The Coons family is finally back online! The hustle and bustle of the holiday season plus a lot of work made things exceedingly busy, but there has finally been time to provide a website update to catch everyone up.
December started out as a busy month, with Brad working towards some very tight deadlines on his current projects at work. He's now splitting his time between three projects, all of which seemed to come together all at the same time. Krislyn and Brad did get a brief break, attending the holiday part for Krislyn's new employer. It was a fun night with dinner, drinks and dancing, and Brad got to learn a bit about the company and Krislyn's co-workers.
Weekends in December filled up rather quickly, with shopping, gift wrapping, holiday decorating and general catch-up for things that could not be done during the week. Before anyone noticed, Christmas had snuck up on them! Christmas Eve was spent following the Niggli family tradition--everyone gathered at Krislyn's grandmother's house in Highland, IL, and then it was back home in time to attend the midnight mass at the local parish in High Ridge. The night was a great opportunity to catch up with family, see pictures of Krislyn's cousins' new twins, and even open a few early Christmas gifts.
Christmas Day began early, with everyone delighted by the overnight visit from Santa Claus. The cats got to play with their new Kitty gym (some assembly required), and the dogs enjoyed their new intelli-toys--the IQube and Intellibone. After cleaning up the gift wrappings and leftover treats, Brad and Krislyn rushed off to visit Krislyn's parents.
The New Year came and went, with what was expected to be a quiet night at home, that was, until the neighbors invited them over for a gathering, which ultimately landed them at a party at the house of their neighbor's neighbors. The evening went very late but was a lot of fun.
Early January proved to be a fair contender to a busy December. Tax season in the accounting office had Krislyn working weekends; even though she doesn't work directly on taxes, she was in the office helping others prepare. Meanwhile, Brad's work deadlines came even closer, and required a lot of extra time. January flew by like a flash, with only a brief stop to celebrate Krislyn's father's 55th birthday.
Now it's on to February!
Happy Birthday to: Marcie, Josh, Ben, Jenny, Burt, Aaron, Robin, Neal and Katie
Happy belated Holidays to all family and friends!
February came and went too fast this year for the Coons clan. It began with a lunch date with Krislyn's grandmother, her brother and his girlfriend to celebrate her grandmother's birthday. While the groundhog saw his shadow, the weekend was sunnay and brisk. The group enjoyed lunch at a new restaurant in Highland, IL, caught up on family news, and then took a drive to see the new housingdevelopments in town. The weeks that followed became quite the barage of events.
The day before Krislyn's birthday, she was driving to work and was hit from behind and spun around into oncoming traffic on the highway. Fortunately, she was okay, apart from some soreness the day after, but the car suffered quite a bit of damage. The following day she turned 26, and celebrated with dinner out with her parents and a whole lot of calls to the insurance company. A couple days later, Brad and Krislyn enjoyed a very nice, quiet dinner out for Valentine's Day. Meanwhile, her parents celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary.
Brad enjoyed a day off of work for President's Day, giving him some time to catch up on various household tasks, over which he had long been procrastinating. He had been busy with some very agressive deadlines at the Fed, so even one day off was a welcomed break. Later that week, the insurance company decided to total out Krislyn's car, creating a rather interesting scenario. Brad was going out of town for work for the rest of the week, the rental car had to be turned in immediately, since the insurance no longer wanted to pay for it, and the insurance papers had to be filed on very short notice. Brad spent a good portion of his trip draining his cell phone minutes taking car of insurance claims, while Krislyn furiously searched for a replacement cars.
Once Brad arrived back in town, it was off to the races...well, not quite the races, just a whole lot of test drives. After a hectic weekend of test drives and some bargaining, a new car was found--a silver 2005 BMW X3, with charcoal interior. The car drives and handles beautifully, but more importantly and appropriately, based on recent events, has an unbelievable array of safety features.
And that was February. Bring on March!
Happy Birthday to: Grandma Niggli, Krislyn, Joan, Caden and Derek
Happy Anniversary to: Neal and Eve
'In like a lion and out like a lamb'...or so the saying going. The weather in March was unseasonable. Although St. Louis is known for it's rapid weather changes, the weather was just weird--one week it was freezing cold with possibility of snow, the next week is was spring-like. Brad was on the road a lot, the dogs were anxious and confused by the weather, wanting to go outside to play, and Krislyn just wanted to relax for awhile. Easter weekend included a brief visit to Krislyn's grandmother's house, with a chance to catch up on family happenings. Krislyn's Aunt Joan made Kimonos for all of the girls to lounge in; ever since Krislyn hasn't stopped wearing hers and the cats find it amusing to hide under the sleeves.
The dogs had their annual physicals, and all is well, even though Charlie does need to drop a few pounds and his allergies have been gradually getting worse. Brad and Krislyn finally broke down and decided it was time to put in a fence. It was installed in April, and Charlie and Samantha immediately took a liking to it. It did take them a while to figure out they were no longer on their leads, but they now have the run of the yard. The fence and dog door combination has made it much easier for the dogs to be home during the day while the humans are off at work.
April was a busy month. Strangely, the Daylight Savings time change seemed to have an effect on everyone's sleep habits, something which hadn't noticeably happened before. Besides being a bit tired, Krislyn became much busier when one of her coworkers suddenly left the company, doubling her workload until she was able to catch up. She put in a lot of overtime, as did Brad, as usual, but it was well rewarded with a vacation to Costa Rica in celebration of their four year anniversary.
Costa Rica was a beautiful and very temperate country. Mornings were warm and humid, the day was hot and dry, and the evenings were absolutely perfect. Daybreak was at 4am (3am Central time), with dusk at 6pm, so even with the very slight one hour time change the day felt very different. After a surprisingly short but late flight from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica's capital city, Krislyn and Brad crashed at a nearby hotel, and awoke early in the morning to drive north-west to the city of Playa Hermosa (literally translated "beautiful beach") in the province/state of Guanacasta, just south of the Nicaraguan border. The main highway through Costa Rica was for the most part in very good shape, minus the 30 mile patch of huge potholes towards the end. (Interestingly, the highway was Highway 1, the "Pan American Highway", which runs 16,000 miles all the way from Alaska to Argentina.) While the two cities are only about 120 miles apart, the drive took over 4 hours, since the highway winds through the mountains and forests, and the traffic in certain places was heavy and slow moving.
After the long, but scenic drive, and a couple of quick stops at the wrong resorts on the way to the right resort, Krislyn and Brad arrived at the Villas Sol Resort. The room had a beautiful view of the pool, cabana houses, the various resort amenities and, of course, the ocean! The resort was built into the side of a mountain, which offered an incredible view and an opportunity to see local birds and wildlife in the trees. After a visit to the beach, relaxation was in order, along with an excellent dinner and, naturally, some umbrella drinks.
The next day was a full day tour through the countryside into the jungle, to the Buena Vista ranch. The visit began with an incredible adventure--a long, tiring hike up a mountain, but an exhilarating zip-line ride back down. The canopy tour as they called it included many lines from platforms built into enormous trees, along with a couple of rope bridges. Following the canopy tour was a giant 1km (over 1/2 mile) long water slide built into the side of the mountain, which cut straight through the jungle. After drying off, it was time to jump on horseback to ride through the forest to the base of a volcano. There was a good chance to see wildlife along the way--Brad tried to take as many pictures from horseback as possible, while Krislyn tried hard to convince her horse to listen to her and not the horse in front of her. The trip ended at a natural mud bath and mineral springs, heated by the volcano. It was an excellent, natural and very relaxing spa treatment after a long and fun day. The rest of the trip included a lot of rest and relaxation, some visits to nearby towns to shop and sample the local foods, a good amount of time on the beach or the pools, and many more umbrella drinks! Both Krislyn and Brad left well rested with a hope to someday return to visit more of the beautiful country.
May brought on it's usual rush of birthdays and other occasions. Krislyn returned to her overtime at work, still catching up from her co-worker's departure, and Brad tried desperately to catch up on the million or so emails he received while on vacation. When not reading emails and working, the two stopped long enough to celebrate Brad's 29th birthday and spend some time with the animals, who were all very glad to have the humans back at home. The weekends were full of catch-up on house and yard work that had been postponed due to work schedules and vacation.
The dogs are still fully enjoying their fenced yard, and the neighbor's little hunting beagle, Betsy, even sneaks under the fence now and then to pay a visit. Samantha enjoys running around, with Betsy following closely behind barking like crazy to let the hunters know what she found, something which usually scares Charlie and Krislyn silly. Samantha also started dog training this month at a new training school nearby. Charlie goes along too, for some extra moral support, even though he is well trained. She can "sit' and "come" very nicely, but has some problems with "down", "look", "settle", "walk/heel"... Charlie prances around and shows off, Samantha runs in circles, and Brad and Krislyn tire themselves out trying to reign in Samantha's energy. All in all, it seems to be coming along fairly well, but we'll wait to see how things look in June.
Happy Birthday to: Nathan, Randy, Aaron, Carol, Kim, Ken, Brad, Ken, Scott, Meaghan, Kerrie, Greg, Krista, Andrea and Connie
Happy Anniversary to: Dave and Amber, and Dan and Andrea
The summer months were relatively slow this year. June was a quiet month, much of which was spent preparing for the annual picnic. Charlie and Samantha were well past the housebreaking stage, so new carpet for the great room and hallway was in order. The final touches to the rooms included a fresh coat of paint and a bit of redecorating and rearranging. Father's Day included a quick visit with Krislyn's parents, and an impromptu visit from Krislyn's cousins and their lovely twins, as well as a visit from her father's cousin Russel rounded out June. The twins are getting very big, and almost sit up by themselves. Russel came from out east to visit with family, following the sale of the family farm.
July started with a bang!! Literally. The annual 4th of July weekend BBQ was a hit with family, friends and neighbors. The dogs were not thrilled with the continuous barrage of explosives going off in the surrounding neighborhoods, but were quite excited to have a visit from their new puppy friend Murphy, and the neighbor beagle Betsy. Besides food, drinks and fun, the evening ended with an all out fireworks display that set a new standard for the neighborhood Independence Day celebrations! The guys even filmed the display, with the help of neighbor Colette, and cut a DVD of the show.
The week following the party, Samantha (along with moral-support partner Charlie) passed level one of training. She now knows "sit", "down", "stay", "settle", "come" and "look" quite well, and is on to the next level where she can work on "heel" (instead of pull, tug and struggle). The cats turned out to be quite healthy according to their annual physicals, and it just so happens that Oliver even lost a pound or two!
Work for both Krislyn and Brad was difficult this summer. Brad had to travel a considerable amount, all the while still trying to meet agressive deadlines with even less time available due to being on the road. Krislyn's department at work saw a lot of turnover, with the loss of several employees, which has only increased her workload. Hopefully August and the fall season will bring a much needed rest for both.
Happy Birthday to: Christiana and Arcangela
Happy Anniversary to: Tara and Mitko, Karl and Missy, Peter and Melanie, Marcie and Josh, Greg and Kerrie, Jim and Joan, and Brian and Julie
The summer went by very quickly, and unfortunately, both Brad and Krislyn spent much of it working. Two more of Krislyn's co-workers left the company, leaving her with a lot of overtime, both from all of extra work to do and from training the new employees. She is still playing catch up now, but hopefully everything will slow to give her a breather before tax season.
Brad's project timelines are quickly creeping up on him, and as usual, things are going less than smoothly. It looks like it will be up to him and the team to put in a lot of extra hours and try to make some minor miracles happen to ensure that things complete on time.
The dogs finished their second round of training late this summer. Charlie is still the class show-off, since he already knows most of the things they teach at that level, but Samantha is really starting to come around. Her confidence has noticeably improved, and she has turned out to be an amazingly intelligent dog, something which explains why she has not been the easiest dog to train. She still won't heel very well--she would much rather tug and run--but hopefully one more round of training will break her of that. Hopefully they will be enrolled in level three once Brad and Krislyn are able to find the time.
October was a very busy, but exciting month. Brad was traveling for work, of course, but the exciting part came from him having to fulfill his duties as Best Man for his friend Paul. The Bachelor party weekend involved a lot of general fun and mayhem at the bars and bowling alley, but to top it off, Brad, Aaron and Brian took Paul to a Green Bay Packer's game. As it turns out, it was the perfect game of the year to see at Lambeau Field, since it's the only game the Packers have won so far this year! It was a blast!
While Brad was off enjoying the bachelor party weekend in Wisconsin, Krislyn was at her cousin Morgan's birthday party. She even got to meet the latest addition to the family, Amira! Shortly after that, Brad and Krislyn headed back to Wisconsin for Paul and Heather's big day! They had a beautiful ceremony in Grafton, WI, and then it was off to the Sheraton in Brown Deer for the reception. The entire day went off very smoothly, and everyone had a wonderful time. On the way home, Brad and Krislyn met up with Brad's brother Aaron and wife Jenny, and their three children, Kina, Ben and Derek, for lunch. It was a lot of fun, and good chance to catch up with the kids and see how they were doing.
Halloween was wet this year, which meant there weren't as many kids as expected. There were still quite a few groups that came by, and they brought a lot of very cheesy knock-knock jokes and riddles to share. The leftover candy went to work and disappeared very quickly. Now it's on to the holiday season--we'll have to wait and see what's in store!
Happy Birthday to: Kaylee, Tara, Morgan and Bret
Happy Anniversary to: Bret and Heidi, Mike and Theresa, Rick and Venessa, Bob and Krista, and Rachel and Randy
Congrats to: Brian and Carrie on their newborn, and a special congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Sharlau
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