Holiday Greetings to one and all – here is  2022 update from the Evans Family.

Zack

Our oldest has been clowning around the Pacific Northwest since moving to Portland in 2020. He spent the first half of the year living in Beaverton and working on the customer care team at Columbia Sportswear. He enjoyed helping people, but wasn’t entirely satisfied helping people find the right pair of hiking boots. He also missed his friends. In June, Zack moved back to Portland, into a gorgeous craftsman in the Alberta Arts District. He now has five loving roommates—two 30 year olds, an 18 year old, a 9 year old, and a very talkative dog—and he is grateful for the unique perspectives shared in his multi-generational home. Zack quickly found work at Portland’s premier jazz club, the 1905, and considers himself lucky to be paid to listen to world class musicians every week. Meanwhile, he prepared to return to school and pursue a counseling license. After a five-year academic hiatus, Zack enrolled full time at Portland State University in the fall and is excited to have finished his first term. Channeling his parents, Zack traveled twice during the term—once to Denver for a bachelor party and once to Arkansas for a wedding—and in between fought off several weeks of covid or covid adjacent illness. Despite obstacles and awkward transitions, Zack finished with almost all A’s, and is confident he’ll do even better next term now that he’s adjusted. He expects to receive his bachelor’s degree next fall, and has goals for more travel and a master’s degree, in that order. We all very much look forward to his continued accomplishments.

 

Grant and Lauren

Our middle child, Grant, has been living in Seattle since 2014. He works as a Software Engineer at Microsoft working in their internal Finance organization. He enjoys the challenge and appreciates the fact that he is able to build things with his mind every day. Within the last year he has led and released two new financial applications for internal Microsoft employees, and has begun the development of a third. Grant works from home, and over the last two years has outfitted his office into something he would be reluctant to ever give up. He lives with his lovely girlfriend of three years, Lauren, and their two cats, Obi and Neo. Lauren is currently a nurse at the Seattle Children’s Hospital and is pursuing her Doctorate in Nursing Practice at the University of Washington. Obi and Neo make sure to keep the two of them very busy in their downtime. Although he is getting tired of the cold and rainy Pacific Northwest winters, he always looks forward to the pristine summers in Seattle. Once Lauren has completed her degree in 2024, they plan to break from the PNW and see where life takes them.

 

Drew and Emily

Drew and Emily found themselves living in the lush greenery of Kauai, Hawaii, for the past year and some change. With Drew working as a Production Analyst for the largest coffee plantation in the U.S., and Emily working as a Seed Biologist for the National Tropical Botanical Garden, they both pursued their passions in paradise. Adjusting from the college lifestyle, to the covid lifestyle, to the island lifestyle proved to be interesting and filled with growth. Drew picked up the hobby of body-surfing as much as he could, while sticking with his roots of video games and music. Emily continues to hike (and beg Drew to come along), crochet, and make new connections. Starting in the new year, Drew will move back to the Bay Area (and in with the parents) full-time, searching for a new in-person job in a similar data facing role. Emily is sticking back in Hawaii, with visits planned for the both of them. He is happy to be returning to good food, live music, and Rocco & Scar, but will miss the 80 degree days, non-wetsuit required ocean and Emily!

 

Claudia

Claudia continues to live and work as an English language assistant in Granada, Spain. She spent her first year there working with high school aged kids, and has since transitioned to working in a primary school, which means she’s getting pretty great at Simon Says (or Simón Dice in Spanish). She keeps herself busy by giving private English lessons to different families in the city, attending language exchanges, seeing live music, going out for tapas with friends, acting as a tour guide when her friends and family come to visit, and of course traveling. After her school year ended towards the beginning of June, she embarked on a six-week European adventure — spending the first half of the trip with friends and meeting up with Karen for the second half of it. After visiting almost 20 cities in that short span of time, she was still unable to squash her travel bug. She went to LA in September to spend time with her friends from LMU before heading to Hawaii to meet up with Grant and Andrew (leaving her with great memories and a less great scar on her knee from their surf lesson). She is excited to spend a couple weeks at home for the holidays before heading back to Spain.

Karen’s Side of the Family

Dick Weisbaum (Papa) continues living on his own in Sedona.  We had the good fortune of connecting with him in Palm Springs, Maui and Portland so far this year; he will join us for Christmas in Orinda.  We also connected with Karen’s brother Bruce and SIL Courtney in Portland for Thanksgiving.

 

Marc’s Side of the Family (aka Big Family)

No increase in size this year – we are currently at 21 that includes my sisters, their spouses, children and grandchildren.  Most of the family got together in Santa Barbara in March for Rose’s 13th birthday party – planned by her 10 year-old Sister Bea (2 of Robin’s grand-daughters).  We also connected in August for a family birthday in Castro Valley at Kevin & Tina’s (Steve & Joanne’s son).

Youngest Niece Alison with her daughter (youngest Great Niece Hopie):

Here is a link to a Flickr Photo Album with videos of us playing Fruit Rollup Challenge in Santa Barbara:

Karen

 

Karen continues to manage her severe back pain by walking, shopping, live entertainment, and travel.  This year she went to Palm Springs, Aruba, Granada, Seville, Cadiz (Spain), Las Vegas, Europe (Munich, Salzburg, Hallstatt, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Zurich, Zermatt, Lake Como, Venice, Slovenia, Zagreb, Plitvices Lakes, Split, Dubrovnik, Santorini, and Athens), Reno, Colorado (Grand Junction & Denver), Maui, and Portland.

Her favorite music show this year was Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars & Anderson Paak) in Vegas; she also saw Bonnie Rait, Jack Johnson and Elvis Costello at venues in the Bay Area.  She also goes to SF Broadway Shows and Golden State Warriors games.  Finally, she recently saw Michelle Obama.  Yes, Marc has a difficult time keeping up with Karen.

Marc