WigLife: Christmas Update 2024

After 7 years dormant, the old family blog lives! Sadly, most of the photos previously uploaded here have disappeared, but this little corner of the internet still holds many of our family memories.

LIFE UPDATES:

Just over a year ago, our family made some major changes: The girls joined Ezra at public school (he began in 2021 as a freshman) and Becca ended a 17-year career as a stay-at-home/homeschooling parent. This was a monumental change for our family, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect!

Now, in the Fall of 2024, Ezra,18, is a high school senior, works as a barista ("Bro-ista") at Dutch Bros, and plays volleyball for his high school, here’s a short clip. He has been accepted to several colleges and is still deciding where he wants to go next year, but it's unlikely he'll stay in Oregon. Still, he knows he wants to major in kinesiology (or a similar major) to become a physical therapist. His dream would be to work with athletes, but as the biggest extrovert of our family, he'll do great working with any population.

Junia, 16, is a junior at the same high school as Ezra. She’s a captain on the school's dance team, a major focal point of her high school career. Juni has been driving independently since September and has applied to several jobs these last few weeks. She’s hoping to work for Starbucks (a competitor to Dutch Bros, which makes for a fun sibling rivalry). She is still figuring out what she wants to do someday but is intrigued with forensic science, astrophysics, and chemical engineering at this time. Here’s a video of her dance team’s novelty routine at a recent competition, which they got 2nd place for both last week and at the championships on 12/14/24.

Junia's in the center in blue below

Phoebe, 13, is in the 7th grade and at a wonderful charter school focusing on the arts. At her school, Phoebe plays upright bass in the orchestra and she plays guitar in the jazz band. She still loves animals and has two cats she cares for daily (Edmund and Rosie). She is magnetically drawn to play piano, bass, or guitar anytime possible, but especially if she has homework to do. Phoebe wants to be a sound engineer when she grows up. Here’s a clip of a recent concert she played in.

Becca has returned to work as a mental health counselor. She's at a wonderful group practice, North Albany Wellness Center, working two days at their downtown office and two days at Albany Options School, a Title I high school. She’s halfway to becoming certified in EMDR therapy after spending the last year deep-diving into DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), her primary modality. She’s in the church choir (here's them singing last Sunday), she's also on the Youth Leadership Team for church and her proudest role lately has been doing make-up for Juni’s dance team competitions.

Eyeliner was applied to 26 dancers for 3 competitions this fall.

Girls trip to the coast

Ben continues to enjoy his work at Garmin in aircraft maintenance and certification. He recently finished a two year stint on a FAA’s Aviation Rule-making Advisory Committee that advises Congress. He just began a three-year term on Salem City Council’s Airport Advisory Committee. For fun, he plays electric bass for our church’s worship team and bicycles to work when it’s not raining.

Ben took part in a Oregon BikeMS charity ride this year

He also traveled to Berlin with his dad and two sisters in the Spring.

Speaking of trips, Ben and Ezra spent Spring Break 2024 on a cross-country road trip to bring back a Nissan Altima that Ezra inherited from his great-grandpa Jennings, who sadly passed away just a few months later. Here's some photos from their adventures:

They stopped at our alma mater in Longview, Texas

Hoover Dam

The Grand Canyon

And back home again...

This summer we spent three weeks out East soaking up family time as we celebrated three major milestone birthdays for family in Tennessee and Ohio. Here’s some pics:

We celebrated my dad's 70th in Tennessee with family, then had lots of adventures.