Aruba - Arrival

December 30, 2011 - We were met by some of Marty's family at the Sacramento airport.  We had a great visit with Kevin, Juleen, Dan, Maurine and Steve.  We really appreciated the send off.

About 11 hours later, here we are in Aruba outside the airport.  We checked in as tourists, our papers were not completed yet.  We are waiting to see if we have to fly out and back in with the papers or if the will waive that requirement.

It was pretty comfortable outside.  There was a nice breeze, so although it was around 80 degrees and 80% humidity, we didn't mind the weather.

Here is all our luggage, about 400 pounds worth. We had a baggage handler help us.  He even called "Deals on Wheels" to pick us up and take us to our waiting company car, a grey Ford Explorer, which was a klunker.

I “heart” Aruba seems to be popular. Their license plates say, "One Happy Island."

Hi, this is Marty writing.  On June 04, 2011 Kathy and I participated and completed the Lynch Canyon Trail run.  She ran the 10K.  I ran the half marathon.  It was raining hard, the wind was crazy.  When we finished, we were tired and very muddy.  We have never seen such slippery mud before.  She fell three times, I fell seven.  For her, there was 1500 feet of climbing, for me, 3000 feet.


When you check out the pictures, look for the mud.  In Kathy's pictures, you can see the rain...


Link to Marty and Kathy's trail run pictures.


Oddly enough, both Kathy and I are hoping to go back on our own and run the 10K by ourselves.  This time, we'll probably stop at the top and take a look around.  It looked quite pretty up on top, but due to the race, we couldn't take time to look around.  And due to the storm, we couldn't have seen much at the time.

Happy 30th Birthday, Jonathan!

Dear Jonathan:

Happy 30th Birthday! Wow, we can't believe you're 30 already. The above picture is how we have been remembering you lately. You were a sweet baby and a very pretty baby. You have a gentle spirit and you have a laid back personality. We loved watching you turn into a little engineer as you grew. You loved to study objects and take them apart and put them back together. We enjoyed your scientific projects, like the hover craft you built with dad, and then later we loved watching as you got better and better at all things mechanical (we especially remember how great you were/are at tweaking stereo speakers). We're proud of your mechanical abilities.

A memory we have of you is how you were such a good sport when we found any excuse to punish you--your punishment was scrubbing the tubs. So if you were five minutes late, even though you were helping a friend with a broken down car, you chuckled good humoredly and said all right, you would scrub the tubs for us. We guess you figured out it wasn't really a punishment, but a service you were giving us. Thanks for recognizing that even though we said we were kidding and you didn't have to, you did anyway. That kind of observation of people and of their spirits and what they need and what they mean is another quality of yours. Thanks for caring about people and friends and your primary class and your wife and your family, but especially us.

We love you. Happy 30th. Love, mom and dad.

Happy Birthday, Joel

Dear Joel:

We hope your birthday was a happy one.

We admire your calm personality. We love that you are kind and helpful to anyone needing help. We think those kindness traits are something we would like to strive for and we appreciate your example. We admire that you work hard in your ward as the Elder's Quorum President and we admire that you work so hard to make sure that everyone feels they are important in the Lord's church.

A story we have of you is how you willingly jumped out of bed late one evening to come give great grandma a blessing. She felt your spirit and your kindness and wanted us to make sure you knew how special that was to her. She also thinks the world of you and your gentle, kind personality. Thanks for sharing it with us.

We're very proud of you. Happy Birthday. Love, mom and dad Clift

Happy Birthday, Great Grandpa John!

Dear Great Grandpa John:

We hope you had a great 84th birthday!

We admire your kindness to people. We think a trait you inherited from your mother is that you "never met a stranger." We like that you are always nice to people and you always want to make sure that everyone feels they are welcome around you and that you are their friend. You have a great jovial personality and you make sure people feel comfortable. We admire your friendliness and your sense of humor, too. People don't feel shy around you long, you have them laughing in minutes.

Thanks for all the years of caring. We knew you wanted the best for us, we knew you loved us, and we know how hard you worked to keep us safe and comfortable. Thanks for all that effort, and happy birthday.  Oh, and--Go Bears!

Love, Marty and Peggy

Happy Birthday, our Angel Baby!

Dear Kerry Bear-y: Happy Birthday! We love you and think you are still our angel baby. We love that you were and are still our sweet one. We remember that you had a content and curious personality. You had a smile on your face constantly. You came to us a genius baby and we think you are still a genius. Congratulations on your diploma. We love that you research questions about life and spiritual love. We benefit from that research. We love how well you show love to your children as you raise them. We love that you have always been a hard worker.

A memory we have of your childhood was how much you loved to read at such a young age. We remember you were so engrossed in your book one day that you took a step right off the stairs of our third story apartment. Luckily dad realized what you were going to do and was a step ahead and was able to catch you. We thought at the time that books were going to be your friend and we think that has very much become a reality in this day and time.

We hope that this next year brings love and contentment and happiness and great health to you and your family.

We love you.

New Testament Reading Chart 2011

The good news for keeping up with the New Testament is it is only five chapters a week. The Old Testament was 18 chapters. I almost made it. The end of the year crunch got me. I made it to October's list. I think I'll keep reading just to say I finished because I'm so close and it's so hard to finish. Half-way a hundred times, but not so many all-the-way-throughs in this house.

Marty will add the link to our New Testament Reading Chart for 2011 tomorrow.

Please commit with me to finish the New Testament this year, it will help me stay motivated.

OK, it's been two months, but here is the link.  Marty
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DKa9LnUqcKQgzSEO8Hgjh5fWtvdHGy1tocAMLgBkdYU/edit?hl=en
Happy New Year!