Another Year, In the Books

First day of school, August 2015...

Last day of school, nine months later...

Wow.

Birthday Pics

Anya

Anthony

Foreseeable Changes

So, during the twelve years that we lived in Peoria I think we always had it in the back of our minds that my job might take us to a different location. When the opportunity arose to move to Aurora to join the newly formed Mining Shovel group, we felt like formation of that new product group would ensure we'd be in Northern Illinois for a number of years. Sadly, that stay turned out to be only a few months before a strange set of circumstances caused the group to be dissolved and we had to begin looking for another spot to land. We found our spot here in Monticello. Halfway between my new job in Decatur and the university scene in Champaign, with excellent schools and a welcoming community, Monticello has been everything you could ask for in a small town. So with stability in the Large Truck product line and a bit of room to grow in my new group our foreseeable future seemed pretty well defined.

Until last week.

We've known for a few months that our (very) large and relatively scattered division has been considering a centralized location to consolidate the support and engineering groups for the products that fall under its umbrella. That location was going to be in one of four southwestern cities, with the selection process ongoing. Last week it was announced that the new regional headquarters, and our new home, would be in Tucson, Arizona.

We've got very mixed feelings.

On the one hand we're excited for a new adventure. We'll be closer to our families and I'm sure will come to value new friends as much was we've grown to love our friends here. But we will have to leave Monticello. And Illinois. Bummer.

The city of Tucson and the state of Arizona seem to be fairly excited: link

Moving 600 jobs doesn't happen overnight of course, and we're still somewhat in the planning phases with individual conversations about if and when and how. The transition will continue for a number of years, but it looks like our group will likely be one of the first to go. Right now the best estimate we have is summer of 2017.

So, one more very busy year here before saying our goodbye's. I've got a lump in my throat already.

Teenager 2

Anthony turned 13 last month. Two teenagers in the house! Who could have imagined?

It's kind of fun.

The party wasn't a huge affair, just a couple of good buddies and a chocolate cake.

One of the big changes this year for Anthony was the addition of some specs to clear up some fuzzy peepers. He seems to have inherited his parents eyeballs. We all think he looks good in glasses.

We don't seem to have too many pictures recently of Anthony, but he's certainly been active. He wrestled this winter, played trumpet in the middle school band and ran track this spring. Then broke his arm in track and had to learn how to play the trumpet one-handed. It's all good.

Happy Birthday Anthony!

Anya Birthday

Anya's sixth birthday was a Hello Kitty theme. With lots of pink, of course.

This year she got to invite some friends for a party. So she invited all the girls in her kindergarten class. They all came.

It was fun. The girls ate cupcakes, made headbands, smashed a pinata, chased each other around with Nerf guns and generally had a (high pitched) good time. Opening presents was a group activity.

Thank you Grandma for the pretty dress!

The Birthday Girl and her buddies. Happy birthday Anya!

Fuzzy Math

"Dad, guess what?" Paxton said this morning, "I did 27 times 3 and it's 41!"

"I did it in my head!"

Good job Paxton, you'll make a great accountant some day.

Fifteen

Kenrick next. He turned 15 this year.

No, that's not a pizza with candles! It's a peanut butter ice cream pie with a Nutter Butter crust and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on top. Kenrick's invention. It was quite delicious.

The official pic. What a good looking kid!

Birthday's for a fifteen year old aren't as big a deal as they used to be. Presents can be opened on a different day than cake (he needed the shoes for track practice), and yes, the box is wrapped in the Sunday comics.

Tomorrow our little bug starts Driver's Ed. Wow.

Eight

Birthday time again. Seems to happen every year.

Paxton first. Eight years old.

Lego's continue to be our go-to gift. No complaints from any of the kids so far.

The official pic. Keep smiling Pax!

Winter Travels

Idaho again for Christmas and New Year's break. Total vacation travel miles in 2015: over 10,000.

Here we go...

We spent the first few days of our trip with my folks, then planned to meet the rest of my family in McCall for Christmas. We had a chance to spend an evening with Andrea's brother and family before we headed north.

It snowed all the way to McCall, adding to the five feet or so already on the ground. Unfortunately, the house we had rented was on the side of a mountain, up a steep, narrow road. We got stuck. Then we put chains on and made it part way before Dad got stuck. Then we waited for the snow plow to come and walked around and took pictures of all the beautiful snow.

It was worth all the trouble in the end though, the house was great and the view was phenomenal.

Looking to the south-east over a cloud-covered Payette Lake and the Cascade Mountains.

One of the most highly anticipated activities planned for this trip was to get a few days of snowboarding under our belts. Brundage Mountain did not disappoint. Pandemonium in the Powder!

Andrea and Anthony, working out the kinks in the ol' snowboarding muscles.

Sam and Cooper, heading back up the slope.

Anthony (in the foreground), working on his turns.

Kenrick and Anthony both did really well, considering that they've only been on snowboards a couple of times before and not at all in the last two years! It had been even longer for Andrea, but once we figured out that her stance had changed directions from the last time she'd gone she did great. I was worn out after the third run.

The slope off the front of the house offered plenty of opportunity for digging and sliding as well. By the time we left we had a sled track that passed under two tunnels before dropping off the edge to the driveway down below.

Dorian helps his mamma pile up more snow.

All that activity required some R&R. Sam's in charge of reading. Sally and Dorian look pretty relaxed.

We took an afternoon between reading, eating, and sledding to go to the McCall ice rink.

Anya gets a hand from Uncle Sam. She did fantastic for her first time without supports. What a trooper!

Anthony concentrates.

Paxton helps Uncle Matt around the rink. Oh wait, I guess it was the other way around.

The Sam Fam.

It was time to pack up all too soon. Better get a picture before everyone heads their separate ways.

We spent one more night in Boise, the piled all our luggage back into (and on top of) our poor van and headed to the other side of the state to spend a few days with Andrea's parents. Yes, that's five snowboards up on top! (Dad found an extra at a pawn shop that was too good a deal to pass up)

Andrea's brother Byron and his family joined us and we had a nice time with them.

Playing a game of Outburst on New Year's Eve.

We managed to get one more day of snowboarding in, at Grand Targhee, just across the boarder in Wyoming. Steep!

That's Andrea and Anthony way up on the slope, waving at us as we go by on the lift. It was a beautiful day; a nice way to start the year.

Heading back from Targhee we got treated to a spectacular sunset against the Teton range.

We also managed to slip in an early birthday party for Paxton before we had to head home. He was delighted of course. Thanks for the cake Grandma!

Keeping Track

Anya enjoys tracking the date on her calendar and marking off the days as they pass, but she's still a little confused about how to describe some of the numbers. This morning she asked, "Is today the twenty-oneth or the twenty-twoth?"

Two-thless

Anya's two bottom front teeth were starting to wiggle soon after she started school. By Halloween, the first one was ready to come out. She was delighted.

Then a few days ago I noticed her fingers in her mouth working the second one back and forth. Now she's double toothless.

Down Under

Sorry for the long delay since my last post. Seems like we've been going full tilt since the middle of August and I just haven't had a chance to catch up. The end of August saw the beginning of school and soccer and marching band. I spent the first half of September in Australia for work, the last half trying to recover, and then October was more band competitions and homework and yard work and the last of soccer and trying to catch up on sleep on the weekends.

Did I mention that I went to Australia? That was quite an experience. Flew to Sydney then west to Perth then up to the middle of nowhere to a mine site to do some testing for some customers. Saw lots of Australians, but no kangaroos.

The flight from Dallas to Sydney was 16 hours on board the world's largest airplane, the Airbus A380. This is one BIG plane.

The pictures out the window on the way into Western Australia pretty much sum up the terrain of the whole area. Red dirt, scrub brush and eucalyptus trees, a few dry creek beds, and an occasional dusty track that serves as a road to who-knows-where crisscrossing the bush. There's a reason most of Australia's major cities are along the coastlines.

The plane to Newman was almost entirely filled with miners wearing their high visibility, or high viz, orange and yellow shirts and pants. The little airport pretty much exists to serve the mines in the area. The miners fly in and stay for a week or so in the camps that have been set up to feed and house them, then head home for a break before coming back to do it all over again.

I had my own high viz. The end of a 14 hour day makes me a tired boy.

I had one evening in Sydney on my way home, so I took the train downtown to try to see a few of the sights. It was dark and rainy, but I wanted to at least see the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge. The Opera house was pretty cool, even in the rain. The bridge was neat too, but somehow smaller than I'd imagined. I didn't get a chance to climb to the top - maybe next time.

Heading home. Only 8,500 miles to go!