We reconnected with the Colorado side of John’s family in October, albeit for the sad occasion of Gloria’s funeral. Gloria was the last surviving member of that generation in the family. But it was otherwise a great reunion of John’s cousins on his father’s side. And the Fall weather in Colorado Springs was magnificent.
2020 was a tough year for family togetherness. Once COVID-19 was in full swing we were pretty well cut off. Danielle flew from California for a a couple of weeks while Paula was in the hospital, but we only interacted through the sliding glass doors to our back porch and via cell phone each day after Paula got home. Matt, Stephanie and Ben came to the Beach in July and we got a chance to see them, Stephen, Tanja, Leon and Julian socially distanced on the beach but not inside.
The first break-thru was for Thanksgiving when, after suitable quarantining, we got together at our house outdoors and had a Zoom call with Matt, Stephanie, Ben and Danielle.
We went another step for Christmas. Danielle flew in from San Diego and quarantined alone at the Beach for a week before she came to our house and joined our bubble. After additional quarantining (no happy hours allowed!) we all went to Stephen and Tanja’s on Christmas Day.
While Danielle was here, we took a lot of walks and hikes on the many trails near Winter Springs.
And all the while in DC, Ben was growing and developing. Near-daily FaceTimes kept the family in touch.
In January, we flew to San Diego to spend time with Danielle. She had arranged for us to travel La Paz, Mexico, which turned out to be a wonderful way to reinforce our increasingly positive impressions of Mexico. She is only 20 minutes from the border and flights from San Diego to La Paz were very expensive. So we Lyft-ed to the border and walked across a bridge that went directly into the Tijuana airport. From there it was a 2 hour flight south to La Paz which is near the tip of Baja California Sur.
Danielle texted us before the trip and asked if we would be comfortable swimming with whale sharks and sea lions. John replied with a question: “what do they eat?”. Danielle’s response was: whale sharks are vegetarians, not sure about sea lions”. We did it anyway and it was fun.
Sadly, Paula’s brother Tim passed away on December 29, 2018. He had not been well for some years but his passing was unexpected.
We spent time with family at home, Oviedo, Alexandria and Boston.
Leon, Julian and Ben continue to grow and develop. We enjoy spending time with them.
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We had family visitors to Florida plus we travelled to Boston, San Diego, San Francisco and Asuncion to visit family. We got reconnected with John’s California cousin Kathy, her husband Roy and their extended family when their daughter Katie got married … Continue reading
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We had lots of opportunities to gather with family in 2017. Scroll over the pictures to see who’s who.
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Matt, Stephanie and Ben moved to Paraguay in 2017. Paraguay is a land-locked country right in the middle of South America, an easy 24 hour trip from Orlando. It isn’t on most popular tourist tracks, but it has a complex and fascinating … Continue reading
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