{2016 Christmas Letter}

Here we are again, at the close of another year.  2016 was quite the eventful year for the Mighty Meeks!  Our biggest highlight of the year was being able to take our whole family on a 2 week trip to England.  We loved sharing London with our kids, and were able to enjoy time with friends while we were there.  We saw so many fun things, and had a wonderful time!

Gabe (right) and his best friend, Mica (left) show off their graduation shirts.

Gabe (18 and a freshman...in COLLEGE!) had a very busy and joy filled year.  He turned 18 in February and ran track in the spring.  He worked very hard for his team and was part of a first-ever podium sweep at the District meet for the 3200m run where all top 8 places were from North Central.  May and June were filled with "last" moments of high school... Last band concert, last AP exam, last track banquet...until, finally, graduation!  Gabe graduated as a Distinguished Valedictorian from North Central High School in June.  He was also honored as one of the Outstanding English Students of the Year, and earned many accolades from his AP scores, and hard work at maintaining his 4.0 the whole way through high school.  He is now attending Whitworth University here in Spokane.  He is living at home, which is saving him a pretty penny, but is connecting and making friends through the Cross Country and Track teams.  He ran as 3rd man on the squad for most of the XC season and is enjoying college and college running.  His hard work continues to pay off both in school and on the XC course... He moved up to 2nd man for the final meet of the season, and is finishing his first semester of college as I type...having taken courses through the Honors program at Whitworth and keeping his grades up.  He is technically still undeclared, but leaning heavily toward and English major.

Bethany and Mica look great as they head to Prom.

Bethany (16 and a junior) lives for her running career.  She started her winter training by doing PT for a knee injury, which kept her out of track season until the last few meets.  She worked very hard to get her knee back in shape, and was able to qualify for the regional meet in the mile.  Her summer consisted of training, training, and more training.  She was a girl with a goal for State, and she came so close.  Her XC season was amazing, she ran the whole season with no injuries (a first!), and PR's around every corner.  Her dream of State came up short this year, but we are very hopeful that a strong team next year will finally realize the dream of an NC Girls State Title.  She has also done a great job in the classroom this year, earning mostly A's and B's.  However, she is quite ready to be done with Math!  Beth is still dating Mica, who is now a freshman at WSU in Pullman.  They keep in touch via facebook and text, and enjoy time together any time he is able to make the trek back to Spokane on weekends.  Beth is beginning to consider her options for beyond high school, and while she isn't excited about heading to college, she is looking at some programs that may lead her into personal training, which Jon and I think she would be excellent at.  She loves to encourage her team to work hard, and is able to inspire them to give their best.

Micci and Jon after the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Michaela (13 and an 8th grader) has explored lots of new things this year, while still continuing with old favorites.  She turned 13 in January (all my babies are teenagers now!), continued to work hard at her studies and Irish dance, ran track in the Spring and ran cross country in the fall.  She ran with the NC girls during some of their summer "off-season" practices, and has made some great friends that she is excited to join in high school.  She is still attending the North Central IST (Institute of Science and Technology) program, so she is already at the high school, just not able to participate in sports with her sister and her friends yet.  She has been struggling a little bit with a knee problem because of the strain of dance and running, but so far she isn't ready to choose one or the other, so she is in PT to get strong and hopefully be able to continue with both.  She is keeping her grades up and has studied and learned a lot as a part of this program.  She has major goals of becoming a humanitarian aide worker when she grows up, and she works hard at her studies to help her reach this goal.  She has also donated school supplies to our local refugee agency, World Relief, and was very helpful with our Grace Church refugee dinner on Christmas Eve (as were Gabe and Bethany).

Dolly, our sweet pup, is now 6 years old.  She has mellowed a bit in her middle age, and spends her days lying on Micci's bed, "guarding" the neighborhood from rogue cats.  She has become quite lazy, but she is still a sucker for affection, and loves to curl up with us in the evenings for some cuddle time.

Jon and I are both doing well. We celebrated 20 years of marriage this year (the reason for our England trip), and we are still very much in love.  We really enjoyed taking our kids to England this year, it was probably the highlight of my year.  We are both still running, not as often as we would like to be, or as consistently as we would like to be, but still involved and enjoying it.  For some reason, my autumn and back to school were very busy, and so I have taken a season off of teaching Oula, but I am really hoping to get back to it this Winter and Spring.  I am still teaching at Holmes Elementary, and Jon is still teaching music lessons and pastoring our small church.  We are still loving Spokane, and enjoy being a part of the many different facets of our community. 

2016 was such a full year, I'm sure I will look back on it with joy and great memories.  We had many friends and family come to visit us this year, we hosted Thanksgiving, and had our wonderful trip.  We watched our amazing children continue to grow and change and become amazing young adults with big dreams and big hearts.  There are too many pictures of so much fun and wonderful things from 2016 to share here.  If you would like to follow my instagram (beccameek), I post regularly, so you can keep up with the happenings of the #mightymeeks. 

Much love and happiness to you all in the coming year!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!