What a year! In January we went on our first-ever cruise, a Dice Tower cruise with Royal Carribean. While Grandma and Grandpa Koser watched the girls for a week, we trav­eled to Haiti and Jamaica and back to the States, play­ing board games, hik­ing across the ship, watch­ing dol­phins, hik­ing some more, eat­ing great food, and hik­ing till we wore out! In Haiti, we went snor­kel­ing (Melissa’s first time!), and to this day it re­mains one of her most trea­sured mem­o­ries. Another fun ac­tiv­ity was a mur­der mys­tery din­ner. One morn­ing we de­cided to watch the sun rise over the ocean, but al­most missed it due to los­ing each other on the enor­mous deck of the ship. We cer­tainly got our ex­er­cise that morn­ing! In Jamaica, we got to eat au­then­tic Jerk Chicken, and it truly can’t be repli­cated out of the coun­try. On the last day or two, we took a danc­ing class where we learned the cha-cha. While we can’t claim to be grace­ful, at least we kept up with the rhythm.

The board game Lords of Hellas
The bigatures” for the board game Lords of Hellas!

In April, we took a road trip through South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The first stop was to see Matt Koser grad­u­ate from col­lege! We con­sid­ered mov­ing in 2020, so we took the long way home to check out the area. We used AirBNB for the first time; some of them were truly de­light­ful. Our fa­vorite had a ham­mock, rope swing, see­saw, zi­pline, and some an­i­mals for the girls to play with. There was a burger restau­rant named Al’s that had per­haps the best burg­ers we’ve ever eaten, all of it from lo­cally-sourced farms.

Lydia and Amber in a hammock
Relaxing

During our trav­els, Brian still had to work, so Melissa spent the days vis­it­ing lo­cal at­trac­tions with the girls. One of their fa­vorites was a Discovery Museum in North Carolina, filled with dif­fer­ent play sta­tions such as doc­tor­ing stuffed an­i­mals, run­ning a farm, sail­ing a pi­rate ship, and much more.

Melissa, Lydia, and Amber eating breakfast
Dessert for break­fast

At the end of May, we flew out to Colorado to visit Melissa’s sis­ter Melody, and her hus­band Nate. We had a great time play­ing board games and re­con­nect­ing. One day we drove to a fair in Boulder, where we ate greasy food and bought great stuff we did­n’t need. Another day we drove from Denver to Fort Collins and back, check­ing out the towns in-be­tween.

Melody and Nate
Melody and Nate

One last high­light of our trip was at­tend­ing a Rockies base­ball game. We rode the mono­rail to and from the game, and even though the Rockies lost, we still had fun.

Lydia smiling in the bleachers of the Colorado Rockies game
Lydia at the Rockies game

In August, our pre­cious Penelope June was born, on the day af­ter Melissa’s birth­day! She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and seems to re­sem­ble Brian the most. She is very mel­low and happy—she loves watch­ing peo­ple and play­ing with her fam­ily. She al­most never fusses: her goal seems to be to make life as sim­ple as pos­si­ble for mommy and daddy.

Penny at the hospital
Penelope June Koser

Inspired by a trip to a Little Mermaid bal­let in May, Melissa signed Lydia up for bal­let classes, which she be­gan in September. She is more ag­ile and bal­anced, and is ex­cited for her recital in May. Amber of course can’t wait to par­tic­i­pate in classes next year!

Lydia also started learn­ing how to read, and by December was read­ing short sen­tences and writ­ing many let­ters.

Amber’s achieve­ments in the fall were potty train­ing and us­ing full sen­tences! Her dic­tion is good for her age, and she’s de­vel­op­ing so rapidly.

Melissa ac­com­plished sev­eral goals for the year! She and her friend Tristan Wedge re­painted Lydia’s old crib into a beau­ti­ful tod­dler bed for Amber the month be­fore Penny was born.

The crib Melissa painted
Fun crib!

During November and December, she con­verted an old chair into a toy kitchen for the girls, which we pre­sented at Christmas. By the end of the year, she fin­ished read­ing a 900-page book on the sci­ence of cook­ing, called The Food Lab. She will be teach­ing a home­school co-op class based on much of it in the spring of 2020.

Speaking of pro­jects, Brian has worked hard to up­date our pod­cast Ten To One, and his brother Matt de­signed the bold and fresh look it cur­rently sports.

The redesigned Ten to One website
The Ten to One re­design, the first Brian and Matt Koser web­site col­lab­o­ra­tion

Brian has be­come an in­te­gral and re­spected mem­ber of his com­pany. In 2019, he co­or­di­nated get­ting his com­pany into a re­cruit­ment even at our alma mater, and it’s now a part of their an­nual re­cruit­ment sched­ule. He also won the of­fice Halloween Costume Contest by dress­ing up as his co-worker, Peter!

Brian dressed as his co-worker Peter for the office Halloween contest
Peter and Peter!

We’ve en­joyed some pre­cious par­ent-daugh­ter dates this year. In March, Melissa took Lydia to a Fancy Nancy party at our lo­cal li­brary. They danced, dec­o­rated a cookie, made jew­elry, and had fun be­ing girly. In May, there was the Little Mermaid bal­let. In July, we at­tended one of the last games of our for­mer lo­cal Minor League Baseball team, the Mobile Bay Bears. In October, Brian took the girls to dance with and meet Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and other princesses at the civic cen­ter down­town; they still talk about it, and ask when they can do that again.

Lydia and Amber with Rapunzel
Princess party!

A few weeks later, Brian went on a date with Lydia to see Spirited Away in the­ater, a movie which they both love. And just a cou­ple weeks af­ter that, Melissa and Amber at­tended a Sesame Street Live per­for­mance, again at the civic cen­ter.

Tim Binzel joined us for Christmas again this year, and two days af­ter we wrapped up the year by vis­it­ing Brian’s par­ents in Louisiana. One high­light was that the girls got to meet their Great-Grandma Sabol! She and Mom Koser took them to see Frozen II in the­aters on the last day of the year, and it’s be­come one of their fa­vorite mem­o­ries.

It’s been a full and ex­cit­ing year, but we know that it just gets bet­ter with each new day. God has blessed us so much, and we are thank­ful to have each other. We’ll see you next decade!