Morgan

The 2009 Baumann Holiday Newsletter

2004

Morgan

Lots has transpired in the last year. It was a BIG year for Morgan. She graduated from Langley High School, started college (NOVA), and turned 18. Morgan started dating her beau, Will, a couple of months before graduation (pictured here right before prom). Her “horse career” has been a little crazy this last year. She started the year with Belle, whom she discovered had a long-term injury and wouldn’t work out for Morgan’s horse goals (dressage, show jumping, and cross-country). She sadly found Belle a home and we leased Blade. Morgan enjoyed Blade, but made the decision to move on and is now buying a gelding named LIttle Risky. She is thrilled by the new horse acquisition which will transpire very shortly. We don’t see a lot of Morgan these days. Between full-time school, about 28 hours of work a week, studying and her social calendar, she is a hard one to catch.

Trips/Visitors

Trips (Chronological)

Out-of-town Visitors (Chronological)

Notable from my Blog

Grayson is now 2 years, 5 months. The biggest change in Grayson is his language. It has exploded. He is talking in full sentences now. Sometimes he is very clear and sometimes only we can really make out what he’s saying. Either way, he is a big talker (he rarely isn’t making some noise of some sort). He is very physical and loves to be outside.

Grayson started school in September. He just goes Thursday mornings for now. He is going to Potomac Crescent Waldorf School (potomaccrescentschool.org) in Arlington. We chose the school after doing a search trying to match the philosophy of some favored west coast schools. Grayson has also been part of a weekly play group with a handful of boys his age.

All in all, Grayson has changed our household and we are all enjoying him so much.

For us, it was a year of hard work. Donna is still staying home with Grayson in the mornings during the week, but that often means working flexible hours. We have been up to our eyeballs in doing what we like to do: Starting and running companies. Right now, you can see a bit of what we have been up to here:

http://www.divshare.com

http://www.kadoo.com

http://www.emommy.com

Stay tuned for a big announcement in January.

We haven’t been able to travel much this year. We made it to California twice. And Donna and Grayson managed to go to Lubec, Maine for several days while her Dad and Bobbi were residing east. We made up for the lack of travel with lots of out-of-town visitors (see right margin).

We continue to enjoy having family on the east coast. Mom and Ron, who live 1/2 time on the east coast, made a late appearance this year, but we made up for it with lots of weekend visits. They left in early December for the warm weather of California, but we expect the Spring will bring them back earlier this year.

This last year was also a year of letting some things go. In fact, we sold our Harleys. It was very sad, but we both thought it best, given our current lifestyle.

All in all, we are happy, enjoying life and are very excited to bring in 2010!

Grayson

Kurt & Donna

Anyone who has seen us in the last decade, are familiar with Marta and Dario. They continue to be a huge part of our family. Each year, we seem to become even closer. Besides being lifesavers for us, they also are a big part of our daily life.

Since Grayson has been with us, Madison (St. Bernard) and Kobe (Golden Retriever) have gotten less attention from Kurt and I. Thank goodness we have had Marta and Dario, who continue to spoil them like crazy. Kobe is now 6 and Maddy is 3. They are a important part of our family life.

Marta and Dario have successfully completed another level of english and it shows. Meanwhile, our Spanish is getting better all the time. Besides learning english, Marta is learning Child Development and Dario is learning about Finance and the Stock Market.

Marta and Dario managed to get away for some vacation. They spent a week in Lake Caroline at Mom and Ron’s place. Marta’s nephew, Enrique, came to visit from Guatemala. He was really great and also wonderful with Grayson.

Sadly, Dario lost his dad to illness this last year. It has been rough for him to adjust to this, as you can imagine. But time makes it a bit easier, but his father will never be forgotten.

Marta & Dario