Top 10 Reasons We’re Grateful for 2015

1. Completing the Grand Circle. We flew to Las Vegas and spent two weeks visiting the awe inspiring and majestic national parks in the desert Southwest.  Highlights included hiking on the Bright Angel trail in the Grand Canyon, riding mules through Bryce Canyon, and forging our own trail near the Canyonlands to ‘Repasky Bluff’. The Bright Angel trail was a grueling ~10 mile hike with 3,000 ft elevation change going down and 3,000 ft going back up.  We got bonus points for jogging the last ½ mile up the canyon when Ronan decided he needed to urgently use the restroom with nowhere to stop on the steep switchbacks.  Overall, we hiked over 35 miles, visited nine man-made (Hoover Dam) or natural parks, and the boys earned four Junior Ranger badges.  

2. Creating family memories.  The Repasky family reunion was held in North Carolina this year and brought back many fond memories of time spent there during Matt's childhood.  Rock jumping over the creeks, riding down ‘bust-your-butt’ falls, and swimming in some of the local spots were highlights as well as visiting the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains.  The boys loved playing foosball (and the Poo game), building lego warriors, and creating s’mores with their cousins. Mema, G-pa, and Bear were well loved in our buffalo-themed cabin.

3. Visiting Paradise - well, Paradise Park on Mount Hood. This backpacking trip took us on part of the Pacific Crest Trail (of the movie “Wild”) to an alpine meadow at around 6000 ft elevation.  We camped with an amazing view of what looked like the top of the world and nary another soul in site.  It’s a good thing the boys didn’t fall when playing on the giant boulders otherwise a rescue helicopter would have been necessary. It was amazing watching the sunset over the ocean together from our mountain perch.

4. Building intergenerational links.  This summer Jamie’s parents moved to Portland after 38 years of living in Wisconsin. We now see what we’ve missed by living far from relatives for so many years. Torin and Ronan love spending time with Papa and Mame particularly since they get to play in the hot tub and are generally spoiled like crazy. It has been a blessing to have extra adults with some of our school scheduling and urgent care adventures. 

5. Development in Taekwondo and music.  Ronan is now continuing the Repasky musical tradition by learning guitar.  He picked out a Fender style electric guitar and is slowly learning to jam.  Interestingly, the first song he has gotten good at is “Blitzkreig Bop” by the Ramones.  He is also getting ever closer to black belt testing for Taekwondo which will likely happen in 2016.  Ronan transferred to Class Academy this year and is thriving in the 4th grade Chinook’s class.

6. Soccer training and programming skills.  Building on last year’s experience with Lego Robotics, Torin has taken more of a leadership role as a 7th grader at Class Academy and got to build the base of the robot and tackle some of the more challenging programming such as implementing a line-following algorithm.  He probably takes the most joy from playing soccer though and joined a traveling squad this year leading to trips all around Western Oregon.   

7. Science, science everywhere.  Jamie was given the opportunity to double the number of students touched by her science education work when she took a second part-time job at Woodlawn School along her work at Rieke Elementary.  Now 2x the kids are exposed to stomp rocket science, insect cuisine, slinky earthquakes, and the ‘bubble of darkness’.  With the power of cloning perhaps next year she can add more schools…

8. Chemistry in action.  Matt’s assertion that conference rooms around the world look alike was finally proven wrong during a trip to Paris this fall for meetings at The Westin Paris - Vendôme.  What a stunning local for a fantastic conference.  He also had an opportunity to spend one exhausting day sightseeing in Paris and was amazed (and exhausted) visiting the Musée d’Orsay, Louvre, Musée de l’Armée, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, and Montmartre.  

9. Friends and family around the world.  We enjoy the opportunity to reconnect with our far-flung loved ones and friends via Christmas cards and messages.

10. Don’t really have anything here but a list to nine would be weird.

Happy Holiday’s from our family to yours and may your 2016 be filled with joy and friendship!