2017 in Review

"How come we get to go so many places?" Reagan, age 5 in October 2017.

For a family who spent lots of years not going anywhere, we were surprised by all the travel that 2017 brought us. As a family we saw Nicaragua/Honduras in February, Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, Colorado and Chicago. When adding in all the work travel, we sure logged a lot of miles.

Marshall spent much of the year back and forth between Atlanta working on the finishing touches for Mercedes Benz Stadium. He missed most of the summer in KC, but we managed to sneak in a family trip to hang out with him and see the sites in downtown Atlanta. The aquarium and Olympic park were highlights.

September brought us to Southern California for the Gathering. The kids loved making new friends from all over the country in the kids program while the adults learned from great teachers and reconnected with old friends. The two little ones had never seen the ocean so they LOVED playing in the waves even though it was super cold.

Everyone is enjoying school - well some are enjoying and some are tolerating. With Reagan in kindergarten now, all three kids are at Kansas City Christian. Mom is enjoying just one school drop-off and keeping up with just one schedule. Reagan wakes up excited to see Mrs. Friesen and her friends at school every day. Liam delights in telling us what he's learning every day. Andy, who keeps his thoughts close to the vest, most enjoys his classmates and PE.

You can check out more photos here. Overall, 2017 was a lot of work but also a great year FULL of life and joy.

2016 Family Update

We just finished a wonderful Christmas and finally have time to reflect on the year past. Thankful for so many blessings, we find it difficult to write a succinct summary.

A few travel highlights:

• We took a short trip to a lake near Tulsa this summer for fishing and swimming at the beach. Thanks to the Bressee's for generously sharing their lake house with us. 
• Aimee and the kids went to Houston to visit the Carter's in their new home. We enjoyed lots of swimming, a trip to the space center, and other air conditioning-based activities. Houston is HOT!
• Labor Day weekend found us in the Flint Hills again. Liam's big wish for his sixth birthday was a horse back ride through the ranch so he and mom enjoyed the two hour ride. 
• We spent a lovely Thanksgiving staying at a home on the Katy trail. After a 9 mile bike ride/run on Thanksgiving, we spent Friday exploring St. Louis, the arch, and the Christmas festival in downtown St. Charles. Truly lovely.

The kids are all doing well in school, thriving in their own ways. Reagan has found her way in pre-K and loves learning her letter sounds. Liam is a great reader and can make his way through most early-reader books. Andy gets along well in school, especially in Bible and Math. Social Studies is his favorite. We're grateful for the kids' awesome teachers: Mrs. Belz and Mrs. Smith for Reagan, Mrs. Sabates and Mrs. McEachen for Liam, and Mrs. Mong for Andy.

Both boys want to be football players when they grow up (which may be difficult because mom and dad won't let them play tackle football). Reagan spends most days pretending to be a princess and thinks she wants to be an artist or the person who is in charge of an office when she grows up.

Aimee is enjoying the start of Impact Foundation. In their first full year, they moved more than $23m into investments that pursue social/spiritual good while making profit. She and her co-founder Jeff were part of the 2016 nonprofit class of Praxis Labs where they made new friends and gained great insight from mentors.

Marshall and Aimee enjoyed several days without the kids in Naples, Florida (thanks Bev for taking great care of the kids while they were gone). Of course, Aimee had to work for 4 of the 5 days they were gone but still managed to squeeze in several hours on the beach.

Marshall and the team at HOK are still moving along with Mercedes Benz Stadium where the Atlanta Falcons will be playing games starting later this year. He's finding out first hand that getting older stinks, as he is still gingerly recovering from a low-back injury.

Altogether, there's so much for us to be thankful for, including fires in the fireplace, great neighbors, the backyard trampoline, and looking forward to a Houston/Honduras/Nicaragua trip in a few weeks.

Click here for a roundup of our photos from 2016.

Peace out 2016!