Christmas Letter 2019

Merry Christmas! 

I hope this letter finds you in good health and spirits, recovered from the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I am late in writing my letter this year mostly due to the snowball effect of my cards going out late, because of where they fell in the schedule of December, and so on and so forth. 

We had a sad year with losing my father in June. It still seems like such a shock and a whirlwind how everything happened so quickly. I am thankful I was able to be with him at the end while he was in the hospital and with my family in the days that followed his death for the funeral preparations and service. It was a blessing to have the time off from school in the summer and also Scott's help with the kids as we tried to keep them in their regular routine while we were in the period of the unknown when dad was in the hospital. 

It is hard to believe dad is really gone as his presence still looms large in my life. It is a blessing to know the unconditional love of a father and that is something I will treasure for the rest of my life, passing on to my family. I am lucky to have a good dad who always loved me, and was proud of me. He never thought it was silly that I loved band and he made sure I had a car so that I could get where I was going: early morning band rehearsal, Iowa State, my first job. For a long time, he drove all of us kids to school. Every single day, he made sure we got to where we were going. It may seem small, but now I see how big of an act of love that was. 

I spent much of my summer dealing with the grief that followed dad's death. I have spent so much time in that deep area of dark grief that I was not happy to revisit it. Grief hurts in a real, physical way. I have learned you still have to wake up in the morning and face each day through the pain. Dad found joy in every day and I knew he would want me to do the same. I find peace this Christmas wondering what fun Dad and Trace are having up in heaven together. 

The other big news of the year was that I graduated with my masters of music education from UNI in December. 

I am glad to be done, as it was a big push at the end by taking comprehensive exams and completing a big research paper. Looking back, the two years seemed to go quickly and I am proud of myself. I have learned so much about music education and I hope I can help more kids find a place to make music in my band room. I plan to stay at Boone Middle School forever as I am proud of what we have built there and I love working with all the wonderful families. 

I couldn't have done it all without Scott. He did an awesome job of supporting me and making sure the kids were taken care of on class nights (and study nights and test nights and concert nights and conference nights....).  The kids are happy to have their mom back for the summer and are already planning their adventure lists. I can't wait!

Scott's parents took us on a really fun trip to Florida in March and we took Denise along, too. It was so much fun! You can read all about it in my previous posts, don't be fooled by all the photos: our kids still spent a ton of time pestering each other and whining about waiting in line. 

Anna and Brynn turned five in September and started transitional kindergarten at WG this fall. TK is like kindergarten but with more playtime and then they will go into the regular kindergarten classroom next year. They go to school every day, all day and really enjoy it. They love their teacher and she is so impressed at how much they are learning. We are also finding out their different strengths in an academic setting and it is neat to see. They love coloring, stuffed animals, blankets, and spending time with their brother. Brynn wants to be a farmer, art teacher, and mommy when she grows up and Anna wants to be a farmer, space girl, and mommy when she grows up. 

Michael is in fourth grade and doing an awesome job. He is staying busy with hockey, piano lessons, and Lego League after school. He still loves playing with Legos and wants to be a Lego designer when he grows up. He is a great big brother and provides the fun for his sisters as well as being a good helper for mom. 

We had a nice Christmas with my mom here. We went to Christmas Eve service at Hope Grimes and then Denise hosted us at her apartment community room, right across from our church. It was really fun as Denise is an awesome party planner and hostess! 

My grandparents and Aunt Linda also stopped by for a little bit before Christmas and it was nice to see them. It is on our list to make it to NE Iowa to see them this summer for sure. I am so thankful they are in good health! 

We are looking forward to 2020, with not too much penciled in yet. Hopefully, I can return to more regular blogging and sharing more of our daily adventures. 

I wish you and your family peace for the upcoming year. 

Des Moines Trek of Parks 2019

We did the Des Moines Outdoor Fun trek of parks this summer and I thought I would reflect on it a bit here, even though we fell a bit short of our goal of hitting up ten parks. The upside is that we explored a ton of new to us parks that we would have never visited! 

Up first was Terra Park in Johnston, which we enjoyed during Johnston Green Days for breakfast and for rides afterwards. This is such a neat addition to the community and we go here often. Easy check off for us!

Another easy check off for us was Jester Park, of course. :) We visited it multiple time this summer, but Michael and I added a new to us activity of canoeing on the little pond. So fun and surprisingly peaceful. 

A new to us park but also still close to our neighborhood was Walker Johnson park in Urbandale. It was a bit of a surprise visit as I got the movie times wrong and we headed here to entertain ourselves until the correct movie time. Michael loved it so much he requests visits anytime we are in the area (and we did revisit it another time just him and me). 

On the 4th of July we visited the Forest Park museum in Perry. This was a real treasure, and a bonus that it was on the bike trail. It was a lovely day!  

Kennybrook Park is also near and new to us. Again, we visited it twice because the kids loved it so much! 

Pete Crivaro Park was an awesome stop, recommended by Michael as he went here for Hawk's Nest. We got lucky and visited on the very last day the wading pools in Des Moines were open for the season. We were pleasantly surprised, and it made for a nice evening of family time. 

Our last park was after the deadline, but it made for a good day adventure anyway: Winterset City Park and Clark Tower. I had never even been to Winterset before and it was a lovely drive. We'll be back to explore again. 

The honorable mention park goes to Brenton Arboretum which we visited in May before the challenge started. We also visited Stone State Park and Rathbun State Park this summer which are outside of the central Iowa area but I am still counting. 

Overall, it was a summer full of memories, all free and easy just by visiting parks. I am happy the challenge gave me a push to get out of my park comfort zone and find some new parks that we revisited throughout the summer. 

Rathbun Camping 2019

So we took a camping trip and I had a bunch of photos so I thought I'd put them on the blog since I haven't done very much of that lately. It makes for such a good landing spot for holding on to special weekends and stuff. 

I also realize I have not paid tribute to my father on here or written about him to help with my grief, but please know it is still there and I hope to find the words soon. It is so hard losing a father as there is much to wrap your head around. 

Anyway, we planned this weekend camping trip for the HOTTEST weekend in July. Real feels were nearly the 120s with high humidity. Heat warnings abounded. I stayed optimistic and honestly, it was fine. 

We had a lovely camp site in the shade and it had plenty of room for our tent and boat. It was just a short walk to the beach which we enjoyed the first evening. The lake breezes were nice and cool! 

The heat did not affect the kids any, minus the fact we kept providing them with delicious beverages that are a treat to them like Gatorade and it resulted in endless trips to the bathroom (which was a short hike away). At first, we made an adult go with the girls but later we relaxed and let big brother be a fine chaperone. We spent so much time in the bathroom! 

(see exhibit a: bathroom sauna time while waiting for little girls) 

The girls were excited for their first time sleeping in a tent and it was cute to see even though the constant in and out and jumping on the air mattresses and who knows what they were doing in there (WWE match? I have no idea) did wear on my nerves a bit. We had a big box fan that did actually keep us cool at night as it evaporated the sweat off us enough to warrant using a little blanket to keep us warm. 

The next morning we hit the lake bright and early! Lake Rathbun has an awesome boat launch and it was not busy at all so early (9:30ish). We enjoyed the low traffic on the lake immensely and swam for hours! 

Boat princess Brynn!

Our new tube and lily pad were so fun to play on in the water and it was just perfect. It felt great and was so relaxing!!

Anna learned to swim by herself in a lifejacket at her swim lessons earlier this month and she was so dang proud of herself. She motored around like a little turtle all morning by herself! 

Brynn was not as confident in her jacket but was still brave and floated on the tube a bit! I think she was most scared to leave all the snacks by themselves on the boat (the best part of boating, of course!)

We saw another family with a cool wakeboarding boat....who also anchored it so all the kids could get out and swim and tube. I think it must be inevitable that all young wakeboarders eventually have to use their boat for dad stuff. :) It's not so bad! 

We headed out of the lake to eat lunch at the campsite and take a rest in the shade. We were pretty tired of being in the hot sun so we took the kids to the indoor waterpark that was part of the hotel at the state park resort. We felt a bit silly for being indoors on such a beautiful day but honestly, just to be out of the sun was so helpful. The girls LOVED this little slide and went down it 200 times at least. 

Honestly, it was a good call we decided to visit the waterpark because while we were in there a huge storm decided to roll through. We had known it was going to storm, but it was predicted not until later that evening and even then it seemed like it might miss us altogether. Once Scott saw the radar, he hightailed it back to the campsite (along with Josh and Kelly) to pack up our things while I was safe with the kids in the waterpark. It was high speed winds and Scott even saw a little tornado. One of the docks blew away on the lake and it was a mess of all the people trying to get their boats out of the water. 

The crazy thing was that we didn't even hear a thing inside the pool area. It was probably the safest place we could be and I was thankful for that. 

We made the decision to head to Centerville for the night at the Super 8, where we could get supper at McDonalds and still be close-ish to the park. 

It was a really nice hotel, and I was thankful for the AC, shower, and comfortable bed to sleep in. We even found a Starbucks in the morning and I got to check out the courthouse in Centerville on the way out of town. 

Once back to the campsite, we packed up our tent and organized everything in the car and boat so it would actually fit for the ride home. It was a nice morning with the high temps finally broken after the storm. 

Of course, we had to stop at DQ on the way home for some lunch and ice cream! 

Overall, it was a fun weekend. I am happy we got to spend it with our friends and make some mutual memories. The morning on the boat was perfection. I know life does not get any better than beautiful mornings like that spent with ones you love. Life lies in those little moments and they are little jewels you have to hold on to.