Jan---time for my work's, Prestige Portraits, winter meetings. This year they went to San Diego. I had never been there before so was excited to get the chance to go (and not have to pay for it! In fact, I got paid to go!). It was a fun time and I really liked San Diego. Didn't seem as crowded as I expected a big city to be. Our group even won territory of the year. We did have a lot of great photographers! And fun people to be around.
Shortly after getting back from San Diego, it was time to go to Dad's timeshare week at Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee, Florida. He had the 5th week of the year and I cherished those weeks with him!
This year we hit up Epcot. Loved how it was decorated for winter.
Usually Dad liked to just get the hot dogs in the park, but this time we actually ate at the German buffet in the German part of the park. It was spendy, but a nice change of pace.
Being Jan., evening came early so we got to check out Epcot at night, too.
Dad sporting a hat from one of the vending booths.
Dad also became rather religious in his later years. So he found this park called Holyland Encounter near the Disney parks and we checked it out.
Even I enjoyed it. It was more about history then an amusement park. Very well done with lots of plays, models, speeches, Israeli dining areas, etc.
We also decided to give cruising another try this year. After Dad almost drowned on our first cruise a year before, Disney gave us vouchers for a BOGOF cruise. So this time we booked a 7 nt Caribbean cruise.
Beautiful ship. Love the tune the horn blows whenever it leaves ports.
Beautiful ocean views.
WAndering around near our 1st port---St. Maarten.
We did a ship excursion that took us around the island. Beautiful views along the way.
Another stop was to St. Thomas. We did the excursion over to St. Johns to Trunk Bay. But I didn't let Dad snorkel this time! He was banished to the beach with a beach towel and a book. But I don't think he was too disappointed.
I did snorkel and was somewhat disappointed. I discovered on later trips that I didn't get out to where the good stuff was.
Back to the Magic of Disney.
Back in Florida we spent a couple more nights in Kissimmee. This time in an RCI exchange---the Sheraton Vistana. Another beautiful resort.
Loved their pools---and that they were open until 1am---and Dad and I were there by ourselves a couple evenings at that time.
Had to get back to St. Louis so I could go to Kauai with Ken in late Feb.
How Ken liked to enjoy the sun.
We did another Napali cruise. Got to see it better, but was still looking into a lot of bright light over the cliffs.
Love seeing all the flowers in the middle of winter!
Ken and his new buddy.
Even surfed a bit.
We watched this old sugar cane mill get town down over the years.
Back at home we broke down and bought a new couch on April 30th.
Angie had recently graduated from K-State (Wildcat Country in Manhattan, Kansas). In April, she accepted an Architecture job in Denver, Co. and we helped her move there.
The young professional!
downtown Denver.
I loved living in Colorado Springs when I was a girl. How could you not love these views?!
Those are mountains!
Lots of farmlands along the way, too.
Touring around the Denver area with Angie.
Heading up into the mountains.
Ken and I had been to the Rockies on our honeymoon 20 years before this. Still looks the same.
Got Angie moved into her new apartment and we were on our way back home.
Even saw herd of buffalo
In June we made our annual trip to Oregon. Where we played tourist with Dad. Here we are at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.
Dad sporting a "treasure" he found.
Cribbage in the back yard at Mom and Dad's house.
This was also the year that Kimberly was a senior. So I took her out for a photo shoot for her senior pictures.
More playing tourist at the Jensen Arctic Museum on the campus of Western Oregon University.
Carolyn and I made a short trip to Victoria, BC, too. Always an interesting place to visit.
Even love taking the car ferry to Victoria.
A highlight of the area for me is Butchart's GArden.
I love structured gardens
In July, I headed back to Oregon. This time with long time friend Barb Loucks from Southern Illinois. We always talked about going on vacation together, so I suggested Oregon.
Got to visit with Dad as well as visit with BArb.
She's never seen anything like the Oregon coast.
Or the high mountains lakes like Crater Lake.
Or so many waterfalls like this one in Silver Falls State Park. Although this is where we realized she had a serious problem. She could hardly catch her breath and had been having breathing problems almost since we arrived in Oregon. So I took her straight from here to the hospital emergency room in Salem.
It was prime season for grass and lots of flowers in Oregon---causing Barb to experience asthma for the first time. All the Dr's had to ask were are you a visitor---then they immediately tested her for asthma.
BAck in St. Louis, we were invited to a Cardinal game party room that Bill BAiley got for his buyers every other year. Since he lived in Oregon, we developed a personal relationship with him and he often invited our kids to these games, too.
8-10--- Back to work. 1st sport packs of the year. The weather was 110 with heat index. After work, I went to the main office to edit and save the team and program pictures. After about an hour, I suddenly went into A-fib and almost fainted. After resting a while, I seemed fine until I stepped back into the heat. Then immediately felt faint again. Went back in and cooled off. Then tried again with the same affect. So I decided to drive to the nearest hospital. Called Ken along the way and he called the hospital. They were ready for me. My heart rate was 170 then, but I felt much better, so it must have been much higher before. Blood was drawn and EKG was taken. A-fib confirmed. Thyroid test showed low function. They were about to administer meds to convert my heart back to sinus rhythm, but my heart started converting on its own. I contacted work and they were so worried, they took me off all assignments "until I see a specialist" and got "well". I told them you don't get "well" from A-fib, you just find ways to control it, but I didn't argue about not working. I'd been considering quitting anyway. But after a few days off, I actually got to missing work. So then Bev called with the next weeks assignments, I agreed to do them. Afterall, I don't feel any different then the last 5.5 years since my first episode. I did talk to Desmond, though, about a raise. He decided to give me $8/hour drive time. Surprisingly, after that I started getting a lot more jobs in north county! I also was referred to an electrophysiologist and saw him Aug. 30th. The hospital put me on Toprol While on the Toprol, my symptoms all disappeared, but the EP in St. Louis ended up taking me off the meds after 6 months or so. Later putting me on Atenolol a few years later when episodes started happening more frequently. AFter my first episode 5.5 years ago, I was put on Lanoxin and it constricted my esophagus to badly that I quit taking it and quit going to that Dr. early on. (In 2016 I had an ablation which resulted in tachycardia. In 2018 I finally went to a new EP in Macon, Ga. and was switched back to Toprol, from Atenolol, and that almost immediately corrected the problem by about 99%) I even gave up caffeine for a couple years!
By Sept., Angie decided she didn't like her job in Denver and moved back to St. Louis. By now, she and Josh were a couple (he had even joined her in Denver for the last couple months). They got an apartment in Dogtown. She went to work as an architect in St. Louis and Josh worked got a job with Shred Pro (which got bought out a few times over the years, but he continued to move up and the company and make a great career out of it---until 2023ish when he was head-hunted into a new company as a district manager).
Heading into their apartment.
walking up to the restaurants near their apartment.
Around her birthday, they adopted this cute little girl---Molly.
We had a birthday dinner for Angie and got a picture of the kids with their fraternal grandmother.
Still showing off the puppy
By now, Tim was working as a IT guy at TR Hughes home builders. Every year they had a big party---the Homer Awards---so they would get to dress up and go to it. Faith continued working for State Farm.
a little photo shoot of them all dressed up.
I was also hired by a company Ken did business with through Ameren. They hired me to take aerial photos of some Walmart parking lots in Missouri. I went up 2 or 3 times and found it really interesting. They even took me on a sort of tour of the city during one of the trips. This was when Busch Stadium was starting to be torn down for the new stadium.
Love this view of St. Louis.
Me and my equipment. I also went up in a Cessna a couple of times.
Nov. 24, 2005 was Thanksgiving and the kids came over to celebrate with us. This was before they took over the role of hosts.
They thought it would be fun to try a bunch of Jones "sodas". They made them in a bunch of Thanksgiving flavors like Turkey, and gravey, and brussel sprouts, ... .
Needless to say, they were disgusting.
even gagging.
on a finer note----
The weekend after Thanksgiving, Ken and I headed to the Lake for a week on an RCI extra vacation to Port Elsewhere.
We had the place pretty much to ourselves this time of year---which was great.
Loved the heated pool and jacuzzi as well as the fishing right there.
Xmas Eve at our house.
MaryAnn looking through the calendar I made her. It had become a thing that everyone seemed to enjoy looking through. Although the kids never wanted to see their boyfriends or girlfriends in the calendar because that would mean a sure breakup.
But that was after ours had already met their soul mates.
Opening presents with just our family.
I also had more annoying problems with work. A new sports pak photog was hired and I was assigned to train him. Spending so much time with him and his annoying behavior, I found out he was making less than me per hour, but given a minimum amount of hours that was about 8 hours more than I got! So I was not happy and ready to quit again. Dave Condit found out about it and said he was going to take care of it. The head boss, Desmond, called me and offered me $3/hour pay increase to stay on. So I did. I really didn't want to quit yet since winter meetings in San Diego were coming up and I wanted to go.
