Our 2024 was full of adventures and travel

Merry Christmas and happy new year! Our annual holiday check-in has us reflecting on a year of adventures and travels! We were all over the place!

Caroline enjoys her job at Michigan State University, where she serves as community director in Case Hall. She oversees a staff of four, plus dozens of resident assistants and several thousand students.

She is active with a regional residential life organization, the Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers. She is the organization’s Campus Safety and Crisis Management Committee chairperson and earned a Top 10 Presentation award for her session, “Performance Management as a People Pleaser” at the organization’s annual conference. She also had an article published in Trends, the organization’s magazine.

Caroline and co-workers attended the GLACUHO conference, and she earned an award for her presentation.

Living on a vibrant Big 10 campus is exciting, and we are thrilled Caroline has access to neat museums, sporting events, and other activities.

With Michigan being a swing state and -- Caroline being politically active -- she was able to attend on-campus rallies featuring Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

We focused on having nice experiences this year. Caroline got to meet members of her favorite band, AJR, at a VIP meet-and-greet session prior to the concert in April.

Her friend Matt ran for Clinton County commissioner and Caroline helped with his campaign and creating many of his materials.

She was able to enjoy some non-conference travels, heading to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky with friends. Then she and Dave embarked on a bold trip to Arizona! First, they stayed in Phoenix, visiting the State Capitol and enjoying an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game.

From there they headed north to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, staying in the park.

We pack a lot into our visits, so we headed down a little bit from the Bright Angel Trailhead, took a sunset tour, participated in a night sky activity with rangers, got up before dawn to see a canyon sunrise, then joined park rangers on a fossil hunt.

Then we spent a little time in Flagstaff and Sedona, taking in the magnificent red rocks and staying clear of the vortexes.

A vibrant campus isn't necessarily a warm campus! But Caroline enjoys attending Michigan State University sporting events and taking pottery classes in East Lansing. She's really good at making all kinds of things!

The Grand Canyon was spectacular as advertised, and it was a place Dave always wanted to see.

Andrew and Aubrey headed to the other side of a planet for a trip to Japan! Aubrey is an expert planner and organized a trip that started in Tokyo then headed out to distant places. They toured temples and parks, met the bowing deer, rode bullet trains, ate very fancy local foods, visited museums and looked for Pokemen.

Andrew, when stateside, is in his second year at Northwest Michigan Supportive Housing, where he uses his social work skills to help people facing challenges find places to stay warm, dry, and cared for. Aubrey is a speech pathologist who works with a network of charter schools.

They enjoy their home in Traverse City, which is a beautiful community in Northern Michigan.

Julie had a fun transition, retiring from Grand Rapids Community College after 12 years working with the College Advancement team. 

Her big project each year has been the GRCC Foundation's annual report, which has earned top honors at the state and national levels from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations. She went out on top, with her last version earning a gold medal at the regional level; it's a finalist for a national award to be handed out in February. 

When not claiming carboard boxes, Cookie likes to hide among the Christmas llamas under the tree. 

She stays busy at home with her knitting group and remaining the center of the universe for Cookie, our 2-year-old cat. Cookie is Julie’s constant companion and collects cardboard boxes and cat toys.

Julie loves mystery stories. We were excited to see the Civic Theater's production of "Murder on the Orient Express." We were curious how a story that takes place on a train could work in the theater.

Julie planned a wonderful Northern Michigan excursion to Lake Walloon for a much-needed holiday getaway. We stayed at the historic Hotel Walloon, spoiled by the doting staff and festive holiday decorations.

We also visited Boyne Mountain, where you take the world's first chairlift to the top of the mountain to walk across the state’s largest pedestrian suspension bridge, which was decorated in colorful lights for the holidays.

We were excited to spend Mother's Day with Mom and Dad in Florida!

Dave’s job as associate vice president for Marketing and Communications at Ferris State University kept him on the road.

He attended a conference on Boston, working in a tour of Fenway Park. Then, Ferris State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams both made the Elite Eight round of the NCAA DII National Tournament.

That required Dave and co-worker Cassidy to drive to St. Joseph, Mo., for the first game of the women’s tournament, which the team won to advance to the Final Four. They hopped back into the CRV after the game to drive to Evansville, Ind., for the men’s game.

Luckily, they broke up the drive with an overnight stay in Columbia. Poor Cassidy was subjected to the Dave Memory Tour, seeing the University of Missouri School of Journalism and eating pizza at Shakespeare’s, the dining spot of choice for J-School students.

But it was on to Evansville the next morning, getting there in time to see the men’s team play – it lost, unfortunately – then drive all the way back to St. Joseph to watch the women’s team play again.

December found the football team headed to the NCAA DII National Tournament in a Dallas suburb – and won! That was exciting!

Our friend Steve Jessmore took Dave's new Ferris State headshot. Much of the Marketing and Communications team took in a game with the West Michigan Whitecaps baseball team - with a visit from Crash the River Rascal.

When not following the teams, Dave spends his time at the university telling the stories of the students and programs. It’s been a busy year as Ferris State is growing, breaking ground of some major buildings and helping students of all ages all across the state.

Our Thanksgiving traditions! Uncle Jeff, Zack and Dave run in the Grand Rapids Turkey Trot before we get coffee at Madcap, Zack's favorite GR cafe. Then we gather for dinner.

We hope you are happy and healthy wherever you are this holiday season. We appreciate our times together and what we get to do. We take stock of our blessings – and if you are reading this, you are among those who are very special to us. 

We love hearing from friends and family! Everyone is on Facebook, and you can connect at dmurray08@comcast.net.