Happy Holidays 2022

Dear Family and Friends,

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We rejoice in the birth of our Savior and know that He loves every single one of us.  We hope that this letter finds you happy and well. Our 2022 was filled to the brim with many blessings and new adventures.  We are excited to see what 2023 will bring.  Here is an update on each member of our family and some of our highlights of the year:

SAM continues his career as a Engineering Technician at Juniper Systems.  He has the best work ethic and we truly appreciate the fine example he sets for our family.  Sam serves as the Ward Librarian at church.  During Memorial Day weekend, we all squeezed into our minivan for our family vacation.  We ate dinner at our favorite Rexburg sandwich shop, Millhollow.  Our first night was spent in a giant suite at the Hampton Inn.  Sam drove us all to Yellowstone National Park.  We braved two days in the torrential rain and explored as much of the park as we could.  Sam, Brian and Tyler enjoyed hiking the Red Pine Lake Trail with Sam's dad, brothers, and some older cousins.  Thanks to endless patience, YouTube, and several trips to the auto parts store, Sam has successfully repaired a couple car issues.

LISA turned the big 4-0 in April.  She found the perfect house (a couple blocks away) for her newly retired parents to move to.  After living across the country for almost 20 years, our family is thrilled to play games, go on adventures, attend church with Lisa's parents.  At church, Lisa actually really enjoys serving as a Nursery leader.  There has been 15+ toddlers in Nursery several times and luckily there are two other women that serve with her.  Lisa and her friend, Polly Arey, took on the huge task of planning, purchasing, and preparing a week's worth of meals for 30 people at Girls Camp.  It was quite the undertaking but they did it (and were highly praised for the tasty food).  However, her biggest feat was creating the Lisa Kay Studios Shop.  She set up her vendor booth 8 times this year! She also took over a huge kitchen classroom and taught women handlettering and chalk art.  Her dream came true of sharing her artwork with her community and becoming a paid artist!  

BRIAN (17) high school senior, accepted and has a scholarship to attend Utah Tech University in St. George, Utah in Fall of 2023, worked and lived at LaBeau's in Bear Lake (his first summer job just 1 hour from home), bought himself a custom Framework laptop that he's proud to bring to school.

TYLER (15) high school freshman, made the Varsity Cross Country Team, helped lead his team to win the Cache-Box Championship (1st place since 2003), participated in the Bob Firman meet in western Idaho and NXR (Nike Cross Regionals) in Mesa, Arizona.  Tyler had a big growth spurt and is now taller than Brian.   

KATIE (12) 7th grader at a new to her public charter school, collects mood octopus toys, attended a baking class, went to her first Girls Camp (where she discovered her love of hiking).  Katie is thrilled to be taller than Lisa now.  Katie has been growing out her beautiful brown hair hair out and it's now practically down to her waist!

JULIA (9) 4th grader, loves to make crafts, discovered the show Master Chef Junior (which inspired her to attend a baking class), and volunteers to help cook dinner and bake at home, enjoys attending our church's activity days.  Julia loves her friends and has enjoyed supporting her friends by attending their events.

Thank you to those of you who sent us Christmas cards.  We really enjoy hearing updates from our family and friends.  Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and abundant new year.                          - Love, The Wards