Merry Christmas Letter from S.J. Whitney

Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:21:35 +0000

Happy Holiday's from the Whitney's

It's that time of year again. Can you believe the holiday's are upon us again? The year seems to just slip away from us all. You ask, what was new and exciting that happened to our family this year. Well, hopefully I can shed some light on that subject.

We have reached a couple of milestones this year in the family. Jamie hit her 30^th birthday in March. Meanwhile, Tracy and Karen both reached their 50^th milestone birthdays. We celebrated by taking a family evening trip in a limo down to Prairie Knights casino. We loaded up the limo with appetizers, beer, and a few 50^th birthday gifts. Us adult kids loved the look on their faces when we pulled up in a big white limo. They had no idea it was coming. Can you believe we all kept a secret? We all had a wonderful time but none of us won anything big.

Over the 4^th of July, we took a family trip to the black hills. Brett got to stay home and spend some quality time with his Grandma Schmit. We gave Dustin a vacation of his life with a day spent at the water slide park in Rapid City. He took maybe a 5 minute break the whole day and loved the slides. We hiked to the top of Harney Peak. It was farther then we expected, but the view was fabulous once we finally got up there. We picked a very warm day (107 degrees), but we started early enou gh so we were down before noon. We also got to enjoy the Alpine Slide, hiked around Sylvan Lake, took in a movie, ate at Chucky Cheese, visited Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and spent some time at the Casino in Deadwood. We also got to spend the evening of the 4^th in Leads taking in the 4^th fireworks display over the coal mine. That was an experience, especially since our parking brake got stuck and we had to try and take apart the dash with (get this) a plastic butter knife. Luckily Shawn found someone who borrowed us some tools and Jamie got the dash apart and brake fixed so we could enjoy the fireworks.

Dustin started 2^nd grade this fall and is enjoying his class. His teacher was only there a few weeks and had a baby in early September so he has had a substitute for most of this year. He enjoys reading chapter books and is reading at a 4^th grade level. We are so proud of him. He likes to spend his free time irritating his little brother and loves getting to go to his Grandma Whitney's on his days off of school.

Brett got to start church school this year and has been attending every Wednesday evening. He was overwhelmed at first with all the new faces, and mom got to attend the first couple weeks with him. But he is now coming out his shell and singing a few of the songs, and coloring on his papers. He will now even give his offering and doesn't get upset when he has to give away "his money". (He was not a happy camper the first week having to give it up.) Brett has also started a new daycare which is a couple houses down from ours. He seems to really like it there and looks forward to going. He is working on the alphabet and knows the first few letters. She has been giving him naps also, so his attitude has changed dramatically in the evenings. Some day he may be out of the terrible two's, now threes stage, but it lasts way too long.

As for Shawn, he is keeping busy with his job and side business, Inline Designs. He was extremely excited that he paid off his business loan in a little over a year. We splurged this year and finally bought a fishing boat! We used it quite a bit the beginning of the summer and enjoyed weekend camping with Jamie's parents. The little boys enjoyed being out on the boat and got to watch a DVD while the rest of us fished. Dustin caught his first fish this summer and he was so excited and proud of himself. We all got a bit of summer sun, and thankfully we didn't have any accidents on the water, bei ng as nervous as we were the first few times out. We didn't get to do any tubing with the boys, but there is always next summer.

Shawn also got to help shingle a couple of roofs this summer. I think now he realizes why he has a desk job. Thanks for all the hard work, but if anyone else needs a shingle job done, remember only one a summer.

Jamie is stilling holding her own at the Waterford on West Century. For those of you who aren't aware, she started in October of 2006 as an office manager. She enjoys the long days. She has even taken advantage of the Health and Fitness center and works out in the afternoons, getting to take an hour break out of the day. She also is playing volleyball and keeps busy juggling the life of a "working out of the house mom". Shawn has taken his fare share of cooking dinner, and very rarely gets to come home to a meal on the table anymore.

Anyway Happy Holiday's to all, and we hope that this holiday season brings both joy and family gatherings.

God Bless you,

Shawn, Jamie, Dustin, and Brett