For 2026 we made 5x5 bingo cards filled with hopes, goals, and wouldn't that be nices, and one of my squares was to write a blog post each month to revive this sad, sad place that I really just need to download in its entirety and put in a book. At this point I think I'm at over 1000 posts. Many of the old photos are gone, lost to old linked sites (what a stupid idea), and all the videos are gone. But it's a history from our first post and whole State Department career, and I do not want to lose this record. I think this might just go on my 2027 bingo card.
The last entry was our 30th Anniversary in May, and a super special weekend in Jamaica.
In June we hopped over to Cincinnati for Bananaball! To score tickets requires applying to a lottery and we finally got through this year. Though Becca went to uni in Savannah, we didn't hear about the Bananas until after she'd graduated and they started traveling for "games." Nicholas joined us in Cincy, and on Juneteenth we had a great show between the Indianapolis Clowns and Savannah Bananas. At the end of the month, Ian and I were able to take advantage of tickets to see a World Cup game between Croatia and Ghana. I don't have a shirt from Ghana, but I did have one from Togo's World Cup attempt in 2006 and cheered on West Africa.
July crossed a few squares off. We met up with Rebecca, Max, and Nicholas in Chicago and drove up to EAA AirVenture OshKosh, via a visit with my aunt and some time in Wisconsin Dells. Ian has been learning to fly again and is about a week out from his check ride and earning his pilot's license - Go Ian! OshKosh is one of the biggest annual airshows. It started in 1953 for experimental aircraft and now has everything you can think of, and over 10,000 general aviation craft fly in each year. A highlight for me was meeting Drew and Lanie of Fly Me to the Fun fame (check them out on YouTube and Instagram).
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When we got home, we adopted two gremlins. If you hadn't seen them mentioned elsewhere already, we'd like to officially introduce Cheesesteak (Cheese or Cheesie) and Soft Pretzel (Pretzel).
August brought a bit of a travel break. My parents came up to visit in the lovely summer to avoid travel during the winter. Becca came down for a week and we saw the Toronto Blue Jays play in Philly. I honestly still don't believe that Jays baseball is a happy place for me. And we had a quick visit up to Toronto! Over a couple days we squashed in seeing friends from the Consulate, seeing the Jays play, and meeting the Canadian side of the law firm we work for. Toronto makes me so happy.
September though was slammed with travel, including a trip a year in the making to Denmark for a Lego Inside Tour. LIT requires getting selected by lottery and and then making your way to Billund which is pretty much near nothing. But since Denmark is quite small it was so much fun to get there. We took a red-eye to Iceland and spent a day walking our way through jetlag. We highly recommend the Lava Show and relaxing for a few hours at a lagoon. For convenience, the Blue Lagoon is easy and we highly recommend going at opening (but if you have the time, pick somewhere else.
The next day we flew early to Copenhagen, picked up our rental car, and drove to Odense where we spent a couple days getting over the remaining jetlag. It's such a cute town with museums and plenty to walk to. But we needed to do something that wasn't eating or walking, so we found a nearby escape room, and while we wondered at first if our brains could function enough for escape rooms, the owner/designer was so proud of his really clever rooms that we did two. Oh, and for food, we highly recommend the Storms Pakhus food hall.
The day arrived to check into Lego Hotel. But first we stopped at a Viking museum in Ladby to see a Viking king's burial mound (saved right in the place it was discovered!) and then at Bluetooth's rune Jelling stones. Very cool history from the 900s. A thousand years later is when Lego came to be, and the opportunity to go on this trip in our anniversary year was too much to pass up.
It was three really fun days with 32 other adults and 1 child, learning about the company, the history, the brick, the designs, the creators. We did it all - Lego House, Lego campus, Lego factory, the employee store, the company museum, dinner with designers, our own Lego Master's Challenge, dinner at Mini Chef, and a quick behind the scenes of LegoLand. There's a whatsapp group and before the tour a chocolate/treat exchange was arranged (of course we brought PB&J Reece's from Hershey Chocolate World), and some of our tour friends still meet up, share the sets the buy, and chat about all things Lego.
We got home, turned around and flew to San Antonio to visit Jonathon. It was our first time to that city and I was happy to learn what the Alamo really was, and thoroughly enjoyed the Pearl and Riverfront. J has a fabulous apartment and we had a great time hanging out with him.
October was a quiet month, though we did go to a Halloween party in Philadelphia. And dressed up. Please understand that this is not something we do. Yet we did it. I don't even know what to say.
