Greetings All!
2011 was a great year for my family, my blog, and my life in general. There were some very sad moments (we’ll get to those in a bit), but overall, I am happy to have had such a blessed year. Instead of writing a traditional Christmas Letter, I decided that I would summarize my year via my blog so that anyone can read it. Without further adieu…
2011 got off to a great start with a trip to Las Vegas in January. I attended the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show, where I was able to learn a lot about future trends in technology. All the knowledge I picked up was beneficial for my current job as a technical researcher at Ford Motor Company and also for some of the technology items I write about for my blog. A win-win in my book!
As winter became spring, my travel bug started to get the best of me. There really can be no other reason for planning a 4 state/7 day trip with two 8 year old boys and one highly opinionated mother (I Love You Mom!). Even though there are some things I would change, I think everyone ended up having a mostly enjoyable spring break trip. We visited horse farms in Kentucky, the mountains and the Dixie Stampede in Tennessee, the Biltmore and the Great Wolf Lodge in North Carolina, and Charleston in West Virginia. The mountains and the Dixie Stampede were highly rated by my boys. Speaking of the Tennessee area, the condo we rented in Pigeon Forge was the best lodging of the entire trip (thanks to my friend Dawn for the tip!). The RiverStone Resort & Spa is definitely worth looking into if you happen to be visiting the Pigeon Forge area. The two bedroom condo was stunning and the view of the main strip from our over-sized balcony was great for people watching.
As spring transitioned into summer, I decided to surprise my boys with a day trip to celebrate the completion of 2nd grade. They had never been on a train, so I decided to book the short trip from Dearborn, MI to Ann Arbor, MI so that we could spend the day exploring Ann Arbor by foot. They were very excited when we arrived at the train station and had a great time riding the train for the short 45 minute trip. Once we arrived, we headed to Zingerman’s for lunch and then went to the Hands-On Museum for an afternoon of exploring. After all of the fun, we headed back to the train station, only to discover that our train was delayed for a few hours. We found a local park to play at and then decided to find someplace to eat dinner. I normally wouldn’t take the boys to a restaurant as fancy as the Gandy Dancer, but it was within walking distance and we were hungry! I’m happy to report that both boys were on their best behavior (Nana too!) and we had a very enjoyable dinner. We headed back to the Amtrak station to discover that our train was going to be delayed even more. At this point I had two whiny and sleepy boys on my hands, but luckily the Amtrak station worker took pity on us and told us that we could take the motor coach back to Dearborn instead of waiting for the train. This was another new experience for the boys as they had never been on a coach bus before, however James was NOT thrilled when he realized that the seats on a coach bus don’t have seat belts. I guess I might need to tone down the “we might all die if we don’t wear our seat belts” rhetoric in the future!
Summer was a busy time for the Laura in the Motor City family. Before I talk about the many things we did, I want to take a moment to talk about my Uncle Roger. He was only 59, and while he fought the good fight, he wasn’t able to overcome the cancer that would not relent. We lost him in July and I was glad that my Mother was able to get to Texas in time to say goodbye to him before he passed away. I can only imagine the pain my Aunt and my Cousins will feel when celebrating this first Christmas and New Year without him. I hope that 2012 is a much better year for them.
As for my Mom, she is still struggling with losing her baby brother. He was the last immediate relative she had left from her youth since both my Grandmother and Grandfather have been gone for quite some time now. The loss of Uncle Roger has had me thinking more about how fragile life is and that we should live each day to the fullest. We never know how much time we’ve got left and it still seems so alien to me that we don’t have my Grandparents or him with us anymore. My Grandmother was very fond of the Christmas holiday and I’ve found myself missing her more this year than I have in some of the previous years. I wish she was still here and could have met my sons. I wish that I could take my boys to Texas to see their Great Uncle Roger. But wishes are sometimes only that and it will have to be enough to tell the stories and legends that defined their lives. In doing so, I hope I can bring what is gone back to life for them.
August was crazy busy with travel for the Laura in the Motor City family. I kicked off the month by visiting San Diego and attending my second BlogHer conference. I went with my friend Jackie from Free Is My Life and we had a fantastic time. We attended many private parties and got to meet some cool fellow bloggers. Three things stand out in my mind from this trip – the day we spent as guests of P&G at the Life Well Lived event, taking part in the HTC insight forum (and getting a new Windows Phone!), and having the greatest luck of all time and winning a new iPad 2 from Verizon. I can’t wait for 2012 to attend the next BlogHer conference. I only hope my luck next year is as good as it was this year!
In mid-August, we went on what I refer to as “the annual sibling camping trip”. My hubby is one of five children and for the last 5-6 years, we’ve been going on a long weekend camping trip with some of his brothers. In the beginning we always went to Port Austin, but in the last few years we’ve been trying out new campgrounds and found ourselves in Muskegon this year. The KOA we stayed at was okay, but the camp sites were on the small side. The good news is that they had a private lake (which we camped along side) that was ideal for teaching the boys how to fish. The boys were also able to easily access the swimming beach. The proximity of the campground to Michigan’s Adventure made it a mandatory day trip for us. The boys had never been to this amusement park before and it was the right speed for their age group. We normally make a pilgrimage to Cedar Point every October, but that trip was put aside this year in lieu of a visit to a certain mouse (more on that in a bit!).
Near the end of August, my boss invited my whole family up to his cabin in Oscoda for the weekend. We all had a great time out on his boat. It was the first time I had tubed in years and I managed to stay on that tube the entire time without wiping out. I’m still convinced that they were trying to get me off that thing, but I prevailed in the end. After watching me, James wanted to try out the tube, but ended up getting nothing but water in his face each time. John watched James and decided that tubing was NOT for him and he was happy to stay in the boat. My crazy boss let the boys steer the boat, which provided much entertainment for all of us. James was the more serious of the two and didn’t try any interesting maneuvers, but John was a completely different story. He had the boat going in circles and my boss was laughing when telling me how much fun drivers education will be in about 7 more years. Oh joy!
In addition to the boating, the boys had the opportunity to learn how to shoot a pellet gun and a bow and arrow. After learning all the rules and the basics of using each device, we all got in on the fun and had a good time. I am continuously amazed by James’ athletic abilities and shooting was no exception. He’s already proven how good he is on a baseball field and recently his swimming instructor told me that we need to challenge him more in the water. I can’t wait to see where his natural abilities takes him in the future!
September brought the start of 3rd grade for the boys, which has been interesting for all of us. There is much more homework than we are used to and Joe and I find ourselves spending numerous hours each evening helping the boys learn the basics. On the plus side, we are relearning many things that we had previously forgotten. It’s also been interesting to watch how the boys learn. They are very different and require different methods of teaching, which keeps us on our toes. Hopefully we will survive until the end of the school year!
As I mentioned earlier, there was a planned trip to visit a certain mouse, and October was the month our entire family descended upon Walt Disney World. In addition to the four of us (me, Joe, John, and James), my Mom and Dad joined us as did my Brother-In-Law. I was able to secure lodging at a beautiful 5 bathroom, 5 bedroom home in one of the Global Resort Homes communities in Kissimmee, FL. Global Resort Homes works with bloggers to advertise their communities and in exchange for writing about the resort and putting some advertisements on my blog, I was able to get the home for the entire week for free. We all had a fabulous time at the house. We had our own private swimming pool and hot tub and when we weren’t visiting various attractions in central Florida, you could usually find us at the pool! Another pleasant surprise was that my Aunt and one of my Cousins’ families decided to visit the area at the same time and they were able to rent a home almost directly across the street from us. It was really nice to visit with family that I hadn’t seen in years!
While in Florida we visited Gatorland, the Animal Kingdom, Epcot, the Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld, and Cocoa Beach. I had the opportunity to write about all of our adventures for the Kissimmee Visitor’s Blog, so if you feel like reading about everything we did, you can find all my articles here: http://i.seekissimmee.com/author/laura-terbrack/. When I asked the boys about their favorite parts of the trip, they couldn’t decide which park they liked the best. Sometime they said SeaWorld and other times the Animal Kingdom. As for myself, I really enjoyed SeaWorld and found the day we spent at Cocoa Beach very relaxing. I had the opportunity to body surf (something I hadn’t done in many, many years) and it was such a good time. Everyone agreed that we should try to come back to central Florida again in a few years, so hopefully we’ll be able to pull off another trip like this one!
As the year comes to an end, I am very thankful for all of the opportunities that came my way this year. We had a wonderful year of travel and my immediate family enjoyed mostly good health and prosperity. I hope that 2011 was a good year for you and yours and that 2012 will be a great year for all of us. Happy New Year!!!
Sincerely,
