ALOHA! In 2007, we decided that we will stay in Hawaii when we finally retire and wanted to downsize from our large home to a condo. We bought a nice condo in Waikiki in May 07, but the sale of our home dragged out until November, when we could finally relax.

Our daily lives are pretty routine. Mark still works for Lockheed Martin and threatens to buy a set of golf clubs some day. Mimi is a USO volunteer assisting military family travelers and helping to send off and welcome home our troops who are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

This past April, we went to Italy (Mimi's 1st time, my 2nd) to visit Mark Jr. and Tricia, spending time with them in Naples where Mark was on the US Navy 6th Fleet staff. We also visited Florence, Sienna, Pisa and Rome, enjoying the people and the architecture and museums. Tricia was happily pregnant with their first child, Francesca Sophia, born June 5th.

In June we flew to Boise, Idaho for Marcy's sister-in law's wedding. We flew Mark's girls from his first marriage (Savannah-15 and Taylor-12) in to spend time with their cousins and the extended family, and had a nice side trip with the girls to Yellowstone National Park, seeing buffalo, grizzly bears and moose. Mark had planned a big trip (solo) to China, Hong Kong and Okinawa during the August Beijing Olympics but Mimi had a respiratory illness flare up and he settled for watching the spectacle on TV, while Mimi got better.

Mark Jr. and Tricia returned from Italy in August and we flew to Pittsburgh in September to join with the Sirianni family for Francesca's baptism. It was a great time, reconnecting with Tricia's family and our cousin, Father Tom Talentino, who married them in 2003 and came in from Calgary, Canada to do the baptism. Afterwards, we flew to Colorado Springs for Mark's 40th class reunion at the Air Force Academy, enjoying every minute (except losing the football game to the Naval Academy.) Mark even participated in a handstand contest with his gymnastics classmates and although he didn't win, he has committed to victory in 2013 at his 45th! One of our classmates is still flying the F-18 for NASA and did an air show for us! As we say: '68, Still Great!

We also visited there with Mark's mom, Ina, who is pretty healthy at 91 and living in an assisted living home in Colorado Springs. We just returned from a short stay in Las Vegas and will be with Marcy and Jack's family (Nico-8, Jack Jr-4 and Ryan-2) in Okinawa for Thanksgiving and with Mark and Tricia and the three girls in Washington DC for Christmas.