We made it!

Well, Noah made it to Germany safely and the rest of us FINALLY made it to the end of the school year!  Hooray.  Noah has committed to sending me one picture a day.  Of course being Noah they are pictures of things like beer bottles on the side of the road, pigeons, and the Claire's in the mall.  Thankfully, others on the trip post pictures to their social medias...

Meanwhile, Sam graduated 8th grade!  There may have been minor struggles with some C's in Band due to missing assignments, but overall we are very proud.  He's a great guy and he's going to have a blast in high school!

I was able to snap a quick shot of him with two of his friends, Gabe and Ryan in the hallway.  They will be in band together next year and I'm sure will have more adventures!

Noah left Berlin was was reunited with Anselm in Munich!

His schedule has been busy, but the host family did take him to a zoo the feed animals.  Overall it sounds like he is having a great time!

They have shared some incredible pictures of the kids in the Alps, I can't wait to see and hear more!

And then Isaac finished up 6th grade at Nerge Elementary!  Only junior high and high school kids in this house now!

My last walk with him to before school Kaspar.  Can't believe we are finally done paying for childcare - huzzah!

Mike was able to attend his 6th grade celebration!

Way to go pal, you earned that summer break!

I am now FINALLY done, but the boys did get to do some sushi with Bamma and of course mocked me via pic.  Happy Summer all!  I hope everyone gets to do the fun things they want to do!

Spring 2025

So, we hosted a German!  Anselm, a 16 year old from Munich came and stayed with us for 2 weeks.  He was lovely, kind, intelligent, and just fun to get to know.

We tried to show him a lot of "American things" including trips for ice cream.

And Sam's special spring valley concert band performance.

We also took him to a bull riding event which he didn't really care for, but was a good sport for a bit.

The German group was busy with lots of side trips too!

Minecraft movie - he liked the recliners!

And far to quickly we had to say goodbye, it was a great experience!

Then we sped along to some of the fun end of school year events!  First, April birthday celebrations!

Sam went to his 8th grade dance!

Isaac enjoyed "Donuts with Grownups" at school with Bampa.

While Anselm was here, he use his professional camera to get some good portraits of the cats!

Sam's been working on a nice stache! But has recently taken to shaving.

Special dessert night was a hit!

And we celebrated the baptism of Sofia!

I've taken to birding and recently went with my dear friend Kelly and Philie, we had a great day (even though it was 85 and blustery!).

I survived the Dust Storm of 2025, it was strange!

This guy is officially done with school and we will be celebrating his 8th grade graduation soon!

And today we sent Noah off for his adventure in German and Austria!

The start of 2025!

As usual, I have some catching up to do!  The highlight of recent times has been the arrival of our newest family member!  Kjersten and Josh had Miss Sofia Therese on December 18th and she is PERFECT!

It also meant that we got to spend several days with Lauren just before the holidays, which was so fun!

We had lot of fun while mom and dad got settled with the new little one!

Lauren did a great job at hour house and started to make some gains in her quest to be friends with the cats!

And in her quest to eat all the snacks!

Christmas Eve was the usual shenanigans with pre-teens and teens!

Dad gave some pool tips at Aunty Kim's house!

Christmas Day wake up is a little later these days, but still fun!

Isaac got to go on a adventure with Stan and Hattie to a cat arcade!

And we did our usual winter break movie marathon - this year was the hunger games series!

Noah helped out at the activities fair, representing DnD club.

More baby cousin time!

Isaac tested out the new electric scooter that he and Sam got for Christmas!

In February we got to celebrate Lauren's 3rd birthday!  It was a wild time at Main Event!

Happy Birthday little lady, we love you so much!

Isaac turned 12!

We celebrated the March birthdays together!

Cat snuggles!

Ridiculous Costco finds!

Band concerts for Isaac and Sam!

And Noah turned 17!

The boys and I had different spring breaks this year, but we spent the overlapping weekend at a super cool Air BnB in Wisconsin.  It had a ton of arcade games!

The Worsts joined us for an afternoon of gaming and swimming!

Poor Mike threw out his back and spent most of the weekend laid up on the couch, at least it was a larger couch I guess!

The hunting game was a fan favorite.

There were a few scrabble games.

Isaac spent a lot of time in the huge pool, it was a fun weekend!

And now we wait for our German exchange student to arrive!  Always some new excitement around here!