The year began with what has become an annual ski trip for Justin. He traveled to Vail, Colorado to ski with Lee Bot and several of his friends. Perhaps this was just a warm up in fitness for Justin because he and Kayla worked on training for several fitness events this year. The first was in Fairmont, MN where Justin completed a Sprint Triathlon and Kayla pushed Stella in a stroller for a 5K run. What a hot one that was at around 90 degrees! The second one was in Okaboji, IA where Dawn, Jeff, Aubree, Joe and kids all came along for support and to enjoy boating on the lakes and activities in the area. Justin did a longer triathlon on that one and Kayla met her 5k goal for the year! It was just in time too, because she couldn’t do much running shortly after when she found out she is pregnant with kiddo #2 who has a due date of April 2nd 2026. It is extra exciting because her sister, Kara is due with her first a few weeks earlier!

Justin rounded out his triathlon events with an Olympic Triathlon in the Black Hills. While in the Hills Justin, Kayla and Stella got to spend some quality time with Ashlen, Travis and Addison. They also got to go visit Grandma and Grandpa in their new apartment.

At the tail end of that trip to the Hills, Kayla stayed longer to meet up with her friend Erin whom she hadn’t seen in 5 years! They did hiking, arts and crafts, puzzles with audio books, and lots of catching up! Erin moves around given that her husband is in the army. It was good timing too because she will be moving to Germany next year!

Stella has had all sorts of adventures as well. Her parents ooze joy watching her learn and experience a lot of firsts. She loves to help out around the house whether it is unloading the silverware from the dishwasher or doing laundry with her little laundry wagon. It is extra cute when she loads clothes into the washing machine and all you see is her little butt and legs sticking out! Some of her favorite activities are trying on all of her shoes and dancing to music played on what has now become her speaker. 

She regularly melts the hearts of those around her. She makes it oh so challenging for her grandparents to leave when they need to because she blows them kisses as they are leaving and asks for more snuggles on their way out. She always gives her mom and dad kisses on both cheeks just before bedtime and they always get so excited to pick her up from daycare at the end of the workday. Seeing her run to them in excitement is the best part of the day.