This was not a year of traveling as much as it was a year of relocation. For the months of June and July the entire family relocated from Waverly down to Iowa City. In years past, Brian (2008) and Mariah (2009) have each spent the summer in Iowa City working for the University of Iowa as part of their Research Experience for Undergraduates program. This summer, we went down together and brought the entire family along. Mariah taught a workshop on Wavelets while Brian’s workshop was on Numerical Methods for solving Differential Equations. It was a great experience teaching small classes (less than 10) of highly motivated students without homework or tests to grade. It was possibly the ideal teaching environment.
The family enjoyed our time in Iowa City. The University arranged a cozy two bedroom apartment less than a mile from campus. (Brian and Mariah slept on a bed in the living room.) We hired a former Wartburg student from Iowa City as daytime babysitter. She was in charge of taking the kids to the local museums and playing at the pool. The children all became huge fans of the Iowa City public library, both for its book selection and location. We checked out books, movies, comics and a giant checkers set for playing on the playground outside. At the end of July we were sad to leave Iowa City, but very happy to get back to our house in Waverly. We did have some issues with our Waverly house-sitter who drank through most of our wine, but at least the house was fine.
Of course, the time spent in Iowa City was just some of the traveling we did. Mariah took students to San Francisco, Phoenix and Grand Forks North Dakota. She also had her own work related trips to Berkeley and Ann Arbor. Brian and Mariah had a work related trip to New Orleans (we hired a responsible Wartburg student to stay with the children). The entire family was out in Monterey California for Thanksgiving with the Radcliffes and will be out in Southern California for Christmas with the Birgens. One of the perks of our career choices is the ability to travel all over the country (with and without students) and explore new locations.
Whenever Brian travels he keeps busy with his geocaching hobby, although Mariah is also pretty sold on the activity. She bought her own GPS and when she was in North Dakota, she drove up to Canada, just so we could say we found a cache in a different country. The customs agent was a little nervous when Mariah explained she just wanted to spend an hour or so looking for something. That part of Manitoba just isn’t normally a tourist destination. We also know Mariah enjoys geocaching with Brian, because for their 20th anniversary in August Brian and Mariah went on a three day geocaching adventure in Northwest Iowa, trying to find a geocache in as many different Iowa counties as possible, while spending the night at remotely located Bed and Breakfasts (once again leaving the children behind with a responsible Wartburg student).
Brian spent the summer trying to complete a geocaching challenge of finding at least one geocache each day for 100 days in a row. At home in Waverly, this would be impossible, since he has already found every cache in a 10 mile radius, but by spending two months in Iowa City, he was able to keep a streak going. This included geocaching while attending a wedding one weekend and while camping with the cub scouts another weekend. The streak ran from June 1st until September 10th, but had to come to a stop once classes started up again in the fall.
Carrie started all day pre-school this year. She loves going to the same school as her older siblings. Carrie is responding very well with having a schedule and needing to follow rules along with everyone else. Carrie has always been rather willful, and school means she doesn’t always get her way. She has started reading occasional words, although she can recite her favorite story “Madeline” by heart. However, much like her older siblings, she is having a hard time leaving her afternoon naps behind. It is not uncommon for her to fall asleep before dinner and sleep straight through until morning. Most evenings it is a race to get some food into her before she falls asleep. Carried recently announced that she has “arachnophobia”. We don’t know where she picked up that word, but we suspect it was from one of her friends at school. By far Carrie’s favorite thing to do is spend time with her older siblings, although that is not always a desire they share.
Zac is in third grade has grown into a voracious reader like the rest of the family. He is currently reading his way through the “Magic Treehouse” series. Zac does well in school and claims his favorite subject is math. He enjoys being in cub scouts, especially since Brian started serving as the den leader. At first Brian was overwhelmed by the chaotic energy of 14 nine-year olds, but he has started to figure how to make it work and how to manage the boys (and their parents). Zac and Jeri also started karate lessons this year. They have only been going for a few months, but they both have been enjoying it very much. Zac also had his first communion this year and starting volunteering as an altar server at Mass with his sister Jeri.
Jeri is in her last year at St. Paul’s. Sixth grade is treating her well, although she often complains of being bored. We suspect that she mostly just wants to sit in the back of the room and read rather than listen to anything her teacher has to tell her. She is getting taller and closing in on Mariah. She did get the bad news that she inherited her father’s teeth and will be getting braces in the new year. Jeri is in her second year of playing the viola with the orchestra, and she continues to learn the piano at her parents’ insistence.
Mariah finally earned her promotion to full professor. It took longer than it should have and involved too much paperwork and jumping through a great many hoops, but we are pleased that it is over. She continues to enjoy her work in Wartburg’s Scholars program and getting to know and challenge some of the high maintenance students our college has to offer.
Also our other cat died this month. While she was a good cat, Ares was never as popular as our first cat Athena who died two years ago. Ares had a tendency to eat food left on the counter, so we are happy that we don’t need to be quite so vigilant about that anymore. Our children’s grief was short, in that it only took a few minutes before Zac asked if this meant we could get a dog now. Brian has been reassured that dogs make good geocaching companions.
This will be Brian and Mariah’s twentieth Christmas as a married couple. It’s amazing how time has flown by, but we are pleased with where it has taken us. We hope that all our friends and family have enjoyed where their life’s adventure has taken them. We wish all the best in the coming year for everyone we know and those friends we haven’t met yet.