The End of a Year...

Christmas Letter 2009

Dear family, friends and fellow furry creatures,

Mom and Dad are currently busy, so I’ve been put in charge of writing their Christmas letter. Sigh. They think I just lay around and sleep all day, but I’m really quite busy protecting the house and playing with my toys!

It’s almost the end of 2009, and we had a busy year. Mom finished her 1st year of teaching in May, and started her 2nd year of teaching 5^th grade at Keeling Elementary School in August. Her classroom has been full of tough boys, but she still talks about how much she loves all of her students. She is excited to be working with the gifted students and has been working on getting her gifted endorsement. She worked as the Director of day camp for the Girl Scouts again this summer, and I got to visit camp a few times. Dad is still working at Cirrus Logic., and is learning a lot. He enjoys working with good friends, and got to travel to Austin for business this year as well.

Mom and Dad celebrated their first anniversary of marriage on January 5^th. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost two years since their wedding! We also celebrated one year of being in our house in Oro Valley. I like it up here, especially now that Dad and Grandpaw Wittrock have started putting together my backyard. That dirt pile will soon become grass and a seating area! We are all enjoying the extra room we have and the great views of the mountains! We have a guest room, and if you come visit, I’ll let you sleep in my favorite spot on the guest bed! Don’t worry, I chewed up all of the extra pillows Mom left on the bed, so they won’t get in your way.

I spent quite a bit of time with my Grand”paw”rents this year while Mom and Dad traveled around. They attended 3 weddings in March, including Mom’s friends Katy and Nik, Dad’s friends Ben and Leigh, and Uncle Ryan and Aunt Veronica! They went to Las Vegas in June for Charlotte and Jayson’s wedding and had a wonderful weekend. I hear Dad has a great story to tell about a girl named Christmas… They spent some time camping and fishing with Mom’s grandpa and grandma in Northern Arizona in July. In August, they went to Disneyland with Grandpaw and Grandma Walsh and Paul. They had a great time showing Paul all of their favorite parts of the park, and he wore them out! Later that month, they traveled to Prescott for Mom’s first hockey tournament in a long time. She misses being able to play in Tucson! In October, they finally went on their honeymoon, and took a Disney cruise to the Caribbean. They came home tanned (well Dad was more red than tan) and relaxed. The weather was perfect for their trips to St. Thomas, St. Croix, and Castaway Cay. They can’t wait to go on another cruise soon, and promised to stuff me into the luggage next time!

As the year winds down, we are getting ready to spend some quality time with the families up in the Phoenix area. Mom is excited about finishing her first half marathon and beating her goal time in the process! I ran the last quarter mile of the race with her and Dad, so I’m pretty proud of myself, too. Dad will be working on phase two of the backyard, during his time off, and they are both excited to spend New Year’s Eve in – shh, Dad doesn’t know where yet!

We hope 2010 brings you as much health and happiness as 2009 has for us. Happy Holidays!

Love, Tonks, Tim and Lisa Wittrock

2009 1/2 Marathon

So... I was planning on running the Disney 1/2 Marathon in September, but it was full before I had a chance to sign up. Instead, I signed up for the Tucson Half with Megan (she promised to help me train). We ran together and trained (although not as much as I should have). I started the race with Megan, her friend Shannon, and Ari.

Just pick up your feet for the next 3 hours... (Ari's advice before beginning).

I fell behind not long after the start, but I finished! I even beat my goal time and finished in 2 hours and 56 minutes. I'm pretty excited! Tim, Tonks, and Ari's puppy Mookie met us at the end of the race, and Tim brought us all flowers. I was exhausted, but I'm glad I did it!

Three Generations

Grandma, Mom and I made some Christmas candy over the Thanksgiving weekend. Grandma helped us perfect our technique for making chocolate covered cherries, buckeyes (peanut butter balls), and peppermint patties.

Taylor Swift!

To celebrate my survival of my first year of teaching, Tim took me to see Taylor Swift.  It was a great concert!  Kellie Pickler opened for her, and was awesome as well, but Taylor really rocked!  Here she is singing "You Belong With Me" and "Love Story".  Her set was really cool, and the lighting made it look completely different for each song.

She ended with "Should Have Said No" from her first album, and she danced in the rain as she sang it.  It was pretty awesome!

School's Out for Summer!

Megan and I got our classes together for one last kickball game, and my class won again!

Ms. Gardner pitches to my team.

The girls get ready for graduation!

My class enjoys pizza for lunch.

Tim brought pizza in for the class for their last day, and we ran out of plates, so the girls got to use boxes!

Paul's Hockey Practice!

Paul has been learning how to play hockey, and learned Dad's #1 rule early.  "If you're old enough to wear it, you're old enough to carry it."

Mother's Day 2009

We had a nice dinner with the family at Benihana for Mother's Day, and we were joined by Dad's boss and his wife, who fit right in!

Ryan ordered ice cream, but Paul stole his spoon!

Paul got his own set of chopsticks to use.

Our waiter made his heart beat for the moms.

Dad's boss, Larry

Paul's Spring Break Part 3

On Thursday, we spent the day at Reid Park Zoo with Trish, Noah, Carter and Olivia (Tim's coworker's wife and kids). This sign was on the inside of the bathroom door. Even peeing is educational when you go to the zoo!

Paul took this picture of Tim and I before the day began (notice how I'm in a tube top soas not to get tan lines before Ryan and Veronica's wedding).

Paul loved the lizards (especially since they were safely contained behind glass) This is Paul pretending to be a flamingo. He was quite convincing.

The kids were really excited to have the chance to feed the giraffes. Here's Paul giving one of them some lettuce:

But when the giraffe tongues came close to touching their hands, both he and Olivia were no longer fans of the feeding.

The kids were all excited to discover that the water wheel was actually working.

This was taken toward the end of the day, and Paul was almost out of smiles by this point...
But seeing the otters play helped him perk back up...
...as did some ice cream!

His energy was definitely drained, though, and he passed out on the way home. Look! He looks just like his mom when she falls asleep in the car (mouth hanging open). :)

Paul's Spring Break Trip, Part 2

Paul's trip only got better when Tim took a few days off to spend with us. We jammed in our jammies and played Rock Band:

Took a few long walks with Tonks:
Washed my car:

Washed ALL 62 of Paul's cars (and yes, he made me wipe down each one, rinse them off, and then set them carefully out to dry):Washed Paul (see Mom? I gave him a bath!)

And spent our evenings relaxing... I got to finish my first knitting project...

...and Paul and Tim enjoyed playing the DS games!

Paul's Spring Break Part 1

Paul came down to Oro Valley to spend some time with us for his spring break (and mine).
He started his visit by covering himself and Tim in tattoos (Spiderman of course).

He met my turtles...

...and he fought off some evil clones/droids/bad guys who were hiding in our house:

We spent quite a bit of time at the park during his first two days here, where he climbed on the stegasaurus (and showed some of the older kids how it's done).We played hide 'n go seek on the slide (he's pretty good at it).

Paul showed his stuff on the rings, where he impressed quite a few kids and parents with his amazing feats of strength.

On day 2 at the park, Paul and some other kids got to run in the sprinklers when the baseball fields were being watered. Luckily it was a warm day!