Merrifield Times

We ended 2008 with a wonderful gathering of Jolyn's entire family on the Big Island of Hawaii. Prior to celebrating Christmas in paradise with a wacky gift exchange (nice girly scarf, Brendan), we endured the Pacific NW's record-breaking Snowpacolypse or Snowmaggedon, (as described by the press), along with canceled flights and horrendous driving conditions to Portland. But we all (15 of us) finally made it and delighted in just being together in that beautiful, warm place!

2008 was both awesome and kind of sad for Hannah given her switch to a new school. Hannah enjoys most of her classes and has many new friends. Her favorite subject is Language Arts because she likes all the reading and writing. In August, Hannah and Mom made a fun trip up to Boise, ID to visit some good friends and they made several batches of yummy salsa. They looked for Napoleon Dynamite, (see the movie – then you'll understand) but didn't find him. Recently, Hannah started playing club volleyball which requires a big commitment with lots of practice and several tournaments. Hannah also played Ultimate Frisbee with Trevor, and learned how to “bid,” “huck,” “pull,” “cut,” “chili,” and even “dump” (not that kind of dump)! The picture shows Hannah and some of her cousins in Hawaii.

With Trevor's move from a middle school with 80 students to one with over 600, it took a little bit of getting used to and has had its ups and downs. It also meant switching to a rival Ultimate Frisbee team! Unfortunately his new team lost all but one match to his former team in the Fall Series, but it was fun anyway. Sailing (and racing) our boat with Dad continued to be a lot of fun for Trevor over the summer. Trevor enjoys the speed and hopes to learn how to sail a boat on his own next Summer. Lacrosse also interests Trevor, and he likes to experiment with his lacrosse stick by stringing it and restringing it and restringing it. He recently decked out his new stick with a custom strung pocket and his future high school colors. Trevor looks forward to Spring so he can play and watch lacrosse to prepare for the high school team. Finally, Trevor did Crux rock climbing camp again last summer and got to join the advanced, older group which did much more climbing on Skinner Bu