Dear friends and family, (hier geht es auf š©šŖ Deutsch weiter!)
as I’m writing these lines, I’m starting to realize how much has happened this year. We now have a first-grader, a middle schooler, and a high schooler, and they are all doing fine.
Soccer
Vitus has started playing soccer this year and… well, let’s say a lot of growth is ahead of him š. Julius switched into a new league, which requires travel to nearby towns for games. His game has improved a lot, and the games are quite fun to watch.
A visit from Katrin’s parents
Towards the end of summer, Katrin’s parents came for a monthlong visit. They were off to a rough start with two extra overnight stays due to missed connections, missing luggage (which showed up 2 1/2 weeks late), and then a health scare for Katrin’s mom. A week into the visit, we had to take her to the emergency room with heart trouble, and it was decided there to fit her with a pacemaker - pretty much right on the spot. This threw a bit of a wrench in our plans, but we ended up doing little trips to Granite Hot Springs, Salmon, and Minetonka Cave.
Theater
Julius and Anton both had their debut on the theater stage this year. Julius participated in a theater summer camp in a production of Finding Nemo. He had the role of Nigel the Australian pelican (with an authentic Australian accent š¤£). After two weeks of rehearsals, he nailed his performance in all four shows.
This fall, Anton had two roles in the musical Cinderella. It required weeks of rehearsals, several days a week, long into the night and was quite taxing for Anton. But after the last of six great shows in the Civic Center, he still said “I’m going to do this again!”
Travels
We got the Mountain Collective ski pass again this year and skied quite bit (the season was great and very snowy in the Mountain West). We skied in Sun Valley and Snow Basin for the first time this year and went back to Jackson Hole and Alta (with tons of powder). It was our second year going to Banff and Lake Louise in Canada over spring break.
Great Basin National Park
In June, we visited Great Basin National Park, one of the least visited parks in the US. It’s located in a very remote part of Nevada and features Nevada’s tallest mountain Wheeler Peak. The “Basin” is a large drainage that does not empty into any ocean (the Great Salt Lake is part of it).
Here are a couple of pictures from that Trip
- Great Basin Trip - Day 1 - To the Salt Flats
- Great Basin Trip - Day 2 - Salt Flats and Second Leg
- Great Basin Trip - Day 3 - Lehman Caves
- Great Basin Trip - Day 4 - Going back home
Glacier National Park
In Juli, (after summiting Mt. Baird at 10,025 ft, where Daniel sprained his ankle) we took the van to Glacier National Park in northern Montana. There we met up with Rachel, John, and Alice, our friends from Los Alamos. We paddle-boarded on mountain lakes and took the “Going to the Sun Road” high up into the mountains.
Annular Eclipse
Early October, we took the van down for a weekend in Utah where we experienced an annular solar eclipse (Julius stayed in Idaho Falls to play in the local soccer finals - which his team won. Thanks, Kenzie for hosting him!).
Germany
Around Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Germany for two weeks to visit family. We spent time in Hamburg at Katrin’s parents, visiting the Miniatur Wunderland and eating Curry Wurst, and we visited Hannover and Wunstorf and spent some time with Daniel’s mom and her partner Hans, and we visited Daniel’s dad (Opa Gustav) in Wunstorf.
Borah Peak
In August, Katrin climbed Borah Peak, at 12,662 ft the tallest mountain in Idaho, in what can only be described as a mountaineering tour de force! “It was great, but never again!”
The ASM game
This year, a game that Daniel and his friend from high school created 32 years ago, was finally published. “ASM - The Game” is a graphic adventure set in the editorial rooms of the German computer magazine ASM. The game was originally created as an entry to a competition, which sadly was never resolved - until this year.
The German computer news page heise.de had an article about our game. Tests appeared in many magazines (GameStar for example). It was really cool to see the positive reception of a game we created as kids and to finally have it see the light of day.
Work
Daniel stil enjoys his job a lot. His business travels took him to West Virgina and Pittsburgh, Los Alamos, Los Angeles (UCLA), Washington DC, and Chicago. Sometimes there’s time for a bit of sightseeing. E.g. a visit to Bandelier National Monument, a movie premiere in LA (selfie with Michelle Rodriguez), Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, meeting an old friend from Urbana in LA, seeing the set of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, visiting Santa Monica Pier, touring the National Air and Space Museum in DC, and riding the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, and visiting the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History in Albuquerque…
If you made it this far, we wish you happy holidays and all the best for 2024!
Katrin, Daniel, Anton, Julius, and Vitus