2024 Year in Review

January - Vero Beach

The annual family DVC trip was at Vero Beach again this year, but this time we stayed in a Beach Cottage. We enjoyed the extra space, especially the more than adequate sized table for playing Wingspan. We were slightly disappointed that the pool area was closed most of our trip, but we did manage a round of mini golf before it closed for renovations (played the tournament and Rhea then claimed the trophy as her toy). During the week, we took several nature hikes off of the nearby Jungle Trail, visited the McKee Botanical Gardens, and did the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Trails Heritage Trail.

On the way home from Vero Beach, we reached 100,000 miles on the truck.

February - Park Day w/ Nora

Nora and I enjoyed a park day including a picnic lunch, the story walk, and ice cream.

March - Pi Day and Walks w/ Nora

In March, Nora and I celebrated Pi Day with pie during our afterschool Wingspan game. Also, Nora and I discovered some interesting things on a nearby trail on our walks.

March - Local Sightseeing

My godmother visited for a week and we did some local sightseeing including Brookgreen Gardens, Hopsewee Plantation, and mini golf.

April - Park Outing

Another park outing with Nora and this time we found the ice cream truck.

May - Truck Towed

The truck would not start when we were scheduled to take it for body work repair. It could not be jumped, so we had to have it towed. At least it happened with enough time for it to get repaired before our scheduled summer road trip.

June - Stanley

Dad retired at the beginning of June and he planned to have at least a week before we started Mik's 30th birthday road trip, however, we ended up changing up the plan and squeeze in a trip to North Dakota before starting Mik's road trip (we left Mom and Mik in Chicago while Dad and I went to North Dakota). The purpose of the North Dakota trip was to visit Medora, but we managed to squeeze in a slight detour through Stanley (okay, so it is not exactly a slight detour...but an extra 6 hours is nothing when it means you get a Whirla Whip).

June - North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

The reason for our trip to North Dakota was to attend the North Dakota Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony where Mom's Uncle was inducted in the Legacy Award category.

While in Medora, Dad and I also visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and played the Little Bully Pulpit Mini Golf course.

June - Enchanted Highway

As we headed back to Chicago to pick up Mik and begin his 30th birthday road trip, we took another detour and explored the Enchanted Highway.

Along the drive between Chicago and North Dakota and back to Chicago, we also visited several world largest sculptures - Prairie Chicken, Holstein Cow (Salem Sue), Buffalo, and Sandhill Crane.

June - Route 66

Our original plan for Mik's 30th birthday road trip was Myrtle Beach to Tucson to Disneyland to Chicago to Myrtle Beach. On the Disneyland to Chicago part, we planned to do some Route 66 things. With the change of plans to visit North Dakota, we ended up eliminating most of the plans after Disneyland as Mik wanted to go straight home. Of course, he still wanted to visit Pops 66 in Oklahoma (on the way to Tucson and on the way home!). We also ended up stopping at Cozy Dog Drive In in Illinois.

June - Tucson for Mik's 30th

Mik choose Tucson as where he wanted to celebrate his 30th birthday. We enjoyed visiting some of our favorite places from when we lived there including peanut butter mochas from Epic Cafe (Cafe Maggie now...), fry bread at San Xavier del Bac, daily eegee's, and traditional Sunday breakfast at Bruegger's. Dad and I also visited Sabino Canyon and Tumacacori National Historical Park.

June - Disneyland

Disneyland was Mik's other destination he choose for his 30th birthday trip. We did not so much enjoy staying at the Disneyland Hotel DVC, but we did enjoy the parks and dinner at Blue Bayou.

2024 Our Koffee Trail

On our road trip this summer we started trying to go to local coffee shops instead of always Starbucks. We ended up visiting 17 different coffeeshops across 9 states and the District of Columbia.

July - Cottage

Dad and I went to the cottage for the 4th of July, which ended up including a water pump and tank replacement project when the well stopped working.

July - DC

Dad and I went to DC to pack up and move the storage unit to Myrtle Beach. We also visited Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for the Lotus and Water Lily Festival and played Pixar Golf.

July/August - Paris 2024 Olympics

Mik and I enjoyed some French food while watching the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony. For the closing ceremony, I made Olympic flag pizza.

Fall 2024 - 4th Grade Homeschooling

The last couple year's Nora has mostly been doing an online curriculum, but we started to find it lacking. 4th grade started a little rocky as we worked with a paper based curriculum and continued the online before settling on preferring the paper curriculum. We have particularly enjoyed the various science projects. Realizing I could put the presentations on the TV (or my second monitor) has also been very helpful.

September - DC

Dad and I went to see Mickey Guyton on her first headlining tour. We also played mini golf at East Potomac Miniature Golf, saw "Mister Lincoln" at Ford's Theatre, and saw the new Johnny Cash statue at the Capitol.

October - DC

We went back to DC the next weekend to attend Mom's Uncle Lloyd's interment at Arlington National Cemetery.  As Josh, Nora, and Rhea had never been to D.C. before, we also enjoyed some of the D.C. tourist things including going to the top of the Washington Monument, Smithsonian museums, and the Capitol.

November - Ripley's Crazy Golf

For Nora's birthday, we did Ripley's Crazy Golf, which was definitely crazy!

November - Mik Baclofen Pump Replacement

Mik had his baclofen pump replacement surgery. He is on his 4th pump now (battery life is about 5 years). This time he had to go to Florence, SC for replacement. He came home same day as he did with the last replacement, but this time the pump ended up not working and Mik had to go back for a second surgery (via ambulance from Myrtle Beach hospital to Florence) to fix the catheter connection. Dad stayed with him in Florence for the few days he stayed after second surgery to ensure pump was working and he readjusted to the baclofen after going through withdrawal.

December - Moving and Christmas Decor

With Dad retiring this year, we had been planning to get a new home in Myrtle Beach with a little more space (and a garage) as Mom and Dad decided to make this their resident state (splitting time between here, Chicago, and cottage). Originally, we planned to wait until they sold their boat, but the right house came on the market and we were able to make it work and get Mik and my old house put up for sale, too. Of course, first thing hung in the new home was Mom's Apple and Orange painting I stole when I went to college. Most of the stuff has not been unpacked, yet, as we are getting the carpet replaced with laminate in January, but Dad has done the decor in the kitchen including the insulators, Disney figures, and Dumbo popcorn buckets.

December - Christmas Decor

As December has been mostly about moving and not much unpacking, we did not manage to be able to put up the Christmas tree, but Kirsten got us a little one as a housewarming gift. Also, we did get the stockings up by the fireplace (previous owner left almost all their furniture and fireplace was part of what we kept). Dad also put up the Nativity outside on Christmas Eve.

December - Christmas Lights

While we did not put up our own lights this year, I did enjoy getting to go to Brookgreen Gardens Nights of Thousand Candles. We also went to the Great Christmas Light Show again this year.

December - Piergoi & Lefse

Dad and I made piergoi for a family dinner the Sunday before Christmas We made some blueberry at Nora's request. We made them for her a few years ago as she did not used to like mashed potatoes, but now she does and she took one bite of the blueberry and then only ate the potato and cheese ones. Kirsten, Nora, and I also made lefse for the holidays, which worked out really well this year and we actually turned all the mashed potatoes into lefse (we usually make up a whole box of potato flakes and there ends up being leftover potatoes).

December - DC/Chip

With the move, we did not plan to go to Chip's show at The Birchmere this year. Before Christmas, Dad was going to go to DC to move his clothes and other things off the boat to Myrtle Beach, but he only ended up with time to go one day and come back the next. When Dad decided to instead for a long weekend after Christmas, I asked to go with so we could go see Chip's annual show. Mik choose to stay home and enjoy some time with the house to himself. Mom and I also visited the U.S. Botanic Gardens to see the annual train exhibit.

2024 Wingspan/Wrymspan

Throughout the year, we continued to have many Wingspan Sundays at Kirsten's. Nora and I also play most school day afternoons. Dad and I got our own set of Wingspan and accessories now that we have an entertainment room in the new house, so hoping for even more Wingspan in 2025. We also tried out Wyrmspan and played it some (mostly Nora and me), but we kind of forgot about it after a few months.

2023 Year in Review

January - Vero Beach

This year for our annual family trip we stayed at Disney's Vero Beach Resort. We enjoyed the more relaxing pace compared to doing Walt Disney World, although the studio part was rather small and Mik did not really enjoy it, especially for a trip that we spent a lot of time in the room (and he really did spend almost the whole trip in the room since he wasn't interested in going on any of the outings). I was kind of unsure of how the trip would end up since I do not really like the beach, but I ended up enjoying the resort for the most part including mini golf, crafts, and Dole whips.

A few days we went to nearby parks to do some trails and bird watching. We also enjoyed some family game time (of course, mainly Wingspan...). One night we stayed up late to watch a Space X launch. We actually enjoyed Vero Beach so much that we are going again for our 2024 trip and since Mik and I haven't done a second trip to Florida in years, we have enough points to stay in the Beach Cottage so there should be plenty of space (well, we actually tried to use our extra points for Animal Kingdom Concierge, but that did not happen trying 11 months out and we went with the Beach Cottage at 7 months out when the waitlist didn't come through by then).

January - Huntington State Beach

Back home from the trip, we went birdwatching at nearby Huntington Beach State Park (followed by a Wingspan game night, naturally).

January - POWYC Change of Watch

Mom and Dad at the POWYC Change of Watch.

February

Found a good backpack not just for Mik's manual wheelchair (it has two loops to go on handles), but the top loop is a buckle so we can also use it on his powerchair by buckling around the headrest pole. Of course, we forgot to plug the chair in the day before and ended up having to use the manual wheelchair the first time we tested it out. Also, later in the year we found it helpful that the shoulder straps are stored in the back and you can pull them out and use it like a regular backpack because I had to carry the groceries home when we discovered that Mik's powerchair was almost dead and did not want the extra weight of the groceries to be the reason it did not make it home. That time we had left with it fully charged and we knew the batteries weren't lasting as long as they should, but we did not realize they were that bad. Luckily, he did make it home without them dying even though he ended up going half a block too far before he realized he missed the turn into our community (I had told him to go ahead home while I was checking out, so I was about a block behind him with no way of telling him he had gone too far because he did not even have his phone that day).

February - DC

Dad came down here and I went back with him to DC for the week to help clear out their second storage unit now that they have their boat back. We then left Mom with Mik and I returned to DC with Dad for another week so Mom was out of the way while he got the stuff from storage more put away. While in DC, we went to a Carrie Underwood concert and I visited some National Park sites with Ranger Dan.

February - Living Room Light

After many months of not having a working light in the living room, we finally found something I liked when Dad was here and we went to a lighting store.

March - Knot Rocket Science

Mom and Dad's boat decorated for Cherry Blossom Festival.

April - Nationals Park

Mom and Dad at a baseball game.

April - NASA

I went on a work trip to Florida.

May - Wisdom Tooth

I got one of my wisdom teeth taken out. And Kirsten had to be the one to take me with her baby only about a week old.

May - Knot Rocket Science

Mom and Dad's boat for Blessing of the Fleet.

June - Ceiling Fans

All our ceiling fans were different and the office one in particular was ugly. We tried for a long time to find ones we liked that could be mounted in all rooms, which includes my bedroom needing an angle mount with a long rod that we never got around to getting and now decided we probably won't change out that fan since it is white and we are thinking of getting a place with garage when Dad retires next year. Dad installed them when he visited for Mik's birthday.

June - Garden

While Dad was here, we also fixed up the garden area. Since I did not get around to doing tomatoes this year, we found some flowers to put in the planters. The Grumpy is also a new addition to the garden.

July - DC

I went to DC for the 4th of July (and Mom came to Myrtle Beach to hang with Mik while I was gone) so I could go to the Capitol Fourth rehearsals and sit on the steps one more time before Dad retires. It was fun to see Chip as one of the performers. Also, watched the fireworks on the 4th from Knot Rocket Science (not so fun when Dad uses his horn at the end).

August - DC

I flew to DC to go to Illinois with Mom and Dad (Dad and I drove, Mom took a plane). As it was Dad's off day, we went to the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. While Dad was a work one day, I went to the American History Museum.

August - Illinois/Indiana

While in Illinois we went to the Pullman National Historic Park. We also ended up going to the Indiana Dunes National Park, which we had not been to since it switched from a National Lakeshore to a National Park. Mom and Dad also went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

August - Grandpa's 95th Birthday

And the reason we went to Illinois was to celebrate Grandpa's 95th birthday. We also got to see the cards he received from school children in Poland for the anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising earlier that month. Google Translate was helpful, especially on the letter from the President of Poland (or it might have been the one from Mayor of Warsaw) as we found it was actually a birthday greeting and not just related to the Warsaw Uprising anniversary.

September

Outing to the local coffee shop with Mik getting the seasonal Orange Spice Mocha and me getting the Maple Pumpkin Spice Latte.

October - Pandas

Mom and Dad visited the National Zoo to see the pandas.

October - Mini Golf

Mik had seizures in September and Dad came down in October to help take him to one of the many tests and appointments he had (all tests were normal and he has not had any since being put on meds, so for now he is being kept on them). Since the weather was not too hot, while Dad was here we went mini golfing including checking out the rather recently opened Red Dragon Cove.

October - Knot Rocket Science

Mom and Dad's boat decorated for Halloween and their Halloween costumes.

November - Chip

Annual trip to DC to see Charles Esten at The Birchmere. It was before Thanksgiving, so missed out on our usual seeing the train at the Botanic Gardens, but at least the good experience at the Myrtle Beach airport made Mik less nervous about traveling by plane again, which he had not done since 2019.

November - Christmas Decorations

I put up our Christmas tree with just the lights (did not feel like getting the ornaments out of the attic), Mik's village, and my village. Also, got green spoke covers for Mik's wheelchair to be red and green for the holiday season.

December - Boat Parade

This year Dad's theme for the boat parade was "Joy to the World."

December - Great Christmas Light Show

Mom, Dad, and I did the drive through Great Christmas Light Show and enjoyed the photo ops at Santa's Village.

December - Orlando

We went to Orlando for a week. We all enjoyed Disney Springs one day, especially Mik with his haul of gourmet marshmallows. Dad and I went back another day to complete the Christmas Tree Stroll. We also did some mini golf including the indoor Putting Edge, Disney's Winter Summerland, and Gator Golf. With Mik we enjoyed the Orlando Auto Museum, especially the movie vehicles (his favorite being the Indiana Jones ones). We also had lunch at Ole Red.

December - Pierogi

Dad and I made pierogi with a tornado warning break and without power for a few hours.

December - Christmas Eve

We had most of the pierogi the week before with family at Kirsten's house, but we had some leftover for Mik and I to have for our own Christmas Eve.

2023 Wingspan

And we continued to have many Wingspan Sundays (and other days on occasion, too).

That's a Wrap