Gwen (Lapp) Lien - 55th Reunion Update (2019)
The last five
years have brought few changes my way except for being a little older and a bit
wiser, I hope. I continue to enjoy life with my partner of 54 years and
my best friend. Travel remains a big part of our lives, giving Roger and
me lasting memories. After our Mediterranean cruise in 2015 for our 50th
anniversary, we enjoyed a fun filled family vacation in Hawaii to
celebrate our oldest grandchild's high school graduation. We sailed the
Volga in 2017 from St. Petersburg to Moscow on a Viking river cruise.
Visiting five countries on an Africa safari in 2018 provided us an
unforgettable travel experience, and we just recently returned from a ten-day
cruise on the five Great Lakes. Our most fulfilling memories, however,
are and always will be those spent with our children, grandchildren, and
friends!
Gwen (Lapp) Lien - 50th Reunion Update (2014)
50 years - 5
decades - what a milestone! As I reflect
on the last 5 years since our 45th reunion and my last update, I
continue to be grateful for life’s many pleasures. Next year marks 20 years since Roger’s
retirement. We’ve been fortunate to have
had those years filled with many memorable travel experiences. We especially enjoy river trips. We fulfilled another wish on our bucket list
- to navigate the three largest rivers in the world - the Yangtze in 2008, the
Nile in 2010, and the Amazon in 2013. We
also sailed the canals and waterways of Holland and Belgium in 2012 and are
looking forward to steam boating once again on the mighty Mississippi in
November. In 2015 we celebrate another
milestone - our 50th anniversary - on a Viking cruise to Turkey,
Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, and the canals of Venice. Although our travels have brought us much
joy, our greatest joys are our children, Tonya and Todd and his wife Carrie,
and our three grandchildren, Tanner (16), Merrin (10), and Justin (7).
I
look forward to reuniting with all of you in September!
Gwen Lapp Lien (2009)
It
doesn't seem possible that it's been 45 years since our high school graduation.
After graduation and one year at the University of Colorado's School of Music,
I married Roger Lien (Class of '62). In 2010, we will celebrate our 45th
anniversary. In 1965, as Roger embarked on his 30-year career with IBM, I took
on my new role as homemaker and later a stay-at-home mom with great enthusiasm.
I feel fortunate to have been able to be at home all those years and wouldn't
have traded that time for anything. In 1987, I began working as an
administrative assistant for Boulder Valley Schools' Substance Abuse Prevention
Project, a program funded through a federal grant with Safe and Drug-Free
Schools. I regret that programs such as these don't have a greater impact on
our youth of today. Our children, Tonya and Todd (40 and 38 respectively) have
brought us joy and pride and have given us three delightful grandchildren.
Tanner Rilee is eleven years old, bright and full of wisdom. Merrin Alexis is
an active five-year-old, anxiously awaiting the start of kindergarten, and
Justin Reid is two years old, filled with wonder and curiosity. We have been
enjoying retirement since 1995, which has given us the opportunity to travel -
from Alaska's Inside Passage to Canada's St. Lawrence Seaway, steam boating on
the Mississippi to Mexico's Riviera Maya and the Panama Canal, touring eight
countries of Europe and cruising the fjords in Norway, traveling beyond the
Arctic Circle, breaking through the polar ice cap to within 600 miles of the
North Pole - Norway being a place Roger had wanted to visit for years, since
the archives at Oslo show his ancestry dating back to the 1700's. In 2008, we
traveled to China, experiencing the country just before the Summer Olympics.
What an adventure - Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, climbing the Great
Wall, riding a rickshaw through the narrow alleys of Old Beijing, seeing the
Terra Cotta Army, the Three Gorges Dam project, life along the Yangtze, and the
bustling city of Shanghai. Having visited many parts of the world, there's
still no place we'd rather call home than Colorado - Boulder being our home
since 1964.
I
believe growing up in Loveland was a privilege. It was a time of innocence with
the small town atmosphere surrounding us. People genuinely cared about people.
We were taught values, respect and responsibility. Families were important, and
friendships were formed that would last a lifetime. Those friends are you!