World Travelers

In June of this year we set off on a very lengthy flight to Australia. Gillian and Logan flew from Tampa to Dallas where we met them and flew to LA. Then we all flew across the Pacific to Sydney Australia where we spent the night before departing for Perth, Western Australia. Meeting cousins and seeing Auntie Anne and Uncle Benny was "heaps of fun". We saw all kinds of unique animals (e.g., echidnas, wallabies, kookaburras, duck billed platypus, etc.) Liston played golf on a course inhabited by rather friendly kangaroos and Caroline got to hold a Koala (or should we say the Koala held her???). Side trips included trips to the South (to see where the Indian Ocean and Dunnsborough River meet), and a stopover in Sydney on the way home to see the Olympic Site and other wonders of Sydney.

Just when we were admiring our frequent flyer miles from the Australia trip, Liston's work required a trip to Great Britain. He went for 2 weeks and Caroline joined him for a week. While Liston was not working we saw castles, the British Railway museum, and lots of cute little shops in the town we were in. After Liston finished up his work, we headed for London and saw Windsor Palace (home of Queen Mary's Dollhouse), Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral (designed by Christopher Wren), Big Ben, the Crown Jewels, London Bridge, and took a ride on the River Thames. We took a day trip to see Bath and Stonehenge which were both quite amazing. We also took the Eurostar train through the Channel Tunnel from London to Paris and went to the top of the Eiffel Tower as well as strolling along the Seine and visiting Notre Dame.

A few Visitors

Our friends Lili and Jason surprised us this Spring when they came for a few days over their Spring Break. We had a blast showing them around Dallas and just visiting and catching up. Who would have thought the next time we saw each other we would all be expecting babies. We also had a welcome visit from Mike Volpe during June just prior to him leaving the country for a while. We enjoyed a trip to 6 Flags Over Texas where we got rained on, but still managed to ride the good roller coasters. Our other visitors this year were Mom and Dad Bias who coordinated their visit with Raytheon's open house (very rare occasion). It was great for them to come and see our house and to be able to see where Liston worked. They also helped with lots of maintenance we needed to do and baby preparations too!

Cruising into the Year 2000 As indicated in last year's Newsletter, our New Year got off to a great start as we partied away 1999 and brought in 2000 aboard a cruise ship. Not only did we get to enjoy festivities such as fireworks, entertainment, amazing food, and lots of drinks, we spent the days leading up to the New Year entertaining ourselves in Caribbean Ports of Call. Cozumel, Mexico gave us a nice taste of sand and salt air to get us started. Grand Cayman was awesome with our visits to the Turtle Farm and Hell in between time on the Beach. The waves were pretty high as we were "tendering" from the cruise ship to Grand Cayman and Gillian thought we were gonna lose Logan in the process. Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica was fabulous! We hope our next cruise will be an Alaskan cruise. Anyone want to join us? We also would love to do another Caribbean Cruise to bring in the year 3000 (or maybe sooner).

Baby Bias Yes, you have heard correctly, we are expecting our first child this Spring. We have been very excited anticipating its arrival. We do not know whether it will be a boy or a girl. Gillian, the Bias family, Barb and Jim, and our friends and family have all been very excited. Although we have had the nursery identified since we moved into our house, it has been quite a challenge removing all of the "non-nursery" items from the room to make it more baby friendly. We have decided to decorate in a Lion King theme (at Elton's suggestion). We have been enjoying the process of learning about embryos, fetuses, and babies as well as Caroline's growing body. We have been very fortunate in that Caroline has felt good throughout most of the pregnancy.

FOOTBALL!!!!!!:

It came as no surprise to anyone in the Bias household that Florida State completed its' year of Football Domination by finishing off Virginia Tech. in the Sugar Bowl in January. Our Seminoles went Wire to Wire and finished off as undisputed National Champions. As the season has evolved this year, we are still proud and feel fortunate that our beloved Seminoles are once again playing for the National Championship. We know what we will be doing on January 3rd. We went to Tallahassee to watch FSU shut out the University of Louisville (Caroline's Dad's alma matter) who ended up 23rd in the country! The weekend we went in September happened to be the weekend of a Tropical Storm and we had trouble getting there, but we would not be denied. We had a great time visiting with family and friends. They threw us a baby shower for Baby Bias who will be appropriately dressed from birth thanks to the generosity of so many Seminole fans. We also went to Oklahoma State's Homecoming which has become an annual tradition for us. Although the football program has struggled in recent years, we are always proud of our OkState Cowboys and enjoy watching their "nail biter" games.

Watch out for that TREE!: We decided on a ski trip to Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico this year since we had so much fun in Pagossa Springs in 1998. Caroline was really getting the hang of this skiing thing and we were even able to do an intermediate run together before we finished. Angel Fire had lots of beginning slopes, so it was a great place to go and we even got a mini blizzard while we were there so we had fresh snow. Pagossa Springs had much nicer snow, but we lucked out during our time at Angel Fire. We are looking forward to resuming our skiing after the arrival of Baby Bias. The doctor has advised against skiing when one is 9 months pregnant.

Florida Sunshine: As usual, we have made numerous trips to Florida this year. Our first trip was to celebrate our nephew, Logan's, very first birthday. His mommy planned a fun party with lots of guests and excitement and he didn't disappoint, getting himself covered in cake and having a grand time! We went to St. Pete again in May and September to visit with Gillian, Logan, and friends. We also made a couple of trips to Central Florida this year. We were able to spend Memorial Day with Liston's family and celebrate the birthdays of Liston and his sister as well as spend time with his parents. We went back in September even though we were going to see Liston's parents in 2 weeks because it was SOOO HOT (113 degrees) in Texas that we HAD to go to where it was cooler.

Concerts: The Dallas area has proven to be a hot spot for concerts and performances. We have not had much self restraint. This year we have been to see the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and Elton John. All three as were wonderful as hoped.

The Great Outdoors: Our Spring camping trip to Caddo Lake (only natural lake in Texas) was relaxing with gorgeous weather and great company (Jenn & Joe). Getting there was a challenge as the people we went with had car trouble and we had to come back and reload into our car instead. Luckily we were not far from home when we realized we needed to change vehicles and once we got to the campsite we were all able to enjoy the trip. Our Fall trip with Jenn & Joe as well as Anna, Greg, & Baby Ashley was equally exciting. We arrived at Turner Falls to discover the campground was flooded and we would have to go elsewhere. Luckily we all found a really neat National Park nearby. The first 24 hours we had beautiful weather, but Saturday night there was terrible rain and it became very windy. We managed to make it through the night thanks to the tent Candy and Greg gave us as a wedding gift. On Saturday, we went to Arbuckle Wilderness where they have about 10 miles to drive through with animals freely roaming. We got chased by a camel that was not the least bit intimidated by our car or the horn. It even spit on the vehicle we were in. At one point, we looked behind us and Anna, Greg, and Ashley's car was completely surrounded by very large and assertive ostriches. Quite a memorable experience.

Gobble Gobble: For Thanksgiving we went to Indiana and visited with Aunt Lane, Uncle Norm, and lots of Caroline's cousins. There was tons of food and it was great to see the new addition on their house. We also got to go bowling with Kristy, Justin, Drew, and John. Kristy even drove us there. Mindy and Kendra went with Aunt Lane, Uncle Norm, and us to look at Christmas lights and we saw some displays that were unique to Indiana including the John Deere store putting lights on all of their tractors and equipment in the field.

House Warming in South Carolina: Errol and Mary closed on their first home and we flew over to be their first visitors. While Errol worked Mary gave us a tour of Rock Hill and took us to the park, past the University as well as up to Charlotte to shop. Errol took us on a very interesting & hot tour of the glass factory where he works. We also got to see Elliot in Columbia while we were "in the area".

Activities: Aside from gallivanting around visiting everyone and working we try to stay active while we are home. Liston played soccer this Summer and is looking forward to basketball starting in the Spring. We bowl together every Wednesday night, and our team is in first place right now but fading fast. We also squeeze in some one on one basketball here and there and have even found a Frisbee golf course nearby. This year we both were appointed to committees in the City of Rowlett. Caroline serves on the Traffic and Safety Committee and Liston serves on the Environmental Services Board (this is a bit of a role reversal since our younger days).

Job Front: Liston continues his employment at Raytheon as a Sr. Systems Engineer. He constantly gets lots of training and toys (Sun & Cisco equipment) to play with and learn from. Caroline took steps to cutting back her work load by leaving full-time employment for PRN position at Presby Plano Hospital. She also has private clients she sees on the side (see http://www.projectspeech.com).

Christmas is Coming!: And so is the family. We are hosting Christmas in Texas this year and are looking forward to Gillian, Logan, Mom, Dad, and Kim arriving to share in the festivities of this fabulous holiday. This is our first Christmas in our home and we are enjoying planning for joyous celebration. We have numerous family traditions from both families which we are blending together to make a very memorable Christmas and set the stage for many Christmases to come. We also attended Liston's Raytheon Holiday party where we enjoyed visiting with people and particularly liked learning how to play craps at the Casino Night part of the event.

To contact us by e-mail, send a message to careb@pobox.com or bias@pobox.com. You can view homepages at http://www.bias.org. Our current phone number is (972) 463-1496.