Year in Review

Well here it is 2017.  2016 was interesting to say the least.

Mackenzie turned 16 and started driving. I did a ton of work to the civic to get her a car that will make it two years. She's not thrilled with it, but it beats the bus and,  hey, she now knows how to drive stick shift.  She also had her other hip operated on. Thus effectively killing her 3rd high school basketball season in a row.  Disappointing for sure.

Joel graduated from college in May. I still have a hard time with this one. Makes me feel really old and often stupid and lazy, but good for him. Unfortunately, the job market for him has been tight and it's been very difficult for him to find work in his field. He has more interviews coming up so we keep our fingers crossed.

My bro Jim and I took as many kids as we could for a fantastic day at Great America er I mean Six Flags.

No doubt I have kept active. I did a few larger longer backpacking trips this year. One in Arizona and one in Minnesota. Did an overnight river trip with Kiki on the Wisconsin River and a weekend overnight river trip with Joel on the Namekagon river. Both firsts for both of them. They said they enjoyed it and are willing to do more. This doesn't include the day trips, hikes and single overnight trips I did as well.

Finally, we finished up the year with a family trip to New York City in December. That was really nice and makes me wonder how many more of these full family vacations we will have.

As for this blog, well it was a bit neglected. Only 25 posts in 2016. lowest of the 8 plus years I have been doing this. However, the content of a lot of those posts, was much greater.  We will see what happens this year.

In my little side bars I track a lot of things. I figured I flew for work and vacation over 17,000 miles. Southwest sent me an email last week that said I did over 32,000.  Not sure about that.

I did hike 128 miles and paddled almost 60. A bit short of a personal goal of 300 total.  I think I will try for 300 or 325 again this year. I have already started researching places to go. I get an extra 5 days of vacation this year, but realize that some of that will be used if Mackenzie want's to tour out of state schools this summer.

I only read 10 books this year, a bit less than I like to, but I would go in streaks.

How about grilling? over 100 pounds of meat went through my grill this year and 8 square feet of pizza as well. That is a lot.

Whats in store for 2017? Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading.
-Jeff