It’s that time of year again where we reflect on the past. This year was particularly memorable, despite the fact that Jill and I no longer control our lives. We had the opportunity to take the family on another memorable camping vacation, to 8 national parks and monuments. We began planning more than a year in advance and booked all of the campsites and our break condo in Zion all on the day they opened for reservations. I basked in successfully reserving all of the sites we wanted in the parks we wanted to be at, most with ideal locations.
Then dance team shared that NDA camp dates were released and they conflicted with our trip. *sigh* thus begun completely reworking our trip from the remnants of what remained of available sites. But with a few camp site availability notifications, we were able to make it all work and still had a magical trip. It just goes to show how little control we now maintain in our lives, most things are dictated by dance, and the rest by 4H and friends.
Despite all of the things going on, we managed the camping trip out west, a trip to the cabin with several of the girls’ friends, a trip to visit my mom in Florida, and Jill and I took the opportunity to get away for our 20th. A few of the highlights from our year made their way into our letter:
Additional photos from the year can be found in the following albums:
- Madelyn’s track meets
- Memorial Day weekend in Minneapolis
- Bold Dance Recital
- Robert Thomas Dance Recital
- Southwest camping trip
- Cabin trip with friends
- 20 year anniversary trip
- Homecoming
- Crystal garage and siding project
- Maddie’s fall orchestra and choir concert
- Ames High Dance Team 24/25
- Thanksgiving
- Nutcracker
All the best from our family to yours, happy holidays!
