Merry Christmas 2016!

Now that I have had a quick refresher course on how to use blogger, I still don't know where to begin this letter.

2016 will be remembered for a lot of things...

1. A winter with never ending freezing rain. (Lame!)

The ice made hiking (or going to the grocery store) interesting/treacherous...

2. A 7.1 earthquake. (Scary! But we were all safe and unharmed.)

The extent of the damage from the earthquake...a couple broken bottles in the laundry room.  (PHEW!)

3. Subsequent emergency preparedness planning...complete with sweet tactical backpacks and family logo patches! (Thanks to Luke's sweet design skills!)

The Hanzon Family Preparedness Crest

4. Homemade Dirty Coke Zeros and Dirty Diet Dr. Peppers (Amazing!)

With sugar free coconut syrup purchased (by the case) from Amazon :)

5. The Broncos won the Superbowl. (Hooray! Finally!)

6. Grandpa Alan let Karrick "drive" the truck while he fed the cows when we visited in March. (He was in heaven!)

Reminds me of when I was a kid!

7. A wildfire near our house. (Again, scary! But again, thankfully, we were all safe and unharmed.)

8. Manda's visit to Denali National Park with her sister Wendi. (Fun!)

At Eielson Visitor Center in Denali National Park

9. A month long visit to Utah in June-July to visit all of our extended families. Plus we finally got to go to a rodeo and see fireworks (in the dark!) for the 4th of July! (Awesome!!)

On Cedar Mountain

10. The summer Olympics!  (Go USA!)

11. A trip to Nabesna in Wrangell St. Elias National Park where Karrick caught his first fish--an arctic grayling. (Yay!)

Devil's Mountain Lodge/Nabesna River

12. Karrick's first tent camping experience in the Chugach National Forest. (So fun!)

Such a beautiful spot!

Happy Camper!

13. Grandma & Grandpa Hanzon's visit for the lantern festival and a trip to Hope. (Wahoo!)

The wind made things a bit difficult, but we did get one lantern to cooperate!

Fall in Hope, Alaska ♡

14. The election of 2016 that is finally over. (Thankfully!)

BUT mostly it will be remembered as the year my sister Kerri passed away.

If you remember from our letter last year, she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in October 2015.  She left us on October 26, 2016--just a little over one year later.  I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with her this past year.  And I'm especially grateful Karrick got to spend time getting to know her.

We are so grateful for the gospel and for our knowledge that we will see her again!  But it truly has one of the hardest things that has happened to me and my family.  We appreciate all of the love and support we have received.  Thank you!

We hope you are all doing well this Christmas season!  And may you all have a wonderful New Year!