Season’s Greetings from the Tuutaus!
This has been an exciting year of changes and adventures for us and our little family. In June we said goodbye to the beach and moved from Santa Barbara to Salt Lake City. We put our stuff into storage, and after Daniel spent 2 ½ weeks in France, Brandy and the boys flew out to meet him and spent another 3 ½ weeks travelling all over Western Europe. We put over 4,400 miles on our rental car, and passed through 9 different countries! Literally the trip of a lifetime –especially taking 2 kids under 3yrs! We’re now in Salt Lake playing the waiting game while we try to buy house… yup, with the housing market being so low, even we can afford it. So, here’s a little what’s been going on with each of us:
Daniel graduated with a Master’s of Music degree in Vocal Performance in June. At the graduation he sang the national anthem with one of his classmates, and he was the first name to be called. He started at the University of Utah in August, working on a Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA… it’s like a PhD but more performance based than research based) in Vocal Performance. He’s loving the program, and being very successful. He has an assistantship as a member of the Graduate Vocal Quartet—a brand new ensemble created to do outreach and recruitment. He’s singing all over the place and loving it.
Brandy has had her hands full with two growing boys. She finished up her term as the Tenant’s Association President of Family Student Housing at UCSB. Her newest endeavor has been cake decorating. She started taking classes in Santa Barbara, and since moving to Utah she’s already done wedding cakes for two different friends! She has also made some awesome looking birthday cakes for different members of the family throughout the year.
John is a little ball of energy who’s always on the go. He has been having speech therapy since he turned two, and since his 3rd birthday in October, he started going to pre-school twice a week for a couple hours. The big school bus comes and picks him up every Monday and Wednesday (even though the school is only a mile and half away). He’s starting to speak a bit more now, and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Joshua celebrated his 1st birthday in Paris on August 1st. He decided to take a bit longer than his brother did to start walking, finally taking his first steps in October. But he almost has a full mouth of teeth at the age his brother got his first. He is finally starting to grow some hair (maybe next year we’ll be able to put him in a Halloween costume that doesn’t require a bald head), and he is always curious and adventurous!
So we hope your year has been as fun and exciting as ours has, and we hope that next year will be even better. Keep tabs on us by checking out our blog…
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