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Dear Family & Friends,
If you missed a year-end letter from the Garbers last year, it isn’t because we had nothing to say. Quite the contrary, there was so much to say that we had no time to say it. So, this year we will attempt to make amends and catch you all up (on 2007 at least - I'm still working on a 2006 web site).
January 2007
• Adrian and Nathaniel started skiing. Adrian lost her first tooth - not related events.
Adrian Skiing
Nathaniel Skiing
David, Adrian, Nathaniel & Judy
Adrian less her first tooth
Japanese Garden in the Snow
Our House in the Snow
Our Mythical-Garage in Snow
Steve's vision of the mythical garage
Nathaniel, Steve & our Big Rock
February 2007
• Even with Tax Season getting into full swing, Steve, as Chair of the Japanese Garden Advisory Council, took time to MC the garden’s Opening Ceremonies and to begin planning the garden’s new entry gate.
Japanese Garden Opening Ceremony
Olympic Sculpure Park
Adrian, Nathaniel & Peggy
at the Olypic Sculpture Park
March 2007
• Adrian and I sewed a princess dress for her 6th birthday. Then Nathaniel helped sew a prince outfit.
Adrian & Peggy sewing
priness birthday dress
2 Princesses
Princess Adrian + Prince Nathaniel
Grandma C & Owen on the train
Hugs for Great Grandma C
Owen and his building blocks -
A building designer like his Dad
Owen on his 2 wheel bike
Owen on his backyard slide
Owen climbs the neighbor's tree
April 2007
• After Tax Season was over, we were able to spend more time with the Grandkids and even take a leisurely walk through the spring flowers in the Arboretum and the Japanese Garden.
• After a 15 month process to obtain a variance, draw up and submit plans, our mythical garage/deck project won final approval from the Seattle Department of Planning and Development and is fully permitted. Now, if only we could find a contractor to build the darn thing.
Japanese Garden in Spring
Nathaniel on his 2 wheel bike
Steve & Peggy with
Adrian & Nathaniel
David & Judy with
Adrian & Nathaniel
Owen on Cross Country Skis
Dave & Owen on their tandom bike
Owen & Dave Skiing
May 2007 • Steve & I got away for a week together visiting friends on the sunny island of Kauai in Hawaii.
Steve & Peggy at
Waimea Canyon Lookout
Kilauea Light House
National Tropical Botanical Garden
Menehune Bluffs, Huleia Stream
and Alakaoko Menehune Fishpond
Lydgate State Park
Playgound - Steve
Lydgate State Park
Playground - Peggy
Lydgate State Park Beach - Steve
Lydgate State Park Beach - Peggy
Tropical Peggy
• We also took Adrian and Nathaniel to the annual Children’s Day festivities at the Japanese Garden.
Children's Day at the Japanese Garden
Adrian, Nathaniel & Steve at the Wisteria
Steve & Nathaniel on ZigZag Bridge
Nathaniel, Adrian & Steve at Tea Ceremony
Adrian tries a Japanese instrument
Nathaniel flies his Japanese kite
Adrian makes an origami box
June 2007
• Steve and I enjoyed one of many lunches at our favorite restaurant, the B&O Espresso, with some of our favorite people.
Lunch at the B&O Espresso
Owen rafting with Dad Dave
Laurie giving Owen a cooler bath
Owen communing with nature
Wheat fields & Reardan WA
Reardan Mule Days Parade
Reardan Class of 1962 Reunion
• I joined my teacher friends on Vashon for another fun summer weekend of sewing.
July 2007
• The annual Cheeseman Summer trip took us to Mt. Hood this year, where my brother Don rented a large house near Rhododendron, Oregon for 3 days. We hiked along the Sandy River, soaked in the hot tub, and had a yummy lunch at Timberline Lodge on the mountain. The crystal clear sunny days made the mountain views spectacular.
Mt Hood across a poppy field
Capstone Log Lodge
A hike to Sandy River
Steve & Peggy at Sandy River
A soak in the hot tub
Mt Hood from Timberline Lodge
Grandma C & Laurie's family
Peggy, Mom/Grandma C & Don
Owen, Adrian & Nathaniel
The whole group at the Mt Hood weekend
• Niece Kamala visited David & Judy with her 2 small boys. Niece Erica, Kevin & their little Andrew joined us, too. Then Laurie & Owen came up for a birthday celebration. That's a lot of little boys!
Kamala with 3 boys
3 boys & water balloons
Erica, Andrew & Kevin join the fun
3 boys in a tub
3 Boys & Adrian watch movies on TV
Laurie & Owen celebrate birthdays
Gravel arrives for garden drainage
Adrian & Steve prepare the ground
Steve & David build a garden wall
Owen helps David finish a wall corner
Nathaniel & Adrian shovel in the dirt
All 3 Grandkids stomp
& tamp the dirt firm
Nathaniel & Adrian pick out plants
Nathaniel pushes the plant cart
Adrian & Steve load the car
Adrian & Nathaniel help plant the plants
Nathaniel digging a plant hole
Adrian & the planted garden
• This year’s Seattle Chamber Music summer concert series heard theperformance of its first commissioned work: a trio for piano, violin and clarinet. It was stunningly beautiful! Steve is proud to have had a role in making the Commissioning Club happen and is very pleased with the results. We look forward to more commissioned works in the future.
August 2007
• Steve & I took Owen to the Seattle Aquarium and saw a really cool octopus up close & personal.
Owen & Steve at the
Aquarium Fish Wall
Owen & Peggy watch the
octopus crawl through a glass tube
Owen caught in
octopus legs!
Steve & Owen at the
Aquarium Fish Dome
Yumi & family arrive
Owen & Keitaro
on the playground teeter totter
Owen & Keitaro
climbing at the playground
Stepping Stones
at the Japanese Garden
Puddle Jumping
Ground Rolling
at the Japanese Garden
The ZigZag Bridge
at the Japanese Garden
A group pose
at the Japanese Garden
Tired Boys
after the Japanese Garden
Yumi makes banana bread too!
Boys in a Box
Boys on a computer
Boys and Trains
Boys & Legos
Dinner with chop sticks
Owen in the cockpit
at the Museum of Flight
Owen & Keitaro in the cockpit
at the Museum of Flight
Keitaro in the cockpit
at the Museum of Flight
Masaru, Keitaro & David
at Microsoft
Laurie & Yumi with boys
in Bellevue
Boys & Legos
in Belleuve
5 Kids in a Fort
in Bellevue
Yumi & kids
in Belleuve
Boys & Basketball
in Bellevue
At Grandma C's House
OnGrandma C's Beach
Swimming at Grandma C's
Mariner's Safeco Field Tour
Keitaro in Safeco Field Stands
Masaru & Keitaro on Safeco Field
• An architect’s model of the Japanese Garden Gatehouse Project was presented to the public at the annual Moon Viewing Ceremony. Now the $1,250,000 fundraising began in earnest. (At year end, they’ve got only about $40,000 still to raise.)
Watch the Gatehouse Project Presentation on www.Garbers.com.
This is a very large file made in PowerPoint. It takes a long time to load,
but it’s worth the wait. Adrian, Nathaniel and Owen appear in several of the photos.
Plus, the scenes of the Japanese Garden are beautiful.
Gatehouse Village Model
Evil Troll under the Bridge
(Click here to see more Photos)
September 2007 • Adrian started 1st grade, already reading chapter books. Nathaniel split his time between 2 different preschools. Judy began the school year as one of 2 new PTA Vice Presidents.
• I helped David, Judy & friends put on a Kids’ Puzzle Hunt afternoon at my Mom’s house. The back story was that some Little People needed the children's help to cross a bridge guarded by an evil troll. The kids had to solve puzzles for clues to find treasures to help the Little People. It was a fun day and a great success for all! Click here for more photos.
• Then I was off to Vashon for my annual Sewing Retreat. This year, I taught a class on making a classic Chanel jacket, complete with braid trim and that chic little chain weight at the hem.
• Steve had a bad month – in and out of the hospital 3 times. (He’s all better now.)
October 2007
• With Steve’s health restored, we headed to our Sierra Leone Peace Corps group’s 40th Reunion at Hood River, Oregon. What an incredible group of can-do people! The Reunion included a wintery visit to Timberline with lunch and a tour of the lodge. We couldn't even see the mountain. See more about this group at http://groups.google.com/group/pc-slcd-1967 - go to the Pages link to see more photos.
Timberline Lodge in October Snow
and Fog
Peace Corps group tour of the l
Timberline Lodge
Group Photo, including spouses, children & some concurrent Teacher volunteers
(There will be more photos on our web site, as soon as I can get them organized, but these links will give you some idea of the trip.)
On the Amazon Queen
in the Andes at Machu Picchu
Galapagos - Blue Footed Booby Dance
My first catch - leaves
My successful catch - 1 piranha
Peggy glowing in a south American sunset
November 2007
• Returning from South America in mid November, Steve barely had time to help Adrian & Nathaniel plant bulbs in their new garden before winter set in,
Adrian planting bulbs
Adrian & Nathaniel planting bulbs
Nathaniel planting bulbs
A game of Chutes & Ladders
A game of Master Mind - Advanced!
Carving the Turkey with hungry on-lookers
Another trip to the Seattle Aquarium
with Adrian & Nathaniel's Grandma Jan,
and Owen & his family.
Riding the Whale Tail at the Aquarium
Buying fresh salmon at the
Pike Place Market Flying Fish stand
(They love it when someone actually buys!)
Gifts from South America:
Monkey Island Tshirts
and a Peruivan doll
Nathaniel got Adrian's old bed
with the fun slide.
Adrian & Owen on her new bed
December 2007 • Not wanting to get stuck in the mud (literally), we took off in early December for a Seattle Chamber Music Society tour of musical history and concert events in Budapest, Vienna, and Prague –
Buda Hill Castle - Budapest
Schronbrunn Place - Vienna
Opera House - Vienna
Melk Monastery - Austria
Peggy & Steve at Chesky Krumlov
Castle & Charles Bridge - Prague
Nathaniel & Santa
Adrian & Santa
Owen disucesses his List with Santa
And speaking of the Holidays, we hope yours are and have been bright and cheerful, unlike the Washington weather! Please look on our website at www.Garbers.com for photos to accompany each of the brief stories above and below, and even a few more.
Our very best wishes to you and yours, Peggy & Steve
Steve still has too much CPA work to suit him (he’s not complaining, just commenting), but he manages to escape every now & then for decidedly different adventures.
I will never get caught up on all my sewing, photo, web and DVD projects.
Laurie is in her 10th year as a public interest lawyer. Her husband Dave moved his architecture business out of their house into a new, modern, light and airy office space. They celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary Aug 10, 2007 and Owen will have a baby sister come the end of January 2008. He says he’ll have to get used to the idea.
David continues at Microsoft, working on the Office program, OneNote. Judy still works hard on the board of the Washington ACLU and in coordinating all the activities of 2 energetic children. They celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary Nov 8, 2007
My Mom and my brother Don are getting along well sharing the big house together in Bellevue. In 2006, Don helped with the complete remodel of the kitchen & dining rooms. This fall, he is pushing out the 2 lake facing, upstairs bedrooms, giving each of them 1/3 more living space. A year ago, Mom sold her parent’s house on the upper portion of her 1 acre property to the family who had been renting it from her. Now they are completely remodeling it, inside & out, and renting Mom’s basement during all the construction. Mom is looking forward to another working Tax Season, but first I need to upgrade her computer. That’s how she stays so young at 87!
( January February March April May June July August September October November December PS )
