DAN'S (& JOANN'S!) PAGE

Introduction

Our overly long but lovingly detailed family letter has returned!

Growth & Personality Updates

It was another fast year, with Henrik turning 11 in April and Graham turning 9 just before. Both boys continued to grow in their own ways.

Henrik remained tall and lean, in the 80th percentile for height. His doctor noted his “un-retirement from sports” and said running seemed perfect for him. Graham stood in the 95th percentile for height. Henrik grew increasingly independent, often up early working on projects. Graham remained funny, competitive, and sensitive.

Both boys lost several teeth throughout the year with Graham starting an Invisalign orthodontic treatment in January 2025. The brothers maintained their strong bond, mixed with typical competition and differing interests.  Perhaps collaborating one moment, at odds the next but always good pals.

School Reports

Henrik wrapped up fifth grade at Redeemer with his middle-school-style schedule.  He had David Gesch as homeroom teacher while rotating to Charlotte Penn for math and science, and Darla Ranwick for literature and language. A kind of junior high before junior high, Henrik continued adjusting to managing his time and assignments independently, working hard with great momentum in his grades.

In the fall, Henrik started sixth grade navigating the same structure. The transition brought challenges, but he showed increasing maturity handling multiple teachers, different classrooms, and tracking assignments across subjects.

Graham finished third grade with Bailey Dore, a relatively new teacher at Redeemer. His school story remained steady, usually trucking along with solid grades, give or take some oddities. Someday he’ll look back and we’ll give him a hard time about scrambling to move his ‘C’ in handwriting up to a ‘B’ late in the quarter.

In the fall, Graham rolled into fourth grade with Stephanie Schrupp. His class had shrunk over the past couple years with a dwindling boy population, creating an oddly unbalanced gender ratio, but Graham took it all in stride.

Activities

The boys continued with the Hamel 4-H club throughout the year. Henrik remained more enthusiastic than Graham, though Graham enjoyed the activities and usually looked forward to the pizza at monthly meetings.

Due to a registration fiasco and scheduling complications, the boys didn’t begin their 4-H fair project careers as planned. Graham didn’t show anything, but Henrik entered his cardboard Winnebago Vista motorhome in the open class creative projects. To everyone’s delight, his project earned a blue ribbon at the Hennepin County Fair in June.

The family had bought the boys a LEGO SPIKE Prime robotics set for Christmas 2024, which garnered modest interest initially. Things escalated when both JoAnn and Daniel got involved coaching the school’s FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robotics team in fall 2025. The experience consumed far more time than either parent imagined, with twice-weekly meetings from September through December leading to their competition.

Both boys participated in the FLL Unearthed season, though Henrik showed more independent engagement with SPIKE Prime programming at home. Daniel and JoAnn suspected Graham might engage more if he had space to make robotics his own thing rather than always working alongside his older brother.

Sports

Graham played on a third-grade Wayzata basketball team through February and into March playoffs. The team won a tournament against Minnetonka squads and made it to the second round of playoffs. Graham contributed scoring but excelled as a defensive anchor.

In spring baseball, Graham played for the Wayzata Mets, reuniting with his fall 2023 coach whose team hadn’t won a game that season. This time the Mets were strong. Graham excelled hitting and fielding, but the biggest change was kid pitch. Despite never doing a wind-up before his first practice, he became the starting (and key late game) pitcher and had a solid season, thriving in tight moments. The Mets contended for the league title but fell in the tournament semifinals to their arch-rival Angels.

Graham pushed to play fall baseball, landing on a reshuffled Wayzata Angels team while juggling what JoAnn declared his final football season (flag football moves to tackle next year).

He enjoyed playing wide receiver and quarterback.

Henrik’s lone sport remained cross country. Running one mile as a sixth grader, he placed in nearly all meets and finished sixth at their private schools’ state meet in October. Redeemer’s boys’ team won first place overall, repeating their previous year’s success.

Between seasons, “basement basketball” with JoAnn and the boys remained a near-nightly family routine despite creative height adjustments.

Video Games and Other Entertainment

“Super Mario Wonder” continued to hold the boys’ attention into early 2025 as they completed virtually every goal. By fall, the boys (primarily Graham) finished “Super Mario Odyssey” together.

Daniel kept trying to get the boys into “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” A memorable milestone came in April when Graham captured his first wild horse, though the game often seemed too intense for them to embrace like the Mario titles. “Animal Crossing” still made occasional appearances.

Henrik juggled multiple farms across Farm Simulator 19, 22, and 25, each representing different projects and goals.

Daniel continued his film education mission with carefully selected classics at family movie nights. The boys saw their first theatrical superhero films in July, “Superman” on Daniel’s birthday, then “Fantastic Four: First Steps” weeks later. Both were big hits.

The boys got video time after school daily but, unlike their parents’ generation, rarely watched typical television. Henrik gravitated toward YouTube channels on small engine repair and motorhome building. Graham focused on game tutorials and mastery tips.

Hobbies and Interests

Henrik’s lawn mowing business expanded slightly with periodic neighbor work and one-time gigs. His long-term plan: Save for a John Deere riding mower and convince his parents to add a utility shed workshop by fall 2026.

Beyond mowing, Henrik spent time on mower “flip” projects from neighborhood giveaways. Inventory peaked at nine mowers in spring 2025, much to JoAnn’s growing concern about garage space.. By year’s end, he’d sold four. His biggest earnings came from repairs and flips rather than mowing. Henrik documented projects on YouTube, with a couple videos unexpectedly reaching hundreds of views. Business investments included an ultrasonic cleaner for carburetor parts.

Henrik’s LEGO obsession deepened with the massive Hogwarts Castle (a gift from neighbors by way of a complication involving his grandmother… long story) and various motorhome craft projects.

Graham’s hobbies remained sports-focused, though he maintained a “museum” in his room with coins and shark tooth fossils.

Both boys enjoyed RC cars and some drone experiments.

The pandemic-era basement hideout got a major upgrade with walls, furniture, and lighting. Both boys stayed on their 2024 bikes and enjoyed scooting, with Henrik particularly fond of his Razor crazy cart.

Family Trips and Adventures

The biggest family trip came in mid-February when the family headed to Florida’s Gulf Coast for a week. Flying into Tampa, they met JoAnn’s parents and explored the area. Highlights included shark tooth hunting at Venice Beach and a full day at Kennedy Space Center, where the boys enjoyed (although not as much as Daniel) the Space Shuttle Atlantis and touched a moon rock at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.

Beach time at Cocoa Beach and Honeymoon Island provided a welcome break from Minnesota’s winter.

The second major trip came in late June: a South Dakota RV adventure from June 23-28, again with grandparents.

The itinerary packed in key stops like the trip-favorite Badlands National Park.

We also hit Mount Rushmore, the legendarily quirky Wall Drug, gold panning, tourist trap Cosmos Mystery Area, the wildlife-filled (kind of?!) Custer State Park loop, and the Mitchell Corn Palace. It was the boys’ introduction to the Black Hills and the old west.

Closer to home, the family spent a hard-charging day at Valleyfair amusement park in August.

Tiny the Parakeet: An Update

‘The Big Man’ celebrated his second anniversary with the family in August 2025. Tiny continued to thrive in his roomy cage while enjoying periodic adventures out in the family room. He particularly enjoyed Henrik’s custom-built obstacle course ‘gym’ creation and his regular baths.

His vocabulary continued to expand beyond his signature phrases “Tiny, Tiny” and “Pretty Bird,” adding the newish phrase “Cute bird” to his repertoire. He remained the unofficial fifth member of the family, nosing around on his bell toys and bringing daily entertainment to the household.

Music and Creativity

Saturday piano lessons led by Daniel continued until summer hiatus. LEGO League work crowded out fall piano time, but – don’t tell the boys – it may return in the new year.

Graham enjoyed drawing creatures and geometric shapes in his free time. Nothing disciplined, but Daniel found his creative doodling highly amusing.

As mentioned earlier, Henrik continued creating small art projects and contraptions using unexpected materials.

JoAnn and Daniel Spotlight

The family had an unusual summer with both grandfathers experiencing medical issues, though both recovered well. Daniel’s father was hospitalized for a week with a rare bacterial infection. JoAnn’s father had a heart procedure escalate to open-heart surgery, spending nearly all July at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. The family spent much of July and half of August in southern Minnesota juggling hospital visits and managing the boys. It was stressful times but ultimately an unexpected summer adventure.

JoAnn balanced part-time ER nursing at WestHealth with school volunteer work and parenting. She packed daily lunches (the boys snubbed hot lunch options) and made hearty breakfasts, including Graham’s daily pancakes.

Daniel remained at Medtronic, where leadership churn and layoffs continued. A spring reorganization brought more consolidation; Daniel survived his fourth consecutive spring of significant layoffs. By late summer, that latest rounder of leadership had left! Daniel continued working from home and maintained his daily walking routine.

On a brighter note, Daniel passed the Series 65 exam and began registering an investment advisory firm with Minnesota. Book projects remained in progress, and he spent time editing grandmother interviews into a podcast series and book project.

It was another fast year in the books. Not surprisingly, both boys continued to grow!

While Henrik held a height advantage, Graham had managed to slightly surpass Henrik’s weight by being a solid barrel of a kid.

Bikes had to be upgraded heading into summer 2024. Both boys ended up moving up to 24″ bikes and, truth be told, Henrik was not far from being fine on a 26″ tire. Pedal tractors only made it out a little bit this summer, as it became harder for long legs to pedal them.

School Reports

Henrik wrapped up fourth grade with Stephanie Schrupp as his teacher, gaining momentum with his grades throughout the year. In the fall, he started fifth grade with David Gesch. He sort of had one foot into junior high, crazy as that sounds, by having Mr. Gesch as a homeroom teacher while going to different classrooms and teachers (Charlotte Penn for math & science and Darla Ranwick for literature and language).

Graham finished second grade with Sarah Janda and then entered third grade this fall with a new teacher named Bailey Dore. He continued to do well in his classes but would be fast to name recess as his favorite subject. Music was his least favorite.

Sports & Activities

Both boys continued with 4-H throughout the year, attending most of the monthly events. In particular, Henrik was engaged at the meetings and frequently wore his 4-H club shirt to school or out and about. The club’s main annual Rodeo food stand fundraiser was a highlight of their year.

Throughout the winter of 2023-2024, Graham took part in second grade basketball through the Wayzata youth basketball association. He was known on his team for his hustle and energy.

Graham played spring baseball through the Wayzata baseball association and continued to show a particular talent in both batting and fielding. He had some of his most memorable moments during the season in perhaps the highest-pressure spots, including a couple of games when he drove in the winning runs in the last inning. He was cool as a cucumber even in what were some hot Sunday afternoon games.

Perhaps the biggest activity surprise of the year was Henrik’s un-retirement from athletics. JoAnn made an effort to get him to sign up for the school cross country team. Initial indicators from practice were that he was a fast one, but everyone (including Henrik) was still surprised when he finished in fourth place amongst fifth grade boys at his very first meet. He would go on to place between second and fourth in every meet that his team participated in. Some highlights included getting to run at a meet in southern Minnesota for both sets of Grandparents in late September on Grandma Judy’s birthday. The season wrapped up with a state meet for Lutheran-affiliated private schools. Henrik finished fourth in the state amongst grade five boys in the one-mile run. His school’s team finished first in the state with the cumulative achievements of both the girls and boys runners from grades three through six.

By fall of 2024, Graham was in third grade flag football. This would likely be the only season of football that his mother ever allowed him to play, so he savored what he could. He enjoyed the Monday and Wednesday evening practices and games, playing both offense and defense. His specialties were as both quarterback and wide receiver, although he also had defensive success, getting a key endzone interception during one game.

When Lego Club resumed at school in fall 2024, Graham joined Henrik with both boys having an interest this year. As of this writing, Henrik was successful in grabbing some ‘best of’ weekly awards.

Video Games and Other Entertainment

Video games remained a tightly-curated interest on Friday-Sunday over the past year. It was the #1 reward and one of the few things that would get immediate attention.

Without a doubt, the game of the year was “Super Mario Wonder.” It took a bit of time to pick up momentum after being introduced in November 2023. By summer 2024, the boys had managed to finish the game, completing virtually every potential goal in the game. It was a lot.

“Animal Crossing” fans would be happy to know that the game still found interest from time to time, a familiar favorite to be revisited.

Long-time family television favorites continued to feature, like “Wild Kratts” for both boys but particularly Graham.

Daniel continued to introduce some ‘classic’ family films, some with controversy due to concerns of being too scary, like “Gremlins” (1984).

By summer 2024, it wasn’t uncommon that the daily video allocation was often eaten up by YouTube content. Graham was into checking out video game tips/tricks videos, sports-related highlights, or collecting tips. Henrik had a curious obsession with small engine repair videos (more on that later).

New Hobbies and Interests

Graham’s new obsession for the year was coin collecting. He enjoyed rolling coins and making exchanges at local banks, hoping to find new rarities. He did buy one rarity from a coin shop so far, an 1858 Flying Eagle penny.

Henrik’s passion for Legos only deepened, with him following up last year’s Volkswagen camper van project with a second van with trailer project at Christmas, a giant roller coaster project for his birthday.

For Daniel’s birthday, he also put together the Saturn V rocket.

Henrik’s interest in small engine repair came about when JoAnn started the summer vacation by teaching money and small business concepts via a book called “Lawn Boy” that charted the rise of a kid’s lawn mowing business.

By the end of the summer, Henrik (with Daniel’s help and supervision) had repaired four local giveaway lawnmowers into operating condition. One was sold for a $100 gain while, as of the time of this writing, we still had no less than five lawn mowers in our garage (JoAnn has been promised that we’ll downsize in spring 2025 once the market for mowers is at its peak).

Henrik gained his first lawn care customer in mid-summer with a neighbor. Daniel helped get him (and his weed trimming assistant JoAnn) company hats and business cards – they’re official! Henrik hopes to gain more clients in 2025 with the goal to eventually save up for a riding lawn mower and further expansion in coming years.

Family Trips and Adventures

The biggest family trip of the year occurred in April 2024 for Graham’s eighth ‘Golden Birthday’ celebration. He had requested gold for his birthday and to go to Shark Tooth Island or a shark tooth hunting alternative.

On April 1st, we picked up the boys from school and did not give them any prior indication that a big trip was planned. They were quite surprised to learn that we would be jetting off that afternoon. After a late arrival in Orlando, we met up with JoAnn’s parents and headed for the Jacksonville area, specifically Amelia Island.

Much of the week was spent in and around the island.

One afternoon, we went on a fishing charter.

And spent a lot of time shark tooth hunting on the beach.

We also checked out the Jacksonville Zoo (with that day ending on a bit of a sour note after the much-hyped tiger cubs were tucked away for the day after we finally arrived to see them but that became a running joke throughout the rest of the year).

In June 2024, we checked out Wisconsin Dells for a few days, with the Land of Natura, Timbavati Wildlife Park, Noah’s Ark Waterpark, and go-karts all being hits.

As in the past, JoAnn and the boys went on their annual family fishing getaway for a week in July 2024.

They also had a few days at Whitewater State Park.

Tiny the Parakeet: An Update

The unofficial fifth member of the family continued to have what seemed to be a fun-filled year. Tiny the parakeet mostly lived in his roomy cage but came out from time to time in the family room. Henrik made an elaborate obstacle/gym creation for him at one point.

Tiny made his first visit to the vet in summer 2024 for what amounted to being a one-year checkup where he was proclaimed to be quite healthy. He was confirmed as a male bird and concerns around him seeming to regurgitate some seed were seemingly him trying to get our attention (or the attention of a favorite bell in his cage). He continued to learn new words or phrases beyond his name.

Music and Creativity

Much to the boys’ chagrin, they continued online piano lessons with Daniel supervising throughout the school year. Those lessons resumed in fall 2024 after a summer hiatus.

Both steadfastly refused to show even a twitch of interest in either choir or band at school, despite Henrik often singing as a habit around our house. Both boys, particularly Henrik, would probably be decent piano players if they happened to someday get a spark for more independent practice.

The boys’ video operation continued to crank out a new project every couple of months. The biggest viewed items of the year involved two nearly 10-minute long epics starring He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, directed by Henrik and starring JoAnn as narrator and figure manipulator (stop-motion artist?). Other favorites included the hand-drawn “The Violent Destructive Bunny” series by Henrik.

JoAnn and Daniel Spotlight

JoAnn again continued balancing part-time work at the ER with volunteering at the boys’ school, participating in school activities like reading (she was the ‘mystery reader’ in fall 2024 in Graham’s class, wearing a mask and cape to hide her identity), also working school lunch assistance and the library.

Daniel continued to somehow be at Medtronic despite never-ending cuts and trims around the company. In April 2024, he and a colleague were the only two full-time employees left within IT to oversee the various country websites around the world. Despite the disruptions of the last couple of years, particularly on the home stretch, the four-year journey to re-launch the Medtronic website in the United States completed in September/October 2024.

In his free time, Daniel continued on some family projects around photo and audio/video upkeep/archiving. He also had the biggest push in recent years toward refreshing past book-related projects and nearing release of several new items.

Let’s pick up where we last left off in fall of 2022!

Henrik was in 3rd grade (Charlotte Penn) – his second year being full-time in school after the disruption and homeschool year in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Graham was in his first year back in school – starting 1st grade (Kinlin Schultz).

Both boys had finished up fall baseball and leaves started to fall on the ground as we headed into fall of 2022.

Halloween costumes this year were a Scooby-Doo theme. Graham declined to wear a wig and instead went as a blonde Shaggy.

Fall being harvest time. Henrik’s videogame preoccupations leaned into “Farming Simulator 19” & the newer “Farming Simulator 22.” He had all sorts of farms and equipment/vehicles situated in each game.

We had a family game of “A Short Hike” at some point and then a key obsession began through the balance of the past few months involving “Animal Crossing” (mostly to virtually fish or catch other ‘rare’ creatures). Graham sometimes sprinkled in sports games like “Techmo Bowl” and “RBI Baseball” and both boys still enjoyed “Mario” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” games. They also had an eye on “The Legend of Zelda” games.

What did JoAnn make of this videogame obsession that had grown year over year? Not much. Videogame privilege was generally tightly rationed, usually only appearing on a Friday-Sunday basis on a tight timer. Losing videogame privilege was one of the few consequences where a threat might actually be heeded.

As we rolled into Christmas 2022, Graham was perhaps at the peak of his interest in rock hunting. Various on some of this interest – including finding fossils, such as shark teeth, were a continued theme of the year though.

Henrik was heavily into the books of Dav Pilkey in winter of 2022-2023. By summer 2023 he was heavy into the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series.

Pokemon cards were a continued interest with both boys, although Graham was the one with the biggest interest. Kids at school sometimes traded or gave cards away – a practice that was banned during child pickup due to it resulting in inattentive children.

Sledding obviously continued to be a key winter activity. We finally had a decent sized show hill emerge at the edge of our yard to again have a network of tunnels dug in it, with the pile staying in place most of the winter (and one of our shovels being buried in it during most of that time!).

Henrik was in basketball again during the winter months, his second year in the program. He seemed to enjoy the games and tolerated the practices. His team was pretty good, led by a couple of star players. That said, he would go on to announce his retirement at the end of the season.

Graham had his first season of basketball, which was limited entirely to practices and some mock scrimmages. He was engaged by it and, candidly, pretty aggressive on the court.

We were again in Florida in February 2023. It was a little over a week with JoAnn’s parents in the Clearwater-Tampa area. We’d gotten a good deal on the City Pass, which led to a new activity each day. This included revisiting a couple of past activities from 2019, such as ZooTampa and the Florida Aquarium, as well as the Clearwater Aquarium and the Tampa Science Museum.

The marquee day of the activities though was a visit to the Busch Gardens theme park. The park had a mix of animal attractions and larger-scale theme park rides. While a few unplanned ride closures cramped our style, the majority of the roller coasters were tackled multiple times. The Iron Gwazi was the most intense in the park – “plunging riders from a 206 foot-tall peak into a 91-degree drop and reaching top speeds of 76 miles per hour.” We rode that one as a family and only rode it a single time – that said, how many six year olds braved it that day? Not many. The boys’ favorite roller coaster though was undoubtedly Cheetah Hunt, a roller coaster that they rode around a dozen times.

Besides the activities, we had a couple of different beach days in Florida. The weather was solid and it made for some enjoyable beach play.

As usual, Henrik was engineering different dams and related water containment creations on the beaches.

As we rolled into April 2023, both boys had their birthdays. Graham shocked us all by turning 7 years old while Henrik turned 9 years old. Crazy. They celebrated them in a multi-day, multi-location affair at the homes of both sets of grandparents, along with some dessert days at home.

Graham’s interests in animals – particularly birds of prey – had perhaps taken a bit of a back seat by spring, as he became obsessed with reptiles and wanted a snake theme for his birthday. He also got a real rattle snake rattle (minus the snake itself).

Henrik continued to double down on Legos as a primary play focus in his life. Generally constructing original creations from the ‘miscellaneous’ bin(s) of Legos but also getting into ever-more-complicated sets. With his multi-year obsession involving all kinds of motorhomes, campers, etc. he was into a Volkswagen camper set around his birthday and – later – a James Bond car set for his father’s birthday.

Action figure interests, a staple of Daniel’s childhood, continue to be minor but flare up from time to time. “He-Man” continued to lurk around, as did “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Daniel also shared some of his childhood “G.I. Joe” toys, garnering some interest in mash-up play between lines.

Daniel was a chaperone on a school trip to Target Field in late April. This ended up being the boys’ first in-person Minnesota Twins game and they managed to luck into the opponent being the hated New York Yankees. Unfortunately, the Yankees won the game but Twins fever was constant throughout the summer. There was celebration in the house when the Twins later won their first playoff game in 18 years and first playoff series since 2002. Maybe they were becoming fans at just the right time?

School wrapped up for the year in late May of 2023, setting the stage for summer activities. For the first time since prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Summer 2019), the boys did spend a week doing morning time at Vacation Bible School – craft and song time that was enjoyed to varying degrees.

The primary family getaway for the summer took place in late June. On paper it looked like a good plan but in practice we seemed to run into daily challenges. Most of the United States experienced record heat at times during the summer and heat was one of several complications during the trip.

Officially it was a road trip around Iowa. The first morning of the trip started with some fossil hunting in Rochester, MN, using tools that Graham had been gifted back at Christmas.

We then continued to Decorah, Iowa. After ice cream at the Whippy Dip stand, plans for some nature hikes went sideways due to severe bug and heat issues. Also, the less said about the hotel for the night the better.

The next leg of the trip took us down to the Davenport-area, with the Maquoketa Caves State Park perhaps being the highlight of the entire trip.

When making our way to Des Moines, we stopped in Iowa City and checked out a fossil hunting gorge that had less than stellar returns. A nearby watering hole did offer some beach play.

Arrival in Des Moines was complicated by Graham being diagnosed with croup. He had a scary couple of nights at the hotel and the heat outside led to few activities while he rested. We had to forgo plans to spend a day at the Adventureland theme/water park, instead settling for a family movie afternoon before wrapping up our trip.

Throughout the summer, Graham enjoyed regularly going fishing at nearby Parker’s Lake and later at the Baker Park Preserve’s lake.

Did we mention that Henrik still likes Legos?

The boys did have another session of swimming lessons. They only did a couple of weeks this year but seem to be relatively proficient in the water. They continued to enjoy water slide and pool fun at a couple of nearby venues.

Mid-July brought on the annual trip to the Four Seasons Resort in northern Minnesota with JoAnn’s family.

JoAnn’s sister and her family joined everyone again, as they were there for 7 days of fish catching and water play on the lake and at the resort pool.

JoAnn’s family also took the boys camping in August at Whitewater State Park.

The crew checked out Mystery Caves after a couple of days of camping.

Daniel’s parents took the boys to the Freeborn Country Fair in Albert Lea, MN in early August. They enjoyed the animals and attractions/stage shows. Also of note was their interest in a historical village, the first time that they seemed to pay close attention to understanding how people ‘used to live in old times.’

You might have thought that Henrik had aged out of his pedal tractor? Not quite yet. Oddly, it probably had more use this summer than the prior summer. Graham continued to peddle around a bit as well.

Henrik, in particular, continued to show an appreciation for large farm equipment. During both the Summer and into Fall harvest time, he was hot to ride along on tractors, combines, etc.

Throughout the summer, Daniel’s mother visited on some of JoAnn’s working days to take the boys on mini-adventures.

This included regular bike trail rides, swimming-related excursions, haunting garage sales and other thrift-y locations for toys, and usually demands involving fast food.

The family had our first pet arrive in the house in mid-August. Tiny (aka Tiny Christensen aka Tiny 3) became the third in a line of parakeets in JoAnn’s family. Her mother had the original Tiny as a child and JoAnn grew up with Tiny 2. Naming this parakeet wasn’t much of a surprise. He got settled into his cage quickly and within a couple of weeks was making infrequent trips out of his cage to go around a bit in the family room.

Henrik and Graham started the new school year in late August. It was not easy to come out of summer routines but they settled back in within fairly short order.

Graham moved up to 2nd grade baseball in the fall. He and another boy from his class at school were amongst the sharper players on the team. While the team didn’t have a very successful win-loss record, Graham had a number of exciting at-bats in games and made some nice fielding plays.

A key family activity in September, as in years past, was a trip to the Fall Harvest Orchard. Over the years, the orchard had continued to evolve more so into a family activities destination. The boys both had arm bands this year and went several times on multiple attractions. A rock-related attraction was a particular hit.

While new to the organization as of September, Henrik and Graham joined the local Hamel 4-H club. They became 4th generation members of 4-H (JoAnn’s grandmother was involved in 4-H as a child and Daniel’s family has a similarly long history with the organization). 4-H on the edges of the Twin Cities metro area was different in some ways from how the clubs were run in southern Minnesota. That said, it appeared that fun year of monthly activities was likely ahead for them.

Graham and Henrik continued to be good friends at home and generally got along very well. Besides some of the previously mentioned interests, Graham kept at bug/creature catching in the summer and generally any sort of sport. Besides having family kickball games in evenings and some baseball play or catch, 2-on-2 football games were also a common request in fall of 2023.

Daniel and the boys had been working at weekly piano lessons throughout the year, dating back to February. Musical interests and pursuits were a talker in the house but so far limited to that pursuit. Some weekend robot activities had also picked up.

Favorite movies tended to still be animated but some live-action films were creeping in. Oddly, old Disney movies like “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Incredible Journey” got plenty of attention. Television interests still included “Wild Kratts” and had expanded to the nature (creature bites man) series “Coyote Peterson.” Henrik, with help from Graham, also tried a hand at making some parody videos where he was ‘bitten’ by scary creatures – we’re not sure if he’ll be an online sensation yet though.

And the parents?

JoAnn continued her part-time schedule at the local emergency room. She also volunteered in different roles – lunch help or reading – at the boys’ school.

Daniel continued to work for Medtronic, with the company continuing to have a rocky time post-pandemic. That said, he enjoyed being able to continue to work from home and liked his immediate co-workers.

Daniel’s grandmother Agnes passed away in late May. He’d been involved in continued scanning and archiving of various family photographs and paperwork in the past few years, with that effort being a priority in the first half of the year. He did get back on track with a few book projects in various stages of completion though, hoping to get at least one out before the end of the year. He was also spending some of his free time chipping away on some professional development side pursuits.