Dear Friends,

This has been another eventful, and unusual year for us. We started the year in sunny Arizona, where John taught at the University of Arizona and Marti finished her Masters degree in Computer Science. We are finishing the year in snowy Connecticut, where John is working at Yale University and Marti is seeking employment. In between we took a 5 month prolonged vacation (or adventure!).

As usual, we had a great time in Tucson. Eric especially enjoyed having a neighbor boy the same age to play with. Marti was very relieved to finally finish her degree. John continued to climb with as many crazy members of the computer science department as he could and we went on a number of camping trips with Eric and other friends. We also enjoyed an occasional visit with Marti's sister Nina in Phoenix. Eric always had a good time playing with his cousins. We will miss having family nearby.

We put almost all our belongings into storage and started our adventure on June 1st. We did a lot of camping and rock climbing in California with friends from Tucson and Santa Cruz. We visited our friends in the bay area for a few days (including Marti's cousin Dean and his family), and then headed north and stayed with John's brother in Portland for a couple of weeks. We enjoyed staying in Jim and Carolyn's new house, and Eric had a wonderful time playing with his cousin Katie who is just 4 months older than him. From Portland, we drove east through Oregon and had a chance to climb at Smith rocks and kayak on the Deschutes river. From there, we continued on to Salt Lake City where we saw many of our friends from when we lived there a few years ago. We finally settled in Denver for an extended visit with our families. Eric had a wonderful time getting to know his uncles and grandparents. He had an especially good time with Alan, John's brother, who was always willing to play games with him.

In Denver, we spent our time visiting, climbing, and kayaking (as usual). Our kayaking highlight was a 4 day trip to the Arkansas river. While running the Royal Gorge, Marti had an exciting and unexpected time being flipped over and over in a huge hole. Fortunately, she rolled up daunted but unscathed. John finally got to climb the Diamond on Longs peak, a climb he had been wanting to do for many years. Our nephew David from Phoenix stayed with us for a 10 days. We took him to almost all the fun places around Denver and went rock climbing and caving with him.

By October Marti was feeling the need to have a home again. She felt much relief when John accepted a job working in the Computer Science department at Yale University, with our good friend Paul Hudak. After a quick trip back to Tucson through southern Utah, we loaded a U-Haul with all of our belongings and drove to New Haven, Connecticut. The drive was long but interesting and we had a chance to meet even more of our friends and relatives along the way. This trip provided John his first chance to visit his relatives in Nebraska in many years. We were amazed at the number of aunts, uncles, and cousins that came to meet us at huge dinner in our honor in Cortland. We also stopped in Chicago and saw Marti's relatives and family friends there. One more quick stop in Cleveland with friends and we arrived in the east.

John's new job is a research position instead of a teaching one. Paul and others have just invented a new computer language called Haskell and John is leading the team which is building the compiler which implements Haskell. The job is a mix of management and programming (in Lisp, not Haskell) and has been extremely interesting. About 10 graduate students and research faculty are currently working on the Haskell compiler and a first release is planned in February. Although he misses teaching, John is really enjoying a chance for uninterrupted work on an exciting project.

Eric is now almost two years old. During the year he has gone from just barely walking to running, jumping, and climbing. He not only talks, but now states his own opinions and demands. He has developed an obsession with Winnie the Pooh video tapes that have gotten his parents constantly singing Pooh songs and reciting Pooh quotes (Tut Tut! It looks like rain!). Scenes in a comic strip last year about a family in this situation makes it seem very familiar. Eric has become quite a camper and has really enjoyed all the outdoor activities of the summer. Just this summer he has already visited 20 of the 50 states! He has already made a few friends here, including Paul's two daughters, Cristy (6) & Jenny (3) who are always hugging and kissing him. Next week he will have his second birthday party and has invited some of the neighborhood kids.

New England is a big change for us but we are enjoying life here. There is a lot of rock climbing nearby to keep us happy as well as skiing and kayaking. We miss being near our family but we hope we can make it out west next summer for another visit. Meanwhile, we have a guest room and are eager for our friends and family to come and visit us out here. All in all, it's been an exceptional year and we have had a wonderful time seeing nearly everyone we know.

Best wishes for the holidays and the year to come,

John, Marti, and Eric