February ... Jonas and Theresa visit - California for Valentine's Day

We jetted to California to give Valentine hugs to the 3 cutest grandchildren EVER.

We had a blast!

On our flight home, we saw our first Coronavirus (COVID-19) mask. It was February 18, 2020. Little did we know how much our world was about to change.

Lucky for us, Jonas and Theresa had decided to visit. They had arrived on January 28th and planned on a long visit as they worked on their Masters' Thesis. They are always fun and interesting. They had parked their RV in long-term parking in Spain, feeling it was safe and secure. Their trip was cut short when they learned their RV parking lot was going out of business ... in three days! Bummer. Since they left in such a hurry, I only got a few photos.

February was a blur.

72nd Wedding Anniversary

Today would be my parents' 72nd wedding anniversary. In their honor, here is a short musical video of them during our Father's Day visit to Branson in 2011.

The video was taken on a moving Dinner Train and epitomizes their joy of life ... at 86 years old. Happy Anniversary to them.

Thanks to Andy Crow for the video.

Dan turns 68

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of my 18th birthday, I chose to honor the event by remembering my first legal beer. It was with my father and consumed at Por'e Richards Cafe, 900 SE Quincy Street, Topeka, Kansas. Dad invited me there for a beer. Just the two of us. Here we are 50 years later.

Helen made me a triple chocolate cake.

I ate it.

Christmas 2019

Christmas Eve

Christmas Day

Fun stuff.

Oma is buried next to Opa

It was 2 years ago today that Oma died peacefully in her sleep with Helen and me at her bedside. As per Oma's specific instructions, her body was whisked off to KU Medical Center to be used for medical research. Her cremated remains were recently returned to us. Placed in a special box

and without great fanfare ... we buried Oma in the company of her good friends, the Hassetts, whose two sons are buried nearby.

Helen was able to securely "tuck her in" immediately next to Opa.

Congratulations, Helen. You fully and completely honored your mother's wishes.

By the way, I was super impressed with how well Helen handled the shovel. Opa and Oma would be very proud.

Thanksgiving Weekend .... a real sleeper

Thanksgiving 2019 was a real sleeper. Gone are the days of hosting tons of family and friends with a fancy sit-down dinner. 

 (flashback to 2008)

This year was the quietest Thanksgiving ever. We did take Dad to Annie's for a traditional turkey dinner. We also put up the Potwin Holiday decorations on the circle ... and our wreaths too. Oh yes, I cooked a small turkey (for cold turkey sandwiches) under the watchful eyes of Mickey and Minnie.

Otherwise, it was a real sleeper. 

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Halloween 2019 ... cold

Halloween 2019 was cold. Let me say that louder ... IT WAS COLD. With the temperature hovering around 32 degrees, only the intrepid ventured out ... approximately 1,600 of them.

 

Fortunately, we had lots of volunteer helpers, who were possibly enticed by the promise of mega pizzas and craft beers. Volunteers and visitors included Dad, Nancy, Lynn, Paul, Toni, Keegan, Blake, Myriah, Sheena, Harry, Haley, Jason, Hadley, and Eleanor. Baili of the Washburn International Program brought 6 Japanese exchange students to experience their first American Halloween. We also loved seeing Samantha's childhood friend, Hannah, who stopped by with her husband and toddler Georgia from London.

We also got a welcome visit from Cal and Heather with their children allowing us to help celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Our dear friends Mark and Kris also visited. We reminisced about their marriage in our living room 31 years ago on November 1st. 

So, even if the temperature was COLD, we felt lots of warmth.

Samantha's Birthday

We traveled to Redwood City to celebrate Samantha's Birthday. The day after we arrived, their ancient sewer line backed-up. Yuck! So, here is George the Plumber performing precision sewer surgery under the watchful eye of Aria's Halloween pumpkin.

Ta-da ... new sewer line.

As it ends up, he was able to save their beautiful aggregate sidewalk. Kudos to George the Plumber.

OK ... back to the birthday. Samantha turned 39. Yep, it was 39 years ago that we brought this cute baby home. We had no idea what we were doing. Still don't. Even so, we soooooo enjoy spending time with her, Jake and the kids. Fun photos to be posted as time allows.

In addition to the birthday celebration, we spent several days doing tons of handyman projects around the house. Nothing big, but lots of little things. Helen has a list.

Most importantly, we got to spend time with our wonderful grandchildren including visits to their schools. Bing School for Aria and Synapse School for George.

And Rosie grows more fun every day.

It was a most excellent Birthday trip.

Mega love to the 5 Qs.

P.S. Luckily, the Qs missed - by a mere 10  blocks - the forced power outages due to the numerous forest fires in the area.  Millions of people were impacted by these outages.

Except for a brief whiff of smoke, and an amazing view from the airplane of massive amounts of smoke on our way home, we escaped unscathed.  Lucky us.

Sierra Camp - year 2

For the 2nd year in a row, we traveled to South Lake Tahoe to meet the Quist Family at Stanford Sierra Camp. The morning we left offered a surprise driveway blockage, due to a storm the night before. 

Thanks to my lumberjacking skills, we made our flight and arrived in Reno with plenty of time to rent a snazzy red Camaro convertible to drive to camp through the Sierra-Nevada Mountains.

We met the Quists at camp at Fallen Leaf Lake. (Disclosure: please use the 5-star definition of "camp" here.) The next week was too full to describe. The weather was perfect. The food was fantastic. Here are some random shots ... showing a mere sliver of the week.

On the way home, we met up with Raina and Blake in Reno for dinner ... and monster cake.

It was an amazing and exhausting week.

I'm still napping.