The Year in Review in Pictures

We began 2007 with a prolific snowstorm that covered our unenclosed living room with as much as 3 feet of snow in some places. It seemed we shoveled for weeks.

Gresham turned 7 on February 14.

Brian turned 35 on March 7 and his parents were here--hooray!--to celebrate the happy occasion with snow, cake, and kisses. Though we've taken them on several trips looking for real estate in Klamath, they've yet to find something that suits exactly. Nevertheless we keep hoping that we will lure them up here in their retirement years.



Easter was spent down in the Bay Area with my brother, Aaron, and sister-in-law, Shauna, my nephew CJ, and the newest addition to their clan, Abigail Julia. The cousins all had a rousing time of learning how to "SHARE"--a word which seems to have several pronunciations depending upon who is speaking at the moment.



Ginger and the kids (Boston, Grayson, Isabella, Aspen, Annalise) came to visit for a week in July and Brian took them up to Crater Lake for a day. The photos are almost completely unaltered. That is the no-kidding, real-life shade of blue that you will see if you visit in person.




We spent the middle of July camping by a stream with my mom and dad, Charyla and Gil, and Aaron, Shauna, CJ & Abby at a secluded campsite in the Cascades. There was no one there but us, save for a quiet, kind woman from Medford with two dogs. After three days we went back home for much-needed showers for everyone and a drying for all the gear. Evangeline celebrated her 3rd birthday with a few of her favorite people.



Soccer season hit us like a ton of bricks. Brian (was) volunteered to coach--not one but THREE soccer teams. Providentially he had an ultra-organized and talented assistant coach in Alexis Deutscher, a friend from Florida and also from our current squadron. Between the three of us and some very helpful parents we managed to keep the children from killing each other and headed for the goal. No, I'm not kidding. Every practice was homeschool appreciation day! Brandt played U-10 and showed some real talent for seeing the field and passing. Gresham played U-8 and amazed us with his increased ball handling. Seth played U-6 and spent his time on goal kicks, otherwise avoiding the ball at all costs! Eva thought she was playing U-6 as well and would have voluntarily, fearlessly played in every game but her sweet little buns lacked the finesse to deal with five-year-old tornados.


Seth turned a very earnest and slightly precocious 5 in October while Mimi and Great Grandma Nana were visiting. I'm ashamed to say that I never even got up from the couch. Our entire family save Brian was down for the count in some part of October with The Plague--2007 version. One of our Classical Conversations history sentences says "In the late 1300s rats carrying The Plague killed one of three Europeans." I believe it; and those who didn't die wished they could.




Poor Mimi and Nana had the joy of dealing with the tail-end of The Plague while Brian and I dashed off for a weekend of flybys and excitement in Denver, where we spent some time with squadron friends and even more time with PJ & Stephanie Mendicki and their girls. For you USAFA grads, that's Tony DiCarlo ('95 guy - boxer) on the left with his wife Candy and Cadet C1C Rob Erickson ('91 guy) and his wife Megan in the middle. I've heard that Rob was once a man who struck fear into the heart of every USAFA underclassman but you would never know it these days. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if he ever reads this post, he'll be mortified that I mention it at all. But what fun is life if we can't look back and laugh at the way it was.

Shortly after our homecoming, Eva was down again with the tummy bug which left her acidotic and fighting for her life. We spent a few days in the doctor's office and just one night in the hospital this time. In January, we will be taking her to Doernbecher Hospital in Portland for some follow-on appointments with an enzyme team. No pictures of the hospital stay.

Brandt turned 10 on November 15 and soon after Mimi, Nana, Papa, Uncle Aaron, Auntie Shauna, CJ & Abigail were visiting for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time together during the holidays at last after all of these years apart. We even managed to snap about 80 photos of the kids in the matching outfits that Mimi & Papa had ordered. Out of 80, well.... you can see how many keepers we had.









After the F-15s were grounded in November, we found ample time to launch another Bergeron-Oregon Christmas tradition: cutting our own tree. We took the kids down to Keno (by the California border) and they were able to sled and nail each other with snowballs while Brian and I searched for the perfect tree. Little secret: When there are 1000 spruces gathered all together with 100 foot Douglas Firs in the background, you don't realize how sparse those branches really are. Another little secret: Don't bring a dull saw to cut one down. Next year we'll probably try the "Oregun technique" of shooting it down at the base!

Speaking of guns, I don't have pics but the boys are having a rollicking good time using their BB gun to ping the deer that accost our property on a daily basis. For those of you worried about such things, the BBs don't hurt them permanently. They just leave our yard because they're mildly annoyed by the swat on the bottom. One of my favorite Oregon stories thus far: I was on the phone with a friend in the D.C. area and about 8 deer came into view in both the front and side yards. They began to methodically eat away at my newly-planted shrubs and I began to yell, "Boys! Boys! Get the guns and come shoot 'em quick!!!" Poor Mary, perfectly in the dark on another side of the country, was wondering out loud, "Guns? Shoot whom?"

I'll leave you with a picture that to my mind sums up the exquisite created beauty that assaults our senses on a daily basis. This is a view from our kitchen windows that routinely calls forth the Doxology from my inadequate voice. Our prayer in this Advent season is that you routinely find around you the joys that call forth praise to our Creator and that, in finding them, you give Him all that He is due--even inadequately.