We sure have had some big years lately, but this one tops them all! We’ve been blessed in so many ways that it will be hard to fit it all into one Christmas letter. Fortunately, though, it’s quite easy to know where to start: 10:46 pm on March 19th.
That’s when our son, Caden Allen Long, was born. He was 7 lbs., 13 oz. and 19 ½ inches long—just a little tyke!
From that moment he has filled our lives with excitement and wonder. It’s amazing to watch him develop his abilities and his curiosity about the world around him. And he’s already seen so much of that world, too. We have taken him with us to Oregon, northern Idaho, Nevada, Ohio, Utah, and Washington DC.
In a car or a plane he is a great little traveler, and recently, at eight and a half months, he started crawling all over the house, so he’s doing some traveling of his own now, too!
Sadly, we spent our last summer at the Starkey Experimental Forest outside of La Grande, Oregon this year. It was the final field season of Ryan’s Ph.D. project, and what a great field season it was. Having the baby with us made our little cabin a much more attractive vacation destination, and nearly all of our family visited at some point. As a bonus, Ryan’s dad got to help capture several elk calves during his visit, and Kathleen’s Aunt and Uncle were able to visit from Mississippi.
Baby Saw-whet Owl
In addition
to all the cool stuff we always get to see and experience there, we also had a few
extras this year: a fledgling northern saw-whet owl,
a goshawk, and a mountain lion. Unfortunately, the mountain lion was the only
thing we weren’t able to get a picture of.
All in all though, it was another very successful (Ryan was able to
radio-collar 19 more elk calves) and enjoyable summer in the Blue
Mountains with our new little boy. We’re going to miss it there.
That said, our next big adventure is now before us, and although it’s
still a bit surreal, we’re extremely excited about it! The question of what
comes next for us when Ryan finishes his Ph.D. this spring was answered in the
early fall, when Ryan accepted a 3-year position as a post-doctoral research
scientist at Princeton University. A post-doc position like this is the final
career step prior to a full-time faculty job, and this particular position is better
than anything we could have hoped for. During our time there Ryan will be
fulfilling a life-long dream by taking the lead on a major large mammal
research project in Africa! So, early next
summer the three of us will be moving to the east coast, and then for 6 months
each in 2014 and 2015 we’ll be living at a research station in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique (www.gorongosa.org/),
where Ryan will be conducting research on several species of African antelope.
It’s destined to be an experience we’ll never forget, and we’re both very
grateful to have been blessed with such an amazing opportunity.
The 2012 hunting season was also one for the record
books, and included a couple of unprecedented accomplishments.
First, Ryan and
his dad both shot elk with their bows for the first time ever (a beautiful
6-point for Ryan and a really nice 5-point for his dad), so we have another
year’s supply of lean healthy meat in the freezer.
Second, Ryan also shot a
small blacktail buck with his dad during Oregon’s
late archery season, making it the first time he’s ever killed a deer and an
elk in the same year. So, we’ve been blessed with more than enough meat this
year to feed ourselves and share with others, which we’re extremely thankful
for.
Well, I think that’s about
it. It has been a good year and
God has blessed us very much! We hope you truly enjoy the holidays, and have a
very happy New Year!
(Yes I realize I'm posting a Christmas Letter in April, but I've got a one-year-old to deal with. Take what you can get.)
