Happy New Year! (2025 in review)

Dear family and friends, I hope you have all enjoyed this holiday season and that this finds you well. 

This past year was a challenging and difficult year as a federal employee, but I am so grateful beyond words for my friends and colleagues at work as we sustained and supported each other and accomplished incredible work throughout the year. I am also very grateful to all of you family and friends for your love and friendship and support. So even though this was a very hard year for me professionally, this year was also full of love and laughter and friendship and fun and adventure - and bald eagles🦅😊.

January: Ringing in the new year as a leprechaun (getting a head start for March? 🤣)

 

February: Cooking dinner for my parents

February: Near the southern part of the Sierra Nevada range in Inyokern, CA

February: Having fun in the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, CA

February: Perfect view of Mt. Whitney from VRBO home in Lone Pine, CA (this never gets old 😍)

March: Chapultepec Castle in Mexico City
(field trip during J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Conference)

March; Women in Law, Mexico City
(J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Conference)

March: In my role as JRCLS Service Chair, presenting the Franklin S. Richards Service Award
(J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Conference, Mexico City)

March: All attendees of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Annual Conference, on the steps of the Mexico City LDS Temple
(I'm in the front row, 3rd from left)

March: New piano on my birthday!

March: Birthday cake with family

I have to include these next few eagle photos because during this past year I obsessively followed the bald eagles in Big Bear Lake, California on live cams on YouTube. (Parents Jackie and Shadow, and eaglets Sunny and Gizmo.) These are screenshots from early March and mid-May (Sunny and Gizmo fledged in early June). 

Gizmo (L), Sunny (R)

Sunny (L), Gizmo (R), and Jackie (mom)

Whole family on the nest!
(Sunny in front; Jackie and Shadow in the back, and Gizmo on right)

Gizmo (L), Sunny (R)

April: Just another day at the office 😊

April: Easter bunnies with my niece

 

April: Easter Bunnies with my sister Christina

May: Work trip with colleagues, visiting Morrow Point Dam
(part of the federal Aspinall Unit on the Gunnison River, CO)

This past June, Stretch Armstrong (ska band from Provo that my brother Dave was in as the drummer in the early 90s to early 2000s) had a reunion concert of sorts at ForkFest in American Fork, so these next few photos were from that night. It was an incredible night of reunions and memories and amazing music!!

Dave, center back on drums

Dave on drums

June: Utah Symphony concert (It was wonderful to attend many concerts this past year)

June: Welcoming home my niece Piper as she returned from her LDS mission in Singapore

In June I also had my 30th High School reunion at Mountain View High School in Orem, UT. It was truly amazing to see old friends that I haven't seen in a long time, and we just picked up where we left off. I am so grateful for all my wonderful friends and the old memories we shared and for the new ones we created that night. 

These are some of my friends I've known the longest - so special to all be together

We had a huge turnout, but almost everyone had gone home by the time we thought of doing a group photo (duh), so these are the last few of us who stayed late - the cool kids ha! (I'm in front on far right)
M V H S -  MVHS the best!

July: Family at the Draper, UT LDS temple

August: I taught Water Law as an Adjunct Professor at BYU Law this past semester from August to December. This was my classroom.

September: First time at Wrigley Field! AMAZING experience! 

September: Meeting up with my friend Jodi, who was managing the Happy Days actors at FanX in Salt Lake City

September: Photo op with The Fonz, Henry Winkler, at FanX

October: With my friends Elizabeth (L) and Angel (R) at the J. Reuben Clark Law Society Leadership Conference at Aspen Grove, UT

During the JRCLS Leadership Conference, I finished my two-year term as Chair of the International Service Committee.

 

In October we had a mom/sisters gathering (with a cameo appearance from our brother John😀)

All wearing hats that Bec crocheted for us 🥰
(L-R: Amanda, Mom, Mary, Bec, Christina, Erin, Susannah)

L-R: Erin, Bec, John, Susannah, Amanda, Christina

L-R: Amanda, Christina, Susannah, Bec, Mom, John, Erin

November: Visiting the St. Francis Dam site near Santa Clarita, CA
 Worst dam failure in US history in 1928. See HUGE concrete section of dam behind me, about a mile downstream of dam site.

November: Welcoming home my niece Ellis as she returned from her LDS mission in Taiwan

November: With Dad at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT

November: With family at Temple Square, Salt Lake City, UT

December: Frosting Christmas cookies!

December: On the banks of the Los Angeles River, Lake Balboa Park, CA

December: Ringing a very special bell and giving angels their wings over the graves of Jimmy Stewart, his wife Gloria, and their son Ronald 
Forest Lawn, Glendale, CA

And so with that, as 2025 sunsets and we ring in the new year, I am so grateful to all of you, and I wish you all more love and laughter and friendship and fun and adventures in 2026! 

love,

Susannah