF, however, the CF Foundation’s work is far from over, as precious young lives continue to be lost to this disease.

I am currently the Clinical Nurse Coordinator for the Intermountain Cystic Fibrosis Center and care for over 200 pediatric patients with CF.

I will be walking on May 16, 2009 in Salt Lake City with a large group of people in honor of all of the individuals affected by CF. Collectively, we would like to raise as much money as possible for vital CF research. I would appreciate a donation from you if your budget allows. Your charitable contribution is 100 percent tax deductible.

Your contribution will enable the CF Foundation to take full advantage of the tremendous opportunities in CF research that are now on the horizon. The path to finding a cure for CF is paved with numerous research opportunities—any one of which could have a profound impact on the lives of those with the disease. The only thing standing in the way of a cure is additional money to fund this life-saving research. Your support allows us to give children and adults with CF the quality of life and future they deserve.

Thank you for supporting this important cause!

Best wishes

Sue Meihls, RN
Clinical Nurse Coordinator
Intermountain CF Center
Primary Children's Medical Center
100 N. Mario Cappechi Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84113

Well heeeeere's March

Soooo, what's happening in March???

Jay and Dalisa are moving to Knoxville, TN this month :( Hate to see them go, but we'll wish them well in their future work. Now maybe Jay can convince Dalisa NOW is the time to start a family - time will tell.

No one that we know of right now is visiting this month. The snow here is not great. We just haven't had a lot of it this year.

The weather is turning nicer, time to ramp up the training for Escape from Alcatraz. Time to pump up the tires on the bike and try to ride it again - time will tell on that one too. lol :)

That's about it for now.

Dan

Raucci's Visit

We had our friends out from Crystal Lake this past weekend, Eric Raucci and his 3 kids, his wife chose to stay home :( Then again, a 5 day weekend without husband and kids, hope you had a party to celebrate Terry :)

They started out the visit with a snowboarding trip to Park City, then followed that up Friday with a trip to the Canyons, then Friday Night we all met up at the U and had dinner at The Pie Pizzeria - then headed over to the Women's Gymnastics meet.

Saturday we all went to the Bird, I was working and they all Snowboarded and Skiied, no new powder but still good snow. Sunday they got up and did it again at the Bird, 4 days, 4 Snowboarding trips.

I'm guessing that they're asleep on the plane at this time now.

That's it for now.

It's Monday :(

Dan

Selfish post

Happy Birthday to me

:)

Had a great birthday with the family, went over to the Mullins for Steak and some garlic smashed potatoes, mmmmm, my favorite, wait, the brownies and ice cream were my favorite, well, all sweets are my favorite...

Next up Sue's Birthday in June. What do I have up my sleeve for this year, stay tuned.

Dan

Where did January go

It's the middle of February and we just saw Ashley at a party and she asked me when I was going to change the blog, so Ashley, here it is.

We've had a busy year so far. The Kethcart's came out right before Christmas and stayed with us for a few days. Always good to see their family. Our old neighbor came out the week before them, Wilson as he's known, his first time out this way, he moved his daughter to Cripple Creek CO and our home was on his way home ;) Not really, but it's the closest he said he'd get so it was a detour over this way.

Our Niece and her husband, Ashley and Darin came out for their 1st year anniversary a week or so ago, their first trip to UT also, their one goal was met when they saw a moose, actually they saw 3 different moose during their stay. We all hiked over to Firth Water Hot Springs down in Spanish Fork, it was an 4 mile hike from where the road ended down to the Trail Head and then 2.5 miles up to the Hot Springs where our 14 y/o was shocked with the nakedness of the men in the pools up the mtn. Needless to say they had a good time. Sue and I stayed down at the trailhead due to Sue starting her new job the next day and not wanting to be too tired for her 1st day there, more on that later. We hope Ashley and Darin enjoyed their trip out to UT, we enjoyed having them.

Sue started her new job a couple of weeks, ago, she's now the Clinical Nurse Coordinator at the Cystic Fibrosis Clinic at Primary Children Med. Center, she's still considered an employee of the University of Utah, so Travis will hopefully use those benefits this fall.

My job at Qwest is going great, my other job at the Bird is going great too, I like the new change in my position up there from Parking to Ski Check, my 3rd job at REI is going well too - too many times I come home with merchandise that people have returned and we can re-sell, however lots of times we buy it before it goes back out on the floor, a nice perk being in frontline.

Our old neighbors the Raucci's are coming out this coming Thursday for 5 days, he's bringing his 3 kids this time, leaving his wife at home. 4 days of Boarding is what they have in store, hope they have a good time.

That's about it for now.

Sue and Dan