Tom and Patti Saunders
Dog's Breath Acres 2002 Annual Report
2002 Annual Report
It was an eventful year around Dog's Breath Acres, with a death, a graduation, a journey abroad, and a birth. We started out with a trip to the Grand Canyon, organized by Patti's high school friend Clare, and including a bunch of other old friends from Arkansas. After a very successful hike down and up, we were sadly detoured to Arkansas by the sudden death of Patti's father Andrew.
The graduation was Scott and Joelene's from Kirksville Osteopathic Medical School in June, which involved a bit of driving and camping.
It was a nice summer out here, so we got plenty of nice hikes in. Thanks to our National Parks Annual Pass, I managed to get to do a number of beautiful ones on and around Mt. Rainier, and Patti and I finally got down to Mt. Saint Helens in the fall. It's a spectacular area, and much still looks like the blast could have happened just yesterday. The fall colors were great, that's the best time to go there, particularly if the post office doesn't loose your pictures (which it did mine). I also got to show newly arrived residents cousin Kristi Stoddard and husband Ramsey a hike on the east side of the mountains; it was rainy here in Seattle, blue clear blue over there.
In September we spent three weeks in France, with our friends Beck and Rich.
Patti has been doing some commuting back to Arkansas to help her brother and sister take care of her mother, which led to her biggest disappointment of the year. Allison and Mike were expecting, with the baby due in the first week of January, 2003. Patti had been anticipating the big event almost as much as the parents-to-be, but wouldn't you know it, the kid decided to arrive a few weeks early, when Patti was in Arkansas. Kiara Alicia Zuercher was born on December 10th, 6 pounds, 6 ounces. Mother and child (and father) came through it just fine, much better than the marooned Arkansas grandmother.
So, another year has come and gone. We all had so much fun on our expedition to the Grand Canyon that much of the same crew (including us) are planning a similar trip this March, this time to Havasu Falls, down the river a ways from the canyon. Hopefully we'll also make a trip back to New England, in July or so.