This year Jim and Joyce had their 65th Anniversary and celebrated the day by baking cookies with daughter Dana and grandchildren Eva and Sam De La Torre. They had the entire family for dinner on Thanksgiving and then a 65th Wedding Anniversary celebration the following Saturday.

Jim continues working with son Lee, designing remodels in South Orange County. He plays golf 2 days a week. Daughter Dana built him a new web site for his art, HistoricHollywoodArt.com. He is a member of the American Legion and Masons. He also enjoys genealogy classes with Joyce.
Joyce continues with her Republican Women activities, serving on the Saddleback College Foundation Board of Governors, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and does local programs for the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Orange County Chapter, plus attends aerobic classes weekly. She is deeply involved in researching the family history and continues working with Family Tree Maker and Ancestry.com.

Jim and Linda have had a blessed year. They continue surfing, but Linda has taken a break, having had a second total knee replacement in November. She is doing well. Lee has been blessed with more work in the construction field and son Nathan is now working with his dad, as is Nathan’s wife, Kelly, who is their office manager and much more. Jim and Linda are enjoying Nat and Kelly’s handsome boys, Blaine 16, and Champ 15, who are great athletes and are busy with school and sports as well Eva, Sam and Noah.

Granddaughter Dena and hubby Sean continue their business activity, Sean continues as a major programmer with Direct TV and Dena as a nurse practitioner and midwife with Kaiser Permanente. 8 year old Eva is continuing her 3rd grade Spanish immersion school, brownies and swimming. 4 year old Sam loves his preschool and is a great athlete. The family also enjoys Noah, a wonderful 8 month old foster child they hope to adopt.

This year Dana has expanded her martial arts business into the entertainment industry with MartialArtsEntertainment.com. She continues traveling doing Live Animation. While performing in Indiana she visited with her folks Jim and Joyce and Joyce’s Sister Lorene who turned 98 and her family. Together they visited relatives and searched out more family history by visiting cemeteries. They found great grandfathers’ and grandmothers’ graves.

On June 5th, daughter Natalie and Wes became the proud parents of Kalliope, a beautiful and sweet baby girl. We are also blessed to have Wes’ parents, Mac and Lisa, as part of our family. Natalie, Wes and baby Kalliope continue to live in Reno with their 2 dogs. They visited southern CA in October, staying with Sean and Dena, and spending time with Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Jim and all the family.

Adam continues building and working on computers. This year he built both Grandpa Jim and Grandma Joyce and his Mom new computers. He works out at the gym whenever possible and is actively involved in Living Stones, a vibrant, life changing, church in Reno.

Nick has moved to Arizona to become a certified Harley Davidson motorcycle mechanic. He is working at Harley 40 to 50 hours a week and attending school 5 days a week, 5 hours a night. He is very dedicated as he rides his Harley Davidson motorcycle over 160 miles a day to get to work and school. In spite of all he is doing, he gets great grades! Everyone is excited because he will be visiting Laguna Niguel for Christmas.

Mary and Chris’s second year in Portland has been rewarding. They thrive, developing deeper bonds with old friends who visit, and with new friends their meeting. They love going out on the town, pot lucking and taking outdoor adventures. They sold their home in Ashland, eliminating debt, and moved to a “tree house” style condominium in St. John’s, a North Portland community. This has brought them sunshine and lightness of being. Mary enjoys a short drive to Forest Park to walk and commune with nature. Chris enjoys laughing and has taken on management of the Hawthorne Laughter Club and leads sessions at the Hollywood Senior Center. They always look forward to feeding their souls and sharing their passions with others.