The 12 Months of 2013

In the first month of 2013, we skied a lot, flew to San Diego for the Joint Math Meetings (during which Judah got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Yates and go to the San Diego Zoo and the aquarium), and Ryan had a birthday. 

 In the second month of 2013, we had school and that's about it. Thus, not that many pictures.

 In the third month of 2013, Judah got a new car seat. He thought the best part was the box. We also celebrated Easter with Aunt Rachel, Uncle Doug, Lydia, and Micah. Ryan was informed by his graduate program that he had earned a Master's degree.

 In the fourth month of 2013, Judah turned 1. Lots of people came to celebrate with him at various times and for various lengths of time. He also got a car. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson for getting that out of the way for us early in his life.

 In the fifth month of 2013, Judah got to ride in his bike trailer (the first purchase we made when we found out that we were having a baby) for the first time. He also fell in love with laundry baskets. And we flew to Minneapolis (Judah's first non-cross-country flight) for the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences biennial meeting. And apparently I loved the car picture so much you get to see it twice.

 In the sixth month of 2013, we had a two-day cycling expedition with the Hofstras (Rebekah's mom's family) in Rochester and then flew to California. Judah got to visit Christian Encounter Ranch (where Ryan spent several years of his early life) for the first time.

 In the 7th month of 2013, we put Judah to work sweeping the deck at home. We also visited Letchworth State Park, went out for our 9-year anniversary (thanks to Rachel and Doug for babysitting), and had our basement gutted to take care of mold. We also had our deck refinished and our house painted, but we have no pictures of the finished product of the house painting, apparently.

 In the eighth month of 2013, we spent some time and home and also went to Ocean Grove, NJ, with some of Rebekah's family, where Rebekah's mom went on a helicopter ride (accompanied by some other family members, though not the ones pictured here in the helicopter) in celebration of her 60th birthday. Judah gave up his morning nap in favor of sand and sea on that trip.

 In the ninth month of 2013, school started. We went to Rochester to celebrate our nephew Micah's 2nd birthday. Ryan went to a conference for a full week and Grandma and Grandpa Yates came to help keep Judah and Rebekah sane and fed.

 In the tenth month of 2013, we flew to Illinois (Judah's first-ever direct flight) to attend our 10-year college reunion. We stayed with Rebekah's cousin Jason, who was working a lot that week so we barely got to see him, but we did get to have fun with his wife Bonnie and son Grady! We also went to Letchworth with Rachel, Doug, Lydia, and Micah, and Rebekah's mom and dad, where we failed to get a good picture of the three grandkids all together. Judah was a lion for Halloween.

 In the eleventh month of 2013, Judah became very safety conscious. He also had his first burrito (after which we returned to quesadillas for him), and we went to Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house for Thanksgiving, where we got semi-successful pictures of the 3 grandkids who are 3, 2, and 1 years old currently.

 In the twelth month of 2013, we started telling the world that Judah will be a big brother at the end of May 2014. We also made some Christmas cookies, celebrated with Rebekah's family a few days early, and flew to California to celebrate with Ryan's family. Judah got up at 5:15 on Christmas morning, but only because he was still on NY time and it was our first morning in CA. His favorite part of Christmas celebrations is handing out the presents to other people.

As we look back on this year, we are thankful for all our friends and family and for God's provision in our lives. As we celebrate the twelve days of Christmas, we continue to be in awe that our God became incarnate as a baby, lived and died among us, that we may know Him. As we look forward to a new year, full of new experiences and challenges, we pray that each of you will be blessed by His presence and love for you. As always, we would love to hear from you!

2012: a year, a baby, a blog.

As most of you already know this last year has been largely shaped by the birth of our son Judah. This post could go on and on with thousands of cute baby pictures, but I'm sure only the hardiest of readers would make it past the first five hundred. So I'm left with the very difficult task of filtering the year down to the size of a single post (for those inclined to take the plunge in to the land of overwhelming cuteness you can friend one of us on Facebook). The year started with signs of spring.

At least, we don't remember much before Judah being born, it was probably a semester like others, but it ended early. These signs of spring meant much more for us this year.

Somehow we finished the semester, though with a little bit of juggling.

Then we promptly left our home and went to Oregon so that I (Ryan) could be an intern at Intel (giant company that does many amazing things). We had several visits from friends and family.

Saw many sights and enjoyed Portland (including lots of good food). Met up with old friends (how can we have no pictures of this?).

Judah saw his first volcano.

Rebekah and Judah went back to New York to see his cousins.

At the end of the summer we had a wonderful time picking blackberries and visiting with the Farringtons.

We also took lots of pictures of Judah. This one may be my most favorite ever.

Just in case you thought we didn't do anything without Judah, we went to a soccer game.

The fall semester settled in and we got really busy, but we were continually reminded of our new pace of life as it seemed like Judah hits some new milestone every week. New teeth, sleeping though the night (sometimes), standing while holding on to chair, eating solid food, playing in the snow, babbling, and toying with words to name a few.

It has been wonderful fun to grow as a family. Merry Christmas (late), Happy New Year (a little late), and Splendid Epiphany (slightly early?). As we have celebrated the birth of our son this year, we have been even more in awe that our Lord came to earth as a baby, and we pray that you are blessed by His incarnation this season and throughout the year.

Yet more Micah

This one shows that Micah has grown up some already!

A few additional 2011 pictures.

Rebekah with Micah.

 

Ryan with Micah.

 

Mobius hiding.

 

Grandma Yates sporting new earrings.

 

2011 in Five Acts

Act 1: Snow and Ice
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!

Seasons of 2010

Winter 2010 was something of a blur. We started the year in Beaver Falls celebrating with the Johnson family and then plunged into the spring semester full-force. Rebekah taught a Real Analysis course (her favorite) for the first time, Ryan played indoor ultimate (frisbee) semi-regularly and joined the Houghton Roaring Sheep for a nearby tournament in February, and Möbius discovered the heating vent in the kitchen.

The real highlight of Spring 2010 was, of course, that our niece Lydia was born to Rachel and Doug on Easter. We were happy that Houghton had no classes the week after Easter, so we were able to be with Rachel, Doug, and Lydia in Rochester, pretending to help while getting to know our new niece a bit.


Summer 2010 was pretty busy. We were excited to be able to attend Rebekah's cousin Jason's wedding to Bonnie in Chicago in May and spend time with family there. After the wedding, we visited Wheaton for several hours, getting to see the women of the Herr family and many of our math and computer science professors as well as the new Science Building. Then we drove to Edwardsville, IL, for Rebekah to attend the Sixth Conference on Function Spaces, where we saw many friends from graduate school and enjoyed the paved cycling trails in the area. A few weeks later, we headed up to Potsdam, NY, for Rebekah to give a colloquium talk at SUNY Potsdam and then drove to Burlington, VT, to spend the weekend with Rebekah's cousins Laura and Ryan. On the way home, we rode the ferry across Lake Champlain and drove through Lake Placid.

In July we headed out to Missoula to spend time with good friends and get our Glacier National Park fix (we miss living three hours away!). We saw our first wolverine and a whole family of black bears.


We continued on to Grass Valley, CA, to spend the week with Ryan's family and attend both our nephew Chris' adoption ceremony and the Christian Encounter Ranch 40th Reunion. From there, we flew down to San Diego, where we got to go to the San Diego Zoo, see more family, and attend Ryan's cousin Shaina's wedding to Chris (not our nephew).

August was spent getting ready for the fall semester and Rebekah went to MathFest in Pittsburgh to begin her year as a Project NExT fellow.

Ryan played a lot of ultimate in Fall 2010, including three tournaments with the Roaring Sheep, Rebekah rode her bicycle regularly and worked constantly, and Möbius learned that bicycles are fun climbing gyms. We enjoyed the wall-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the renovation of the Science Building at Houghton (Rebekah's new office is really happening--and her temporary office is twice as big as her original one!). There were a lot of trips to Rochester to "go to the grocery store" (read: see Lydia, though we did also go to the grocery store), and on one of those trips we got to be part of Lydia's dedication to the Lord. Rebekah went to Potsdam again, this time with several students to attend a conference on undergraduate research in mathematics. We went to Rebekah's parents house in Beaver Falls, PA, for Thanksgiving.


We began Winter 2010-2011 with a pre-Christmas trip to Grass Valley, where we enjoyed anticipating Christ's birth with Mom and Dad Yates, Grandma Yates, nephew Chris, and other California friends. We flew to Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve, landing early Christmas morning, and had a great time celebrating the birthday of our Savior with some of Rebekah's extended family in Beaver Falls. As we continue in the Christmas season, we pray that we will all be amazed by the mystery that we are celebrating: ‎"when we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating that amazing time when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being limited all power and for love of us came into us in powerless body of a human baby" (Madeline L'Engle) and that we will know His love more fully in the year to come.



(Yes, we forgot to take a camera, and yes, we had a Christmas bush this year instead of a Christmas tree. Don't judge us.)

A Tale of Two States

It was the year of firsts, it was the year of lasts, it was the age of decision-making, it was the age of indecision, it was the epoch of arriving, it was the epoch of leaving, it was the season of sunshine, it was the season of overcast skies, it was the Spring of ending, it was the Fall of beginning, we had everything before us, we had everything behind us, we were all going direct to New York, we were all going direct from Montana--in short, the period was so full of change that a report on it must be received in the superlative degree of extremes only.

There was a green house with a front porch on the valley floor in Montana; there was a blue house with a back deck on the Allegany Plateau in New York. In both states it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the Yates household that things in general were about to change forever.

It was the year of our Lord two thousand and nine. Here we abandon Dickens since we are not detailing the bloody battle of two nations but merely the great changes in the Yates household over the past year (and because literary juices have been exhausted).

Lasts:
Last job interview for Rebekah (the interviews started in November 2008)
Last Easter picnic in Missoula
Last semester as a TA for Rebekah
Last semester as a student for Rebekah
Last six months in our first house
Last ride up Going to the Sun Road as Montana residents
Last degree completed for Rebekah
Last bike commute to school

Firsts:
First climb up to the M with the Johnson family plus the Yates parents
First time selling a house
First moving trip across the country
First time buying a house before seeing it
First semester as a full-time professor for Rebekah
First time living in a ski-in, ski-out house
First time living less than four hours from her sister for Rebekah since 1996
First walking commute to school
First anniversary divisible by five
First cross-country moving trip for Möbius (the cat)

In this year of many lasts and many firsts, we are grateful for the love and help of friends and family and the constancy of our God. While this is clearly not our first time celebrating the miracle of the Incarnation, we pray that we and you will again be awed by the wonder of God become human, dwelling among us, that we may see His Glory.

Merry Christmas!

Note: This post is still subject to editing and picture additions, but we're publishing it now so we can still call it a Christmas blog.