The Year That Was

We are traveling this Christmas season, clocking in more than 68 hours total drive time…. speeding down to Cincinnati, then to St. Louis. After Christmas we head down south to Beaumont, TX and Houston, then on our way back a short stop in Tulsa, again in St. Louis to rest up a bit before we return to Cincinnati, where Bong has a couple of meetings to attend before we make the trek back home to NEPA.

Thought I’d do a blog this year instead of trying to create a whole website from scratch — parenthood, homeschooling and the whole holiday season thing kept me from this task… okay, I’ll admit it: too lazy to do anything this year but blog.

Got a few pics here to illustrate how 2004 unfolded for us, but forgot to pack the firewire so the rest of the pics will be uploaded sometime next year. In March Bong and Paco earned their black belts, after 2 years of hard work. Bong now does a bit of teaching at the Tang Soo School they attend. He and Paco judge at testing sometimes.

Aisa turned 13 this year and started competing. She also quit gymnastics this year, fed up with repeated problems with her knees. The good news is she’s found a different avenue for her energies, and joined Daddy, Paco and Migi in September to learn Tang Soo. She got her orange belt the same day Migi got his red. Mom joins them in January.

We finally bought a house here in April after deciding to stay in PA for 3-6 more years (or permanently; we shall see). We partied the summer away and finally sold our house in Cincinnati in November.

Stef got obsessed with the garden and now tradesregularly at GardenWeb. If you’re planning your garden for next year, some favorite seed and plant sources are Fedco, Specialty Perennials, J.L. Hudson, Swallowtail Garden Seeds, Raintree Nursery (fruit trees), Bluestone Perennials, Brent and Becky’s Bulbs, Forest Farm, and Vegetable Seed Warehouse.

Paco turned 8 in June . He continues to devour books. Recent favorites include the Walter Farley books. He also has an ongoing love affair with the Narnian series and rereads them regularly.

In August we went to Niagara Falls and Toronto to visit family and

We also went on our first family camping trip on Labor Day weekend

with a whole bunch of people

[This trip was organized by Dad’s best friend from high school (Thanks, Tito Bogie).]

Migi earned his red belt shortly before we left. Here he is sporting his orange belt back in March:

ps it’s not Buy Spam, it’s BYSPAM (Bong-Yena-Stef-Paco-Aisa-Migi).