A January Johnston contribution!

 I forgot to post in November! (I take the Kinast blogging responsibility for myself as I, Cassi, thoroughly enjoy writing and Dave thoroughly does not.) 😉

In reflection, this was a year of growth and trying new things. Ava picked up an interest in cooking and has been very helpful in the kitchen when we have busy nights! This summer she began piano lessons and is already a natural. She played Spiderella in Spiderella the play, along with Ollie and Adelynn picking up roles as strong ants.

She was also the lead role in Dolly The Polkadotted Llama And The Mackindoo Zoo. Ollie was Speedy the Tortoise in that show and did an amazing job with his lines! I don't believe we have seen the last of him on stage. 

Both girls and I hosted one of the stops at the Spookwalk this October. 

Ava had a lot of fun in Moana Jr, even more fun in Elf the Musical, and is preparing for SpongeBob the Musical in a few weeks! Shameless plug: let me know if you would like tickets for the show Feb 16-19!

Ollie graduated Pre-K and entered Kindergarten! He is one of 12 boys and 4 girls in his class. Bless his teacher! (She's also 45 and pregnant). He's enjoying math and is starting to read. 

He had his first summer of participating in camps! He enjoyed Zoo camp, Love Hutch, Dillon Nature camp, swimming lessons, and a season of T-ball. 

Adelynn graduated 5th grade! CCS does a really cool transition into middle school in 6th grade. Although they are in middle school, they still have one homeroom teacher, but they have lockers and are responsible to walk themselves to their other classes - music, PE, library, lunch, etc. She plays her flute in the school band and is in her 11th year of dance! (Which is wild since she's only 12). The dance photo below is posted outside her dance studio! If you look, you can see her smiling face when you drive by! She joined Ava for a short Play in the Park this summer too. 

Our friend Alice lived with us for a few months before she got married in July 2021 and on June 13, 2022, her daughter Amaris was born! Outside of blood-relation, I have never seen Dave voluntarily reach for a baby - but we love Amaris and her parents! 

Our vacations this year were to KC and California! In California, we got to experience Universal and Disneyland. We don't currently have one planned, but are usually counting down the days to our next Disney vacation.

Overall our zoo is doing well. Sundae & Meatball are still slobbery and cuddly. Leroy and Moxie still silently rule the roost. Our red betta fish, Flash, got a new roommate. A blue snail named Seabiscuit. 

We lost our chickens to some terrible raccoons in September. We hope to get more in a couple months - with a plan in place to protect them from nasty raccoons who dig under fences. We will hopefully have eggs for sale when school starts. 

The biggest addition to our herd is the guinea pigs! The one pictured in Dave's right hand is Dawn, who belongs to Adelynn. The one in his left hand is Reese, who belongs to Ava. The girls are responsible to budget for and care for their guinea pigs from their allowance. They even wash their reusable bedding twice a week.

I keep pretty busy with being in leadership for Hutch Moms, hosing my Turquoise Table in the summer, volunteering at school and participating in Lasagna Love. I've taken approximately one lasagna per month to families who need a little bit of help over the last year. My friend Jamie and I recently cooked and assembled 12 lasagnas, but they won't last me half a year because, since I have them available, I keep signing up to deliver more! 

A few weeks ago we lost my Grandpa. My Dad's dad, Charles, passed away when he was 17. My Grandma married Frank, and he passed away when I was young. She married my Grandpa Marlen 30 years ago, when I was 5. Although he had 22 biological grandkids, he always claimed us as his own. The kids knew him the same as his bio grandkids - as "Pampa". Thank you all for your love and support as we said 'goodbye'. 

We hope 2023 is a year of more growth and trying exciting new things for you all as well!

Kinast Christmas - BINGO - December 30, 2022

 We enjoyed a fun time with BINGO and eating sandwiches as we played.  It was a good time together.  We had Chris and Theresa join us through zoom as well. 

Here are a few pictures of our time together.  

Erik in Alaska 2022

     2022 was a good year in Juneau, Alaska. Still working at the DIPAC Macaulay Salmon Hatchery, opening back up for tourism this summer. With a great salmon return this summer my department (Tourism & Education) was set aside a fund to begin designing and updating our aquariums and displays in the visitor center. I was able to use this as an excuse to learn some 3D modeling. Looking forward to participating in the process. 

    Probably the biggest highlight for 2022 was participating in an Ironman Triathlon, the first to come to Alaska. Trained for a year to Swim 2.4 miles, Bike 112, and run 26.2 in under 17 hours. The swim was cut in half due to water temperature (59degrees). But I finished at 15 hours and 26 minutes. 

Looking forward to 2023 and reaching my third decade! Love to you all!

Chicago Shooks' Year in Review

So I believe in our post last year we mentioned how we started off 2022 with two rounds of COVID within the family.  Kids in December and parents in January.  It delayed our planned trip to Kansas twice!  First in December and then again over MLK weekend.  So, our first trip of the year finally happened in February in celebration of our 13-year dating anniversary.  We went to NYC for a long weekend (sans kids!) and saw two excellent Broadway shows, Six and Come From Away, as well as connecting with both friends from college and family in the Rutherfords!

Mom/Vicki ended up getting a double dose of the grandkids as she was flown in to watch them while we traveled, and then hosted us all a week later in our twice delayed Christmas trip!

The traveling did not stop as the calendar flipped to March.  Andrew and Dad/Tim visited Erik in Alaska for a 5 day trip over Southwestern's Spring Break.  It was the first time Andrew had seen Erik in over 2 years!

On the return trip, Dad had his flight canceled due to weather but at the last minute, he was able to talk the airline into sending him to Chicago so he spent an extra two days with Andrew and family instead of sitting alone in a Seattle hotel room.

In February, we welcomed a new nephew as Bennett was born to Katie's brother John.  In April, Katie was able to spend a weekend in Cincinnati with them to meet him for the first time.  Andrew had a work conference in late April that included the multinational team he has been working with to develop the new routing software at work.  Natalie turned 2 on April 25th and we celebrated with a smaller family gathering.

May brought about still more travel with Katie visiting her grandmother in North Carolina for Mother's Day and a weekend trip for all of us to Wisconsin for some R&R at her parent's house.  Finally, on the 24th, Theo celebrated his 5th birthday and saw Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Samuel come to town over Memorial Day Weekend.  While we had everyone in town, it felt like the appropriate time to have Natalie join the ranks of the baptized.  Despite being a relatively small ceremony in the little chapel at church, it was wonderful to have many of you join us digitally over a zoom livestream as well!

June saw a return to normal life rhythm and Andrew's 35th birthday.  The biggest note for the month was probably the arrival of our new Chrysler Pacifica Plug in Hybrid van!  The first 30 miles we drive each day after charging overnight is on electric and it was extremely welcome during the height of gas prices this summer.  In the closing days of the month, we took a trip to North Carolina to celebrate Katie's grandmother's 90th birthday.  

We returned just in time to celebrate the 4th of July before driving in the new van up to Minnesota for our annual trip to the lake house.  It felt a bit different knowing the massive changes in store for the property with the build of the new house launching in the fall.  It was bittersweet, spending the days in the trailer but the rest of our time there was full of the standard lake-based joy!

The end of July saw us attend a wedding of Katie's long-time friend from grad school in Philadelphia.  We were only there for two nights but it was a wonderful time reconnecting with friends who have scattered across the country.  We even had time to make the requisite stop at the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall.

August was a time of great change for the family.  As a 5-year-old, Theo made the transition from daycare to Kindergarten class at our neighborhood elementary school, Orrington.  It was another very bittersweet moment as we said goodbye to our friends at Bright Horizons daycare where Theo started when he was 4 months old!  We were considered a "Founding Family" since we joined shortly after it opened.  We spent 59 months and a number of dollars we don't want to think about at that school with Natalie joining him in the fall of 2020.  Natalie also moved to a new daycare closer to our current home where she is in the same class as the daughter of our neighbors/good friends down the block.

 

Newly bound by the school schedule, we had to be more intentional about when we planned big events and trips.  On Labor Day weekend, Theo and Andrew participated in Bike the Drive, where they shut down Lake Shore Drive for a morning and allow tens of thousands of cyclists to ride up and down the iconic roadway.

At the end of September we traveled to Austin to stand in support of Spencer's baptism and celebrate his newfound church family.  A week later we drove to French Lick Indiana (home of Larry Bird) to celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of Katie's parents.  We were joined by both of Katie's siblings and their families.  

October saw another trip to Katie's parents' house in Wisconsin before the first solidly post-COVID Halloween celebration.  The neighborhood was alive in a way we hadn't seen since moving in at the height of the pandemic and some of the neighbors raised the bar on Halloween decorations.

Katie and Andrew each had a couple trips for work over this period.  The big work news for Katie is that in the fall she officially accepted an offer to transition from her analytics and modeling role at American Ag to a new role as an account executive in the client relations department.  There was a lengthy period where she was doing both jobs this fall before finally, fully transitioning to the new role with the passing of the new year.  

Obviously, the other non-work BIG news is that around this time we discovered that Katie is pregnant and we are expecting a baby boy to join the family in late June of next year!

Because we were subject to the new school schedule, we realized in the summer time that Theo was going to have the entire week around Thanksgiving off, which made the adults realize we'd be taking those days off as well.  So at that point, we made a decision to cash in all of Katie's travel miles earned through work to help fund a trip to Spain for the entire week.  It was a very quick trip but was just what we needed in terms of time away as well as some solid family bonding time.  We started with 3 days in Valencia, visiting the largest aquarium in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the many wonderful parks in the city.  Then, we met up in Madrid for another 3 days with Katie's best friend from childhood who now lives in Spain with her Spanish husband and daughter.  It was not the vacation we would plan for a visit without kids (so many playgrounds and so few museums!) but we couldn't have imagined a better 6 days together.

Once back stateside we were thrust into the holiday season!  Theo spent the next couple weekends practicing for his theatrical debut as a member of the sheep herd that visited Jesus after his birth for the church pageant.

We did the usual routines from decorating, to cooking, to candle-lit Christmas Eve service.

Finally, on the afternoon of Christmas Day we began our drive (we do that a lot more with the van now!) back to Kansas to celebrate with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Samuel, Hannah, James (briefly!), and Spencer.  It was great to watch the next generation of cousins play together and think back to the holiday parties when we would run around Grandma and Grandpa Kinast's house while the parents talked in the living room.  

Finally, on December 30th, we returned to Chicago and rung in the New Year with our family here.  2023 promises to bring new challenges at work and at home!  But we can't imagine it being any other way and we're loving every minute of it.  We wish you the same joy and fulfillment with your 2023 and we're looking forward to visiting everyone again soon, especially with someone new to introduce to you in the back half of the year!  Love to all!