Dear Family and Friends,

Jan '04 with newest grandson Sean Michael Heuer

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Better late than never, but we were South in the Sun for three weeks of the holidays visiting Denny and Ranasha in their new home.

January and February of 2003 could best be described as a snowmobiling exercise with trips beyond the CDA area to Fairfield & Bear Lake in southern ID, Lake Chelan, Windthrop, Twisp and the pass over the North Cascade’s Highway with our friends, the Odenthals, the Hoods and the Petersons. While the guys were in So. ID, the gals spent a week in Mazatlan, Mexico.

March and April were largely occupied with the warm weather travel to So. Idaho, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico to visit Denny and Ranasha and numerous friends along the way. Ranasha placed in the top 25 in the nation after 2 competitions for Ms. Fitness and we were able to see her first competition in Laughlin, Nevada. Carlene and I celebrated our 41st Anniversary in Albuquerque. May was a normal helter-skelter month with 6 birthdays, including Carlene’s 61st, and was topped off by a drive to beautiful Vancouver, BC to see ‘Yanni’ and visit our long term friends the Bawas.

June included a quick trip to Oregon to see Egan and Quilene’s newly purchased house in Bend and to visit our special friend Martha Wenger in Newport. July was packed with more travel related to old friends from college days in the early 60’s – a trip to Lake Tahoe for a surprise birthday party for Carlene’s roommate in college, Suzan Rogers.

August, with our NM friends from College, Mike and JoAnn Milam, we traveled to Victoria, Canada, Leaven worth, WA and a return trip to Bend, OR. Then we had a surprise trip from Carlene’s cousin and wife, Edward and Randi Halsell from Dallas for a quick two-hour lunch on their way home from visiting their daughter in Ellensberg, WA. Despite these trips, we still made time to see Sag’s 2 baseball games each week, Eldon’s weekly 3rd base coaching role with Jimmy’s softball team, Carlene’s weekly golfing with the girls, and Eldon and Carlene’s 6 sojourns on 6 different courses in Idaho and Eastern WA.

September was a month closer to home. However, following the shocking loss of Eldon’s cousin, Leetus George, in Alaska in July and motivated to confirm and enlarge the families genealogical data bank, all 1st cousins of Eldon’s mother’s side converged on Woodland, ID for 2 days of reminiscences, discussions and research. It was the first reunion since l954.

Later in October and November, we lost three friends to cancer. A numbing reality check. Yet, on the positive side, we purchased a 5th wheel trailer, which we’ll start pulling west and south this spring.

By December 2nd we had our first snow and soon after an early trip to LoLo, Montana and a couple of shorter runs around the CDA area to get our snowmobiling blood warmed up.

We’re happy to report that all the kids and grandkids are doing well, particularly Brad and Shawna’s latest addition on January 12th, Sean Michael. Retirement continues to be the best job we’ve ever had, and just as busy. Best wishes to all of you for a productive and healthy 2004.

And, Happy Valentine’s Day!

Eldon and Carlene