A two year catch up…

There’s been a lot of good stuff for the family in the last two years (never mind COVID) since I last posted!

Joey graduated 8th grade, he started HIgh School, and became a long distance runner!

Elizabeth was awarded National Honors Society, graduated from High School, was accepted into the College of St. Benedict, accepted, competed in a few dance competitions, and performed in her last recital at Shana’s Dance.

Carolyn worked at St. John’s to help out with COVID protocols, planned an awesome grad party, and kept us all going! AND Carolyn and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary πŸ™‚

Last year I made the very very difficult decision to leave Delta Air Lines after over twenty years in total, I joined Prime Therapeutics for a year, and this summer I moved to Twitter! I have a copy of my Facebook post at the bottom of this posting.

Obviously we were not able to travel much but, we did make it down to Florida twice, Grand Marais, and Wisconsin Dells.

Joey’s 8th Grade Graduation

IMG_2548
IMG_2587

Elizabeth’s HIgh School Graduation

6K6A4066
6K6A4201

Joey was voted “most improved runner” in Cross Country as he improved his 5k quite a lot and did well in long distance in Track and Field this spring.

IMG_2443

Elizabeth and team did an awesome job at the recital this year!!

IMG_3115

We were reunited with the Lenzen clan for a trip this summer to Grand Marias πŸ™‚

IMG - 130

We stayed in Destin around the holidays and St. Pete Beach in March (thanks Stan and Chiara!)

IMG_1094

My badges from NWA and Delta

Standing outside of my office before turning in my badge

Here is a copy of my Facebook post from last year…

After spending over 20 years of my life with Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines, I elected to take a voluntary package along with 500+ Delta IT employees and over 17,000 Delta employees to sustain this great company.

I started the year looking at a way to be home with my family as the kids are about to leave us for college and beyond. I needed to re-calibrate on my priorities after only making a couple of Joey’s basketball games over the winter and Elizabeth coming up on her Senior year of high school. I loved my job and the travel demands were becoming even greater which was a great struggle. I saw a posting at Prime Therapeutics and applied.

My family is identified with Delta and we are a Delta family. Carolyn told me as we discussed our options, β€œI am so proud to tell people that my husband works for Delta”. After many tearful conversations and as talks with Prime progressed, we decided it was time for a change.

We are very blessed that I was able to take advantage of a voluntary leave program and I joined Prime in a new and exciting role. I have been at Prime for five weeks now and turned in my badge tonight at Building J in Eagan.

I worked with so many great leaders and people at Delta who have helped me grow as a person and as a leader. I have a huge debt to the many people that I worked with and am very grateful for the successes that we had together.

In my last days at Delta, there were surprises from my team and I cried for about two days straight saying goodbye and sharing of stories with my friends. I have a lifetime of memories and lifelong friends from Delta. I love my Delta family and am grateful for the 20+ years I had with this great company.

As I to transition to Prime Therapeutics, I am seeing the same people first culture that I am familiar with from Delta and I feel right at home. Like 500+ of my friends, I am onto my next chapter in life.

See you on the standby list, we are a Delta family for life!

Burnsville won the 7th Grade Football Championship!

The year was up and down as mentioned here and the boys pulled it together for the playoffs and RAN THE TABLE!! It was very exciting to see them recover from being down early in a few games and in the semi finals they were doing so well the other team forfeited the second half of the game.Β 

Congrats to the boys for a great year!!

View the full album here for the Championship game

IMG_4153

Joey watching over the field

IMG_3094

Berra ran over, through, and past people all day!

IMG_3705

The defense really was locking down the line

IMG_3559

Jeremy got loose!

IMG_3284

Howard breaking free…

IMG_3465

Vargas got in for one!

IMG_3651

A little celebration chant πŸ™‚

VID_20181013_122506~2

Victory lunch w/Grandma and Grandpa

IMG_20181013_125958

7th Grade Blaze Football Regular Season Summary

Our team had some ups and downs this year, when they were focused they were unstoppable and unfortunately injuries stacked up against us in the second half of the year. The team finished strong in the regular season against Farmington.

Joey had a better year this year and we’d like to see him continue to get more aggressive πŸ™‚ He had chances at a few interceptions this year, a couple through his hands (like the one pictured below and one off of his chest into the hands of a teammate) and we keep encouraging him to get to the ball.

We shall see what the playoffs bring…

View the collection of game photographs here

IMG_0622

The US Bank Stadium game was a highlight of an experience for the boys where they lost to Eagan (explaining the sour faces below).

IMG_9227

I look forward to watching the boys grow more next year!! Here are some of my favorite moments of the team this year…

IMG_0461 IMG_0690 IMG_0869 IMG_9041-2 IMG_9079-2 IMG_9160-2 IMG_7978-2 IMG_7990 IMG_8195-2 IMG_8216-2 IMG_8285-2 IMG_8328-2 IMG_8391

7th Grade Blaze Football vs Eastview at US Bank Stadium

The boys had a wonderful experience at US Bank Stadium playing against Eastview last night. While they did not win (you can see it in their faces in the team picture below), they really enjoyed playing on the same surface as the Vikes!

View the full album here

IMG_9226-2

Joey set for the play (#50)
IMG_9045-2

Big Joe’s first time in the stadium and on the field πŸ™‚
IMG_8525-2

Interception!
IMG_9147-2

An intimidating force
IMG_8764-2

Breaking free
IMG_8684-2

Nathan on the run
IMG_9189-2

Blaze 7th Grade Football

I shot my first game of the year this year vs Lakeville South. The team fought very hard and ended up losing a very exciting game. We are all very proud of them for their effort.

Click here to view the full album

Walking in with locked arms

IMG_5706-2

Joey pushing through
IMG_8285-2

Big time interception
IMG_8328-2

Breaking free for a 60 yard TD
IMG_8361-2

The defense locked them down after the first quarter
IMG_8060-2

Big catch
IMG_8088-2

Big run to setup a TD
IMG_8195-2

Big catch with a heck of a reach
IMG_7741-2

Great catch
IMG_8217-2

Labor Day weekend – 2018

We had a nice family weekend at the cabin. Stan and Nix were there with as well πŸ™‚ We had the annual lake progressive party which had lots of fund games for kids and adults.

Click here to view the full album

Buds
IMG_7347

IMG_7356

IMG_7354

IMG_6903

Surprise visit by Rick and Lisa
IMG_6908

Fishing and relax time – Joey beat Grandma in the final count of fish caught πŸ™‚
IMG_6771

IMG_6828

IMG_6775

IMG_6905

The dogs had a blast!
IMG_6819

Water balloon fun and other games
IMG_7242

IMG_7169

IMG_7015