I  would say we’ve had a pretty good year & unlike other years, this one has ended in just twelve months.  So Fast

We’ve been fortunate this year to enjoy many visitors, new hobbies, traveling, and even a new home.

Holly visited us in January for hiking and geocaching and in February, we said goodbye to our small apartment on the quiet lagoon on Santa Cruz’s East side and moved into a renovated victorian across the river from downtown, quintupling the number of doors and windows and improving our outlook on life. Shortly after our move in, Anna visited in March for a nice month-long sabbatical. In June we started hosting guests at our home on AirBNB and in October, Pam swung by on a drive up the coast in a ‘borrowed’ Porsche just before Bernie popped in for a long weekend of hikes and olive-picking. Throughout the year, we’ve been fortunate enough to have lots of friends family swing by for long weekends and holidays and look forward to hosting even more of y’all, come 2014.

In between visitors, we made our way all over the U.S. In January we skied with Tripp and Karen and Pam in Tahoe, then flew to New Mexico to meet up with Tara and Jon in February. In March we put our snowshoes to work with Anna and Randy in Yosemite and in May flew to Colorado to celebrate Holly’s graduation. We then spent a weekend in Wawona looking at gigantic trees with Tripp and Karen (it was here that we also found a field of morels… shhhh). In July we flew to Boston to celebrate Stephanie’s graduation and Stephanie and Andrew’s move back to Glorious California.  Kira flew out to Minnesota to visit Grandma in August and in September we celebrated two marriages, one between Lo and Josie in Stinson Beach and the other between Tyler and Melissa in San Louis Obisbo! In October John went fishing with Jeff in Mammoth – and caught some giants. As November rolled around, we took a weekend to get massages at Tanaya in Wawona before flying to Washington D.C. for Thanksgiving with the whole Mizell clan. Finally, we enjoyed Christmas this year in beautiful Colorado.  phew! 

As noted, we’ve been doing a lot more in the snow. With encouragement from family and friends, we’ve been practicing our downhill, and cross country skiing skills, as well as our snow camping expertise. As the coastal snow melted, John found himself sailing nearly every weekend, racing, supporting our local sailing club, helping friends deliver boats to San Francisco, and volunteering with the America’s Cup.

Kira, on sailing days, has been getting her feet wet too. Against her instincts, she’s been sailing and surfing and when the waves are too big, she’s been diligently practicing and improving her love for yoga and ZUMBA! and has taught many of us the finer points of booty shaking.

We are both still active members of our search and rescue team and, in April, had a great experience participating in a cave rescue course hosted in Sequoia National Park, gaining enough experience to know the true perils of caving. It also inspired us to enhance our knowledge of both rescue rope systems and recreational climbing and are willing to string your Christmas lights.

December has delivered both the coldest & hottest days on record in Santa Cruz and we expect 2014 to be just as dynamic.

To our friends and family all over the globe, travel safe, be merry, and have a happy new year!

Kira and John