2011 Christmas Letter

Guest Gazette, December 2011

Highlights from our year:
·
Bill IV accepted a job as an assistant
actuary with a Medicare health insurance plan and moved his family, wife
Rebekah, daughters Jessica(5), Bradlei (4), and Avery (2) to Salem, OR. We are
thrilled to have them much closer to us and they are enjoying the Salem area.
Jessica started kindergarten and loves it. Little William Charles Guest V is
due to arrive mid February. A special thanks to Bekah, Jessica and Bradlei for
helping me make our Christmas cards!
·
Jenny, her husband Tyler and their son
Xander (4), and daughter Ryan (2) have been in their home in the Portland
suburb of Troutdale for a little over a year and are happy there. Tyler is the
assistant controller for LaCrosse Footwear. Jenny will be having a little boy,
due to be delivered January 16. At this point we are all calling him baby Zach.
·
Josh and his wife Susan welcomed their
first child, Virginia Lin (Ginny) last July. They are having lots of fun
learning the ins and outs of parenthood. Susan recently finished her nursing
degree and currently is a stay at home RN. Josh is in his second year of a four
year program to get a combined JD/MBA at Brigham Young University. In the
spring he finished his first year of law school, this current year is all
business school. The next two years will be a combination of the two.
·
Andy is also at BYU and is majoring in
Economics, with long term plans for an MBA. He has another year left of his
undergraduate work. He strapped on his
running shoes again this fall to participate in the Red Rock Run in the Zion’s
National Park area. His team of 12 ran
187 miles in a little over 24 hours.
They came in 5th overall out of 300 teams.
·
Jake finished up a fun and successful
freshman year at BYU last spring. He is currently serving as a missionary for
the LDS church in the Brazil Goiania Mission. He says he loves everything about
Brazil and he is very happy.
·
For all the last school year, all four
of our sons were living in the Provo, UT area. They got together on a regular
basis for intramural sports and other activities, and Sunday dinner. They had a
lot of fun together, and I'm thankful for the chance they had to grow closer
and be supportive of each other.
·
Katie is a junior in high school. She
had a fun soccer season this past fall and is currently on the school swim
team, which she doesn't find fun, but she does it for the exercise. She was
recently inducted into the National Honor Society and is a photographer for the
school yearbook. One of the highlights of her year was in August when she
fulfilled a lifelong dream :) and got to go to a Josh Groban concert in
Portland.
·
Bill's big project for the year is to
become healthier and lose weight. He is doing well with this project and has
lost 41pounds since July, with a goal to lose 76 more. He is in his 7th year
serving in the stake presidency and sixteenth year as CEO of Cascade
Comprehensive Care. He was elected
Chairman of the Board of one health plan and is in his sixth (and last year)
serving on the Board of the local Senior Center and Area Agency on Aging. He's counting down the next ten years to
retirement.
·
Sue finished her year as a kindergarten
teacher, glad that she took that opportunity, but exhausted and happy to go
back to substitute teaching. She was also released from her calling as the
Relief Society president, and now is
working with the Young Women as secretary.
She is also working on the weight loss project with Bill, but won’t be
discussing numbers.

Most of the family got together for a vacation in
the Mount Hood area of Oregon in July.
It’s a beautiful area and we
had a great time. We also spent some
time at Lake Tahoe in the summer and Southern California for spring break.

We are grateful for our family and friends and hope
this finds you well and happy. All the best for a wonderful Christmas and a prosperous, happy
and healthy 2012!