One of our favorite places to eat... Benihana!!!
A Haertl'y 2011 Christmas Greeting!! 
Christmas
greetings to friends and family! 2011 was a busy but good year
for us! Personal and professional travels took me on
incredible trips to Pennsylvania, Washington DC/ Maryland and
Park City Utah and our family traversed Wisconsin many times,
Fort Myers/ Sanibel Florida, and Puerto Rico. As Mikaela finishes
out her senior year earning high honors in education at St.
Catherine University, we wonder where the time has gone! She is now 21 but
most of the folks who card her think she is still about 15 :).
Dan continues active in his band and tennis, sometimes
teaching several hours at a time- most doctors would place him
at 15 years younger!:)Our parents aredoing well as Dan's mom will be 92 and at age 78 my dad rode the MS 150 with us this year (our Purple Pumpers team has now gone 15 times), and too, my good friend Chuck Christiansen invited us to dance in the American Occupational Therapy Foundation Dancing with the Stars held at our national conference in Philadelphia..what a blast!!!
One of our favorite places to eat... Benihana!!!
Dan with one of his
Tennis classes at the University
A little Croc in
the Everglades..
I took
these pics in the beautiful Fort Myers/ Sanibel Island Beaches!!
The above pictures were taken in Puerto Rico-- we stayed in a beautiful 4 star resort on the beach and just 1/2 mile from the El Yunque Rainforest
Exploring one of
the world's largest underground cave systems in Puerto Rico
<also kayaked in the glow in the dark biobays and hiked
in the rainforest>
Had an incredible time with good friends
at the SSO: USA conference in Park City Utah. ... Here I am just
getting ready to go hot air ballooning! Was able to check
number 9 off my 12 item bucket list.. what are the other items
you ask? : 1- Parasailing- (completed in Mx); 2- Bungee
Jumping (completed on Mt. Hood-Oregon); 3- Kayaking (several
places including the bioluminescent bay in Puerto Rico); 4-
white water rafting (various places including Colorado and the
Dominican Republic); 5- Mission trips (various, including two
that were a little longer to Mexico to build a laundry,
apartment and add to a church); 6- Making a difference in mental
health (believe I have but this is a life long goal); 7- Run a
marathon in memory of Brian (ah, what fun those marathons are!!-
last year the Twin Cities Marathon, this year we had a team and
shared in the fun at the Minneapolis marathon); 8- Dogsledding
(Mikaela and I went this year with will Steger's partner
<north of Duluth>; 9- Hot air ballooning in the mountains
(ah, beautiful Utah, got to go this year)! ... Still three
to go (sky dive, get to my 50th state <have been to all but
Alaska, will go there when I turn 50>; finish my book-
hopefully in 2014). If all goes well I will be done with
these by age 50--Mikaela says I need to come up with a new list
at that time :)
Catherine Sullivan and I presented our
research on the effects of dance on the elderly and on memory/
cognition/ movement, etc. ... It was featured in the AARP Bulletin (circulation of 22
million), if you are interested you can access it
here: