2013

To our family and friends:

This will be our first Christmas spent together as husband and wife, so we figured it would be the perfect time to start the family tradition of a Christmas letter to recap our eventful year.

We would like to thank everyone again for making our wedding day absolutely perfect! After the wedding, we spent our first two weeks as husband and wife in Thailand, splitting our time between Phuket and Koh Samui. We have nothing but great things to say about the country – the beaches were beautiful, the food was fantastic, and the people were amazingly gracious. Events of our honeymoon consisted of scuba diving, all-day boat tours, snorkeling, Thai massages, cultural shows, visiting night markets, elephant trekking, and relaxing on the beach. Briana completed her open water scuba certification just prior to their wedding so she was able to enjoy the dives with Phillip. He has been certified for two years which was initially prompted by his work’s dive team where he participates in some underwater inspections on various marine structures. The highlight of our trip may have been the Thai cooking class. We learned about traditional ingredients, then prepared and cooked three individual dishes: pad Thai with prawns, red curry soup with duck, and ginger pork with oyster sauce. We hope to be able to recreate those tasty dished here in the States.

Phillip celebrated his fifth anniversary with Berger ABAM in January as an Engineer III. His recent projects included work on piers in Panama and Neah Bay. He currently is working out in the field, much to his liking, as the on-site engineer for a pier project at Bangor Naval Base. Phillip sat for his PE (Professional Engineers) exam at the end of October and the results just came in this past week. He passed! He hopes this will lead to a nice promotion at work.

Briana finished her year of didactic studies in the cardiac ultrasound program at Seattle University in June at the top of her class. In September, she started her first six month internship rotation at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle and is thoroughly enjoying her experience. She will be temporarily leaving Phillip in March for a warmer climate when she travels to her second six month rotation at UC Davis where she will receive training in pediatrics.

Many exciting events will be happening while she is away, so several trips are already planned for her to visit home. The first trip will be to welcome the newest addition to the Pauley family into the world! Colin and Whitney will be having ‘Baby Pauley’ mid-May. Whitney is already decorating the baby’s room in their beautiful house they purchased last year in North Bend. Colin has just finished taking the third portion of his CPA exam and has (fingers crossed) one more to go.

Briana’s next trip home will also be to welcome new members into the Olson family. Nathan proposed to Heather this past May up at Galiano Island in Canada. The two have planned their wedding for August of 2014. We are excited to officially welcome Nathan and his children, Caleb and Bekah, into our family! Heather will be moving to Yakima after their wedding and honeymoon.

Together, we both enjoy relieving some work stress and trying to get a little exercise by playing on a co-rec soccer team once a week which is sponsored by Phillip’s company. We play year-round, starting outdoor 8v8 during most of the year then moving indoor for the cooler winter months. We recently added Phillip’s cousin, Leif, to the team who has been a great addition as goalkeeper.

Ron and Kay celebrated their 36^th wedding anniversary this year. They continue to work on their house and yard which always looks impeccable. They are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their first grandchild and their excitement is unmistakable. Retirement looks to be in both of their futures in the next few years, even though I’m sure it will be hard for Ron to finally relax after many many years of hard work.

Barb spent this past January (J-term) taking a small group of PLU students to China to learn how eastern and western medicine could potentially be integrated. This was her second visit taking students and third time visiting the country. Highlights of her trip included visiting the Terra Cotta warriors and the Great Wall. Having survived her absence for month, Kent has been busy training Guiness (Max). After an incident at work, he required surgery on his left shoulder the middle of November and has been slowly improving with the help of physical therapy.

This year we had to say goodbye to Phillip’s grandfather, William Lobeda. We were grateful to have been able to see him in the waning days of his life and celebrate his birthday with the family just two weeks prior to his passing. He had been battling health issues for the past year and a half and his body was weary. We remember the great times that we got to spend with him and the many life lessons that he was able to teach us.

We will be starting 2014 in a new home in Federal Way. Closing is planned for the end of December, so we are anxious to commence the trials and enjoyment of home-ownership!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Love,

Phillip & Briana