Happy Holidays
Family and Friends,
This year has brought many changes for
our family and it has definitely been an adventure. We left our island home in Guam and PCS’d to
our hometown, Chicago, in June and have been soaking up time with extended
family, exploring familiar territory with our boys, and seeking lots of time in
nature. Mason and I were lucky to get a
couples getaway to dive in Palau in May before all five of us traveled from
Guam to Chicago, by way of Japan. Mason
worked in DC for two weeks in the summer and is in Texas and California this
month. In October we took a ten day trip
to see family and explore the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, which was
wonderful.
Mason is doing an Air Force fellowship at
Argonne National Laboratory for his job this year. He left his last position of doing combat
planning in Guam. He left feeling proud
of what he accomplished and now he’s lucky to be in an assignment with a
completely different [in a good way] tempo and work environment. He gets to explore the different research
areas at the lab and see what issues scientists from the Department of Energy
are trying to solve. Specifically, he’s
spending his time learning computer coding and machine learning (the brains
behind artificial intelligence). There’s
a lot of math penguins that were booted off the mental iceberg after high
school and are now being slowly roped back in.
Whew! This year has been
something. I wanted to complete 50 dives
while we were in Guam, and I surpassed that amount and got to see some
incredible things, plus spend amazing time with Mason out on and in the
ocean. We also got lots of family time
hiking and relaxing at the beaches.
Since we moved we’ve been seeking nature when we can, whether it’s at
the beaches of Lake Michigan, or the surprising number of deer and critters in
the forest preserves near our house.
We’ve also had fun doing some of the touristy things. The boys really enjoy going to the Lincoln
Park Zoo. I’ve been minimally involved
with the PTA at the kids school and am a room parent for Woodrow’s class. My teaching with K12 has really picked up, so
I am doing that in my few hours of free time each day when the boys are in
school and Max naps.
Theodore started first grade this
school year and is really excelling in all areas. He turned seven in September and is just so
inquisitive. He’s our little book worm
and frequently has to be told to go to sleep and not stay up all night
reading. He’s still into art and
recently is very into Bison. This year
he’s taking swimming lessons, clay class, is a Wolf in Cub Scouts, and part of
the Chess Club at school. He’s really
enjoying living close to family!
Woodrow brings the spice to the family for sure! He turned five in August, and has really done
well since Kindergarten (half-day) started.
His social interactions with others have improved and he’s getting
better at expressing all those feelings he has.
He’s started to read short words, and is going to be a math whiz. He is into Star Wars, playing games on his
ipad, is super sporty, and we think part Ninja.
Woodrow is also taking swimming lessons and is a Lion in Cub
Scouts. He’s enjoying all the fun places
to explore in Chicago.
Maximus turned two in October and is in
to everything. He’s gotten super
talkative lately and has never met a stranger.
He’s super friendly and playful.
Right now he’s into Elmo, trains, and is starting to sit still enough to
look at books. Max has been doing a toddlers class and now a little music class
which he really likes. He takes family
attendance several times throughout the day and loves to be with his big
brothers.
We’re super thankful for the experience
we’ve been given this year and are enjoying every moment of it. We’ll be on the move again in summer 2019 but
only the Air Force knows where at this point.
I try to keep up with things on out blog, so you can check out our
adventures at http://ellenmason.blogspot.com.
The boys also love to receive snail mail and hear from friends.
Happy Holidays with Love
No comments:
Post a Comment