Merry Christmas

John, Miriam, Caleb, Jacob & Matthew Woods 2008

We send our love and blessings. In an effort to keep in

touch and share our lives with you - our friends and
family, we each chose an event that happened this past
year to share with you.

Thrilling Ride—Matthew (age 14)

Two whitewater rafting trips made for some thrilling
adventures. When I heard that we were going
whitewater rafting I was nervous because I had never gone before. Tennes-
see’s Ocoee River was redesigned for the 1996 Olympics Whitewater competition so it is "man
made". Our rafting experience was a non stop rollercoaster ride with huge rapids, deep-holes and lots of wa-
ter in the raft. Later in the summer in Colorado, the first
thing on my to do list was to go white water rafting again.
Thinking this would be like the Ocoee, I was surprised
because the rapids were short and far between. For a
thrilling ride, the Ocoee River is an amazing experience.

Rocky Mountain High - Miriam

One of our Rocky Mountain experiences included a strenu-
ous hike, magnificent views along with some disappoint- Rafting the Ocoee
ment. As a 13 year old girl, I climbed Mt. Yale with my
family but failed to reach the summit due to being scared by marmots which scurried around the rocks. This
year my goal was that our whole family would stand on top of the mountain, victoriously conquering the 14,194
foot Mt. Yale near Buena Vista, CO. Our continuous uphill hike began about 8:00am as we huffed and puffed
our way up the mountain, taking breaks as needed for everyone to stay together. Later we found out 8am was
not early – we should have started by 5 or 6am. “We can do this –
It’s not a race” was my motto. Four hours later we were above
tree line, amazed at the views of the surrounding mountain peaks,
enjoying the many wild flowers but still starring up at the summit
only about 45min. away. Dark storm clouds were rolling in and we
didn’t want to be the highest point on a mountain in a lightning
storm. Disappointedly we started down. Sure enough, a storm hit
with hail and thunder that you could feel in your chest since it
seemed only 25 feet away. It was a cold, wet two hour hike down.
Hot showers at our camp were such a blessing. Even though we
Hiking Mt. Yale weren’t at the summit, it was a Rocky Mountain High.

Weary Hikers - Caleb (age 18)

After we left Colorado and the cool crisp Rocky Mountains, we headed to the dry heat of Arizona and the
Grand Canyon. Surprisingly the Grand Canyon is quite an international hot spot with only one in three tourists
being American. Each morning and evening we went “Elk hunting” with our camera since the elk are protected
they freely roam the park. We were amazingly close to these huge animals. On our second morning, we
 started our hike into the canyon at 7:00 am. It’s a de-
ceptive hike, as it is easy going on the way down but hard
on the way out unlike our hike of Mt Yale the week be-
fore. By 10:30 we had reached Indian Gardens 4.9 miles
and 3,000 feet into the canyon where it was a scorching
105O. The hike back out took twice as long as the decent
in the hot Arizona sun. Thankfully there were two water
stops along the way to prevent us from getting dehy-
drated. While the views were amazing, this nine hour
hike would have been a good one to do in October not the
Grand Canyon
end of July. It is definitely an experience that won’t be
Jacob, Matthew, John & Caleb quickly forgotten by the weary hikers.

Amazing Transformation - John

Home Improvement 2008 actually started in October 2007 when we added four
large windows to our basement. Frustrating and seeming to take forever, the me-
chanical portion of the project dragged on as it was hard to see much progress. After: Rec Room

As the drywall, paint and carpeting were installed our dark, dreary 70’s style
basement amazingly transformed into a light, bright bedroom for Matthew and a
rec room the whole family can “hang out” in. Projects like this give me the chance
to work with my boys and give them some training in home improvement and re-
pair. Coming in 2009: roofing & siding (due to hail damage).

After: Matt’s Room

A Welcome Challenge - Jacob (age 17)
Exhaustion, pain, hard work, fun, describe a new experience I had this fall. This year Caleb and I played
football. This was a brand new experience. We played for a homeschool team, CHAP, Capital Homeschool
Athletic Program the same organization and with some of the
Jacob as quarterback
same guys that we play basketball with. I had no idea what ex-
haustion felt like until practice started in August. Most of our
team or those in the Christian Football League had never played
football before. Since we had such a small team – less than 20
guys, everybody had to play a lot. Caleb played offensive line and
defensive line and I played quarterback, safety, and kicker. Each
game was a challenge. Our record was 3 wins and 5 losses; if we’d
won our last game we would have made the playoffs. It was the
highlight of the year for me and I’m looking forward to playing
next year.

To see more of our family photos and videos from this past year visit:
http://woodsnewsletter.blogspot.com
We’d love to hear from you and hear about what is happening in your family this past year.
We pray God’s blessings would be poured out on your family this Christmas season.

Love,
John, Miriam, Caleb, Jacob & Matthew Woods
707 Cherry St., Charlotte, MI 48813, 517-543-5629, miriamwoods@cablespeed.com