Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We hope this letter finds you and your loved ones well! Devon and I and the boys are doing great. The end of this year is definitely more to celebrate than the beginning of this year was! 2009 began with Devon thousands of miles, countries, and an ocean away from his family! He was serving in Iraq as a Military Police Officer. He was (and is) happy to serve this country that he loves, but being apart is never easy. He came home early in June and we were certainly happy to be reunited.

The beginning of this year landed me in Cold Spring, MN. So while Devon was sweating it out in the desert – I was turning into ice during the coldest week that Cold Spring had all season. The temperature didn’t reach above 0 degrees F until I was driving to the airport to leave! Who sends anyone to MN in January??? Work made up for it in March by sending me to So Cal where I made a point of taking a trip to the beach one evening and enjoying some not-so cold weather! Travels for work also took me to Lithia Springs, GA, Dallas, TX, Bradenton, FL and Chicago, IL many, many times. Luckily I had friends to watch my boys while we were both away at the same time.
When I was home without Devon I filled my time with hosting casual dinners as I have found that I really love cooking! I also made sure I went to the temple several times –thanks to an amazing group of women at Church I often had friends to go with. I was able to go to the temple at least 7 times this year and hope to go at least one more time than that next year.
Since Devon came home in June the last half of our year has been pretty full with road trips – oh, and moving yet again.
Our fourth house in four years of marriage! Unlucky for us, the owner of the house we were renting returned home and wanted to move back in to his house…so we were booted. We had 30 days to find another residence and we were lucky to actually purchase a house we really like in so short a time.
Our first road trip was to Arkansas to visit Devon’s dad and his new wife, Barbara. We had a great time seeing family, meeting new family, swimming and horseback riding.

We then had the opportunity to attend a marriage retreat at a resort in San Antonio. With free food, fun, advice and comfortable beds – we couldn’t help but have a great time!
My sister Amber and I had planned a family reunion for the Cooper (our mom’s) side of the family in Reno, NV. So we decided that our annual road trip could precede the reunion. I was just glad Devon got to join us this year! We flew into Reno and drove directly to San Francisco. We had the opportunity to rent Go Cars. Renting a Go Car is by far the best way to tour SF and we would recommend them to anyone. (No I did not get paid to say that). But we were able to see so much more without being slowed down by the stories we didn’t want to hear. The weather was beautiful. Of course we took the time to see Alcatraz and the famous Pier 39 as well.

After a few days fun in SF we headed back to Reno where I was able to see family I had not seen in close to a decade and Devon was able to meet some of my family that he had never met before. We stayed with my grandma and I learned where I got my Game Show Network addiction as the TV was seldom on any other channel. Devon on the other hand enjoyed taking Pixie for walks around the apartment complex. J We also really appreciated the family history research that my Aunt Becky did and the time she took to put a Cooper History folder together for each of us to take home. In fact, it gave me the push I needed to start getting more involved in Family History research and I have found once you get started that hobby can be very addicting! All in all our trip to Reno was extremely enjoyable and we find ourselves wanting to return!

We are staying home for the holidays this year. We had the pleasure of having a Thanksgiving dinner with friends who were also staying home for that holiday. My dad is traveling down right before Christmas to spend some time with us and we look forward to his visit, but otherwise Christmas will be very quiet!
We found out that Devon has little over a year until he is scheduled to deploy again so we plan to continue the fun throughout 2010 until the time he has to leave us again. We hope fun is in store for you too!
We hope to hear from you and learn about your 2009. We wish you a very Merry Christmas and hope that 2010 brings with it much joy for you and your family!
With love, Devon, Sarah, Jonas & Scout Lowery ~ 2009