New addition to the Child Citrus Garden
Well, here we are again. It’s that time of year. No one will know if you read all of this, or just a few words, and skim through the pictures. Isn’t it great to be out of school? No tests on this one.
2014 has been a year of great events and transitions for the Child Family. Here are the highlights.
1. We finished remodeling our new house and moved in! (5079 Hunter Valley Lane, Westlake Village, CA 91362) The house was very colorful when we bought it. It is not very colorful now (except the rugs). We all feel the remodel was a great success. Although it was a time-consuming project, with its requisite share of aggravation, Diane killed no one on the design/construction team. We are now enjoying fresh tangerines from the backyard, and trying to figure out the control systems on a very complicated house. How did we get so blessed? We feel the gratitude every day. These are the two best things about the new house:
Laundry Room Tile
View from the front of the new house.
2. Kids:
Daniel and Claire moved to Philadelphia, PA from Iowa City, IA. Daniel transferred to the University of Pennsylvania with his doctoral advisor, to work on his PhD in Genetics, and finish his MD in Pathology. Claire landed a great job as a physical therapist. They love living on the east coast again, and have a cute house with a great yard for the grand-dog, Freya.
Aaron is living in Utah at the Provo home (which has not sold yet). He has taken EPIC rock-climbing trips this year to Alaska (water plane included) and the Yukon (very long drive). He is getting his music composing business off the ground, so if any of you need a family theme song, a toddler jingle, a wake-up riff, or a movie trailer, please contact him for immediate assistance.
Here is a link to some of his work on YouTube. We really like it. We are not biased.
You can read an article he wrote for Alpinist about a climbing trip here:
http://alpinist.com/doc/web14x/newswire-idiot-peak-huntington-rabbit-hole
Amelia spent most of the year working full time as an assistant horse trainer, completing many online classes from the University of Utah, and having a great social life. In August, she returned to Salt Lake City to finish off her undergraduate degree. She misses the horses, but we can’t complain about her choice. She is taking 19 credit hours, still has a great social life, great roommates, and thinks she has too much time on her hands since her schedule doesn’t include full-time work & riding her horses. She does have Beckett with her, the other grand-dog. So she isn’t all alone.
Jacob worked hard all year and in June, he graduated from High School!
He spent the summer at the Rhode Island School of Design taking college painting classes. He then left for Baltimore, where he continues his art school experience at Maryland Institute College of Art. He has a great roommate and many friends, and loves art school. He lives to paint, and paints to live. It is just the right place for him.
Grandpa’s Boots
3. Big Kids:
David and Diane have entered their second “Child”-hood. They are now empty nesters until December 13th.
David continues serving as the Bishop of the Westlake Village Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition to his work, he juggles running, road biking, and Pilates. He has been a faithful customer of the farmer’s market in Calabasas and brings home the most wonderful fruit, veggies, fish, eggs, cookies, flowers…. We transformed the living room in the new house into his office and he loves working from home.
Diane loves riding her horses (and Amelia’s horse Remi while she is in Utah). She wishes the horses were a little less prone to self-destructive behaviors, and has further learned the meaning of the phrase “Horses are a black hole for time and money.” She retired her 18-year-old Grand Prix horse Madore this year, and he is happily following a pony around the hills of a ranch in Somis near here. The others are in various stages of recovery from self-inflicted injuries. But next year will be healthier. Did you know that you can get MRIs for horses? The vets can stick horsey legs and necks/heads into a human MRI machine. Diane loves directing the choir and continues to play violin and piano (this was a good year for discovering and Beethoven piano works), neither of which she likes to play in public. But she does play the violin for church every once in a while. Her fingers on the left hand are finally healed up enough to fiddle around (badly cut finger in 2013; broken pinky finger in 2014). Talk about self-destructive…. She loves to hike the hills around Westlake Village, adopt random pseudo-grandchildren in the Ward, and walk around the house in wondering awe.
4. Commentary on 4 Seasons in Southern California: Vivaldi would agree with me
Despite the belief of many non-Southern Californians, there are 4 seasons here. Diane has been documenting signs of these 4 seasons in Westlake Village in 2014. Winter occurred between January 6-13, 2014 (frost on windshield and frozen irrigation water on the sidewalk). Spring occurred between January 14 (blossoms out on trees) and lasted until about June 5th. Summer stayed with us until last week. Fall has been overlapping with Summer since mid-October. We have brilliantly colored leaves in the new neighborhood. We have actually had rain this week, but no snow is forecast (obviously and happily). So she is enjoying the 4 seasons with the rest of you. She just doesn’t have to pretend to like 20 degree weather.
And, you might be Pinterested to know that Diane put up her pre-lit, pre-coned Christmas tree in a record 17 minutes from box to timer. Ornaments are highly overrated. The Christmas Tree skirt is red. From Target.
From our Family to you and yours, best wishes for a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years, and 2015.
Christmas All Year 