2020 - the first one I did was in response to the depressing Covid year and while many things aged poorly (the sports section is brutal in retrospect) it is still has a few gems..
2021 - looking back and this was a really good year
2022 - great year for trips and additions (Rio + sunroom) to our family / house.
2023 - Really great sports year with Duke, Miami University and games I attended. Also, I probably could have written more about our Spring Break trip.
Anyway, here is this year's list broken out into sections:
Trips
1) Yosemite - it took a lot of planning, but we had a great trip out to Yosemite this year. If you were curious about more I wrote an entire post about it. Below is a picture from our first hike.
2) Jumping in Lake Tahoe - one of the biggest highlights of the trip was jumping into the extremely cold Lake Tahoe with L & J. It was great seeing how fearless the girls were.
3) The Pacific Ocean - Andy Dufresne said that he wanted to live the rest of his life near the Pacific Ocean and at the moment where L & J saw it for the first time I could 100% understand his point.
4) Jurassic World (and other rides) at Universal Studios - The best theme park experiences (at least for me) are ones with low expectations. We got tickets to Universal Studios because the kids like Harry Potter. That ended up being great, but my favorite ride was Jurassic World. We had seen Jurassic Park as a family a little bit before the trip and the ride really felt like taking you to the island. Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I actually enjoyed my time at Universal Studios.
5) Mammoth Cave National Park - over Labor Day we went with my wife's brother's family to see Mammoth Cave National Park and had a great tour (Extended Historic Cave Tour) through a small part of the caves. It was the 9th National Park for L & J.
6) Lake day in Kentucky - on the same Mammoth Cave trip we spent our final day just enjoying the lake at our place. Normally we do a lot on trips (checking things off on lists....I know big shock) but this was awesome because it was just a relaxing day.
7) Dolphin watching in Pensacola - for the greater Malphurs family we went on a 2 hour boat tour through Chase-N-Fins. The whole family went and our boat captain was very successful in finding dolphins and a rainbow!
8) Ice skating in Detroit - three wonderful things happened with ice skating in Detroit: 1) I didn't have to skate 2) the kids spent multiple hours skating 3) randomly I high-fived my kids (and other strangers) as they did laps. It was a really cool experience filled with Christmas spirit with a huge tree, ice rink (of course) and Christmas music playing.
Family
9) L & J playing softball - one of my absolute favorite memories from the year was watching my daughters play softball on the Bexley softball team. They played well (I'm more than little bit biased) and were able to compete as a team.
10) L graduating from Montrose - in Bexley the elementary school goes through 5th grade and L fully completed that in the summer. She is now on to 6th grade and is doing well in middle school.
11) L in two plays - L tried out and got parts in both plays this year. She wasn't the main character, but it's still makes me extremely proud to see her out there on stage in front of an audience.
12) J's day of fun with her best friend - for J's birthday I planned a "day of fun" with her best friend where we went and got donuts, went to the zoo, went swimming and enjoyed a nice dinner. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but I feel like this was one of the best birthday presents possible.
13) Selling 5605 Warwick Drive - it's crazy how you switch from not wanting to sell your childhood home to really wanting to sell your childhood home. As a family we debated a long time about when it was time to sell and finally this last year my parents decided to make the move to a nice retirement community. At that point the next challenge wasn't making the decision, but actually selling the home. I won't rehash all of the issues, but this was far from an easy process. The good news is that it's sold and hopefully the home can be used for a new family.
14) Taking my nephew to see Miami University - my nephew is a senior high school and looking at colleges across the country. I suggested to him that we visit Miami University and thankfully we were able to find a weekend that worked. We walked around campus, ate Bagel & Deli, took an official tour and after it was all over he decided to apply. I'm not sure where he ends up going, but I can rest easy knowing that I tried my best to get him to go to Miami.
15) Playing basketball with my 17 year old nephew - On the last night of my nephew's visit we went to the Columbus JCC and were lucky enough to get together a good pickup game with a bunch of high schoolers. My nephew absolutely dominated. He had multiple 3s, blocks, layups and great passes. Thankfully we're on the same team and I could be the Steve Kerr (hitting open shots) to his Scottie Pippen (or Michael Jordan if you prefer a more common comparasion).
16) Camping - one of the things on my list that I've been meaning to do is to go camping with the girls. We started off one night camping in the backyard and then graduated to camping during a community camp night at Jeffery Mansion in Bexley. Both were great and when the weather warms up again I would like to do more camping in 2025.
17) Watching Penelope with L & J - as the girls have gotten older we have been able to transition some of the tv shows / movies we watch from kid based programming. Penelope was a good example. It is a show about a teenage girl who runs away from home and camps in a National Forrest. It was surprisingly really good and something I enjoyed watching with both of them.
18) J's first communion - not only did she have her first communion, but she was one of the two kids picked to do a reading. She got up there and was extremely confident and clear in her reading.
19) 42 Video - M turned 42 this year and in honor of her birthday the girls and I created a music video (I'm not sharing it here, but text me if you want to see) sung to the Taylor Swift song "22." I thought it was quite creative and a fun surprise.
20) Andrew spending a week up in Ohio - it's a cliche, but time only moves in one direction and one thing I had wanted to do before my nephew got too old was to host him for a week. Thankfully we were able to work out the logistics and had a week filled with a church carnival, baseball game (did I mention I like minor league baseball) and a super fun (according to the kids) rock climbing camp. I loved hosting him and will look back fondly on that week.
21) Turkey Bowl - in 2023 we had our first turkey bowl with only 3 participants....it was fun, but really just set the stage for a bigger and better turkey bowl this year. J and I convinced 3 more people to join us and we had an amazing 6 person game. Below you can see my oldest catching an over the shoulder td over my youngest daughter. Fun was had and there was only a little bit of blood.
22) Andrew in Annie - My nephew got a huge part (Daddy Warbucks) in the St. Andrew's Middle School product of Annie and I flew down to see him. He did so incredibly well and I was so proud to see him act, dance and sing. This was definitely a top uncle moment.
Sports
23) NC State over UNC at the ACC Tournament - one thing I've always wanted to do was go see the ACC Tournament. This seemed like the perfect year because 1) Duke was projected to be good 2) it was in an easily accessible location (Washington D.C.) 3) I could get tickets through K Academy 4) I convinced a friend to come join me. The tournament was unexpected in that Duke lost its first game against NC State and then only got more unexpected after that. The cherry on the top was going on a Saturday night to see NC State pull off a huge upset (10.5 point underdogs) over their big rival UNC. No sports outcome all year provided me so much joy. NC State fans looked so incredibly happy and as a big Duke (so anti-UNC) fan I was able to live vicariously through them.
24) DJ Burns - this deserves a separate section because DJ Burns had himself a moment in March. The NC State big man had a fine 5 year career that looked to be ending in the ACC tournament. And then Burns and NC State went on a 5 game winning streak to win the ACC title. And it was remarkable because Burns would back down helpless defenders every single day in D.C. The post up from Burns would be met with anticipation from the crowd as it inevitably led to points. DJ Burns went from a bit player who nobody would remember to a March Madness legend and I saw almost all of the run either in person (at the ACC tournament) or on TV (during the NCAA tournament). What an amazing stretch of games from the (very) big guy.
25) Duke over Houston - this was a disappointing year for Duke basketball. They were ranked very highly in the preseason (some places #1) but ended up going 0-2 against UNC, losing in the 1st round of the ACC tournament and having to settle for a 4 seed. That meant a path that went up against 1 seed (and 2nd overall on Kenpom) Houston in Dallas. Duke was an underdog and they hadn't won as a lower seeded team in the NCAA tournament since beating Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson and Purdue in 1994. It was a tough game with the key plays being made on offense by Kyle Filpowski and on defense by my K Academy coach Tyrese Proctor. It was one of the more enjoyable NCAA tournament wins I can remember.
26) Caitlin Clark (and rushing the court) - The biggest sports event of the year for me was easily when the Iowa Hawkeyes came to OSU during the peak of the Caitlin Clark mania. I took L and her cousins and thought it was super weird that there was no line to get into the arena 10 minutes before tipoff. The reason? The entire arena was packed. We had to get seats in the absolute last row. Look below to see a stadium that was completely sold out. The energy in the building was higher than any other Buckeyes game (including when OSU beat 1 ranked Duke a couple years). OSU used that energy to pull off the upset and we (eventually since were in the last row) rushed the court in celebration.
27) OSU over Purdue (and rushing the court) - J wasn't able to go to the Caitlan Clark game, but we got great seats to OSU play 2nd ranked Purdue. Expectations were pretty low, but OSU played the game of their season and upset Purdue. I had told J that if maybe she would also get the opportunity to rush the court. OSU won and we were some of the first people on the court.
28) Game 7: Magic at Cavs (first NBA playoff game) - I went to my first NBA playoff game and not only that but a game 7. It was great taking my nephew to the game and cheering on the Cavs (and Donovan Mitchell in particular) to a win.
29) Pensacola Blue Wahoos game - one thing in life that is constant is that there is fun in minor league baseball. This year was no exception with some in the family choosing to go see a Pensacola Blue Wahoos game. Nothing remarkable happened, but it was great getting out to see a game and a very reasonable price. I could also have written about going to a Dayton Dragons game this year as well.
30) Winning the JCC 35+ Basketball Title - this year I had the fortune to be placed on a really good team that was able to make a run (there are only 4 teams....so a run is 2 games) that won the title. We got a cheap plastic trophy, but you wouldn't know the limited stakes by watching how much we all cared about winning.
31) OSU vs Nebraska with J - I was able to introduce J to tailgating (for that meant lemonade and chick-fil-a at 10am) and we watched a surprisingly close game between OSU and Nebraska. J's at the age where she can sit and enjoy an entire 3 hour football game.
32) Packers defense on MNF against the Saints - for the 6th straight year I made the semifinals of my most important fantasy football league. For the previous 5 years I had lost that semifinal game...often in heartbreaking fashion. It looked like I was heading to my 6th straight loss when I was down 13 with my only hope being the Packers defense. In order to win I needed the Packers to do something that no other team had done all year....and shut out the Saints. They did that. I won. It was a Merry Christmas Eve Eve. (I ended up winning the title, which is something I have never done, so that was also amazing. It felt like the absolute peak though was the MNF performance by the Packers. Go Pack Go!)
33) Position players pitching - one of the random joys of baseball is that when a team is down so much that they put in a position player to pitch. On the Friday before Labor Day we went to see the Reds play the Brewers. It was 8-0 in the 9th inning when the Reds brought out catcher Luke Maile to pitch. Here is the next sequence of batters: triple, double, double, single double, sac fly, home run, fly out. Maile gave up a cycle and gave up 6 runs while only getting two outs. And thankfully I was there for all of that because we wanted to stay to see the fireworks at the end of the game.
34) Seeing Messi and the Atlanta United soccer team at the Mercedes-Benz stadium - I never book my work trips based on sports schedules, but if it happens to line up with a game then I will definitely take advantage of it. One work trip coincided with Messi coming to Atlanta for a big soccer game (match?). My old manager had tickets and I was able to see a very exciting (and relatively high scoring) 2-2 tie between Atlanta and Miami.
Entertainment
35) Kacey Musgraves - L and I really got into Kacey Musgraves (specifically the album Golden Hour) during early COVID and finally after 4 years we were able to see her perform live in Columbus. She was awesome....even if the show ended way too late (~11:30pm) for a school night.
36) Up close to see Gavin DeGraw with M - Columbus has a free concert series and we were lucky to get tickets to see Colbie Cailat and Gavin DeGraw. There were great and what made it even better is that were able to get front and center for the Gavin DeGraw portion of the concert. Check out our view!
37) Selling Sexy - as someone who worked at Victoria's Secret, I was super curious to hear about the history of the company and Les Wexner. Unlike other media portrayals, I thought this one did a really good job of going over the history of VS. I would definitely recommend for anyone who worked at VS, but it is also a good read of anyone who just likes books about companies.
38) The Anxious Generation - not exactly an uplifting book, but with an 8 & 11 year old I was definitely enthralled with this very anti-phone book. I keep thinking about the main point that parents are way too concerned about safety in the physical world and not nearly as concerned as they should be about safety in the online world. For example if it is possible then you should feel comfortable with your kid walking home from school alone....and you should be very cautious about giving your kid an instagram account.
39) Charlie Hustle - this book was a very easy listen as it went into the details of a great baseball player and complicated person in Pete Rose.
40) The Parrot and the Igloo - this was long book about climate change that is equal parts amazing and infuriating. There are people in this world that will do anything to make a buck and the sowing of doubt on this non-controversial issue is awful. Climate change was always going to be a very tough problem to solve (it's very long term, you need help from every country, it impacts the economy and people's way of life, etc) but the people who lied to the public deserve every bit of scorn.
41) City Nerd - I wrote about City Nerd in last year's list and his channel is just as good as it was last year. If you are interested in urban planning, walkable communities, etc then I suggest you check him out. Some of my favorites this year were his videos on Atlanta, Phoenix and "All the ways car dependency is wrecking us."
42) Kenny Chesney with M - I've now seen Kenny Chesney four times and he puts on a great show. M & I had great tickets (not as good as the last time when were in the sandbar) and Chesney does what he always does and played the hits.
43) Star Wars Hotel from Jenny Nicholson - one of the most unexpected things I enjoyed was a 4 hour youtube video about downfall of the Star Wars Hotel. I had never heard of Jenny Nicholson but she is amazing in combining research and passion. One would think a 4 hour video about a subject I only had a passing interest in wouldn't work but Nicholson was just that good.
44) Cartoons Hate Her - At the end of the year I found and started subscribing to this independent writer who writes about parenting, culture and other observations. My favorite articles from her were "The Village Nobody Wants", "At 28 I taught myself to be likable" and "Let children be fancy again." She has a unique style that I really enjoy and I find myself looking forward to her opinion on other subjects.
Misc
45) Bexley School Levy Passing - this election did not go well. I still haven't fully digested that (I started but never finished a blog post), so let's just focus on a couple good things. The first one is that Bexley School Levy passed, which means my kids and the community in general will keep investing in public education. The public education at Bexley is wonderful and it is something that differentiates Bexley from other areas.
46) COTA Tax Levy - In an effort to improve public transit, the city of Columbus passed an increase to the sales tax in November. More bus routes, bike paths, trails and sidewalks will help continue to improve the city.
47) Joe Biden stepping down and not running for President - independent on who you were voting for in the 2024 election I do not think it is controversial to write that 82 is way too old to be president. I was happy with Biden for making the correct decision to step down and not run again. I feel like there are a lot of people who get drunk on power and wouldn't make that move.
48) Stock Market (+24% YTD) - the stock market has been on quite the run this year (+24%) or over the last 5 years (+81%) which is great news for anyone with a 401k or who personally invests.
49) Moving to Finance at Carter's - In October of this year I found out my role was moving from my previous area to the finance team at Carter's. Not to get into specifics about the company or what I do, but this made a ton of sense and is something that I think sets myself up for a great 2025 at work.
50) Selling my Civic - I decided that after 17 years of driving my Honda Civic, it was time to upgrade cars. I didn't think I would get much for my Civic due to the age and condition. Still I was a little disappointed when the Mazda dealership only offered me $500. Thankfully I spent the 30 minutes necessary to get another quote at CarMax and was beyond excited when they offered me $2500. It was definitely worth the time to get $2k extra dollars and is something I would advise anyone to do when selling a car.
51) Meeting Joe Posnanski in Dayton - one of my all time favorite writers talked about baseball for about an hour at the Jewish Community Center in Dayton, Ohio. I absolutely loved hearing him talk and then getting my picture with him after. (Also, the people I met at the JCC in Dayton were some of the nicest people around.)
52) New Year's Resolution (52 meals) - as a remote employee I am often worried about my lack of social interaction, so my plan for this year was to have 52 meals (1 per week) with friends in 2024. I am proud to report that I finished the year with 62! I have an excel grid tracking this and I am so pleased with the results that I am going to have the same goal for 2025. Some fun stats from meals - 71% of the time the meal came from us (M or I) asking.....65% of the meals were out at a restaurant vs a home and 48% of the time we paid separately for the meal as opposed to either friend treating the other.
Posts
