Highlights of 2007

The year of 2007 flew by (as always). We started the year with tons of snow in Colorado and Kevin had a quite good winter of snow boarding. Poor me, I started managing a Japanese restaurant in downtown Boulder in February as a manager quit out of the blue, and became extremely busy so I missed a big part of the season of boarding.

Kevin and his buddy,Max challenged an 12-hr adventure race in Moab in March for the second time and they got the 3rd in two person category! It was mountain biking, trail running, rapelling and kayaking - they finished in just over 7 hrs.

After this race, Kevin had a range of bike races all through the summer till August and his favorite race was “Ride the Rockies” in June with his Dad, a bike event which goes through the towns of Rocky Mountains up and down for an entire week (about 450 miles and 24,000ft elevation/climbing). They came home quite skinny and tanned a week later! They enjoyed it so much and it became a great Father’s Day present!

I had a stressful period managing the restaurant for 4 months and right at the time when I was starting to look for the exit for a new career, one of the loyal customers of the restaurant who is a respected doctor in the town recruited me to run his health consulting office. He is an ER doctor at the Boulder Community Hospital and this is his side business which has a very unique concept of the medical care. It’s a privileged members only practice for whom have ongoing issues which requires a lot of research, who want to have a complete care including diet and exercise from the doctor who really trust. I am learning a lot about medication, diseases, hormones, etc. and feel so lucky to be able to work for someone like him.

Kevin’s company became a part of HP a year ago and now he’s a manager of a team of 14 people around the US and he helps to manage a team of 45 sales people. His office in Boulder was the only remaining office from the Mercury days and finally shut down at the end of November. He works from home now and also goes to a small office in downtown Boulder which he rents with his boss.

We made our first trip to Hawaii together in April and we fell in love with the islands. We were in Maui for 6 days for Kevin’s company award trip and extended our trip a few days to spend some time with Kevin’s cousin Marc, his wife Cindy and their cute daughter Maya in Honolulu. We both thought Hawaii was a great blend of American culture and Japanese culture with an easygoing island mood! Kevin picked up surfing by getting great lessons from his coworkers and Marc in both islands.

Another memorable trip we made was Napa Valley and Yosemite in September with good friends of ours, Matt and Nicky, the South African couple we met in London.Nicky’s Mom, her brother Giles and his girlfriend LeAnne came along and we enjoyed great food & wine and a bit of adventure hiking to the top of Half Dome, and of course the great company! (You can view more pictures in this blog – check the end of September)

The biggest purchase of the year was 25 acres of land with two other couples! The land lays in the middle of national forest land, has a creek going through it with some waterfalls and you can ski from the top of the bowl right by! We’re going to build a log cabin next summer mostly by ourselves!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and all the happiness for 2008!