We spent Christmas 2011 with the Tracie’s family in
Pahrump, NV. Kim’s mom and brother were along.
After spending a few days in Vegas we headed to LA to visit Kim’s cousin
Steve and his family. We spent Kim’s birthday checking out the surfers at
Newport Beach and shopping at Downtown Disney.
After our stay in LA we went down to San Diego to visit’s Kim’s cousin
Bev. We spent a day at the San Diego
Zoo’s very busy Safari Park. We also
took Kim’s Mom south of the border to Tijuana for some shopping. It was a very interesting time. We stood in line for almost 2 hours to get
back into the States, but at least Mom can now say she has been to Mexico.
In May we attended Abbie’s confirmation. Eric was
her sponsor. The next morning Danielle
and Kim had an early morning flight to Milwaukee to meet up with the rest of
the Bisek family. We went to Miller Park for the Twins/Brewers game. The Twins
won so Kim was the only happy person. We
also attended Dylan’s graduation from Marquette University. Hank Aaron was the
guest speaker and he was great! After the graduation we had a picnic in the
park along Lake Michigan.
For the Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to
Tuskegee, AL and Atlanta. We spent the weekend with Eric’s Uncle Dennis and Aunt
Bev. We attended Bev’s family reunion
where meet civil rights activist who marched with MLK in Selma. We visited the
Tuskegee Airmen NHS and spent a day touring around Alabama with Uncle Dennis.
After that we headed to Atlanta for a few days. We walked through Centennial
Olympic Park (1996 Olympics) on our way to the World of Coca-Cola. We got
to see the vault that holds the secret recipe (doubt it is actually in there) and
the tasting room of different Coke products sold around the world. Some
of them were good, others were horrible. After the World of Coke we went
to the Georgia Aquarium. Apparently this is the largest one in the world.
It was nice, we got to see some whale sharks, beluga whales and the dolphin
show was awesome, probably the best dolphin show we’ve ever seen. The
next day we did the CNN Inside the Studio Tour. It wasn’t that exciting. In
the evening we cheered on the Cardinals at Turner Field. The park was nice but the Brave’s trademark
tomahawk music and chop got annoying.
After we returned from Atlanta, Kim flew to Las
Vegas. After a planning snafu, Kim spent the first night in Vegas alone and had
to pick up Samantha from the airport early the next morning. We went hiking in Red
Rock Canyon and eventually picked up Carrie from the airport. We showed
Samantha most of the tame Vegas sites including the Hoover Dam. We also went to
a birthday party in Pahrump for Tracie’s kids. As soon as Kim came back from Vegas, we
attended Beth’s High School graduation and party.
Also in June we went on our annual road trip. This year we followed the Twins to Pittsburgh
and Cincinnati. In Pittsburgh we went to the top of Mt. Washington on their
historic inclines to get a great view of the city. In Cincinnati, we went up to
the observatory deck on top of Carew Tower. The building was built in
1929 and is the model for the Empire State Building. We also walked
across the Roebling Suspension Bridge. The bridge was built in 1867 and
people were so afraid to use it that they bribed the German immigrants by
providing free beer and brats if they walked to the middle of the bridge.
That apparently got people to use it. This was the model for the
Brooklyn Bridge. Apparently New York uses Cincinnati as their guinea pigs.
For the Labor Day weekend we went camping near
Fargo with DJ and family. We visited Beth at Moorhead State. We rushed back so
Kim and her mom could catch their flight to Reno. While in Reno, they visited with family
friends, Dave and Joann, who took them all over the area. Lake Tahoe was very beautiful
and cold.
In January, Eric started the Masters of
Organizational Leadership program at St. Mary’s University. So he has been busy writing papers. Also in
January, he changed positions with Centerpoint Energy. He now works in downtown Minneapolis so we
get to carpool every day. He spent the summer refereeing adult soccer games
across the metro. Kim still works for Ameriprise Financial and continues to
play trombone in the Eden Prairie Community Band. Swirl turned nine this year
and had another run in with the Vet. He
is fine now but for two weeks we had to try and give him pills…not an easy
task.
May you have
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Love,
Kim, Eric and Swirl Williams
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