Summer? What summer? Not to mention Fall...

Wow. It can't already be Jan '09. But it is. Ok, so we're slackers when it comes to keeping up our blog. Thought about making a New Year's resolution to do better, but who's that gonna fool (what's your last New Year's resolution that made it past Valentines Day)?

Options? One mega-long post. Odds of anyone reading through that: 'bout zero. Real quick update with links to others' blogs who have done better at keeping up. Sounds like the better option. So, here we go...

Important stuff first. Jake: We may be completely biased, first-time grandparents and all, but I defy you to find a cuter kid (until next May when Nathan and Jessica have their first baby--then he'll have some competition).

We got to see Jake several times after he was born.

Kristie came with Jake and visited us in August (more here), and then we made a trek out to Utah over Thanksgiving week.

And by "trek," I mean we drove out and back. No, we're not nuts (well, at least not based on driving out to Utah); we'd been having a pretty hard year with David and weren't really sure if we could leave him or not. So, rather than book flights (which were outrageously expensive that week), we opted to drive--straight through--in case we needed to change plans at the last minute. As it turned out, thanks to great friends who watched David for us and urged us to go, we made the trip out and back with no problem.

Finally, Wes, Kristie, and Jake conspired with me to surprise Sabine and come out for Christmas, arriving just in time for Christmas Eve. And she was surprised (nothing quite so great as a real good surprise). Check out the video here.

During the summer months, we made a trip to Germany (along with Nathan and Jessica) while Sydney stayed home and wrestled with David (aka, Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde--picture at left is Dr. Jekyl). For more details of her adventures, go here.

Of course we visited lots of family and friends, but the best part of the trip? No speed limit and our sporty rental car (hey, Sabine may disagree, but I'm posting this entry).

There was also some fun and excitement that had to do with riding horses, but that's a whole separate blog entry. Suffice it to say, Sabine rode like Calamity Jane but now isn't sure if she'll ever ride again (had something to do with all the physical therapy that followed).

For more details than I care to recount about our Germany trip, check out Jessica's extensive trip-log here.

So, that's about it for now. Stay tuned for more--frequent--updates and hope you all had a great holiday and the best of everything in the coming year!