This year has been full of changes for all of us. We’re
thankful to all be in good health and to have such wonderful family and friends
to share our lives with. We hope this year-end letter finds you in good health
as well and that your life is filled with peace and love. Please enjoy this
brief update on our family.
Colin
Colin finished 5th grade in May after being with
Miss Elsie for two fantastic years. It was during these two years we really saw
him blossom. During parent-teacher evaluations, the one comment she always made
about Colin was that he maintains a high level of integrity. As he has moved
into the middle school class and two new teachers, once again he has been given
highest marks for his integrity. He also managed to bring home five A’s and two
B’s on his first report card of 6th grade. Colin played soccer this fall
in the Empire Soccer Club and his team came in 2nd in his division.
He played hard and worked through some minor injuries and we were so happy for
him to give soccer another try after a two year hiatus. Colin remains very
interested in computer science and programming and as you may well know loves
to spend time on his computer learning about new games and different ways to
program the games he likes to play. He’s very excited to visit the snow in
January and we are trying to get a trip together to Tahoe for some sledding and
maybe even some skiing, which he wanted to try. Next year he will begin the
journey of deciding which high school he wants to attend. None of us are ready
for this!
Alex
Alex has been splitting his time in various ways. Most
importantly he has been taking on the majority of the parenting duties while
Naomi was working night shift at the hospital. As a family we decided that
Alex’s ability to work from home would provide our family the flexibility we
required to meet all of our family’s needs. So often it’s the mother that stays
home to raise the children and it’s not often that a husband can be a full-time
father and he’s grateful for the time this allows him to spend with Colin
during his transition to becoming a young man. Working from home has also
allowed Alex to spend time working for various companies in town, helping them
with social media, video editing, pod-casts and marketing. Alex spent a lot of
time this year serving as the President of the Black Oaks Soccer Club. He put
in a lot of time and effort into advising the coaches, setting up the club as a
non-profit and scheduling all the games for the dozens of teams involved in the
club. He also remains involved in his charity work with For Pete’s Sake, the
organization founded in 2000, in honor of Peter Eiermann, a local rugby player
and philanthropist. Alex underwent knee surgery this year as well, but hopes to
return to soccer in the Spring of 2016. He’s currently organizing a co-ed team
with a family friend. In his free time, Alex has enjoyed keeping in shape with
water aerobics and hiking with Naomi.
Naomi
Naomi has now been an RN for 2.5 years and she’s so happy
that she put in all that hard work to finish nursing school and her BS in
Nursing. In April, she was hired at Santa
Rosa Memorial Hospital onto the Medical/Surgical unit,
working a 12-hour night shift. Previously she had been working as an RN in
sub-acute positions (skilled nursing and the county jail) and this was her
first acute care nursing experience outside of nursing school. There was quite
a learning curve the first 3 months, but she hung in there and completed seven
LONG months on the night shift, finally moving to 12-hour day shift in
November. Naomi is loving day shift on her unit and especially loves the fact
that she isn’t up all night working and sleeping during the day. Naomi is very
active at the gym and enjoys exercising nearly every day. She and Alex enjoy
taking long hikes in the county regional parks and sometimes meet up with other
family members to hike and picnic.
Travels
This past Summer Alex took Colin and our nephew Rowan on a
10 day driving adventure taking in the sights in California
and Oregon.
They visited Mt.Lassen, Klamath Falls, Chiloquin,
Bend and Portland.
In Portland
they visited with Emily, Alex’s younger sister and her family. Naomi visited with Jack and Jill in White City, OR and was then able
to meet them in Portland for some adventures to Multnomah
Falls and the Portland Sky Tram. They also did some camping with
Alex’s parents near Bend, OR. Alex, Colin and Naomi also went to
Graeagle for their annual week-long family trip. There, they spent time hiking,
biking, kayaking and just being with family and friends. It’s always fun in
Graeagle! We also had a nice visit with Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Michael in Santa Barbara and visited the mission in Santa Barbara as well. In 2016 we plan to head to Tahoe, Graeagle, Monterey and Oregon.
Colin wants to go to Hawaii or Mexico for some
warm water snorkeling, but Alex and Naomi aren’t sure that’s in the cards.
Animals
Tigger (12) and Milo (1)
remain the family mascots. It’s taken some time, but Tigger has finally
adjusted to having a juvenile cat around the house and Milo
enjoys attacking him mercilessly when he least expects it. Tigger doesn’t get
out much lately and spends most of his time lazing around the house. Milo on the other hand enjoys spending quality time
outside with the neighborhood cats and has taken to bringing us tokens of
appreciation to the family in the form of rats and most recently a pigeon,
which he killed in our bedroom. Despite his gruesome behavior, we love having
him as our newest addition.
We hope you’ve enjoyed this update on our little family. We
wish you the very merriest Christmas and the happiest New Year! May 2016 be all
that you hope and need it to be. With much love…Alex, Naomi and Colin Campbell
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