So I Tied An Onion To My Belt – 2019 Edition

The start of 2019 required patience — sticking to the same patterns for nearly 4 years doesn’t come easy for me, but sometimes that’s best. Fortunately, we had our first escape in March: a couple’s vacation to Mexico with some great friends from college. Going somewhere just to relax is a relatively new experience, but it went well — aside for a couple days of Montezuma’s Revenge near the end!

When we got back, we started putting things in place for some needed changes. First, Nic got a new car, to keep us in shape for road trips to Canada. Then, after finally getting some clarity on professional transitions, we were able to nail down our summer plans. A July start for a new job meant that we got one more trip to Florida from my previous employer — and allowed me to stick around long enough to launch my second product.

After Nic and the kids were done with Universal Studios, I handed in my two-weeks notice, and we went off to Family Camp — during which I signed the final papers for my new job. We squeezed in one more little get-away with some friends at Darien Lake, then the kids were back to school and I was thrust into almost non-stop business travel. As a result, the fall was necessarily a little more quiet on the home front. Simpler things like tinkering with projects, going on Girl Scout trips, horse-back riding, and kayaking in our beautiful State parks provided small escapes from responsibility.

The best escape had to wait until the end of the year. Ben pushed through another challenging half school year, on the brink of becoming a teenager. To celebrate his 13th birthday, we planned a surprise trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where he and I got to explore the new Galaxy’s Edge Star Wars land. An early morning got us into the brand new Rise of the Resistance ride, and let us see most of the rest of the park as well. Ben built a droid, we drank blue milk, and got to nerd out together on this, the last of his Star Wars birthdays.

We flew out, via Atlanta, where we met up with the girls, en route to Grand Cayman. There we spent a wonderful week with my parents, enjoying their sunny paradise. Nic and I got to try a scuba diving lesson, she and the kids got to play with some dolphins, and we all got to explore the coral reef as we snorkeled around 7 mile beach.

It was a wonderful cap on a pretty great year. 2020 will be an interesting one. Of course, we have some travel planned, having ended up in sort of an every-other-year pattern for some of our favorite adventures. But there will have to be new ones too. Our new teenager starts high school (a year early here) and we’ll have to figure out what makes the most sense for him — as well as thinking hard about what kinds of family experiences are important for our kids in the few years we have left with them.

For now, though, we’re happy and healthy in Ohio, and looking forward to what God leads us through in the next year. Family Photos have been updated — find the link and password hint on the home page.

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