Sandy Hook

This post is NOT the Christmas Letter.  :)  This was so great that I just had to repost.  There is such hope in this.  

The Christmas Letter 2012 follows this post.  I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

-Griselda

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38 

When 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate. 

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air. 

They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there. 

They were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say. 

They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day. 

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse. 

"This is heaven." declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house.

"When what to their wondering eyes did appear, 

But Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near. 

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same. 

Then He opened His arms and He called them by name. 

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring 

Those children all flew into the arms of their King 

And as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace, 

One small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face. 

And as if He could read all the questions she had 

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad." 

Then He looked down on earth, the world far below 

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe 

Then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand, 

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!" 

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools" 

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!" 

Then He and the children stood up without a sound. 

"Come now my children, let me show you around." 

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran. 

All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can. 

And I heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight, 

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT.

Christmas Letter 2012

Merry Christmas friends!
A year in pictures...
I think I may have this Blogger bug fixed.  I am attempting a new way to upload photos and content.  If this works, I'll be back to this blogging thing regularly!
So to touch on a few things~
Dave & Griselda:
We had a lot of adventure, but thankfully the year was void of too much drama.  Phew!  Some of the more notable events included Dave running himself ragged in several ultra events:  Way Too Cool, 35 miles; AR50, 50 miles, and a pacer for my bff Betsy in the Wasatch 100, for which he ran 39 miles with her.   I tried running, but nothing ultra (yikes!), with a 25k with my buddy, Lisa.  I enjoyed the run with no major hiccups.  I hated the triple-digit heat on dusty trails, though.  We also did a cancer fundraiser for UCSF and swam "across the Bay" - really, we just jumped off a yacht under the GG Bridge, then swam to Crissy Field WITH the current for 1.5 miles.  Not too bad.  My highlight was being able to be in the water with some of the more notable USA Water Polo gals!  Then we also completed the Tough Mudder quite successfully, I might add.  So we will be back for this coming year's Mudder.  Any takers?  We'd love you to join us!
Lathan:
Doing great in school.  Working hard at reading long books so that he can watch the movies (his reward).  He finished The Hobbit most recently and is excited for that release and heard they are making it a trilogy - he hopes.  What a bargain that would be, huh?  He did water polo camp at Stanford with a good buddy of his while the other two participated in a tennis camp on campus over the summer.  He found a love for basketball, most recently and wants to be the next Jimmer Fredette.
Kaelan:
Seeing the benefit of reading books when there is a movie at the end of it.  We had to draw the line, though.  We now say he has to PASS the AR test in order to get that reward.  Yep.  He's that kid that reads the words but doesn't process it so much.  He loves basketball, too, and is loving flag football.  He also found a love for skateboarding.  He is as bright as ever and is getting to be quite the clown; however, we are still working on appropriate humor...
Jeydan:
LOVES soccer!  He is a natural at pretty much every sport he has tried, but just adores soccer.  He is excelling at reading and math, so Kindergarten is more a social thing right now for him.  He loves his friends and needs action at all times.
Haefan:
Enjoying preschool, mostly.  He loves his teachers and the classroom, but sometimes finds the getting up and getting out of the house a bit tiresome.  He knows so much for a little guy!  He is good at articulating his thoughts, so he is the wunderkind that says the darndest things!  He is a gentle soul - and a LEFTY!  I will fully admit that any strange, or unexplained idiosyncrasies will be blamed on that.  Ha ha!
I also wanted to add that we are taking a BREAK from swim team in more than 2.5 years!!!!  It feels SO good to have dinner time back and evenings to unwind…after the football, water polo, and basketball practices are over.  :)  At least those are all BEFORE dinner.

Now on to the photos:  
Let's just begin this crazy year of adventure with a crazy hair day, shall we?  Here is to my bed head king...

At least this day his hair and personality were NOT in sync.


A quick trip to Echo Lake (COLD!!!) where fishing off the dock was our fave.


Haefan's BFF, Chloe, at his little 3rd Bday Celebration at home.


Not only obsessed with these guys, but a true master.  Schools us all.


Still hasn't grasped the blowing out vs. up concept.  So cute!


What an appropriate poster for the American River 50 (50 mile ultra run).


At the last real aid station before the finish.  We waited there a LONG... LONG time, so...


We became quite comfortable with the surrounding area...


Tact and reservation were no longer within our reach at this point as you can plainly see!


We love our uncle Pete.  What a guy!


Dave was HURTING here.  Pretty silent and removed.  Good thing Pete was all smiles!


Waiting for his painful deep massage post race.


Our special birthday entrance for the special dude, J.J.


We do donuts for breakfast on their birthday.  Their favorite!


Oh how proud it makes me that the boys LOVE the ocean and its creatures!  This is at J.J.'s old preschool room after a special birthday celebration.


We went to SkyZone for J.J.'s family celebration.


At J.J.'s preschool graduation.  It was HOT that day!


J.J. really does give the best hugs EVER.


Can you tell how proud he is???  I was beaming, too.  :)


I can tell you that the cute J.J. smile is all Dave and that monster face is all Mom.  Lol.


He is quite the wicked hitter!


He was on the young side here, but really learned so much.


What a water polo stud.


*sigh*  I love Stanford.


Stowe and Lathan.  Two of a kind, those two.


Dave Jr.


At a swim meet.  He has improved his times tremendously, but no one holds a candle to his endurance. Just like Dad.


Independence Day church attire.  Such handsomeness.  Watch out, ladies...and Mom.  ;)


Lathan conquering the ramp!  He was so brave that day.


Kaelan waiting patiently for his turn.  Totally diggin' it.


At Stanford Shopping Center (hoity toity madness!).


USA water polo drills pre-game.  Olympic Women's team facing off with Hungary pre-Olympics.


Here are the fantabulous lady-folk!


Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe.  My newest favorite beach.


It's like a pool melded with a beach.  Crystal clear, fresh water with waves!


Arches National Park.  A detour on our way to see the other Skeehans in Denver.  Fun!


Because it was a detour stop, we spent way too little time here.  This place looks AWESOME.


Our final picture before heading out.


Pirate birthday party with cousins in CO.


J.J. won the balloon game and was super excited.


A stupendously awesome park near Aunt Mimi's and Uncle Daniel's house in CO.


There really is no better swing if all the little cousins can all fit at once!


The girl cousins threw a pirate birthday party, so it's only fair that the boys are happy to do a little tea time at the park, right?


My only good Halloween pic from the party before the trick-or-treating.


At Temple Square for some Thanksgiving with MORE family.  Oh how we've been blessed with so much family time this year!


Always a requisite.  I'm the pack mule, and Dad is the burro carrying the little guys.


These boys, as I'm sure is the case with all boys, could live in the Apple store and not need food or water for days!

Thanks for visiting the blog!  Look for more to come in the next few weeks!  I'll post about Christmas Day once we hit that point...that is, if we survive the end of all things on 12.21.12...  !!!!

Dave's Take

Had a great weekend. It started off with a Friday night swim meet. Once again Lathan showed how fast he can really go to his coaches. Then we had to explain to him how much faster he would go if he decided to push himself harder in practice. I think that he might finally get it. We will see. Kaelan and JJ also had great swims. Kaelan was another kid that swam fast in the meet but loafs in practice. He is more interested in playing than swimming laps. But man his technique looks awesome. Lots of talent with really no desire for swimming. JJ is just so tiny. That kid threw his arms over so fast it hurt just to watch him. He got the biggest cheer by far from any other swimmer due to his cute factor. So proud. Pics coming soon.

Saturday we went to a friend's baptism. So awesome. Spiritual, peaceful, and moving. Just what a baptism is supposed to be. The kid couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. It was like a perma-grin. I got to be one of the witnesses and had to stop a few kids from swimming in the font unintentionally. We don't have any kind of barrier so I was stepping on the backs of dresses to stop unwanted accidents.

Sunday we went on saw my parents and brother Pete with his kid Tommy and dog Porkchop. Always great to see family. Monday Kaelan and Lathan had a skateboard lesson. They are finally getting it. They can now push, turn, and even pump on a ramp. Pretty cool.

To finish off our weekend we got to see the women's Olympic water polo team play a match against Hungary. We destroyed them by 10 goals. They had a beast of a hole set who was out there kicking, elbowing, punching, and half drowning as many players as possible. Sometimes two at the same time. Lathan was amazed and didn't realize how aggressive you could be. We did have to explain that they were either fighting for the ball or for position. He was under the impression that you could just hit people. I had to tell him that it was okay only if you don't get caught. Am I corrupting my son? Nawhhhh!!!

Dave

P.s. pics to come soon.

Dave's Take

Griselda had her run today. One of our friend's from Residency came up to run it with her. Thankfully we had highest temperature of the year today, 102, to make sure that nobody was cold. They both still did really well and had a great time. It was a girls only event and seemed pretty well attended. The aid stations that I saw were all manned by dudes wearing grass skirts and coconut shells. I saw a guy walking along the trail shouting words of encouragement wearing a girl's running skirt and carrying a faluza horn. Here are some pics of the running chicks....