2010 Holiday Festivities

We had an extra special Christmas this year. My parents (Jim and Linda), Grandma Martha, brother John, his girlfriend Kylin and her two boys (16 and 11), sister Erin and her partner Kriste, and sister Erika all joined us. There were 15 in all at the Van Luven home this year...plus Erin's dog Ginsberg and our dog Rocky. Surprisingly, everything went smoothly! It was so nice to have our entire family under one roof for Christmas. It was the best Christmas ever!!!

We skied/boarded, hung out, played ping pong and board games, watched TV, walked around town, and even went dancing at a local club. What a hoot that was!

My brother and his girlfriend and two boys stayed through New Year's. The grown-ups went to the Turnland's home for NYE. The theme was "James Bond - Shaken Not Stirred". Lots of fun!

Hope you enjoy all the pics below. :)















Kriste is on the left, Erika in pink pants, me in blue and my dad on the right.
































On the left are Trey (Kylin's youngest), Turner, Emily and Bryce (Kylin's oldest).















Trey and Turner.













































The black dog is Erin's dog "Guinsberg."
















Kylin and John.















Chase and Bryce (Kylin's son).















Tim, Kriste, Kylin and John.















My dad and grandma.















My youngest sister, Erika.















Emily















Turner




















My sister, Erin.















Kylin and Trey.















Chase and Bryce.















Chase and I.














Erin and Erika.















Trey















Rocky getting his Christmas bone.















Emily















My sister, Erin.















Tim and I.















Grandma Martha, Erika and Erin. In the mirror are my mom and Kriste.















Martha and Emily.















Emily and my mom.















Chase, Martha and Emily.


Tim and I.


Emily and I.


Half the family at Christmas dinner. The other half is at the other end of the table.



John and Kylin.


Below are photos taken at "No Name Saloon" in down town Park City. It is a very nostalgic place we always take guests to. We had a fantastic time, followed by dancing at "The Downstairs".


























The above shot was taken after dancing at The Downstairs. We all dog piled in the snow on Main Street.















The above shot was taken on Main Street in downtown Park City. Pictured are my dad, mom, me, Kylin and John.





These last photos were taken at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake. It was stunning! I wish I could have appropriately captured the beauty of it.

Turner Update

Last, but certainly not least, is the latest update on Turner, who had a very difficult transition to Utah.

I'm happy to report that Turner is doing AMAZING!!! It took a few months of tears, anger and anxiety; but he is now well-integrated into PC life and would not even want to move back. He does miss his AZ buddies; but has made many wonderful friends here, as well.

I'm also ecstatic to report that he is enjoying school for the first time in his life! He's in middle school this year and really enjoys going from class to class. In PC, the kids have “8” classes – 4 one day and 4 the next (alternating days). Both kids really like the alternating schedule. Turner also has a longer lunch than what he’s used to, which gives him more time to eat and hang out with his friends. Another big “win” for Turner is that all 6th grade students are presented with an Apple laptop computer that will remain with them for the next three years. He’s pretty stoked about that. We had to reign him in on usage, as he was obsessed with it...and not for school purposes, if you know what I mean. '-)

Turner has been playing soccer on a club team and has had a couple of tournaments. Regular season started in Sept; but he’s on the practice team and didn't participate in regular season games. There was only one open spot that another club kid got; so hopefully he’ll make it next year. He gets to practice with them, though, and participate in some tournaments. It’s actually kind of nice for us, as we have less to do. ‘-) He may opt for football next year, though...we'll see.

Now, we're all gearing up for ski season! The weather has been absolutely amazing here; but snow is eminent. November will likely be spotty and we'll have little to do outdoors. But, come December, we'll be on the slopes again...yippee!!! :)

P.S. Turner finally got his hair cut!

See pictures below...
1. Soccer team
2. Turner and best bud David (lives w/in walking distance
3. Turner and Eugene (neighbor who is a grade ahead)
4. Zack (neighbor and 1st friend), Liam and Turner
Note that Zack and Liam have older sisters who are Emily's age. We all live in Jeremy Ranch and are becoming great friends! :)

Emily Update

Em is doing fantastic! She has many wonderful friends and has integrated very well here. She has much more opportunity to “hang out” here than in AZ. With the high crime in AZ, I was very leery about letting her go places with friends. It is very different here, though. She’s been to concerts, walked all over around town, taken the free bus system, hung out at various parks/schools and has pretty much free reign to do just about anything…as long as it’s legal. ‘-)

She started lacrosse a few weeks ago for PC High. She’s never played before; but is enjoying it and adapting quickly with her soccer background. I can’t believe this is the first time in 10 years she hasn’t played soccer. She really wanted to something new, and is enjoying the process.

She is also in “Improv Club” and “Young Life.” Yet, she still makes time for dog sitting and babysitting. She made a lot of money over the summer…which funded her activities. Yeah!

She has a pretty tough workload in school this year, though. She’s taking AP Geography, Honors Biology and TWO math classes (Geometry and Algebra 2). She gave up an elective to take two math classes to free up a class in her senior year, so she can take a college class instead. We’re “trying” it out this semester to see how she can handle honors/AP classes. She’s struggling in Spanish, of all things. Funny.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos of Emily and her friends below. It's been difficult to get pictures of the "guys"...even the girls are a challenge.

1. Flanders, Gwen, Emily and Emma

2. Chelsey, Gwen, Emily, Clair and Flanders

3. Melissa and Emily

4. Emily and Claire

5. Melissa, Emily and Gwen

6. Emily and Maddie (neighbor and first friend)

Wine Tasting Party

Had our first wine tasting party here in Park City. What fun!!! We had 12 couples tasting and a neighbor drop by to join the festivities. Below are all the photos we took.

Home Upgrades

Many of you know we've encountered some issues with our new home and have had to fund several projects since we moved in. This summer, Tim and I have been busy with home improvements. We still have some winterization things to do, like heat tape and rain gutters for the roof; but all of our other projects are complete as follows:

• Resurfaced our deck
  
• Painted Em's room, Turner's room and the family room...I’m SO sick of painting!
  
• Installed a new back door and frame (was wood-rotted)
  
• Installed new flooring. Now we don't have to walk on particle board anymore!
  
• Re-landscaped the front yard so that we could more easily fit our trailer on the side of our house and removed quite a bit of grass for more ease of care taking.
  

But, we're not done for good. Next summer we have some more painting to do, a little more landscaping, re-carpeting, re-finishing stairs and, if we're lucky, re-flooring the upstairs. Oh, and we need a new fridge...hopefully it'll last another year. Ugh! But, we'll have a beautiful home ready for re-sale when we're done...not that we're going anywhere anytime soon. You'd have to drag us away kicking and screaming at this point. '-)

Below are several photos.

1. Our entry way (looking from the living room) with the stairs the left, front door to the right and office straight ahead. The wood flooring up to my office was refinished and we added wood to the office.
2. The hall, looking from the nook toward the front door, with a pantry on the left and living and formal dining on the right.
3. Looking at the entry way from my office into the living room. Note a bathroom is just to the left of my office.
4. If you look out my office to the right, this is the hallway you see. This view is looking from the family room toward the obvious bathroom, just outside my office. The hall flooring was refinished, while the flooring in the family room is new.
5. Looking from the hall into the family room area. You can see the new door we had put in.
6. Family room with new flooring and paint.
7. Another view of family room.
8. Looking from the family room into the nook and kitchen...yeah, it's small. Remarkably, though, we have more storage area than we did in our old house. There's just not much room to move around with more than one person in the kitchen at a time.

End of Summer Update

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog. We have been busy with this, that and the other…you know how it is. So, instead of writing one blog, I’m going to write several in succession. This way you can choose what sections you want to read. I’ll start this one with the general goings on in the Van Luven household.

We are fully integrated in PC now. All of us have friends to hang out with and feel very comfortable here. Everyone (including Turner) is very happy we moved here. It’s like a new beginning for all of us…more like an “awakening.” We just feel so blessed to have had everything fall into place so nicely.

Kids started school August 23^rd and things have settled back to normal. Both kids are really enjoying school. (More on this later.)

We’ve been focusing much of our extra time on preparing for winter. In purchasing a 15-year-old home, we have a long list of things to accomplish. Happy to say, though, that the list is dwindling.

Most recently, we re-landscaped part of our front yard, had a three-panel sliding back door installed, re-finished our deck, painted Em’s room, TJ’s room and the family room and are just finishing our flooring on the main level. We’ve been living on particle board in our family room because the carpet was pretty bad when we moved in. So, we pulled it out. We are having hard wood installed in the family room, informal dining room and my office. We are also having our existing wood flooring re-finished so that it will match our new flooring. It has been an arduous process; but will be worth it once it’s done. I have to say, though, I don’t ever want to do this again!

I’ll post pics of our remodeling adventure in another blog post.