December 2012

Kowalski gals spend summer at Happiest Place on Earth. Also Michigan.

After last year's "staycation," the Kowalski ladies -- Maia, Liliana, and Kristin Bailey -- decided Summer Vacation 2012 deserved a full-fledged trip, so in June they headed to Florida to visit Bailey's family, including her mother Judi and the Hoyt family: Heidi, Gene, and Sara. (Travis, unfortunately, had to stay behind; see related story in Column 3.) There, they spent a little time at the zoo, a little time at the children's museum, and (due to Florida's omnipresent humidity) a lot of time in the pool.

The highlight of Florida was a surprise week-long stay at Disneyworld, where the girls rode fun rides, visited Epcot Center, and celebrated a belated birthday for Maia with both the Disney Princesses and the Disney Fairies.

As June wrapped up, the Kowalski gals and Judi met up with Travis, and together they headed to Michigan to visit Bailey's Uncle Jack and Aunt Sandy for a family reunion. There, the parents spent a lazy week of lounging and boating, while the girls honed their skills at inner-tubing and knee- boarding before enjoying a lakeside fireworks extra- vaganza on Independence Day.

Bailey 2.0 updates school, shoulder

2012 saw two major changes for Bailey. The first was the closing of Dakota Middle School, where Bailey had worked as a math teacher since 2002. Fortunately, a new state-of-the-art middle school opened on the other side of Rapid City, and so Bailey is now the 8th-grade math teacher at East Middle School.

The second was Bailey's shoulder surgery in August to fix both a torn rotator cuff the bone spur that exacerbated it. Poor timing notwithstanding (just a month before the start of school), Bailey's physical therapy has been successful and she's on her way to a full recovery.

Merry Christmas
&
Happy Holidays!

Liliana keeps self busy, family exhausted

In keeping with tradition, eldest daughter Liliana spent 2012 running circles around everyone else in her family. This year she completed kindergarten and began first grade, where she excels in reading and writing, earning an honorable mention in the school's Reflections writing contest. (As for math? "Slow and steady," Liliana reports.)

She continues to add to her extracurricular activities as well. She performed in her second ballet recital, and over summer took up kneeboarding with her cousins (see story in Column 1).

She has since started gymnastic classes, which seemed like the natural outlet for both her innate poise and frenetic energy.

Feliz Navideja vu!

Older issues of the Chronicle are now online!

2011 Christmas Chronicle
2010 Christmas Chronicle
2009 Christmas Chronicle
2008 Christmas Chronicle
2007 Christmas Chronicle

Maia increasing in independence, sass

At 3 years old, youngest member of the Kowalski family Maia is growing ever more independent. Despite the apparent handicap of her "little hand," she can dress herself (including sock and shoes), climb ladders, buckle up her car seat, ride her tricycle, you name it. Indeed, she's so adept at problem-solving that it took 2 weeks of playdates before our neighbor even noticed Maia's "lucky fin."

Maia has also started gymnastics this year, and she's threw herself (literally!) into it. Impressed by her ability to swing on the bars one-handed, her teachers say she's a natural: Maia has already earned a skill ribbon for the balance beam.

Independence comes with a price, though: sass. Maia has a quick wit and a penchant for tall tales. For example, when asked by her cousins about her hand, she told them a shark bit off when she was a baby. When asked again the following day, she added that the shark also bit off her legs and killed her. Okay, maybe she needs to work a bit more on that quick wit...

Travis busy with school, school, more school

2012 has been especially busy for academic Travis. In addition to having a technical paper appear in print and being elected to a second term as a Faculty Senator, Travis spent the summer working two jobs at the South Dakota School of Mines. First, he taught an experimental "inverted" Calculus 3 course using videos he created on YouTube. Second, he was the supervisor for GEARUP-UNITE, a new $32 thousand grant funded by the Army he co-wrote, designed to expose Native American students to science and engineering. The program was a great success, and has already been funded for 2013.

Most recently, Travis was appointed chair of the Commencement Committee, which means he's now in charge of pomp and circumstances surrounding each year's graduation ceremony. Could aloha-print diplomas and mortarboards be far behind?