Merry Christmas 2011
Dear Friends and Family,
This year has come and gone so quickly! We’re happy for this seasonal opportunity to touch base with you all and see how you’re doing. We truly hope that you’ll write, call or drop by. We’d love to have a personal visit with each of you. Below is a quick review of what our year has been like as well as a little bit about our family.
In February, we took a quick break from teaching in China to come home to Utah to join in the “Welcome Robyn” celebrations. Joe and Heather had their third girl, our ninth grandchild. Robyn Suzanne Alexander was born on February 9th. She is the sweetest baby ever! Grace, age 6 and Jane, age 4 are good with their new sister. Grace is very smart, and enjoys first grade, and Jane really likes her pre-school classes. Heather is a wonderful mother and Joe still works at Rio Tinto and is doing well.
On July 5th, we returned to Utah after teaching English at a fine university in China during the 2010/2011 school year. We had this amazing opportunity through sponsorship by BYU. It was a great experience, and we’re thinking about going back to do another year sometime in the future. We learned to love our students, and we really enjoyed the time we spent in China.
Near the end of July we decided to join Andrea (our oldest) and her family in Bandon, Oregon for a few days in a nice beach house. The weather was great and we had a wonderful opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with our Tanner granddaughters, Zoe, Taytem and Rylee. We had fun watching them find star fish, chase seagulls and help their dad build sand castles. From there, we took a trip down through the Redwoods of northern California and spent a few days visiting San Francisco as well. We truly enjoyed being back in the good ole USA.
Some of our other adventures this fall have been an ATV/fishing adventure with Joe and Heather in the Uinta Mountains of Utah, a week-long trip to Lake Powell (southern Utah) with neighbor friends, a Park City/Heber City golf/shopping weekend with friends from Saudi Arabia and several get-togethers with our siblings and their families.
We (Dave) have had a few health issues this year. While in China, Dave had a kidney stone attack while at school….not a fun experience! The stone didn’t pass but he was able to endure the experience until we returned home in January when he had a lithotripsy procedure done to remove it. Later in the spring (in China), he developed a hernia. The surgical repair was done in September after we returned to Utah. Medical care was quite good and inexpensive in China but we were more comfortable having these things done on our home turf. We are starting to see more signs of old age as we get along in years. This is our last year in the 50’s!
Since being home, Dave has enjoyed getting back into golf and he has also taken up a couple of new hobbies in fly fishing and tying his own flies. It has been a lot of fun! Sue has picked up quilting again, and both of us want to work on family history a little more.
One recent, sad occurrence was the passing of Dave’s brother Jack, on Oct. 20th. He was 21 years older than Dave and had fairly advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Dave spoke at his funeral in California. It was nice to see many members of the family that we haven’t seen for some time. Jack will be missed!
We recently took a trip up to Boise to see Andrea and Ryck (out daughter and her husband) and our three granddaughters that we don’t get to see as often as we would like. They are all doing well and the girls are all in school full time (2nd and 3rd grades). Ryck recently changed jobs, going to work for Simplot; an Idaho based global food and agri-business conglomerate. It is one of the largest privately held companies in the world. It looks like a good opportunity for him.
Julie & Jeff keep busy with their three. Leah is eight, William is six and Stanley is four. They’re smart, happy children and we enjoy seeing them quite often as they also live in American Fork not too far from us so we see them often. Jeff’s motorcycle business (Black Ball) is growing and doing better every year. Julie is learning about foot-zoneology, and ways to keep her family healthy.
We want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season. We’re grateful for our understanding of Jesus’ role in our lives and his eternal gifts to us. It gives deeper meaning to our celebrations this time of year. We hope that you enjoy a Very Merry Christmas! We care for you and are always excited to hear from you or see you when it’s possible. If for some odd reason you want to get more information on our “goings on”, check out our blog at http://www.blogger.com
Our contact information:
Sue: cell – 801-960-0301 sueralexander@yahoo.com
Dave: cell – 801-960-0300 alexandw@gmail.com
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