Faith Journey to Vietnam: 2012

Christmas Letter 2012--Post #1 of 5

Dear Friends & Family,

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! We hope you had a wondrous year. Ours seemed to fly by again.

This is Shae’s 2^nd year as the Finance Coordinator on the leadership team of MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers-anyone under school age) for her group at our church. The Steering Team (leadership team official name) ladies are great friends, a ton of fun, and sure make all the hard work so much easier. They often joke that there should just be a bunk room for the Steering team at the church since they seem to live there some weeks anyway. We officially stepped down as the leaders of our young families small group this Fall so that was a big change. We’d pretty much been involved in the young marrieds and then young families ministry since just after we were married. Shae also volunteers at all the schools and is using her skills as a Chief Home Officer to try and keep the schedule flow charts in order. Although since she’s seemingly never home the title may need to change to Chief Minivan Officer. It seems like at least one child always has a special theme/special day/special project/special something going on each day besides all their other activities. If Shae is at home, you can usually find her in the kitchen. Shae was diagnosed with gluten, corn, soy, and dairy food allergies a little over 2 years ago. The boys were diagnosed with the same allergies/intolerances at the beginning of 2012. Haven and Mike are both allergic to dairy with Haven’s being more severe. So we eat gluten, corn, soy, and dairy free at our house all the time anymore which includes all school lunches, snacks, etc. Everything has to be made from scratch and takes some time so we’ve had to make some changes, and it's definitely challenged Shae's skills as an avid baker, but she can make most things allergy friendly.

Mike still enjoys hunting turkey and deer and has added pheasant back in to the mix with Trixie as his trusty side kick. He’s still a Manager of Systems Administration (computers) at CSG. His team of employees is ever changing it seems, but he likes the people he works with which is such a great thing. He continued to travel to Denver this year with one Spring trip to Atlanta.

Haven is 4 ½ and still talks an amazing amount. I think the experts underestimate a females spoken words in a day at least when it comes to Haven. She switched preschools this year to go to an older kids 2 days a week program and just loves it. She adores her friends and her schedule which makes her feel important and grown up. Haven had her first dance recital in June complete with fancy costume and her first updo hair style. She had so much fun and felt just like a princess. This Fall she basically would have repeated the same dance class so we decided to try a short gymnastics class with the YMCA instead. Haven really wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel and a flip. Well she’s not quite there, but learned some fundamentals that will help. She’s still ridiculously flexible. She’ll do a running jump landing in the full splits position just to see if someone is watching. She also goes with Mommy to the gym and to MOPS and she loves to shop/run errands. Haven still loves anything Disney princess, cooking in her kitchen, playing with her Polly pocket and Barbie sized dolls, and playing dress-up. Yes, she’s still full of sass and bossiness, but she’s a happy little girl most of the time. Although, happy isn’t probably a strong enough word for the dramatic performances given on a daily basis. Every sentence is delivered with lots of gushing and great feeling. I can’t tell you how many car accidents she’s almost caused. We’re still working on keeping the car as a no theater zone.

Haven's Dance Recital Outfit

Eric has just turned 7, is in 1^st grade this year, and is still our rough and tumble kid. He enjoyed climbing every boulder and rock that we came across along the paths in Rocky Mountain National Park. We hear from school that he is a model student—kind, intelligent, and listens to his teacher. Can’t beat that. His giggle echoes through the house and makes everyone smile which is great since he giggles when he’s having fun, nervous, or even mildly getting hurt (like when Trixie is playing with her TEETH). Eric loves everything outdoors and loves tagging along with his Dad. He’s our jokester and tease, but when he’s serious; he’s very serious. He’s planned his future already and in great detail. He wants to run a Christian camp where kids can also learn hunting and outdoor skills. On the side he also wants to be a professional hunter that sells videos from his hunts to help fund the camp. He’s our planner for sure. He also still plans to marry his preschool sweetheart. Eric is loyal to the core.

Eric & Mike doing some extra rock climbing in Rocky Mountain National Park as the rest of us are just trying to climb up the mountain.

Ethan is 9 1/2, is in the 3rd grade, and continues to love everything football. He is still one smart cookie and manages to amaze his teachers and parents alike. He still wants to be a Scientist. Either that or play in the NFL…hmmm. Ethan gave us a bit of a scare in mid September when he passed out after gym class. As he fell he also gashed open his chin. It wasn’t dehydration or low blood sugar so his doctor ordered some heart tests. His EKG showed something, but the Echocardiogram was clear so they haven’t done much else at this point, but it still leaves questions. Later the same day back at school his teacher reported that they had Ethan doing 12^th grade Math (in the gifted program) whatever that means.

Ethan at football practice with Mike and a friend of Mike's who plays indoor league football, but also played for the NFL.

Easter Sunday

Well, this is the really, really long Christmas letter. If I managed to get the blog updated a bit more often maybe this would have a little less info (and take less time to do). There are 5 total posts with lots of pictures (which you can click on to see larger) and more Christmas letter accompanying them. You may need to click on “Older Posts” at the bottom of each page to see all the posts. The last official Christmas letter post is the one of our Branson trip over Spring Break. We hope you enjoy catching up on life with us!

Halloween

For some reason Christmas Post #5 is not showing up when you select "Older Posts" after the 4th Post about the CO Trip. If you have this problem, you can choose Christmas Post #5 on the menu listing on the right side of the blog under December 2012. You can also try choosing "Older Posts" and then "Newer Posts". That worked for me.

Have a Blessed Christmas,

The Dalkes

Boys Activities--Christmas Post 2 of 5

The boys (and Mike) continued with judo/mixed martial arts as the schedule allowed this year which wasn’t as often around their other sports. Although Mike managed to work in Skills and Drills classes over lunch more frequently than the boys got to go. They have a lot of fun fishing, backpacking, and doing other manly things like wrestling and shoveling snow together. The boys played soccer again this Spring. Both boys were on the same team (6-8 year olds) with Mike as their coach which was a blast. They continued with swimming lessons and are starting to look like fish. The big change for the year was that Ethan’s constant pleading resulted in both boys switching over to football this Fall. They played Flag Football with the Upward league which was started this year by one of the other big churches in town. We can’t say enough wonderful things about this national program. It was organized very well and taught character as well as many other worthy attributes all while teaching verses and having halftime devotions, etc. Mike was a coach for Ethan this year too. It was a longer and more involved season than soccer, but is the new sport of choice by the boys.

Trixie--Christmas Post 3 of 5

at her Hunt Test 8-19-12

Water Retrieving at Whitehawk Lake across the road from our house in March.

Pheasant Retrieval Training in May

Our Girl the Beginning of December

Trixie, our Small Munsterlander dog is now 1 ½. She is on the smaller side for her breed at 35-40 pounds with her back being about knee level, which her small size is what we’d hoped for. Mike and the family spent a good number of Saturday mornings out at the breeders 160 acres for mostly field work and across the road from us in the evenings at the lake for water work--training Trixie for her hunt test which was in August. She passed with flying colors earning a perfect score and a Prize 1 award. All the hype of her genes did pay off. All the pups from her litter that tested on various dates earned perfect scores which is not an easy task. The test took all day, but all but Haven got to tag along and watch from a distance as Mike handled Trixie. She adores the water which I guess not all versatile hunters do. She gets going so fast for water retrieves that she literally walks on water for quite a ways. The judges would have given her bonus points if it had been allowed. She is very affectionate, talks a lot, and thinks she’s a very large lap dog. She also has over a 6 foot vertical jump, can stand up suspended on her hind legs forever, loves to jump to give you kisses (black eyes) if you allow it, and could challenge a greyhound for speed. She’s also very social which shows by her digging a zillion holes to stick her head under the fence to say hi to all the dogs in the four yards surrounding ours.

Colorado Trip--Christmas Post 4 of 5

For trips this year, the family tagged along on one of Mike’s business trips the end of June beginning of July. We were able to visit good friends on the way to Denver. Then Mike always works for a week (which we did without Shae’s niece this year—but we survived) One evening while in Denver we ate at the Aquarium because they have real Mermaids (well real ladies in full mermaid costumes but don’t tell Haven) in the massively huge fish tanks that run the entire length of the restaurant. They dive, swim, blow kisses, and interact with the kids through the glass. Very fun! After Denver we spent a couple of days at Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park. Shae’s folks were starting a CO trip with a visit to Estes planned at the same time we were going. So we decided to rent one big house together instead of 2 dinky cabins spread out over town. It was gorgeous and cheaper for everyone. Sounds like a win win to me. We saw more wildlife (mule deer, huge herd of elk and calves, and a bear) in our yard then we did in all our time at Rocky Mountain. Mike was on a mission to hike this year with Haven being 4 and hike we did. By the end some of the group was doing a bit of grumbling--the boys were tired of it all and Shae would have liked a bit more down time at the rental house. However, we saw some new things and all 7 of us (including Shae’s Mom & Dad) climbed (er more like hiked and scrambled) a mountain together which was a fun accomplishment. We celebrated Ethan’s 9^th birthday our last day in Estes. Then we spent a few days including the 4^th of July with Mike’s Aunt and Uncle in Silverthorne with a fun filled day at Breckenridge. We never knew that there were so many summer activities at the ski slopes. It was like a carnival. A stop at a hotel with a small water park on the way home was a huge hit with the kids as well.