Merry Christmas 2011

From the Ranch House Way, to Devils Tower, to Happy Holidays From the Carpenters…the Sugarhouse Way! Now in Salt Lake City, UT

Our new home in Salt Lake City

WOW! Another year has flown by and another move for our family. 2011 started out much the same way that 2010 came to a close, with Kelly and Travis making multiple trips (a few with friends and family along for the ride across Wyoming on I-80) to Shriner’s Hospital for Children, Primary Children’s Hospital and the University of Utah Hospitals. INCREDIBLE friends in Cheyenne helped out watching Nolan and Barrett well into the late evening hours on several occasions to help minimize the amount of work leave Scott had to take, and the resulting impact on Scott’s co-workers at the NWS.

The change started to take shape in the early days of March, when Scott’s former boss in Billings, sent a message about a potential employment opportunity in Salt Lake City. Within hours recommendations were made, and within days a directed transfer was awarded to make Scott the Meteorologist-In-Charge (MIC) at the Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) in Salt Lake City. He is in charge of a small staff of meteorologists that are collocated with the FAA’s En-route Air Traffic Control Center. No longer in an NWS forecast office, but this opportunity is a great follow up to the Incident Meteorology Scott was providing at wildland fires the past few years. Constant interaction with the FAA customer makes for an interesting and rewarding work environment. The work involves providing critical weather information to the FAA personnel to ensure the safe and efficient flow of air traffic through our airspace, which includes the airspace from the Canadian border down through southern Utah (including MT, ID, OR, UT, and WY).

We said good-bye this year to our long-time cat, Rikki as well. She lived a great, long-life from TX, to LA, OK, CO, the Marshall Islands, MT, and finally WY. Kelly adopted Rikki way back during her time at Texas A&M, so they were together a long time.

Nolan greatly enjoyed his last year playing hockey with the Cheyenne Capitals, culminating in an exciting run through the WAHL State Tournament in Cheyenne for a second place finish in the tournament. His most fun sports experience of the year was winning an essay contest in Cheyenne that allowed him to spend a day with the Colorado Avalanche and even skate onto the ice with the team for the National Anthems. The whole family enjoyed a wonderful January day in Denver, and many friends and family from Cheyenne and Denver joined us for the event at the Pepsi Center. Nolan had an absolute blast and really took in the whole experience on the ice with some of his favorite players from the Avs and Canucks.

Behind the scenes, Pepsi Center in Denver, January 18, 2011

The move has probably been most challenging for Nolan leaving behind many friends and activities in  Cheyenne (including missing the latter part of his baseball season), after a great year in Third Grade at Pioneer Park Elementary. He has adapted well to the new school and activities here in SLC. Within a week of the  move, Nolan started playing hockey in a 3-on-3 league and getting to meet his new Cub Scout den. By late summer, he moved right into a big commitment playing football, and then has been active in hockey through the fall and into the winter. He tried out and made the top travel team, the SL County Lightning and has impressed many with his steady, smart defensive play while learning to be more and more offensive too. School within the SL City Extended Learning Program started out a little rough for Nolan, but he has since made friends and great strides with his teacher greatly enjoying his presence in the class. He is learning to play violin and also continuing to work on piano through the school program. Coming up, he will be doing the Geography Bee and getting into Science Fair as well.

Barrett finished up a great year of First Grade at Pioneer Park Elementary this spring with the long awaited trip to the Denver Zoo. He decided to stop swimming at the YMCA and play hockey for the rest of the winter, which he enjoyed. Barrett returned to baseball with the same coach again this year, and had a great time playing ball prior to his leaving for SLC and missing much of the season. He still learned a lot and is a pretty good at hitting the ball.

Barrett has been incredibly excited about the move to SLC, and that has really helped him jump into activities and school (also in ELP) with great success. He also was also able to play 3-on-3 hockey over the summer, and has become involved with his Cub Scout den and even joined our church’s (Christ United Methodist Church) youth choir. Barrett is playing Mite hockey this winter and is really enjoying the hockey experience here in SLC and learning a lot. He also enjoys our almost weekly trips to the local neighborhood indoor pool and water slide!

Travis has definitely benefited from the move, being so close to his medical care givers and a community that is incredibly supportive of his Neurofibromatosis (NF) care. The benefit was immediately apparent when he broke his leg after just a few days living in Salt Lake City. Unfortunately, this meant he spent most of the summer in a cast. He continues to be a trooper through all the blood draws and MRIs associated with the drug trial that he is still on. The trial continues to show promise as his tumor growth has at least been limited. He has found a great physical therapist at Shriner’s Hospital for Children and continues to work very hard with Mom and Dad to improve his mobility.

Travis started pre-K this year, attending school for half-days Mon-Thu. His classmates have been great with his physical disability, and his teachers say he is a great addition to the class, behaving exceptionally and developing very well. Through the summer at the hockey rink, fall on the football fields and back to the hockey rink this winter, Travis continues to develop friends with other siblings and still loves to play with cars. The summer was extra exciting for T with the release of the movie, Cars 2!

Kelly has had a very busy year orchestrating the transition of Travis’ care to the medical community here in SLC, dealing with all the medical insurance, keeping the house going, and running kids to numerous activities and time with friends. The move to SLC was bittersweet for her, leaving behind a great group of friends in Cheyenne. They have managed to stay in contact quite well, and even spent a long weekend together near Palm Springs, CA in November to relax and attend the premiere of the latest Twilight movie. Kelly has continued to stay involved in the Texas A&M community here in Salt Lake City as they have quite a few opportunities to gather. She has also become involved with a women’s group from church.

Since moving to Utah, Kelly has been very active in the regeneration of the Children’s Tumor Foundation chapter here in SLC, planning the 1st annual NF Walk event that raised around $10,000 for CTF, and becoming increasingly involved as the regional contact point for CTF in the SLC area. She is now the Utah CTF Chapter Representative and currently planning a fund-raising watch-party at a local sports bar to watch the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona automobile race. One of the race teams carries the colors of CTF to help  raise funds and awareness for those with NF.

Salt Lake City NF Walk, October 1, 2011

Scott spent the early part of the year continuing to help coach hockey in Cheyenne, along with serving on the hockey associations board. He finally earned a spot in a NWS Central Region Leadership Development program and spent a very rewarding March week in Louisville, KY. In May, he and the family dog, Elsie, departed for Salt Lake City. They arrived for one of the wettest months ever in Salt Lake City, so Scott found it very difficult to believe we were moving to a “desert.” Scott adjusted well to his new role as a member of management and spent much of the summer working operational shifts to help cover leave that his staff had been forced to save up due to a staff shortage. He started helping out with the boys 3-on-3 hockey through the summer, and enjoyed the lack of working midnight shifts (the CWSU is only open 630a-930p). This fall, he also took on coaching Nolan’s Squirt ‘house’ hockey team and helping out at practices for Nolan’s travel hockey team. He has also enjoyed the increase in evenings at home with the family and the opportunities to cook more often.

In just 6 months, we’ve already enjoyed multiple visits from our parents, and even our oldest niece Madelyn was able to visit for Thanksgiving. The visits were great to help us get settled in our new home, pictures on the walls, shelves hung, bars dismantled and rebuilt, bird houses built, etc., etc.

Together we enjoyed a great late July trip back to Cheyenne to visit friends and family for Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Zac Brown Band concert. Thanks very much to the Lohrenz’s for allowing us to crash your home for the week. We truly love the Cheyenne community.

At the Zac Brown Band concert in Cheyenne, July 29, 2011

We are very much aware of how incredibly blessed we are to be at this point in our journeys through life. Ten years ago, Scott spent Christmas in the Marshall Islands half a world away from Kelly and newborn Nolan, and we wondered if the whole move to Montana to join the NWS was the right thing to do. Who would have thought that move back to the CONUS would start to put the pieces together that led to all that we have to be thankful for here in Utah?
We’ve been short on snow early in the season, but it will come and the skiing will assuredly be great. Please let us know if you head out to Utah to ski or any other reason. We would love to visit with you and show off this beautiful valley and the surrounding mountains. We’ve downsized into our new home, but still have one guest bedroom and lots of room on the floor and sleeping bags if you need a place to sleep!