Today's Featured Biography

 
Judi McFadden Hanna

Ha, pretty adventurous until I arrived in Coeur d'Alene 8 years after graduation. Got married to Bill Kenyon in the marriage capital of the northwest, (little Vegas) unbeknownst to us. I thought I'd be moving on, just like I did from Lawrence, KS, Aspen, CO, Snowmass-at-Aspen, CO and finally Gerbazdale, CO.

I've now lived here OVER half my life, I'm still the youngster at 59 (til October) and married (3rd time) for 25 years next month, August 24. Dayne & I were married at Duncan Gardens, the beautiful formal garden at Manito Park in Spokane, WA. Happy now with 3 grandkids, not counting my Texans, Katherine's Austin - 2002 and Brianna, also 7 this year. Skye, our oldest, and probably closest, at 7 y.o. (Willow's only child) and Chet & Chloe, Jeff's children, Kellie's actually the one doing the work, of course. Chet will be 5 next week and Chloe is 6 months younger than Skye, Dec. 15 she'll be 7, too. Every Wednesday is Grandma day, cause ALL our family lives in Coeur d'Alene! My dad died in March of this year. My mom & I just went out to Couer d'Alene Summer Theater production of Cinderella tonight, featuring (the wicked step-mother) Ellen Travolta and her & John's 2 sisters. Our local celeb. Mom was 88 this past Monday. Dayne's parents, George & Elynor are both 93. Just moving from their own home at the CdA Public Golf Course area to assisted living next week. LUCKY for us, all three in the same place, only 6 minutes from our driveway to their door. We have a lake cabin on Hayden Lake, it is gorgeous, on a mostly quiet scenic bay. We have a bald eagle, loons, several osprey in our little micro climate with the fishes, bass, (smallies & large mouth), perch, sunfish, lake trout, of course. We live on 2.5 acres up on the hill. We've lived on Fernan Hill most of our 25 married years, raised the kids here, and had many wonderful 4 legged kids, as well. Now just Sullivan, 12 and Belle Chapeau, the black n white, 2 yrs with us in August. Both are rescue kitties. Numerous friends have come & gone, but our children, Dayne's & mine have grown up in this beautiful place, and graduated high school here. Jeffrey from Post Falls HS and Willow Lake City. The exception is Will (Kenyon) who graduated from Aspen High, cause he was naughty and had a time out for a year living with his dad in Aspen. Pretty tough what with the snowboarding and all. Nothing is so gratifying as hearing your ex husband bicker with your pain in the ass teenage son! Will has had type 1 diabetes, since junior high. I was diagnosed in 2002 with type 1, also. I am way off the bell curve for type 1 diabetes, but here I am, 7.5 years insulin dependent. He is a healthy sweet 6'1" young man now with a lovely girlfriend Kelsy. He is using his Univ of Colorado,(Boulder) degree well as a finish carpenter. - NOT. His degree is in environmental science, emphasis on hydro geology. He'll be heading off the Gulf to save some turtles and earn his fortune soon, we hope. CdA is the pits for economic stability. My husband, however is the creme de la creme of marketing & advertising. Our agency has won numerous regional and national awards, including telly's, National Grocer's Association best of show beating out Safeway; Best of show & top 1st place national honors for banking advertising as well, beating out Bank of America and other big financial institutions. He's been in Coeur d'Alene, the agency since 1977, so this is 33 years, one of the most consistent and longest lived businesses in North Idaho/Eastern Washington.

So, that's the pertinent facts. My fun stuff is golf, quilting, grandma day, but of late mostly consumed with moving parents, driving parents, getting Rx for parents and generally personifying the sandwich generation in spades. Oh, yes. 3 years ago I studied and became a Master Gardener. I volunteer at the extension office and since I have no qualms about public speaking, I regularly get sent out to give library series talks & workshops in horticulture. I also volunteer and sit on the Foundation Board for our local library, the Coeur d'Alene Public Library which is sort of an unusual entity in that it is not funded by anyone except the City of CdA and private donors. We, Dayne & I, boat, hold down our dock, my summer specialty, fish, fly fish around the Northern Rockies & foothills of Idaho & Montana. This year we took off for Argentina for 2 and a half weeks with some other couples, Dayne's world wide fly fishing pals. I was never South of the equator before. It was amazing and lovely and such a mind-blowing experience. See Loop Tackle's website, under Loop Adventures, Las Buitereras estancia, that is where we stayed. We saw guanaco, flamingos, 10,000 sheep on the extancia, gauchos, foxes and the emu, or ostrich like critters, rhea. Then we flew South to fin de mundo, to see the end of the world, Darwin's & Magellan passages. Penguino. The thrill of a lifetime, sealions, various unusual sea life and water birds, as well. The most amazing mountains surround USUiah, pron. SHwy-uh. see the link to Snowboarding Patagonia for a glimpse. While the guys & Sonya fished, I, our guide Fernanda and travel mate Patty drove to el Calafate on Lago Argentino to the Parque Nationale Los Glaciares. Absolutely phenomenal.

I found Kerri Stephens after your reunion. We talk on the phone often and have managed to actually see each other twice. It's a kick getting to see everyone's story, but mine looks like it may be longer than most. Too funny.

VIEW ALL BIOGRAPHIES