Merry Christmas from the Ireton’s

We have enjoyed our first year in our newly remodeled house. We moved in just before Christmas last year and finished up a few details over the following months. It’s hard to believe that we lived in the basement for over two years, not the way we planned it.

Kaylee is now a junior at Lincoln, which reminds us that college is just around the corner. She loves her German class and will spend a month in Germany in July, attending classes and touring with other students. This is her third year on the Speech & Debate team and she won in her first tournament. Kaylee has continued Taekwondo and hopes to earn her black belt in February. She also takes guitar lessons and was on the “tech” crew for a school play. She is looking forward to getting her braces off in December.

Kyle has adapted to high school as a freshman. Soon he will be the tallest in the family, as he is quickly overtaking Mark. He had a great year in football as the starting center on the undefeated freshman team. This year he decided to try wrestling and while the workouts are quite challenging, his football and weight training have prepared him well. He continues to advance in Boy Scouts and is currently the assistant senior patrol leader. Kyle also played Lacrosse in the spring and is working on his black belt in Taekwondo.

Eric is in seventh grade at West Sylvan and is busier than ever. This fall he participated in football, soccer, cross-country, Taekwondo, and scouts. He loved every minute, but decided to scale back a little bit on activities. On his football team, he was starting noseguard, played a variety of defensive positions, and did an excellent job at center on offense. He is just starting his basketball season with Shelley as his assistant coach. In the spring he played baseball, playing at catcher, third base, and pitcher. In a show of team unity, he bleached his hair for the all-star team. This year he switched to the baritone saxophone for his school band.

Shelley finished up some remodeling projects earlier this year, two decks and tile work for a fireplace and bathroom. She stays busy with kid and volunteer activities. Then there are the never-ending challenges of taxi service and household operations. She continues to take long walks, plays some indoor soccer, and got away to go fishing a few times. She caught a 15 lb. salmon (netted by neighbor Anne) and netted a 16 pounder for her walking partner, Dina.

Mark took a different job within Tektronix, now working in the customer service unit on business and technical processes. It is a big change from manufacturing and he is learning a lot. He has done a couple of projects on his Mustang, but progress has been slow since summer. His knees are still holding up, so he runs a couple times a week.

We didn’t do a lot of traveling this year, as the kid activities keep us occupied, but did make it over to Idaho a couple of times. We also spent several weekends at our river place. The highlights of our year are always visits with friends and family that we don’t see often enough.

We hope you are all doing well. Love,

Mark, Shelley, Kaylee, Kyle & Eric