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!

2015 Update

2015 was a big year for us. We started out the year with Aimee having left a great, secure job that she loved to follow the Lord’s leading without knowing where that would take us. Marshall was self-employed and we lived in Prairie Village.

We ended the year with Aimee having launched a new foundation, Marshall working full time in architecture, and the family living in Lenexa.

Here are some highlights of the in-between time:

• The ROYALS!
• Marshall and Andy camped at Stockton Lake in April
• Andy had his first season of team soccer. He thrived at the positions of goalie and mid-fielder
• Marshall joined Aimee for a work trip to San Francisco in May
• We were very fortunate to take two trips to Darrin and Jill’s fabulous house at Beaver Lake
• The family took a fun trip to the Flint Hills where we hiked, rode horses, and enjoyed doing chores on the ranch.
• Liam finally got to go camping with the boys at Shalom

Reagan started preschool at the same school Andy attended and where Liam now goes. She was not so sure about it at first. In fact, she proclaimed every single day for over a month, “I’m not going to school today.” But she’s a trooper and has finally found her groove, making friends and learning to glue.

Liam LOVES school too. He loves to read, create pictures, and don superhero costumes. He hopes to be a ninja or a knight when he grows up. I guess he’s living up to his name’s meaning, “Strong Protector”. He and Reagan are best buds and spend most of their time playing together when they’re not fighting.

Andy enjoys second grade. Math is his favorite along with recess and PE. As long as the weather is remotely passable, he’s outside playing in the neighborhood with some of the 8 kids his age who live on our block. He’s a sweet big brother unless he’s feeling feisty and picking on his siblings. Andy wants to be an engineer or builder when he grows up.

Marshall and Aimee are doing well. Work is busy. Aimee loves her new venture and things are going well. See her website for a full update: Impactfoundation.org. Marshall is working on the Atlanta Falcons project for HOK (see pics here). He is especially grateful for the great people he works with everyday. The giant crane pictured below is helping construction go faster in Atlanta.

Thank you Mommom...

Merry Christmas 2014

2014 for us began amidst the throes of Big Winter, the most brutal winter we young folk have experienced in Kansas City.  It was cold, dark, snowy and long.  So spring was ever more a welcome respite. Our young kids don’t know the difference, but to mom and dad it was like releasing animals from captivity when we could finally send them outside to play without worrying.

In early April, Andy and Marshall made their annual excursion to Stockton Lake to see how many different ways we could rig rocket engines onto foam airplanes.  Trial and error led to this:

We had a mercifully mild summer.  Andy graduated from Kindergarten and led his siblings into a summer filled with swimming fun. This year Liam seemed to finally get the hang of it and even shed his flotation wings on occasion. 

In July, Pawpaw came to town for a nice visit and joined Marshall and Andy for a Buck Night with fireworks at the K.  It was right around this time that a little player-initiated pep talk in the locker room led to an epic Royal run at the World Series title.  Alas, we know how that ended but it had this town rallied around the Royals for the first time in decades.



Autumn found all three of our kids in some sort of schooling for the first time.  Andy in first grade, Liam in pre-K and Reagan at Parent’s Day Out.  We also still enjoy the employ of Nana Faith who has been with us since Andy was just 18 months old.

For Andy and Marshall, autumn also brought our second trek to Shalom farm for the sequel to our own version of October Sky:

In case you’re wondering, Liam will get to join Andy in these adventures when he turns five, and he can barely wait.

For Thanksgiving, these Minnich’s headed to the country for quiet reflection.  The Kansas Flint Hills are beautiful and hearken to a time when life was simpler and quieter.  Though we had already been hit with an early winter, we were blessed with a couple of gloriously mild sunny days with which to explore the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and the various Chase County Country Christmas activities.

Lastly, we report to you that Aimee is leaving her post at NCF.  This decision came right before Thanksgiving, after much prayer and reflection.  We feel God nudging her in a certain direction, but as of this writing we have no firm plans to divulge.  Keep in touch with us and keep this in your prayers.

Don’t forget to check out our favorite photos from 2014 on the sidebar, or right here.

And now may the Lord richly bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you,

-Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam and Reagan

p.s. Uncle Lee’s book on Marshall’s grandfather, Captain Robert M. Trimble, comes out in February!  Find it here.

Merry Christmas 2013

With three young children now running around our home, Aimee and I have come to feel like we are living in a black hole of time--where it goes, we don't know. What movies are showing in the theater? Couldn't tell you. What's popular on TV? Wouldn't know. How old are we? We forget. Are we still buying diapers? Yes still. So 2013 was a blur.

We recall that in January Aimee and I managed a couple days away from home without the kids as I joined Aimee in visiting Northfield, Massachusetts, original campus of Northfield Mount Hermon school founded by D.L.Moody.  The campus is now in the hands of National Christian Foundation and they are seeking the next stewards of this rich, historical gem.  You can check it out here.

In February we had every little boy's dream snowstorm with plenty of the packable white stuff to build forts with tunnels.

It seems then we had several more snowfalls of varying amounts that stretched interminably into spring, but we can't remember for sure--we were busy trying to match orphaned socks. In April, Aimee and Reagan stole away from me and the boys to go down to Florida for a girls week with Nana and Aimee's sisters.

Speaking of Reagan, she continues to break the growth charts, probably God's design for her to compete with her older brothers.  Indeed, she's not afraid to get in on the wrestling matches that frequently occur. She learned to walk at about her first birthday and is now fully engaged in wrapping me around her little finger.

Liam, our three year old, is daddy's little helper. He long ago claimed Andy's work boots as his own and insists on wearing them most days.  If there's any leaf blowing, lawn mowing, light fixture fixing, pipe unclogging--you name it--he is ready with his toy goggles, ear muffs, gloves and tools.  He is our early-riser too, up at the crack most every day for special time with Mommy and Daddy.  He decided on his own to self-potty train and just like that, no more diapers for him (yay!). Except he did attempt to give up pooping so as to avoid conquering the toilet.  That didn't go well.  He and Andy argue and laugh together in equal measures. Both are a sight that warms our hearts.

And speaking of Andy, our soon-to-be six year old is enjoying kindergarten as he grows up way too fast. One of his favorite pastimes is inventing new toys out of whatever he can find.  Most recently he taped one of our spatulas to the end of a PVC pipe to make a weapon which he called a “swordula”.  Earlier this year he drew the simplest drawing of what he called a chainsaw and then did a remarkable job building the thing—all for his little brother.  He is (usually) a sweet big brother to his siblings. 


Andy also gets to join me on our twice-annual camping trips with a group of men and their sons.  During our fall trip, we fired off a model rocket built by one of the dads.  Check out this cool video taken from the rocket itself:

Also in October, Aimee and I celebrated 10 glorious years of marriage. We are so grateful for the many blessings.

May God bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you,

Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam & Reagan

Merry Christmas 2012

The big news from us in 2012 was of course the birth of our third child, Reagan Sophia Minnich.  Reagan was born on March 15 and tipped the scales at nearly 10 pounds, just like her brothers did before her.

With now three kids under 5, Marshall and Aimee don’t travel like we once did.  We have no gorgeous mountaintop photos to share anymore.  Instead we get to make exciting announcements like “Andy and Liam are sharing a room now!”  Yes, that was a big moment for the boys this year.  The love and friendship they share is really heartwarming to see.  That is, when they’re not wrestling or jumping off of furniture.

We did get to visit the Andersen family at their Beaver Lake house in July.  Both Andy and Liam had fun being pulled on the raft, and Andy got to go out with Daddy on the wave runner.  Liam loves dogs and so one morning the house was woken to Liam feeding the Andersen’s dog Rosie while yelling, “Eat dawbie, EAT!!”

In the fall, Andy (who will turn 5 right after Christmas) started pre-school.  He is advancing quickly, learning to read, and loves to sit at his desk in his room and do ‘homework’. He is a really good big brother who loves to dote on his brother and sister, as well as boss them around once in a while.

Liam turned two in September and is our bundle of cuteness right now.  Words can’t describe some of the outfits he conjures using daddy’s earmuffs, his safety goggles, and shoving every possible tool he can find into his little jeans.  He is a smart little boy who figures out multiple ways to say the same thing when we are struggling to understand him.  He is our early-riser too, up every morning at the crack.

In October, Andy got to go with Daddy to Stockton Lake with a handful of Daddy’s friends and their sons.  It was bitter cold and wet—perfect for a father-son outing.  Andy especially loved the potato-launcher:

Also in October, Marshall and Aimee did manage to take their first trip away without the kids!  Granted it was work-related, but we had a blast just hanging out at a nice hotel in Atlanta.  It was the 30-year anniversary of National Christian Foundation.  On our first night there, Aimee texted our nanny back home to say that we were available to talk by phone if Andy was available.  We got the following response: “Andy says you’re only gone three days and he’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

That little comment was a hit on Aimee’s Facebook page.  And speaking of, if you care to keep up with us throughout the year, ‘friending’ Aimee on Facebook is the best way—we don’t update this site but once or twice a year now.

In November we had a scare.  Our nanny, Faith, was driving the three kids somewhere when another driver pulled in front of and struck her car rather violently.  All were shaken up considerably but no one suffered major injuries thanks to seat belts, air bags, car seats and of course God.  Faith’s car was totaled though—pray for her as she seeks to replace it.

And so that about wraps up the story of the Minnich’s in 2012.  We again are grateful for the wonders God has shown us this year, and grateful for those of you who are a part of our life.  May your Christmas be merry and your new year bright,

Marshall, Aimee, Andy, Liam and Reagan

P.S. We did post some new photos from throughout the year here.  You can also see them on the sidebar.

P.P.S. One other development this year….Marshall’s Uncle Lee has written a memoir about Marshall’s grandfather and is shopping it to publishers.  Robert Matlack Trimble had some fascinating experiences during WWII, most of which were kept secret until his final years.  Among other things, we learned he was the last commander of the American/Russian air base in Poltava, gathered intelligence at Auschwitz shortly after liberation, and was honored for rescuing hundreds of POW during the war.  Lee has started the following blog with excerpts from the book—he would be blessed if you added a ‘hit’ to his counter:  http://fightingbastardoftheukraine.blogspot.com/