Jim and Joyce went visiting this last summer. In June, they enjoyed family time, site seeing and some great times with brother-in-law Roy Powell in Vancouver, WA and niece Waneen and hubby Jon, near Seattle. They continued their travels to visit niece Vicki and Bob, who are spending much of their time enjoying grandchildren Conrad and ?, and nephew Steve in Northern California. From there they drove to Reno, Nevada to visit with daughter Dana, and Grand Kids Adam, Natalie, Nick, and Tom as well.

In September Jim and Joyce visited historic sites in Louisville, Kentucky with nephew Bill, and while there, Joyce enjoyed the 75th National Federation of Republican Women’s Convention. Next they visited Franklin, Indiana to spend time with the Brewer family and Joyce’s sister Lorene and niece Marcia. Lorene just retired on December, 11th at 98 years old!

Sister LaVern is not doing well and hospice is helping Cheryl tend to her last days. She is so well loved and her life has been a blessing to our family. We will all meet with loved ones once again, sisters LuWanna and Janice, our dad, mom and step mom plus all the family that Joyce has met through Ancestry.com. All are waiting to celebrate together.

Joyce and Jim continue to enjoy working on family history and the Orange County newspaper at wwwocregister.com featured them in an article entitled “Branching out to grow the family tree”.

Jim is back to playing golf and he and contractor son Lee are designing and remodeling some very nice homes. Jim is enjoying traveling and, as always, he is supporting Joyce’s activities.

Joyce continues her activities with Saddleback College Board of Governors, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Constitutional Rights Foundation and, of course, her Republican Women Federated organization.

Chris & Mary have thoroughly enjoyed their first year in Portland Oregon. Chris continues caring for their real estate holdings in Gold Beach and they were able to sell their home in Ashland. Mary continues to enjoy her work as a Technical Writer for Kaiser Permanente, and they appreciate the security of her now permanent position there. Chris continues his quest to be of service in the work force, but in the mean time he is practicing Laughter Yoga and non-violent communication and has been sharing what he learns with all of us. What a blessing! In July the couple left the U.S. to visit Peru, trekking through the Andes. They were awestruck by Machu Pichu and inspired by Pisco Sours, the national drink!

The Stamos’ have had a very exciting year. Adam is continuing with his computer build and repair business, fixing mostly laptops and building desktops and gaming systems. He surprised Mom, Nick and Natalie with computers this year. Both Adam and Nick are working with Dana in the design field. Nick has been working as a general contractor while developing his art and design skills. He’s had 3 art shows and is picking up new design clients. He still loves to skateboard and dirt bike between jobs. Dana continues working in the martial arts industry and was inducted into the Martial Arts History Museum Hall of Honors this year. Dana also enjoyed traveling to San Francisco, Boston, San Diego, Chicago and Dallas with CHOPS Live Animation as a Digital Puppeteer. And now for the BEST news. Natalie and Wes Woods are having our first great grand baby from the Stamos family. Our new great grand baby will arrive at the beginning of June. This Stamos’ spent this Thanksgiving with the Woods family at Wes’s parent’s home and all had a wonderful time! Love to All!

The San Clemente Van Schaacks can’t believe 2013 is almost over! They were very blessed this year with ample work in the construction business. They had three great trips during the summer. First, they camped with Linda’s family at El Captain State Beach, above Santa Barbara and had a wonderful time. Then they made it to Mammoth Mountain enjoying fishing for the week. Thirdly, they travelled to Franklin, Indiana to see Aunt Lorene, and had a wonderful time relaxing, visiting the Brewer clan. They are thoroughly enjoying grandchildren Eva and Sam, but disappointed in not enough time with grandson’s Blaine and Champ. They still surf daily, if possible, at their favorite beach. They send blessings!

The De La Torre’s are one busy family. Dena is still working part-time at Kaiser delivering babies and enjoys every moment. She has delivered over 400 deliveries so far. Sean took a full time position at DirecTV after having been an independent contractor for them for 7 years. Eva is a busy 2nd grader and excels in her Spanish Immersion School. She can read, write and speak in both Spanish and English. She is also doing year-round swimming and loves the back stroke. Sam is 3 years old already and enjoying every moment of preschool. He loves every sport and is very athletic. The family is hoping to adopt baby number 3 in 2014, so keep praying!!!

Nathan, Kelly, Blaine and Champ have had a busy and athletic year. The boys are high achievers in school. Kelly and Nathan are active with their new fitness programs and share a nutrition club named NewStart Nutrition in San Juan Capistrano, with Herbalife Nathan lost 60 pounds, and is still very handsome. He also continues his pool service business. Kelly loves watching the boys play basketball and spends most of her time at their nutrition club. They are looking forward to a healthy and happy 2014!

Welcomed into 2013 by niece Melissa and hubby Ryan Gallo was baby Emma and to nephew Tim and Amy Miller was baby Ella.

Love to all from The Van Schaacks