We have a lot to look forward to in 2010, and much to be thankful for in 2009.
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We spent much of the summer and fall traveling, visiting St. Louis around the 4th of July, and taking in a Cardinals game with Renee’s family. We also celebrated her sister, Michele’s, 40th birthday with food and fireworks at the Clubhouse. Later in July, we spent 4 days in Chicago where Brent had a conference. We were able to take in the boat parade and fireworks of Venetian Night, and also see many sights including Navy Pier, the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, the Garfield conservatory and loads more. One highlight of the trip was sailing on the Tall Ship Windy. It was a beautiful day to be on Lake Michigan, enjoying Chicago’s skyline and learning about the pirates of the Great Lakes.
In August, we traveled to Sandwich, IL for a family reunion on Brent’s mom’s side. We all met at the old Phillips Family Farm, still run by his cousin Bruce, and had a spectacular time visiting with family from all over and seeing all the sights of the farm. The kids especially loved getting to ride in the combine, taking a bumpy hay ride, “driving” the pick-up, climbing into the hayloft, and riding a horse. Following the reunion, we drove up to Minnesota and spent a night visiting with Brent’s brother Joel and Denise, before heading to Windom, MN to spend a week with his parents. The county fair was that same week, so the kids had a blast seeing the livestock, riding the rides, and especially seeing the demolition derby. We also took a side trip to Walnut Grove to see the site of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s original dugout home on the banks of Plum Creek.
In October, we spent 2 nights in Mackinaw City and a day biking around Mackinac Island. We were able to see lots of cool sights like Skull Cave, Sugarloaf, and the Grand Hotel. We had a decadent buffet lunch at the hotel, and of course couldn’t leave without getting some Mackinac Island fudge. It was a fantastic trip, one we hope to repeat in the future. Cate and Ian also completed the Grand Rapids Kids’ Marathon in October. Together, we walked a total of 25 miles over the 5 weeks leading up to it, then walked the last 1.2 miles on the course in Grand Rapids.
7 ½ year old Cate started 2nd grade this year and also got her first pair of glasses in March. She and her friend, Maddy, went on their first overnight camp, spending 2 nights at Camp Anna Behrens, a Girl Scout camp in Greenville, MI. They both had a great time, and Cate is looking forward to going again this summer. Cate continues to love her Montessori classroom, and is especially fond of math and reading. She started private piano lessons this year and has been entertaining us with her lovely music. She also started gymnastics in the fall, and really loves it. Our own little Mother Nature, Cate has a passion to save the Earth and loves to spend time creating posters, poems, and songs about it. She even donated some of her own money to the National Wildlife Federation. True, she may have been somewhat swayed by the promise of a free canvas shoulder bag, but she did it all the same. She and Renee have been enjoying a mother-daughter book club this fall with several other moms and girls her age. It’s been a wonderful way to spend time together and share a favorite pastime.
Ian is 5 ½ and started Kindergarten at Black River Public School. He is also in a Montessori classroom, and is learning to read, tell time, and identify the continents. Ian was the first kid in his class to make a hundreds roll all the way to 1000 (this means wrote out the numbers of 1 to 1000 on a looong strip of paper). This summer, Ian played T-ball for the first time and had a great experience. He also started gymnastics and has continued that throughout the school year. We were all very excited when Ian passed a food challenge at the allergist’s office proving that he outgrew his allergy to eggs! He is now the proud eater of eggs in every form, and in fact, is directed to eat them at least a couple of times a week. We think they may be helping him to finally put some meat on those bones! Ian is still our monkey, a bundle of energy climbing on, in, or under everything. The only time he seems to lack energy is naptime, when he claims he’s “too tired of taking naps…” if only he understood the irony. He’s still a cuddly, lovable little guy, who loves his friends and his toy cars equally.
Renee is still home with the kids full time, but now enjoys a couple hours to herself each day while Ian is at Kindergarten… well sometimes. She has continued to lead Cate’s Girl Scout troop, volunteer in classrooms, shuttle kids to gymnastics, piano, allergy shots, and all the other running around, and still loves to get together with her friends from playgroup, even without the kids. This group of women and their families has really become a family to us here in Michigan, and we are very grateful to have them in our lives. A bigger focus this year was on volunteer work. Renee volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and spent an afternoon helping at the Community Action House lunch kitchen. She also organized a Girl Scout linen drive for our service unit to benefit Holland’s Center for Women in Transition. This month, the whole family will start helping hand out food once a month for Feeding America through our church. Renee hopes to start working part time and do more volunteering once both kids are in school all day.
This year, Brent got more research done during the school year than ever before. He was finally able to host a workshop for high school science teachers at Hope that he’s been thinking about for a bunch of years. It was a big success by all accounts, and was a lot of fun. Hopefully he will be able to continue it this year. Brent finished a large project that involved editing a new reference volume on nanoscience. He also took a research trip back to Scripps in San Diego to collect data with several of his students. He is still trying to get the big NSF grant, and we’re hoping 2010 will be the year. There has been plenty to do around the house as well. In the spring we built a new garden in our yard, complete with four-foot tall sides to keep the deer out. Spring also involved spreading 30 yards of mulch around our yard and planting lots of ground cover to hopefully reduce that amount of mulch in the future! Ian‘s birthday in May coincided with the removal of a dying 80 foot cherry tree next to our garage. It was too tall for their boom truck so a tree climber had to be hired—the lengths we go to ensure a one-of-a-kind birthday for our son. At least we have awesome new cherry-wood stools around the fire pit.
We are truly thankful for a wonderful past year, and hope you all feel the same about your own memories of 2009. Here’s to more amazing memories in 2010.
Love, Brent, Renee, Cate, & Ian
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