Dear Friends and Family,

'Tis the season to celebrate for the Prices. We have two weddings this holiday season. Krey married Lindy Dory on November 29th and Kerrie will marry Neal Davis on December 27th. Both weddings are in Utah so the three of us at home (Mom, Dad and Kevin) are flying out to Utah and back for Thanksgiving and again for Christmas. Then everyone will come back here to Michigan for a combined open house on January 3rd. It is making for some crazy schedules, but then that's what life is all about... Kristina has been complaining for some time that her kids have no cousins to play with. Now maybe they'll have some company. With Kevin leaving next year, we are trying to look at our changes as a "time of harvest" instead of an "empty nest."

The "Price Thespians" appeared in our community theater production of Fiddler on the Roof in July. Kent and Kevin had major parts and we all got to sing and dance. All three of us also did the 5-mile Buck Creek Run. Kevin did fine but in deference to Mom & Dad, we'll forgo the detailed statistics. Our travels included a trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls with Dorota Nurek, the daughter of a family we met in Poland in 1980. Dorota was in the states as an exchange student in Illinois. Then in June, the two of us went to Arizona on a business trip and were able to visit Krey in Tempe (what an amazing world of rocks and cactus and adobe!) and take a side excursion to the Grand Canyon. And in August, as usual, it was back to Utah for reunions with the Prices and Kreys. Our family picture, taken at the Price reunion proved prophetic - for at the time, we didn't realize that Neal and Lindy would become permanent parts of the family yet this year.

Kevin (17) - An awesome senior with an awesome schedule. He continues with cross country, track, Grand Rapids Youth Symphony, homecoming court, BPA, National Honor Society, early morning seminary, etc. Music seems to be coming to the forefront - he wowed the school at the talent show with a rendition of Piano Man, playing the piano, the harmonica and singing at the same time. He was also the lead in the school musical Anything Goes and played the trombone solo for the marching band show. And he sings, plays keyboard, electric guitar and trumpet in a local band - they even get paid for their gigs! He was away more than at home this last summer at youth conference, music camps, Boys State, and serving on the leadership staff at an LDS Boy Scout encampment (over 600 scouts there). In between, he managed a couple of weeks of work for a landscaping company.

Kerrie (20) - is in her junior year at BYU and is soon to become Mrs. Neal Davis. It's the "old familiar story." She met Neal in her BYU ward and, after a whirlwind of shared activities - guitar classes, singing, hiking, skiing, flying and running a marathon together, they were engaged in September and will be married December 27th in the Salt Lake Temple. Kerrie plans to graduate in dietetics and Neal is considering medical school so there may be a lot of schooling yet ahead.

Kamber (23) - is our super student teacher. She spent this semester student teaching four physics classes at Orem High School and seems to have survived the experience. She plans to graduate in Physics and Music this coming year and is considering continuing on for a Master's degree. She is currently serving as Relief Society president in her student ward. As Kerrie's housemate and Relief Society president, she claims some credit for encouraging the Davis-Price partnership. To fill her spare (ha!) time, she held down a part time job driving a big BYU Laundry truck and managed to join Krey and Kerrie in running the St. George Marathon.

Krey (26) - ended his bachelor days on November 29th when he married Lindy Dory in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple in Utah. They met while Krey was doing his graduate work at U.C. Berkeley and the courtship continued through job moves to California and Arizona. On the way home from the August family reunions they had a near-fatal auto accident. It is considered a miracle that Krey still has his head intact and that Lindy can walk. The experience only brought them closer and they became engaged in September. They will be settling in the Phoenix area where Krey will continue his position as a civil engineer working on flood control projects.

Kristina (28) and Karl Shurts - became "real people" this year. Karl graduated with his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and accepted a wonderful job in information technology with Intel Corporation in Portland, Oregon. They have a house, a mini-van, four beautiful tow-headed children (who speak German and English), and a mom who is the new Primary president at church. You can't get much more "real" than that. (But you could live a little closer to grandparents, however...)

Keena - has decided that no one else is allowed to leave home. It's going to be quite a shock coming home from BYU next summer, having left our "number last" there and returning to our big, empty house. In the meantime, Keena keeps busy teaching early morning seminary and was able to go to the CES teachers' symposium at BYU last summer. She is still working with Kent as stake young single adult advisor and has her part time job at the Red Cross working with senior health programs. For adventure, she completed a lifeguard training course so she could be the waterfront director at a girls camp that ended up getting canceled. She also took a trip to Texas to watch three active grandchildren while Kristina and Karl found their dream house in Oregon.

Kent - continues on as Vice President of Success Financial Group and enjoys teaching classes and doing investment consulting. He has spent a lot of time on the Gearmaster in the last few weeks and is nearing completion of negotiations to sell it to a major truck engine manufacturer (see * below). In the church, he is counselor to the full time mission president, continues to serve with Keena as advisor to the stake young single adults and teaches a weekly Sunday school class. Besides Fiddler, a highlight of the year was singing in the "core" chorus for a major production of Verdi's opera AIDA - 450 performers and over 9000 people in the audience for one performance - what a thrill. Also some great musical experiences singing with the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus. Hobby and flying wise, Kent traded in his old Ultralight for a powered paraglider (think of parasailing but instead of a boat pulling you, you have a backpack motor and propeller pushing you; also see * below). At Grandville High School's homecoming football game, he flew over the field, dropped the game ball with a parachute to the referee waiting below and then turned around and landed in the middle of the field. The crowd loved it... and, well, so did Kent...

Well, it has been a good year. We celebrated our 30th anniversary in August and are more in love than ever. We count among our greatest blessings our friends and loved ones and hope that this letter finds you all well and happy. We send, as always, our

Love and best wishes,

Kent and Keena Price
Kristina and Karl Shurts +4,
Krey & Lindy, Kami, Kerrie & Neal, Kevin

Fax: 616-538-3945
e-mail: khprice@aol.com
web: http://www.iserv.net/~khprice

* PS: For further information and pictures of our family, the kids, our activities (paragliding, gearmaster), etc., check out our web page. It's pretty basic now, but we will be updating and adding to it as time goes on. Note that last year we had a mistake in the address and so you couldn't find it. The above address is correct. Sorry about that.