We hope that this letter finds everyone happy and healthy, and able to enjoy the holidays.
This year has been busy, but in a good way. We went with Sandy's parents Stan and Melva to California last Christmas to visit with her Brother and Sister in law, Mark and Shelley, and their kids Drew, Spencer, and Gretchen. In February we went to Telluride / Ouray Colorado for snow boarding and ice climbing with Chuck, Heather, and our friends Tony, Dave, and Mitch. The picture above is from that trip, it is an old mine building in Red Mountain Pass. In May we went to Las Vegas and Andy got to climb with his old college buddy George. During the summer, we had our usual assortment of auto races to go to, and spent a week with Helen, Chuck, and Heather at the beach in Lewes Delaware.
The biggest vacation highlight was probably our kayaking trip in British Columbia. The trip was a great combination of adventure, and luxury. The food was great, the scenery was fantastic, as were the wildlife encounters. (whales, bears, eagles, sea lions, etc)
For family news, the biggest news had to be Chuck and Heather's wedding. It was big, elaborate, and a whole lot of fun. Sandy and Andy were both in the wedding party, (for a good picture of us, go here). It was great to get together with everyone from the Welter and Daley side of the family... our family reunions are always a lot of fun. And the Kersey family members were a lot of fun too. Between the Welter and the Kersey sides, we closed the hotel bar both Friday and Saturday nights. The best rumor of the weekend was that Chuck and cousin Dave got into a fight, sending Dave to the hospital, giving chuck a black eye, and hotel security coming to break things up. Ok, Chuck did take Dave out with a choke hold, and security did come by to tell us to quiet down (twice) but there was no hospital visit. The wrestling and choke hold were standard Welter family reunion fun, and was actually a lot quieter than the laughing and talking were. Chuck was pretty proud of having a rare wrestling victory over Dave. But I wouldn't count on him being able to make a habit of it.
One bit of sad news this year was that our favorite cat LS passed away from cancer. This was Sandy's best little buddy for the past 15 years, and she misses him quite a bit. But we did get two new kittens just recently. They are a lot of fun, and that has helped Sandy out.
Sandy is still working on theScience Direct website for Elsevier, a sister company of Lexis Nexis. She was acting manager for 2 months this year after a reorganization. She helped interview the management candidates, and was very happy to go back to her technical job and get out of management as soon as possible. Andy changed jobs this year, and is working for a different consulting company, and is on assignment at Mead Westvaco. This job change cut almost a half hour off of his commute each way, so that is a pleasant change.
Well that's about it for the past year. This coming year we will be visiting Sandy's family in Michigan for Christmas, and Andy's family in Maryland for New Years. We will going Lewes Delaware again this summer, and hope to be able to attend the Welter NJ family reunion this year. If we don't get to see you all in person this year, we hope to at least stay in touch via email. (fyi, we do have some updated family photos here).
Take care, and have a safe and Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year,
Andy and Sandy Welter, December 2003.