It’s Christmas time again! Where did the time go? In
reflecting back, it seems there were more lowlights than highlights this
year. Myrt, Dan (Steve’s brother) and
Molly (our niece) were each called to their final reward over just a couple of
months. We will always thank God for the
Little Sisters of the Poor who took wonderful care of Myrt (and us as well).
The Malones also owe Fr. Roger Bauman, a huge debt of gratitude as he was nearly
on retainer with the family, officiating at wakes and funerals for Dan and
Molly and Mara’s (Molly’s baby) baptism. And…oh yeah, both cats survived
another year. High or low remains to be determined.
Kevin’s latest assignment is closer to home. His commute to
Chicago may not be much more than Alanna’s travels to various veterinary
clinics around the metropolitan area. Alanna, Kevin and family traveled widely
this year. As soon as school let out, they took wing for Europe and spent over
a week traveling through Rome and Paris. Then, over Thanksgiving, they spent a
week at Disney World, where they were hoping to escape the cold. Not sure
things worked out quite the way they had hoped. However, a good time was had by
all. Finally, Alanna attended a conference for veterinarians in San Diego in
December and stayed with Jaime and Lucy. That short stay piqued her interest in
returning because she didn’t have time to see much of the neighborhood in her
spare time.
Sofia has started competing in Junior Olympic gymnastics
with several excellent competitions under her belt. It’s fun to watch her compete and see the joy
on her face when she has had a good performance. She and her mom just returned
from Chicago, where they combined a girls’ weekend with another competition. Sofia
recently competed in her first State Championship where her team took 5th
out of 28. On another front, she is also becoming quite the rock hound.
Ethan is just starting his second basketball season after
playing summer soccer and learning how to play flag football. Kevin has been
one of his coaches and introduced the first graders to the forward pass. Ethan caught
one as a tight end or maybe a flanker. That’s harder than it looks at that
age…for player and coach. In addition to team sports, Ethan also took some golf
lessons this summer. He is still into
dinosaurs and Pokémon. Not long ago, Ethan challenged Grandpa to a race and won
with some ease. If that isn’t humiliating enough, Sofia said she was faster
than Ethan and wanted to race. The track was about a fifty yard sprint. Grandpa
did pretty good and nearly beat her. She had to ruin it, though, when he
pointed out how close it was. She said, “Grandpa, I was just jogging.” It’s a
sad day when whippersnappers taunt their elders.
Stephanie and I took Sofia and Ethan for camping, hiking and
rock climbing this year at Jay Cooke State Park. If you haven’t been there for
a while, those climbing spots that used to be big rocks have become mountains.
Stephanie shouted encouragement, as always, when Sofia picked her way along the
pinnacle on the highest mountain, while Ethan wanted to prove he was a bighorn
on the bound. Luckily, we were rained out of one of our more rugged hikes.
Dotage permits apologies to the young with, “Maybe the weather will cooperate
next year.” We won over their good graces with pizza in Cloquet and desert at
the Dairy Queen. Overall it was a fun camping weekend.
After his deployment aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, where
they participated in the RIMPAC international war exercise, Kyle had some time
to play in Hawaii. He has since transferred to Jacksonville to scrape some of
the rust off of his piloting skills. After this, he will join his new squadron
in Japan as Department Head. Jaime, who has been working her own flexible
schedule at Scripps Health System, and Lucy will stay in San Diego until Kyle
completes his deployment. They will all be moving to their next home in
Washington State in the fall. Looking forward to seeing that part of the
country for the first time.
Lucy joined the family in February. She got off to a slow
and frightening start after being born with sepsis. After three very long days
of cooling therapy and another two weeks in the NICU, she finally got to go
home, where she has since been thriving and absorbing the fun in life like a
sponge. We finally got to meet and hold her in April, as we spent a week over
Easter in San Diego with mom, dad and baby. She is as cute as a button. Then in
October, Kyle and Jaime tried to arrange Lucy’s baptism on the USS Ronald Reagan.
However, the timing did not work out. Instead, she was baptized at the chapel
in Coronado with both sets of grandparents, Kelly, Tim and Danielle in
attendance. We all had a wonderful time together and it was so much fun to see
the little cousins interact with each other and “trade” toys back and forth.
Lucy continues to do very well and is meeting all of her milestones. She gets
around very well and is starting to stand. Here comes trouble!
Kelly and Tim have finished another year at the weather
service and they have much to explain. Our winters seem to be starting earlier
and ending later, plus that first snowstorm this year in Tim’s Erie PA hometown
stacked up to something like six feet…yes…that was feet. My snow blower would
have died of a carburetor attack. They are on the lookout for a new home. It’s
hard to imagine how much more space is required by the addition of just one
tiny little body!
In February, Danielle became a child of God. We celebrated
with her and Kyle earned another call sign…the Godfather! Just a few short
weeks ago, Danielle celebrated her first birthday. It was quite an event where she learned the
head first dive, literally, into a birthday or any other kind of cake. Shortly
before her birthday, she took her first steps. Like her daddy, she loves music
and, like mommy, loves to dance. This looks to be a good combination! She was
also thrilled about all the new toys Santa put under the tree for her. In 2015
we get to see how fast Mom(s) and Dad(s) can move to keep up. Parenting is
definitely for the young.
As for us, Facetime and/or Skype are among the great
inventions of all time, allowing us to view progress as the grandkids in the
east and west join more of the fray each day. Steve is finishing another year
at Viking and Stephanie is, too, at Medica.
Stephanie and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this
year. We also spent the entire week at Chetek this year. Without Dan and Molly, who were traditionally
25% to 33% of our iron person competition, some of the athletic endeavors,
especially the whiffle ball event, suffered mightily. This year Steve won zero croquet games, not
even the preliminaries, and will need to work a little harder next year in
spring training. The black bear that has patrolled the perimeter remained
hidden this year. He never even came out to inspect the firing range, his main
haunt the last couple of years. JC’s and Tom’s fireworks displays were as good
as any and better than most as was the food.
