HAPPY NEW YEAR! January 1, 2003

We hope your holiday time was as wonderful as ours. We enjoyed staying home and being with family. We knew we had a lot of friends that moved during the year, but didn’t truly realize it until the week before Christmas. One day we had 10 cards arrive from people that had moved out of state! It is great to hear from everyone.

We took some fun trips this year. We started the year 2002 with a trip to Oceanside, CA. We visited Legoland, The Wild Animal Park, and Seaworld in San Diego. The crowds were light so there were few lines. In April we drove to Oregon and stayed at a condo on the coast. The kids loved this since there were TWO indoor swimming pools at the resort. We visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory and headed to Portland to visit some friends.

But our big news is the additions to our family. No, not babies……..but chickens! We went to the County Fair during the Ludlow Family reunion in July and brought home 4 “teenage” chickens. We are very excited about the eggs they have started to lay. Michael decided they finally deserved something other than a box to live in and built them a chicken house where they can roost and stay out of the bad weather.

As for our other children:

Alysoun is quickly headed to 14 and high school (AAAHHHHHHHHHH!) She was in her drama class production of Oliver! in December. She loves to draw and is in chorus at school. She has sung a few times for church and is cool as can be when performing in front of everyone. She still laments for a trip to Hawaii.

David continues to loves sports. He didn’t play basketball this year but is looking forward to taking golf lessons so he can golf with his dad. He loved going to a local high school football game and riding on a tractor with my Uncle Mike up in WA. David still laments for a Nintendo even though we have a Dreamcast.

Kara enjoys second grade. She is working hard at reading and is great at art and math. Kara loves to go on any trip as long as a swim pool is involved. She learned to ride her bike without training- wheels. She also takes good care of her bunny, Pepper. Kara laments the fact that 10 Good Behavior Stars doesn’t earn her a trip to Hawaii.

Tyler is still Tyler, just bigger! He climbs (the rock wall at the fair). He jumps (off the diving board at the pool). He races (his 2-wheeler with no training wheels). All of this while his mom watches in fear and awe. He was excited to learn hopscotch at pre-school. Tyler laments nothing. The world is his bowl of cherries and there are NO PITS.

Michael and Laurie are hanging in there. Michael works from home most of the time, going into his Burlingame office once or twice a week. The only problem being at home is sometimes it is hard to know when his workday ends. 2002 was a tough year for high-tech sales and things were a bit tighter than we have been used to. Luckily we followed the counsel of church leaders and cut down our debt early in the year. We made it through thanks to some previous good decisions and positive business partnerships with his brother-in-law. Michael laments that he will not be in Hawaii with this year’s President’s Club, but is looking forward to a more prosperous year in 2003.

Laurie is trying to keep it all together. Although the kids help, she usually is the one that cleans the bunny cage and locks the chickens in at night. Of course, these new duties are on top of the laundry and dishes that seem to multiply like the fishes and loaves! Laurie is also the Young Women’s leader at Church and loves working with the youth. She hopes to continue in this capacity after all the new ward boundary and leadership changes happen. If not, she is happy to serve wherever she is needed. She is becoming more computer literate every day and loves her high-speed Internet connection. Laurie laments that another year has gone by without finishing the landscaping and getting new rain gutters.

We are happy and healthy and know we are blessed. We wish you the best in 2003… a new year full of fun, love, success and happiness!

With love,

The Ludlows

www.ludlowfamily.com Michael@theludlows.com Laurie@theludlows.com