Post by Elsa

Hi All,

This is a good idea. I enjoyed reading Erin's update and seeing the pictures.

Jeff and I had a very nice wedding on Vashon thanks to help from many of you. We are currently in the process of go through all the photos and once we have scaled it down a little bit, we will post them somewhere on-line for you to all look at. Also, we do have videos from the wedding and they came out pretty good too. I'll try to find a good place to post those, for anyone who may be interested.

You may have noticed that I took Jeff's last name, but didn't totally drop Laughlin. My new name is Elsa Laughlin Hay with Laughlin being my middle name.

After the wedding, we went to Kauai for the Honeymoon. It was a nice way to relax. We also did some hiking and here is a picture of Jeff after a very muddy hike. Jeff talked with a lot of people on the trails because everyone kept asking him about his Five-Finger Shoes, the ones that look like gloves for your feet.

On Labor Day weekend, we adopted a dog from the pound. His name is Charlie. The pound thought he was a Bernese Mountain Dog and Rottweiler mix but other people think he might be a Border Collie and Pitbull mix. Here is a picture, so you can see what you think. He is about 7 years old and overall is a well behaved dog. We are currently training him to leave my cat Simon alone... it is a slow process.

Ellie, Jeff's daughter, is in the 7th grade and stays with us everyother weekend and on Tuesday evenings. She plays violin in her school orchestra, takes jazz dance classes, and plays soccer. Ellie brings her dog Lucy with her when she comes over and all of us have been going to a dog training class together. We are hoping that old dogs can learn new tricks.

Jeff is currently looking for work as a database administrator. If you happen to hear of somone needing a DBA, let us know. Luckily, my work seems pretty stable right now. I've been working at Novo Nordisk at their Seattle "Inflammation Research Center" in the South Lake Union area since Janurary and really like it. I do Immunology research on human cells looking at molecules that may have an effect on inflammation.

Well, I think that's it for me for now. I look forward to hearing from everyone.

I am in

Holy cow! I actually got registered! Now the fun begins. We just got back from helping Troy and Erin get their new house ready. I want to tell you - it got a complete makeover! We got most of the stuff moved in before we had to leave. It was grueling, but fun to see how much we accomplished.

We stayed with Mart, and had fabulous dinners each night. Our weather was great also. Now, it's back to work in Juneau! Linda

RE: Let us Hear From You!!!

Hey Family,

This Blog was set up to let us know what's going on in your life. Just post any old thing and we'd all love to hear from you. I know Kelly and Shawn have recently gotten engaged, Eric and Alice are pregnant, Annica just started school at the Art Institute of Seattle. Let us hear from you. We are interested in knowing what you are up to.....

Update on Kid Happenings

Well I guess I had better be the first to write a real post since there seems to be so much going on right now. Last week Cayley campaigned for and won the election for Student Council Secretary at her school, Scenic Park. For those of you who don't know, she is a fifth grader this year. Cayley is like her great uncle Jim (if I remember correctly) in that if she sees or hears discussions about blood she goes pale and limp and faints. This has already happened once this year when Cayley's health class was discussing the transmittal of HIV through, you guessed it, blood. She passed out and had to be practically carried to the nurse's office. Well apparently this worked in her favor during the election as Cassidy stood up in front of her third grade class and stated that her sister was running for school secretary and that her sister was "the girl who fainted in health class." That won Cayley almost all of the votes in Cassidy's class. So, I guess it pays to be a fainter.......sometimes.

On Friday during a completely miserable rain storm in the searingly cold weather Cayley and Cassidy ran in the elementary school-wide cross-country jamboree. That's them in the picture before they ran their races and received their medals. They enjoyed the race and the organizers don't keep score so I can't report on race results.

Charlytte is in seventh grade this year at Begich Middle School. This is her second year playing the flute. This week she earned first chair in her band class. For those who are unfamiliar that means she is the number one player. She is very excited and this means her hard work practicing has paid off so we are going to celebrate this terrific accomplishment with her soon. She gets to choose what we do for an evening's entertainment.

Charlytte has also started working out with Troy in the evenings. They go to the gym and do cardio a few times a week and lift weights three times a week. Charlytte is hoping to lose some weight and get stronger.

I know the post title says "kid happenings" but I suppose I have to say that I am finally on the home stretch for finishing my Master's degree in biological anthropology. Gee, it's only been 3 years already. I just received my list of 12 questions to study for my comprehensive exams. After I take the exams all I have to do is analyze the collection of skeletons in the Fish and Wildlife Lab and write it up and FINALLY I will be done with that damn degree! I have the partial remains of about 20 adults, juveniles, and infants in the lab so it should be an interesting analysis. I'll keep everyone posted about that.

Oh yeah and there is Christina. Out of sight but not out of mind. Christina is working hard down in Durango at Fort Lewis College. I think she is enjoying her time there although she complains that there are no cool people to hang out with down there. Apparently there are 13,500 uncool people in Durango so if any of you are planning vacations there soon. Forget it. We are bringing her up for Christmas break so we are really looking forward to that.

The photos are from a trip to Albuquerque Christina and I took together in April. We visited the El Morro National Monument with Bob. The first picture is of a petroglyph. It cracks me up because of the way the petroglyphs always depict a person running. It's as if they are running at full-speed with no need to touch the ground (or something to that effect). Of course Christina proves that people really do look like that when they run.

By the way, WHAT is that thing between the runner's legs? Really, was that petroglyph chiseled into the rock by a man with a huge ego or what?