James 1:17 - Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Merry Christmas! We hope your year has been full of joy.
It was another eventful year in this household. We took a week around the Fourth to camp in Black Hills National Forest in South Dakota. We took advantage of some great hikes there and in Custer State Park, as well as visiting other national park sites in the area. One highlight was spending the evening of July 3 at Mount Rushmore. While there were no fireworks there due to fire hazard, there was a great military band concert and a ceremony to light the monument. We also took the long MEA weekend in October to meet Elisha in the Ashland, WI area of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to explore the many waterfalls in the area. Of course many other family milestones, laid out below.
Elisha graduated Summa Cum Laude from high school in June after an impressive four years. He capped off his student-athlete career with a great track season and then was an assistant coach during our school’s summer running program. He is now studying Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI, in the UP. For the last couple years, it seemed like that was where he would end up; it is a great fit for him. Earlier in the year, he made a visit for their competitive Leading Scholars program and was awarded a scholarship as a finalist. He was also awarded a local scholarship from the Elko New Market Fire Relief association. He continues to run in his free time and is planning on running Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth next June.
Izzy graduated from eighth grade at Good Shepherd this year and is now a freshman at Lakeville South High School. She is thriving in the classroom and has found a great group of friends. She ran varsity track again this past spring and continued to run varsity cross country this fall. She is playing basketball again this winter, splitting time between the B squad and junior varsity. It is great to see her enjoy all that time competing. She was also confirmed in the spring and got her learner’s permit on her birthday. She is pretty convinced she is the best driver in the family. The rest of us, not so much…
Zeke is in eighth grade, the last of our years with kids at Good Shepherd. He is down to just basketball for extracurriculars this year, playing for Good Shepherd and with some friends on an in-house team in Lakeville. In his free time, he plays a lot of video games and watches YouTube. He is also still a huge reader, but takes some encouragement to not keep reading the same books over and over.
Watson has gotten better at a few tricks this year. He came along on our adventures to the UP, getting in plenty of miles of hikes. He spent some time with his favorite person not named Steph, Ryan’s friend Jeff, while the rest of the family went to the Black Hills. He also spent a long weekend when Elisha was moved to Michigan. He had a grand time.
We love having you in our life and hope to cross paths in the coming year!
Love Ryan, Steph, Elisha, Izzy, Zeke, and Watson
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