Rivers Update!

Hello to everyone!   I think our post was due in August...which I sat down to write and then...let's just say days are full and long, even with two hours several days a week to myself! 



Olivia started 3rd grade this fall and seems to be doing well.  She has been recognized as Student of the Month and also for Responsibility.  At the beginning of 2019, she started piano lessons and has been really enjoying them.  This summer and fall she has been doing gymnastics.  Although earlier in the year she did some Tae-kwon-do and swim lessons, so she continues to have a lot of interests.  Olivia researched and requested gerbils.  So, two gerbils joined our family in May.  Snowflake and Ginger.  They are entertaining to watch and tolerate handling well.  As they get older, Ginger seems to be a little more adventurous even jumping out of the bathtub where she was for a "play" break. Olivia had her pet sitting business again this summer and did quite well, watching several neighbor pets and a few family pets too.  This past Sunday, Olivia was blessed in church for acolyting.  She's excited to participate in this way.  Last Monday she had two solos and ensemble solos in her school music program---she did fantastic!  Olivia enjoys playing with the American Girl doll things, LEGOS,  and also any type of pretend!

Kinley started 1st grade this fall.  She is slowest to warm up to change and although she has a very nice teacher and several friends in class, has had times where she just doesn't want to go to school.  Kinley choose to dance again this fall, picking tap/jazz class as her choice.  She tried Hip Hop over the summer and decided it wasn't her favorite.  In the spring she had her second dance recital and really enjoyed performing on stage.  She has also taken gymnastics and swim lessons this year.  This summer Kinley had speech therapy to address her L and R sounds.  She's made progress and the speech therapist that saw her is the one at our school so continues to check in every few weeks.  We may add an IEP for speech, but at this point are trying remediation without.  Not pronouncing your speech sounds correctly makes it a challenge to spell and sound out some words. Kinley enjoys drawing and writing and you can often find her doing one of these things. She was recognized last week for Student of the Month for showing the character traits of Vermillion.  Kinley also enjoys the American Girl dolls and her Lalaloopsies and Shopkins. 

Emily started her first full year of preschool this fall.  She started two days a week in February and spent that time adjusting to a preschool routine and learning some good skills. It also allowed us to do speech the other two days a week.  This fall, Emily goes to school 4 days a week and enjoys it!  She's in a fully blended classroom, taught by a regular education preschool teacher (the ideal inclusion model) and supported by a special education teacher, plus PT, OT, and Speech.  She's grown a lot in the past few months--cognitively, physically.  Two days a week, Emily goes for Speech therapy at Erin is Hope to specifically address her childhood apraxia of speech and work intensely on learning sounds.  Those two days, Emily has just enough time after school for lunch and a car nap before being woken up to work.  Between her and Kinley this summer, we spent 3 days a week visiting a speech therapist.  WHEW!   Emily continues to love music, dancing, playing kitchen, and painting. Emily got her tonsils and adenoids out in June and ear tubes placed.  Hopefully the tonsils and adenoids being removed will solve her sleep apnea--follow up study in December.  Her favorite things are playing with the Barbies/car, music of any kind, and also playing kitchen.

Dan has been hard at work.  He's continued to work for Gray Communications doing app and web development for them.  He's received recognition for streamlining and reducing the need to use outside developers.  To keep him sane, he plays with the Llew Brown Band about 2x/month plus rehearsals. We've had the opportunity to see him play at Botanica and the Zoo. 

I've continued to be primarily at home, although have picked up a few extra work days a month this fall thanks to mom.  Managing all of the appointments, school things, house stuff, and etc can easily fill my time.  I've volunteered in Kinley's class both in Kindergarten and 1st grade.  I've also been doing new parent outreach for the Down Syndrome Society of Wichita--visiting new parents of children with Down syndrome. 

We took a vacation to Minnesota in July and visited with Aunt Lynne at the Lake, plus swung through the Mall of America and Omaha Zoo.  We took a short trip to Tulsa in July with the Johnstons. And spent 20 consecutive days in February with someone sick. 
In July we found out that our church would be closing, so have transitioned to Aldersgate United Methodist Church (main campus) and are finding our place there.  I'm helping with Sunday school rotations, the girls are regular Sunday school attenders again, and we will see how it all works out.

In October we said goodbye to Brisco.  His health had been declining since our return from vacation in July.  At the middle of September, we knew we had limited days with him having deemed him on Doggie Hospice.  He was a big part of our lives and routines and we've definitely missed him.  He'd have been 13 this month.

Our days are full and we enjoy our time together.

Chicago Shooks' Year in Review

Hello!

First, let us say we're sorry for not posting more regularly.  So instead of several smaller posts, we're tackling the year in one big year-in-review post!  If there is one theme to our year, it was travel.  Some for fun, some for work, but either way, it was a constant.  We saw the image below, taking off over Chicago, so many times that Katie now has status with American and Andrew could have gotten close with a little better planning.

The first big trip for Andrew was a mix of business and fun.  After going to San Diego for a conference, Tim and Andrew met in Colorado for 4 days of skiing.  As you all know, Tim's skiing was limited by a shoulder injury that occurred on day one.  He did make it out on the slopes again for a couple runs on the 4th day with the most beautiful skiing day imaginable, following 40" of snow over the previous 3 days.

Within 10 days of Andrew's walk along the Pacific beach in California, and 5 days of standing at the top of Copper Mountain at over 12,000 feet, we were walking along the beach in the gulf coast of Florida for a family reunion with Katie's grandparents.  They rented a gorgeous house near Naples FL with a pool.  We were quite spoiled!

Later in the spring, Katie's aunt and uncle were cleaning out their house and offered up their upright piano.  We had one last section of our wall left uncovered, so we agreed to take the piano and Theo has been poking away at it ever since!

Not every trip this year was one we wanted to take.  Unfortunately, Andrew's best friend from Peace Corps, Theo Walter, passed away in the spring.  He lived with his wife in Zurich so it took a few months before there was a service stateside.  So in early April, Andrew and Katie made the trip to the Bay Area for the memorial.  The picture below shows us hiking with Mike, another groomsman, and Nadine, Theo's widow.  It was a wonderful remembrance and a great opportunity for closure.

In late April, we again boarded a plane to take a flight to Austin to visit Hannah and James.  We rode the train at the park, walked the farmer's market, visited the children's museum, and ate. so. much. wonderful. food.  It was a perfect Austin trip!

This was also the year Theo discovered his favorite place on earth.  The model train garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  It's a small corner of the garden where they have dozens of model trains and models of notable places in America.  But beware!  If you enter with Theo you are committed for a minimum of an hour as he darts from one train to the next and back again!

We also have tried to facilitate more outdoor activities with various levels of success.  We've done the tour of parks in our and surrounding neighborhoods.  We even acquired a Burley bike trailer and have started riding to parks further away.

Throughout the year, we've had a number of family dinners.  Sometimes in our own house and sometimes a train ride away, when Theo and Katie have visited Andrew in the Loop for lunch.  

Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Samuel came to visit for Theo's birthday!

We saw both parades at Grammy and Pops' house this year.  They have one for each of Memorial Day and the 4th of July.  Later in the summer, we were visiting again, and for one terrifying moment Theo went sprinting directly towards the street.  However he stopped right at the curb, plopped down, and asked "Where are the fire trucks?" while looking down the street.  Clearly he loved the parades!

After the 4th, we left for a week in Minnesota.  Because of Grandpa's shoulder injury that was exacerbated by skiing, we couldn't see them, but we did get to see Hannah and James!  Grammy/Katie's mom came along for the trip as well!  Highlights included boat rides, sunsets, swimming, and strawberry picking!

Note from Andrew: 10 years ago, Katie and I spent a good chunk of the summer together before I left for the Peace Corps and Tanzania.  It was a wonderful and difficult time as we stared down the next two and a half years apart.  We had planned to separate, but that summer together convinced us to give it a try.  And we're so glad we did!  Here's us on the same boat 10 years apart with photos taken by the same person (thanks Hannah!).  

In August, Theo got to spend an entire week with Grandma and Grammy as Mom and Dad went out of town.  However, the camera went with Mom and Dad, so here are photos from the wedding of Katie's childhood best friend Kate.  She married her longtime partner Roi from Spain, so they chose to hold the ceremony in the Azores, which are Portuguese islands in the Atlantic as a kind of halfway point.  The islands are volcanic and have two dormant cones on the main island of Sao Miguel along with a number of geothermal attractions.  Because of the acidic soil, hydrangeas grow to absurd sizes and are everywhere.  It was a perfect retreat for a long weekend with a giant party at the end!

Upon our return, Andrew continued his training to run in the 5k during Skokie's summer festival.

Theo's hair finally started to come in this year, which necessitated some maintenance after 2 years of needing very little.

We continue to have a wonderful time as the calendar turns to fall (and the weather turns to winter!). Theo was Thomas the Tank Engine for Halloween (the second in the family!)

And finally, the BIGGEST news of 2019 was that 2020 will see the addition of our second child!  Referred to as Chip 2 for now, he or she will be joining us near April 30th 2020!

Hopefully you are all doing wonderfully well!  We'll be back between Christmas and New Years to visit everyone.  Until then, Happy Holidays!

With Love, 

Andrew, Katie, Theo, and Chip 2!

Hello from the Wichita Shooks

It was March when we last wrote so thought I would share a few pictures of the rest of the year.

We did lots of walking at Great Plains nature center.  Enjoyed looking for wildlife and especially the owls in the dead tree.

In July, Tim had shoulder replacement surgery.  It went well and he continues to do his exercises to increase mobility.  In August, Vicki went to Chicago and watched Theo for a week while Andrew and Katie went to a wedding in the Azores.

We went to the Botanical garden and saw the train garden.  Played in the back yard with the water table and made chocolate chip cookies among other things

!

Erik continues to enjoy Alaska.  He and Jessica do lots of exploring.

We visited Hannah and James in September

In October, Tim, Samuel and I went to Minnesota since we couldn't go in the summer. The leaves were really pretty.  We played croquet before the snow.  The guys were excited that there was snow.  It was pretty and best of all, it melted by days end:)  We also visited the international wolf center.

Samuel and I made green tomato salsa that turned out quite tasty.

Received this picture of Theo in his Halloween costume.  They had a cold snowy night so they went to 2 houses.  

Best wishes to all of you!

Love Vicki, Tim and Samuel