Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

Well hello 2010. You kinda snuck up on me. I haven’t decided yet if I’ll be calling you “two thousand ten” or “twenty ten” or some other bizarre nickname, for now I leave it to my readers to insert their own voice in reading you, 2010. You know 2010, you have some big shoes to fill. 2009 was an enormously eventful year for us! We were so busy that a lot of stuff never made it onto the blog. I guess that will be my resolution this year, to do a better job of keeping up with the record of our lives as they happen via blog, correspondence, photos, and scrapbooking. We did manage to sqeeze in a quick family photo session before 2009 ended. If you haven’t received a copy of our family photo, don’t worry, you may still, I have great intentions (as I do every year) to mail them out. I may need some addresses though… But I will insert the photo here also so you can see–like a sneak peak reward for reading our blog! Josh and the kids love to tell the story of what we went through to get this picture. Of course there was the usual amount of fretting over corresponding outfits for everyone etc, but the part of the story that they really like is that in order to find a clean backdrop for us all I made Josh pull the couch away from the wall. Then, in order to place the camera high enough to use the timer feature and get us all in the shot, I had to stack wrapped present boxes on top of the electronic piano box that is living in our front room all in front of the couch without having them topple all over the couch or backwards into our Christmas tree. You probably had to be there, but the kids and Josh got a real kick out of watching me set up the camera just so and then having to hop up and over the couch without knocking anything over and sqeezing into my place on the wall before the camera took the picture. There were a couple times I didn’t make it. But keeping them amused seemed to work well enough for getting pictures with nice sincere smiles and I had a keeper with all eyes open etc after only about 6 takes!
So, I’ll probably forget or run out of energy to mention every major thing we kept busy with this last year, but here is just a quick overview of highlights according to me. In January, with the support of many wonderful friends and family, Josh reluctantly turned 30. In February, Cameron got staples in his head for the second time in his young life and he lost his first tooth! In March, the kids each got their own brand new bicycle! In April, they were actually able to ride them! Also, with the help of my parents, we made a raised bed vegetable garden in the backyard. In May, the kids had their big dance recital! I had a fun birthday weekend with good friends and chopped off almost all of my hair to donate to Locks of Love. In June, Elena had her first “Grandma Camp” while Josh and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with a fabulous Ruby cake! Josh received an award for training and development at work and ended up in the ER for swallowing a pop tab. In July, we rode on the trolley in Muscatine’s 4th of July parade once again and then left our two oldest children in the hands of my parents to begin their 2-week road trip east through many points of interest as far away as the coast of Maine including but not limited to Niagara Falls, Boston, Dad’s old cabin in New York, old homes of literarians, an old whaling ship, and familial houses, churches, and gravesites. In August, our whole family embarked on another long road trip looping as far to the west as Utah for a family reunion and along the way stopping through Rapid City, SD, the Devil’s Tower in WY, Yellowstone National Park, the corner of Montana just to say we’ve been, a hotel in Idaho, a visit with old friends and family in Colorado, and a theatre in Kansas to view Harry Potter Half Blood Prince for Cameron’s birthday. In September, both boys started soccer season again and all four kids began dancing lessons again. Jacob, now a 5th grader, joined band at school as a percussionist–like his dad. I began the overwhelming task of preparing to travel abroad and leave my children behind for 2 whole weeks. In October, Josh and I completed a fabulous trip to Russia, then came home and cooked like we were still in Russia for about another two weeks! We made it home just in time to figure out a “Link” costume (from the Zelda video games and books) for Cameron to wear for Halloween (and the rest of the year!) Somewhere in all of this Jacob started to grow! He is taller than Elise again, going through “some stuff” like a deepening voice and armpit hair that he likes to show off, and did I mention that his new tennis shoes are MY size?! In November, we welcomed Josh’s brother Brian home after two years in Brazil and hosted Thanksgiving at our home again. Finally, just last month, in December, Jacob got glasses and had his golden birthday, Elise got a filling, I found a yummy new cheese and we all had a nice break over the holidays despite the weather’s attempt to seriously stress me out about travel plans.