In the first act of 2011, we went to New Orleans to attend the Joint Mathematics Meetings, where we got to see several friends. Now, you might be thinking "where's the snow and ice in New Orleans?" You are correct, there was none there...however, the snow and ice in Atlanta prevented us from leaving New Orleans on time, so Rebekah missed the first day of classes of Spring 2011.
For the rest of this act, Ryan had a birthday (with a snowman on one of his presents), we had giant icicles on our house (and a lot of snow), and we visited Rachel, Doug, and Lydia in Rochester several times, despite the snow and ice.
Act 2: Flowers
The snow and ice finally went away. Rebekah's parents came to visit for Easter and we met Rachel, Doug, and Lydia at Letchworth State Park for our annual Easter picnic. Flowers bloomed in our yard and we attempted to plant a garden. Well, we planted the garden, but we had to move several of the plants to different locations weeks later due to lack of growth. They did get flowers on them, however! We also stalked the baby bunny that was living in our yard occasionally--can you find the bunny below?
Act 3: California, Climbing, and Child at the Zoo
After the semester ended, we went to California to spend time with Ryan's parents before attending the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences conference. We climbed in a river gorge, Ryan finished working at Autometrix, and Rebekah wrote her talk for the conference. Then we picked our friend Cornelia up in San Francisco and drove down to Westmont College for the conference. When we got home, Lydia (and Rachel) took us to the zoo in Rochester. And here we confess: these pictures are not entirely logically placed--the bottom two climbing ones are from our next trip to California, which technically occurred in Act 4. We'll ignore that, however, and note that Ryan is climbing in one climbing shoe and one sandal since he injured his toe...at a pizza place.
Act 4: Family and Friends
We drove with Rachel, Doug, and Lydia to the Hofstra family reunion in June, where there was much frolicking. Rebekah finally painted the chairs she got last summer for the deck. We went back to California for our friends Michael and Stephanie's wedding and for Rebekah to go to a research workshop at the American Institute of Mathematics. While Rebekah was at AIM, Ryan and his mom built a new side table for his parents' house. When we got back to NY, Rebekah's family came to celebrate her birthday, and we went on a walk through the Houghton woods and picked berries.
Act 5: A New Semester and News
At the end of August, Rebekah started her third year teaching at Houghton and Ryan started started a PhD program in computer science at the University of Rochester, which includes a lot of driving. It was an incredibly busy semester, full of much complexity, and we're glad it's over. However, it was also an exciting semester as we learned a few weeks before it started that we're having a baby in April. We're incredibly excited, and to demonstrate that excitement, we have just one picture for this act (ok, so Rebekah doesn't have any other pictures after August on her computer, but we really are excited!). We also were thrilled to welcome our nephew, Micah Philip Graham, toward the end of September (for which we should really have a picture, but, again, pictures post-August do not exist on Rebekah's computer at the moment), and we have been enjoying watching him grow and watching his sister Lydia learn that he's more interesting than a doll, at least sometimes. Finally, we had fun learning a bit about Alaska from Rebekah's parents during--and after--the several weeks they spent in a small fishing town as part of Rebekah's mom's sabbatical.
As we celebrate the birth of our Savior this Christmas season, we pray for His guidance as we anticipate the changes coming in the next year. We are thankful for you all and would love to hear from you!
