It.s been another busy year for the Peterson family. John is still working at Yale with the Haskell group. He has been working on specialized computer languages in areas like robotics and computer vision. Yale entered a robot soccer competition last summer. It was in Australia so John decided not to go; that was just as well since the Yale team lost miserably due to a bad vision system. This year we'll do much better! John has been working with the Ragged Mountain Foundation (www.raggedmtn.org) this year to make sure Connecticut climbers have some place to climb.
Marti has been keeping very busy with projects around the house, helping in the school libraries, gardening, and tinkering with web pages. She has been active in a ladies social and service group, took a second quilting class and completed her second small quilt this year!
Eric is 13 years old: we now have a teenager in the house. He attends seventh grade at Wintergreen in Hamden. He is doing well but sometimes he has a hard time getting excited about school. Eric spends his free time reading or playing computer games. He is a serious contender for internet usage, so the computer he got from school just doesn't cut it. He.s also getting very good at climbing (he can sometimes do routes in the gym that Dad can't get up). His kayaking skills are blossoming, he is now usually successful at the Eskimo roll, and is getting good at surfing his kayak.
Jay is almost 8 and is in second grade. He enjoys school; reading and math are still his favorite subjects. Jay is also playing basketball and spending (too much) time on the computer with Eric. Jay also climbs and kayaks here and there, but his favorite sport is probably biking.
John's parents are doing well . Grandpa will be 80 this May. Grandma has made great strides recovering from back surgery over a year ago, and is now able to go on moderate hikes.
We visited Utah this spring and took the kids on a 3 day backpack in Escalante, where we were joined by John's brothers . we all had a great time. We also climbed in Arizona and Las Vegas (gambling with our lives instead of our money). Grandpa and Uncle Alan joined us to help out with the kids.
Our big trip this year was a five-day kayak trip on the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument. After a few years of trying for a permit, we were happy to land one in early July. We were with a large group, including the Hudaks, and Eric's long-time friend, Melissa. It was a challenge due to very low water flow, yet we persevered and had a great time. Eric took his kayak but Jay decided to stay in Denver with his grandparents.
We were able to visit the meadow where we were married to celebrate our 19th anniversary. that.s the picture on our card this year.
We're still in the same place:
John and Marti Peterson peterson-john@cs.yale.edu 25 Lincoln Drive peterson-marti@cs.yale.edu Wallingford, CT 06492 http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/jcp/family.html (203) 265-2350Best Wishes,