2016     Merry Christmas     2016

Greetings from Henderson, Nevada. We had three family highlights this year. First, second son Andy (43), Spon, Naomi (9.5) and Jonah (6.5) welcomed a new family member with the birth of our 6th grandchild, Vance Alexander, on January 13th. They are doing well and stay busy in San Ramon, CA. In May we travelled to Tempe, AZ twice, first to attend our oldest granddaughter, Katie's, High School graduation and again for grandson Steve's 8th grade graduation. Katie (19) is attending George Mason University in Fairfax VA where her older brother Joe (21) is a junior. Steve (15) is in his first year at Brophy College Prep in downtown Phoenix where his brother Joe studied. Oldest son Jim (47) is back at General Dynamics after being with the ASU Research Foundation for two years. In September, daughter Kathy (38) went to work for Nathan Adelson Hospice as an in-home nursing case manager and is really getting a daily dose of our traffic all over the Vegas Valley. Kathy is also an independent consultant for the skin care company, Rodan&Fields. Our active roles in the Las Vegas Corvettes Association are ending this year - Nita is finishing her term as Secretary, and Pat is turning over the Webmaster duties after nine years. Pat still maintains the AF Academy Class of '68 website and the Britton Cousins, his High School's class and the local USAFA Association of Graduates Chapter websites.

Our Laguna Blue 2015 Z51 Stingray continues to impress us. It occupies a lot of Pat's time and is our main mode of leisure transportation. In addition to participating in local autocross and drag racing events, Pat drove the Vette in two speed events on the Mojave CA runway, achieving a best of 182.8 MPH for a 1.5 mile run. In September, with his brother Mike navigating, they took second place in the 110 MPH Class of the 90-mile long Silver State Classic Challenge by posting an average speed of 110.0070 MPH. In September we drove to Oregon and attended the wine tasting at Pat's classmate Tom Vail and his wife Marion's Calamity Hill Vinyard in Amity, OR.

In June took an enjoyable cruise with five other couples to Alaska. The weather was cooperative, and we saw everything folks talk about on an Alaskan cruise. We flew to Seattle, bussed to Vancouver BC, docked at Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and disembarked at Whittier. Then by bus and rail we travelled to two different Princess lodges in Denali NP, finally to Fairbanks for the flights home. We took some nice shore trips and were very pleased to see the Mountain, Denali, in all its splendor.

We've been in our Henderson home almost seven years now. We have some projects to do next year, and plan to make time to do them. There is a lot of Nevada we've yet to see - so some short trips in the Vette are in order. If you are planning a trip to the Las Vegas area - call and come visit! Wishing you a memorable Holiday season!

Pat & Nita
2017     Happy New Year     2017

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