Back in March, Zac went with his 6th grade class on a four day trip to Washington DC. In the final grade at St. Paul’s the class plans a trip to DC and visits a variety of exciting locations, including the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Library of Congress. We had taken a family vacation out to DC back in 2012, so Zac still remembered that trip, but he enjoyed a chance to visit again.
For May Term Brian was teaching the Historical Roots of Math and Physics in Germany again. He taught the course in 2006 and 2009, so he was eager to return. Mariah taught the class three ago in the British Isles and Jeri had accompanied her then. When Jeri started high school she was told that if she wanted to accompany Brian to Germany, she would need to select German as her foreign language. She held up her end of the deal, so she went with Brian on the trip. We visited the Reichstag in Berlin and the Wartburg castle in Eisenach Germany, although Brian’s favorite was the Herzog August Bibliotek in Wolfenbüttel, the second oldest continuously active library in the world. (Jeri had been the oldest three years previously in London.) There were some headaches due to a rail strike, which required Brian to make some quick schedule changes, but overall it was a fun trip. Brian even attended a “Giga” geocaching event (with over 5000 people in attendance) while his students attended a Bundesliga (soccer) match.
We returned just in time to attend Zac’s graduation from St. Paul’s and for Jeri to complete her freshman year of high school (with a 4.0 GPA despite missing three weeks of class traveling in Germany). Less than a week later, the entire family left for Seoul, South Korea. We stayed with Brian’s sister Susie whose husband, Jim, is a VP for Samsung. Jeri, Zac and Carrie enjoyed spending time with their cousin Josh. We took a trip to the DMZ and went for some fun hikes in Seoul while mastering the local mass transit.
After a week in South Korea, we traveled to Japan. We had tickets for the Shinkansen (bullet trains) so we stayed a few days in Kyoto in a traditional guest inn. Our friend Tomoko Shibuya met us and took us to see the Fushimi Inari shrine, famous for its many orange torii (gates). We took a day trip to Hiroshima (which was cold and rainy) and a trip to Hakone for the natural mineral baths, before relocating to Tokyo. We attending the traditional Shinto wedding ceremony of Tomoko and even had the role of breaking open the sake cask during the reception. It was without a doubt the most elaborate event we have ever attended, with at least four different costume changes for the bride (including a full kimono, a wedding dress and a traveling dress). The ten course meal was the finest food we have ever tasted. We also had a day spent at the Ueno Zoo with Tomoko and her sister. Carrie was very pleased to see some of her favorite animals from New Zealand in addition to the panda. Tomoko marveled at Carrie’s ability to share her in depth knowledge about a variety of animals without pausing to breathe. All in all it was a great trip to Asia, somewhere none of us has ever visited before. All of our children behaved exceedingly well during our travels, in the hopes that they will get to take more trips in the future.
Waverly became an exciting place when the Mumford and Son’s Gentlemen of the Road music festival came through town. Mariah and Brian worked parts of the show to earn free tickets. We were still tired from our Asia travels, but the show was great excitement for small town Waverly. Right after that Zac spent a week at summer camp earning merit badges and having fun. As soon as that was over we had a trip to South Dakota for the Birgen family reunion. Our children enjoyed playing with some of their more distant cousins. The clan stayed at a campground outside of Sturgis. We enjoyed some nice hikes through the Black Hills and a visit to the Deadwood cemetery (to see Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane).
Mariah had a trip to San Luis Obispo for an IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) conference. This is a style of math instruction where the instructor does not lecture, but the students give all the presentations and evaluate the correctness of each other’s work. It is generally considered to be more effective, but often makes the students feel very uncomfortable while they adjust to the approach. Near the end of July, Brian took a week off to bicycle across Iowa with the Wartburg Knight-Riders as part of RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Greater Bike Ride Across Iowa). For seven days starting at the Missouri River on the west border and ending at the Mississippi River on the east border Brian and ten thousand other cyclists pedaled through a series of small towns eating pork sandwiches and pie like a swarm of locusts. Brian took the time to find a few geocaches along the way and to document his travels on Instagram. Mostly he is proud of completing the trip without hurting himself.
Then in August we made a trip out to California for Betsy Birgen’s wedding. We left our vehicle in Kansas City and flew out to California. We hit the beach with Anj, Kaia and Amber from Mariah’s side of the family before the wedding. We had a blast celebrating Betsy and Dan’s wedding and generally dancing like fools (much to Jeri’s embarrassment). Mariah caught a plane to Washington DC where the Centennial Math Meetings were wrapping up for another IBL-like workshop, and the next day Brian and the kids took the train through to Kansas City where our vehicle was waiting. It was a two day train ride, and we are all proud that Brian was able to hop off the train in Albuquerque to find a geocache and get back on before the train left. From Kansas City, Brian loaded up the children in the van and drove to Des Moines where they picked Mariah up at the airport after her flight back from DC. It was an impressive amount of choreography.
At Thanksgiving we had a house full of Radcliffes. Mariah’s aunt Michelle was the impetus for the family gathering, but we got to play host. In addition to Larry and Michelle and their children Nicole and Matthew, we has Mariah’s siblings Willow and Torrey along with all their children. Mariah’s parents were also in attendance. Luckily a new hotel opened up in downtown Waverly at the end of October, so everyone was able to stay a few blocks from our house. We were able to seat fourteen people around our dining room table, but finding beds for that many people at our house would have been a cozy challenge. It was great to see everyone all together in the same place. The dinner was splendid with many helpers and great conversation.
Jeri is a sophomore in high school and has started running on the cross country team. She was the most improved runner on her team, shaving over 10 minutes off her personal record for the 5K over the season. She started working at Domino’s Pizza (at Mariah’s insistence) and is already one of the more responsible employees, despite being too young to operate the oven.
Zac received his First Class rank in Boy Scouts before his summer camp, so he could focus on merit badges. He earned his Life rank just before the end of the year. He has also started at the Junior High School and has made a whole new crop of friends. He is enjoying Band and Chorus and was selected for the honor chorus. He has a reputation for being something of a showman, but is friendly and kind.
Carrie has her First Communion in April. Because we attended the early morning Mass, she was the only First Communicant there and didn’t have to share the spotlight with any of the forty other kids (who were spread out over the other two Mass times). Carrie is becoming more responsible, but never as quickly as her parents would like. She volunteers as an altar server at our church and continues with piano lessons and girl scouts.
What an exciting year it was for us! We hope your year was enjoyable and that the coming year holds great promise for you. We don’t know where the future will take us, but we are pleased by the friends and family with whom we travel. All the best in the coming year.