Happy 2026

It's a new year and the Marshes have jumped right in.  It was a nice holiday, with the boys at home intermittently. We did a lovely day with Mema and Grandpa and Aunt Linda on Christmas Eve, then an extended Marsh gathering Christmas evening.

Grandma had received a journal from Kyleigh asking her to tell her life's story, and she enjoyed it so much that she returned it to Kyleigh as a Christmas gift and made copies for all the grandchildren. They in turn wrote notes thanking her for so many amazing Road Scholar trips (more than twenty of them!)

Christmas morning was our traditional foursome with stockings in the living room and gifts in the family room. Thanks, Santa!  And Mom...mostly Mom...

Still having a hard time to get real pics of the boys, but here is proof that we actually did enjoy a day around the tree with lots of lovely gifts.

Caron got invited to a fancy fundraiser that Dad helped with. It is a bit of a transition to be sharing adult beverages with both boys, now that we have a 21 and 22 year old, but it is also rather nice. 

This year, Mom and Dad got to party it up for NYE! What a wonderful evening with neighbors at Lynne Green's newly redesigned house. Here's a bit of blog-irony: Lynne is the person who founded the organization that hosted the fundraiser from the above pic of Carson and Dad...

A quick Marco Island photo taken by Grandma. Dad had some time in between semesters to visit, and got to play Taps at sunset a couple nights. Grandma caught this nice pic. Happy new year, everyone!

The amazing trip to Tanganyika

 

We had a wonderful adventure this month, but it was just Rochelle and Curtis, so let's begin the entry with a picture of Carson finishing the first 5k he has run since high school. Seems to still have it, since he finished eighth out of 460 runners! Fourth in his age group, right behind his friend Elijah who is in the picture with him.

Ok, here are four of the seventeen thousand pictures we took of our trip to Tanganyika Wildlife park. We got to interact with lemurs, otters, kangaroos and sloths, just to hit the highlights! Beautiful animals in an environment set for their true comfort.

When we say "interact," we really mean it. Here is Rochelle hanging out with Chewy (short for Chewbacca). He was so cute. Not pictured are the little armadillos running around the enclosure nipping gently at our shoes.

Did we mention that the otters were babies?  This was the most amazing part of an amazing trip. This was a limited-time, extra special interaction with three babies who were so playful and snuggly! We thought we had died and gone to heaven.

Maybe we will try to upload a video of this encounter to the blog in the next entry. There is no other way to give real evidence of how lovely this was. The whole experience was a joy, and we highly recommend it to any animal lovers.

Conner turns 22

 

Conner is 22! And he celebrated by making US a fancy dinner.  In last month's blog, we presented a pic of a headless Conner with seven lobsters crawling on him. This month, we present Conner and his head preparing those lobsters for an amazing lobster tail feast. They looked even better after he cooked them on the grill, but this is the best pic of both him and the feast.

On October 18th, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of buying our house. Small celebration, but since Curtis is rather addicted to collecting memories, we filled the dining room table with artifacts from the purchase. The blueprints were found in the basement from when the previous owners considered an addition to the house not completely unlike the one we did almost 15 years ago. 

Also in the last entry, we announced Carson's acceptance into the Leadership Lawrence program. There have been three sessions, and he is really enjoying it. He got invited to a fancy charity fundraiser that his Dad helped with, so they got this fun party pic.

The fall colors are amazing. We have many Ginko trees in our neighborhood, all of which are turning a bright yellow. They all choose the same day to loose every one of their yellow leaves. It is a sight! Watch for next month's entry with pics of a special outing we took without the boys. (first time for such an outing since the boys came home?)

Two 21 year olds!

Amazing to report that we officially have two 21 year old young adults!  Facebook put this fun montage together for us to celebrate.

This 21 year old still loathes getting his picture taken, but was willing to pose headless with seven--count them--seven lobsters he caught off the coast of California! His lifelong buddy Preston took him lobster fishing and clearly they were successful.

We mentioned last month that Carson was accepted into the Leadership Lawrence program as the first ever college student to apply and be accepted! Since 1996, his dad has claimed to be the youngest to ever go through the program, and Carson broke that record by five years! They are pictured with Sue Hack, the program's director.

And here are two CNMs enjoying Bloody Marys at Miltons on Mass St. This was Carson's first adult beverage as a 21 year old. 

Dad did a thing at the new KU football stadium. It was rededicated as a WWI memorial, and we brought some military VIPs to a ceremony. If you click on the pic and zoom in, you can see that Dad is playing emcee.

G-bye to summer

We continue our new tradition of posting every other month. The photo opps are limited, folks. It seems totally random to start this entry with a clearly old and not clearly clear photo. This is from 2013, when the boys helped set up for a Leadership Lawrence event that Dad was helping with. Yesterday, Carson was accepted into the Leadership Lawrence program! 

There were a few pics last year of a group that Carson befriended from Costa Rica. They asked him to visit them in their home country and he did so last month. Here they are checking out an active volcano!

One lonely pic of Harvey's Lake 2025. The boys did not join Dad this year, but he enjoyed presenting this plaque to the Cuzbros who unofficially owned a Guinness World Record for pillow spinning. 

Mom and Dad got to go to the very first game in the fancy new KU football stadium. Our neighbor is the team's physician and he let us sit in his seats in the front row!!

Both boys have successfully begun their school years at KU. Conner is a senior in environmental science and Carson is a junior in finance. Dad is teaching on campus full time and Mom is running the awesome Phoenix Gallery. Hope to offer some fun new pics soon! 

Summertime

A disappointing first for the Marsh blog--we skipped two months. The boys are home for the summer, but there are fewer and fewer photo opps. Plus, most of the family is not fond of getting their picture taken anyway, so we'll make up for it with words.  Less fun, right?

Carson still helps run a small gym in town, and is still encouraging his parents to work out with him once or twice a week. Here he is helping our friend Darby pump some iron. Mom still sees Darby once a week as she has since he was very young. Darby is in high school now!

Ok, in everyone's defense, Dad was the only one who knew this picture was being taken. He wanted to document the fact that we all went to lunch for Father's Day. Dad was lucky enough to get a cool grill for Father's Day which is why you get the next picture:

The family decided the grill needed to go in the side yard, and Carson decided there needed to be a new small patio for it. Boom!  New patio. Complete with pavers and a pebbled area for the rain barrel. Quite the project. The family made Dad very happy.

Flowers for Mom!  We had an extended peony season and a really lovely spring. The house was bursting with peonies in April and we enjoyed them. The boys are both keeping themselves busy. Here's hoping we don't skip another two months, but no guarantees. Happy Summertime!

Marching On

 

Time marches on, and it seems in 2025 it does so without many photo opps of the boys. In less than six months, we will have two 21-year-olds.  Woah! Here is Carson enjoying some time with Walter, the Bassett puppy. Walter stayed with us for a week and we thoroughly enjoyed his company.

We thought we better get this pic in before we say a final goodbye to the cold weather. Conner and his long time friend and fishing buddy Preston braved the elements and went ice fishing last month. You can see they were successful, and his parents are so pleased neither boy fell through the ice.

The CNMs are finishing up their sophomore/junior years at KU. The summer plans are not completely firm, so perhaps we can update on that in the next entry. We may even have some more pics of them by then.

Here is a highly random pic to close out the March '25 entry. Dad is rather proud that he now appears on a local mural. That is supposed to be him on the far right. His buddy Dave Johanning in the middle and the infamous Cpt Jayhawk, Joe Zielinski on the upper left. The mural can be found just inside the entrance to Lawrence's escape to Key West, the Sandbar.