In Annoura Family news, Zach made the golf team for his middle school, Westbrook Intermediate. We don’t know if he will play golf in high school with all the other activities he has going on so this could be his last year of organized school golf! Joe came home from Austin on Friday to play in the JBAH golf tournament with Susan. At time of this writing, we don’t know how they finished but hopefully they did good! Susan finished up 5 days in Austin for Texas Realtors meetings and has been working non-stop with multiple buyers, tenants, sellers, and landlords. She and Koh celebrated Valentine’s Day with another couple, The Kaneko’s, at a local Italian restaurant. Ty remains busy in Annapolis and is asking that his car be brought up to Maryland. We don’t know how a BRZ will fare up in the snowy cold so still in discussions about that!
丈がいよいよテキサス大学（University of Texas）卒業間近となりました。卒業式は5月9日前後になりそうです！卒業後の進路をどうするか、本人も家族も少しドキドキしながら見守っているところですが、日本のコンサルティング会社で働くため東京へ行く可能性もありそうです。進路が決まるまでは少し落ち着きませんが、無事に決まってくれることを願っています。泰は海軍兵学校（Naval Academy）の2学期目を頑張っており、先週は久しぶりに電話があり近況をいろいろ聞くことができました。現在の専攻であるOcean Engineeringに加えて日本語のマイナーも取得することにしたため、課題や勉強量がかなり増えてとても忙しいようです。柔道部ではバージニア州でアメリカ代表チームと合同練習をする機会があり、レベルの違いに圧倒されながらも、とても貴重で素晴らしい経験になったとのことでした。ザックは学校のTPSPという大きなプロジェクトに取り組んでいて毎日大忙しです。今週水曜日にはゴルフのトライアウトがあり、チームに入れるよう家族みんなで応援しています。攻は1か月以上使えなくなっている電子レンジの修理に奮闘中です（笑）。スーザンはテキサス不動産のWinter Meetingsのため、この5日間オースティンに滞在していました。家族みんな元気に過ごしておりますが、このニュースレターを読んでくださっている皆さまもどうぞお元気でお過ごしください。
In Annoura Family news, Joe is getting closer and closer to graduating from the University of Texas. It looks like his graduation day will be around May 9! It’s a little nerve racking to try to figure out his plan for after graduation. There is a chance he end up on Tokyo to work for a Japanese consulting company. We will be relieved when that is finally decided… As for Ty, he is pushing through the second semester at the Naval Academy. We got a rare phone call from him last week and got to hear all about what’s going on with him. Seems like his work load is super heavy because he added a minor in Japanese to his current major of Ocean Engineering. He told us his Judo Team got to train with the U.S. National Team in Virginia and that it was an amazing experience even though the skill level was completely different. As for Zach, he is so busy working on a big project at school called TPSP. He has golf tryouts this Wednesday and we have our fingers crossed that he makes the team. Koh has been busy trying to fix out microwave which has been out of commission for over a month now (haha). Susan is in Austin for the past 5 days for Texas Realtors Winter Meetings. All in all, everyone is healthy and we hope this letter finds you happy and healthy too!
Happy New Year! This is the first newsletter of 2026 and I hope you spend some time to make some goals, find joy, and really enjoy your life. One of my top priorities will be to savor precious time with my family members, especially my sons, two of which are in college and are basically grown up men now! Since the last newsletter, our family wrapped up our family vacation with a stop in Buffalo Gap, TX for an amazing steak dinner at Perini Ranch Steakhouse. We made it back just in time for 2025 to end, with a visit to Fidelity Investments to open up Roth IRA retirement accounts for Joe and Ty. With the new tax laws, people can now move up to $7000/year (max $35,000 over 5 years) of unused 529 money into the beneficiary’s Roth IRA, as long as the beneficiary has at least $7000 in income that year. Since both boys met that requirement, this was a good choice for unused 529 money. Inspired by our friends, The Galvans, we have also been doing a lot of COOKING! Yes, you laugh because normally I am not a good cook, but with the boys home for winter break, we baked a turkey, grilled peppers with Oaxaca cheese, even made some homemade chicken salad. For new years, Ty and his friend Zayan made a beautiful charcuterie tray that we ate while watching the fireworks in Kemah. Joe stayed with us for almost 6 weeks for his super long winter break, helping Koh change out the Tundra break pads, replace the family microwave (result still unknown), and enjoyed playing multiple rounds of golf at Bay Oaks. Ty returned back to Maryland to finish up semester 2 of the Naval Academy last week. And, with Zach also starting back up at school, Koh and Susan are back to juggling work, carpool, and all of Zach’s extracurricular activities!
All members of the Annouras have been busy the past two weeks! Susan was installed as a Vice Chair (executive director) of the Houston Association of Realtors on December 18. This is the third top position of the nearly 50,000 realtor members in Houston. Joe returned to Houston after finishing his fall semester at UT. He has just one more semester remaining before he graduates from the University of Texas. Ty returned home from Annapolis for his winter vacation and Zachary wrapped up his fall semester as well. The whole family hit the road to Pagosa Springs, Colorado on December 20th, which is one of the Annoura family traditions! We own a small townhouse in Pagosa Springs that we normally Air BnB during the year. It’s so fun to go there, visit all of our favorite stores and shops, cook together in our kitchen, and ski/snowboard at the nearby Wolf Creek. I HIGHLY recommend this place if you want to bring your family skiing. It takes about two days to drive from Houston, and we normally stop in Amarillo. If you want to try, please email me and let me know so I can give you all the good recommendations. There are hot springs in Pagosa Springs, too! I would be glad to offer a discount to stay at our townhouse! Here is a link to it: https://www.itrip.net/pagosa-springs-vacation-rental/191-talisman-dr-d202-hot-springs-hideaway
In Annoura family news…Susan’s mom celebrated her birthday on May 27. She turned an astounding 81 years old! Zach finished up 7th grade and left for his first church camp, Camp Eagle. He’ll be home for a week after that, then head to Japan for one month. When he gets back, he’ll head to Colorado for a week for a Boy Scout camp. He’s got an action packed summer until school starts! As for Ty, he is officially done with his first year at the Naval Academy and last week he started on his first summer assignment, East Coast Protramid. He will get to experience all kinds of training (we don’t know exactly what, honestly) and will get to come home to Houston on June 19 for about one month. Joe has been off from the University of Texas for the most of the month of May. He headed off to Dallas yesterday to start his 10 week summer internship. He will be working for a finance based company that specializes in valuating health care companies for M&A’s. Wow, Joe, good luck! As for Susan and Koh, they left for Washington DC this past Saturday to attend the NAR Realtor Legislative Meetings. June 11 will be their 31st anniversary and they have a trip to Maine planned!
