Starting the year putting in basement ceiling! 10/10 recommend renting a laser level if you are ever embarking on a project like this.
We went to the Dakota Jazz Club to see the Travis Anderson Trio play Disney/Pixar/Ghibli music with Greg and Natalie and our friends Sarah and Kevin.
Käthe has been relearning how to crochet this year and started up again by making little friends (chicken, dinosaur, and seahorse) for some of her dance friends!
Käthe judged some of the studio’s competitive dancers at their mock competition—a way for the dancers to feel more prepared going into the comp season—and one of the other teachers brought her sweet samoyed, Lumi!
After completing the ceiling, it was time to move onto working on the basement floors. Prepping for floor installation meant making sure the concrete was as flat and clean as possible so there was a lot of divot filling, vacuuming, mopping, vacuuming again, and mopping again.
Turns out, Menards has a cool feature where you can upload photo of the room you need flooring for and it will show you what it will theoretically look like!
With the floor relatively prepped, we decided it was time to go actually purchase the LVP… right after we had dinner at the Original Malt Shop. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the St. Paul Menards, we discovered that the floor that had been in stock the week before was gone and there was none at any of the nearby stores. Fortunately, we had juuuuust enough time to drive to the Hudson, WI store and pretty much clear them out of the style we wanted.
We had to make sure the floor installation was properly documented, so Chandler got Mabel to pose with the credits. Bodhi was not interested in modeling.
Upon setting out some of the vinyl floor pieces, we realized there were about 5 unique patterns. While not every board was identical, there were a few very distinct features in some of the patterns. So, while Chandler and Eric installed, Käthe sorted by pattern and chose which boards went where to avoid any pattern matching disasters.
Flooring crew taking a break. Featuring (from left to right): Mabel, Bodhi (Trahans'), Chandler, Bailey (Eric's) and Eric.
We have friends who dance in an Irish Dance Troupe, so Käthe saw their St. Patrick’s Day show!
In a weird turn of events, we are apparently old enough now to have friends with kids (yikes). We reconnected with a few friends we hadn’t seen in over a year and Käthe got to meet 7 month old Griffin (Chandler was probably still busy installing floor so was not present at this particular meeting).
Also featured: Kingsley, Griffin’s older feline brother whom Käthe lived with during college!
We saw Come From Away with Käthe’s family. This was one of Käthe’s favorite shows to date. It showcases stories from the town of Gander, Newfoundland in the aftermath of 9/11, where 7,000 airline passengers were diverted as the nation's airspace was shut down.
Our favorite nosy neighbor, Poppy :)
March means dance performance season is starting! This year we (the adult class) decided it would be fun to go to two competitions instead of one, so we performed lyrical and contemporary dances at Celebration Talent!
Mabel and our friend Sophie being photogenic :)
The past 3(ish?) years, Käthe has gotten quite into watching professional hockey, both the men’s team (MN Wild) and the women’s team (MN Frost). She now makes it her mission to pull anyone else she can into the fold and has succeeded on a few accounts as seen here with Ted (dad), Grandmoms (Ted’s mom), and Natalie (sister-in-law). This particular game was the pride game and we got to see 3 proposals and a Frost win!
We like to do dinner with Käthe’s brother, Greg, Natalie, and Grandmoms when we can, touring around to different restaurants almost every time. Here, we were at the Snuffy’s Malt Shop in Bloomington (not to be confused with Snuffy’s of Edina, Snuffy's of Minnetonka, or The Original Malt Shop (formerly Snuffy’s) of Roseville).
We have been trying to be better about seeing friends more than once every one or two years, and have been relatively successful! Now, before we leave a game night, we put our next meetup on the calendar for the following month instead of saying “wow we should do this again!” and never getting anything on the actual schedule.
Our college friends Lexie and Collin came down to the cities from Duluth for a weekend visit including a trip to Sustainable Safari to see some capybaras and a Minnesota Frost game!
Käthe went to Art in Bloom at the Minneapolis Institute of Art with her mom, her high school friend Katie, and Katie’s mom! It was very cool to see the florists' interpretations of paintings—some were very literal and some were much more abstract.
Mabel and Bodhi are BFFs and love playing together but sometimes they (Mabel) get a little louder than desired so they get to take a forced break.
April is when the dance season really starts warming up, and this year Käthe decided to make the skirt for one of her costumes out of tulle. Way poofier than originally intended, but it was super fun to have something homemade as part of a costume! And, of course, she had Mabel as her quality control professional. Mabel deemed the tulle very fun to play with.
May means more dance! What a surprise! Käthe's homemade skirt made its debut for their jazz/musical theatre piece ("Perfection", from Death Becomes Her) They brought their lyrical “Smile” to this competition as well (DX). Four of us even stuck it out to the 10PM awards ceremony!
We discovered that Mabel does not like green beans.
Claire and Käthe have a bad habit of going to hockey games where MN loses, as was the case at this Frost playoffs game.
HOWEVER, that was not the case at this game where we won the championship! Go Frost!
Chandler, meanwhile, has also had some victories! Like setting up a pair of two analog phones so that they automatically dial the other when taken off the hook.
We started making it out for bike rides again! Turns out, our tandem bike is not a fan of winter and the gears get weird if it is under about 50 degrees. That means we either have to ride separately (super lame) or wait for it to warm up enough for the tandem to stop its tantrum and start fully functioning again.
Spring at Gull Lake!
Murphy (right), a deaf and blind senior dog, was really not a fan of Mabel occasionally jumping off the couch and onto him like a springboard. Weird. The second picture is from 2017. Spot the differences!
Recital time! We added broadway to the adult class category, so Käthe’s performance styles this year were broadway, jazz, lyrical, and contemporary. Chandler remains a trooper coming to the 3 hour long recitals and is starting to recognize dancer names from reading programs over and over (and over) again.
.jpeg)
This year Käthe got to teach some of the 3-5 year old classes which was super fun. It also meant going from 3 year old tap to adult lyrical one right after the other.
After thinking about a dramatic hair change since high school, Käthe finally took the leap: With no big weddings or other events this summer to permanently document hair-related mishaps, she decided maybe now was the time…. So two days after the dance recital, she went in and chopped off 12 inches of hair! It took about a week to stop jump scaring herself in the mirror.
She did feel a little weird driving around with pigtails in her front seat before those got mailed off for donation.
Käthe and two dance friends (Mary and Shana) went to the Orpheum to see Legally Blonde! It was a hit, as always, and gave Käthe the chance to bring out the bright pink pants she doesn’t typically have occasion to wear.
More games with friends! Griffin figured out how to game the system and Alexis somehow ended up in the playpen while Griff was out chilling with us.
Greg got goose eggs (the animal products, not bumps to the head) from his work (something something partnered with a farm, something something go hang out with the animals? I don’t know) and decided to make crème brûlée, which we were delighted to partake in. Turns out, goose eggs are way bigger than chicken eggs (go figure) and therefore you only need a few to make the desserts!
Another one of Käthe’s friends was due in July, so Käthe made a baby blanket for her baby shower! Unfortunately, the blanket was not done for the shower, so she made a prototype to bring instead :)
Kaitlyn (mom’s friend), Käthe, Sharon, Natalie, and Charlotte (cousin) attended a summer solstice event.
The end of June into early July, we went to Maine for a McDonald (Chandler’s Mom) family reunion. Celine and 6 of her 7 sisters and their families spent a week in a gorgeous rented out VRBO on Great Pond. We had wonderful weather and good family time!
Käthe and Celine bonded over their shared need to label the kitchen because they were sick of having to open up every single cabinet to find utensils and dishes.
We were on a beautiful lake so we spent quite a bit of time canoeing and Chandler did some kayaking! We did manage to stay upright on our adventures while a number of cousins had excursions that were a little more submersive.
When in Maine, you must experience lobster. Chandler took it one step farther and became the lobster.
We arrived home from Maine on July 1 at about 2PM. About 5:15PM, we headed to the Dakota again, before getting home again around 10:30PM.
At about 10AM on July 2, we set out again on our way up to Gull Lake! It was a whirlwind to get there, but once up, it was a relaxing weekend of friends, yard games, and dogs (don't miss Mabel in the first picture).
The dogs (Mabel, Bodhi, and a temporary friend Orzo) all know who holds the treats.
Käthe started journaling summer of 2023 and has filled her first journal! It was very exciting to get to go buy a new one.
More bike rides!
Käthe helped run some dance camps with themes including Frozen and Moana. Some of the camp activities included making little snowmen and doing a scavenger hunt to find rocks she had painted to look like the heart of Te Fiti.
More games and introducing Griffin to piano — He’s a natural!
We went to Duluth to visit friends whose cat Soot thinks he is a dog. Soot’s favorite activity is antagonizing Mabel until she reacts and then walking away disdainfully like “can I help you?”
We also went to the aquarium, and to an arena football game! Neither of us was familiar with the game but it is way more interesting than Normal Football because the smaller field results in a lot more scoring chances.
The first weekend in August, Ted and Dave participated in the Alexandria Sprint Triathlon, so we went to cheer them on! Before heading north, Chandler spent some time working in a new office space (Käthe's parents' front yard).
Most summers, Chandler heads out to Glencoe for a few days to help out with Vacation Bible School at his parents' church. On the final night, they typically host a meal as a fundraiser for a cause.
This year, Käthe came out and stopped to meet a friend’s new kitten, Vienna, on the way! Mabel and Vienna played well together, and eventually wore themselves out. Mabel did make a guest appearance at the VBS dinner as well (held outside), and was a big hit. She slept very well on the way home.
.jpeg)
In a turn of events that may or may not have been too surprising, a few years ago Käthe discovered she enjoyed watching demolition derbies! There's nothing like watching people play bumper cars with actual cars. So while Chandler headed north to Gull Lake with two dogs and Käthe’s parents, Käthe and Claire went to the Dakota County Fair Demo Derby.
During the summer of 2022, we were supposed to go to a Minnesota United (Loons) soccer game with Chandler’s high school friend. Also during the summer of 2022, Chandler decided (relatively spontaneously) to spend six weeks working at a scout camp four hours north of the cities, so we did not go to that soccer game. Three years later, we finally got it on the schedule, and we made it to our first soccer game!
Chandler went mountain biking with Isaac and scout camp friend Hunter in Bentonville, Arkansas. The trails were excellent! Unfortunately, Chandler took more vacation days than pictures, so these are the only two photos that made it back to Minnesota.
Chandler's Arkansas trip left Käthe and Mabel bored at home, so they headed back up to Gull Lake to hang out with family visiting from Texas and Michigan. We all went out to dinner and ended up in a serendipitous moment that couldn’t possibly be recreated accurately, so inserted below is the text Käthe sent to Greg describing the run-ins we had.
We had a VERY fun serendipity today!
We went to dinner at Bar Harbor (DELICIOUS) and Melanie asked the waitress (Angie, full name Angela lol) to take our photo. Melanie hands over her phone to Angie who then has to leeeaaan into the table across from us to get everyone in the photo. The table across from us is getting into it like "lean more!" And are making faces at us to laugh very fun we get the picture and have dinner.
After dinner, Mom and Dad were putting gas in the boat (that we obviously took over instead of driving a car), I was in the bathroom, and Melanie stopped to say thank you to the other table for being such good sports and for having fun with it. They get to chatting asking where we're staying and Melanie has no idea so she was like "uhhh... the Bottemillers?"not expecting anything from that but they went "NO WAY YOU’RE OUR NEIGHBOR!!"
Anyway we met our neighbors to the south finally (Mom and Dad had met the couple that owned it like once or twice I think?? Jeanne knows them better) and Melanie made an off the cuff comment about "oh come on over for some wine or something!" AND THEY DID!
Anyway part 2, the dad, an uncle, and two of three sisters came over and chatted and the one I chatted with, Libby, is just delightful and we exchanged numbers so we can maybe hang out in the future
Thank you for coming to my TED talk
TL;DR: We met our neighbors by accident; they’re great. The following day, we went and toured an OLD old cabin on the lot next door. The neighbors had purchased the lot to save the cabin from getting torn down to make way for another house.
The rest of August was comprised of bike rides and Käthe spending a whole day watching horses at the state fair.
A great way to get your steps in is to go to the zoo! This had literally never occurred to us, but thankfully Käthe has a great friend with a membership and a new baby who have been spending lots of time there who introduced her to the concept. 10/10.
It’s still bike season!
Celebrating our anniversary with malts at the Original Malt Shop!
With September comes the first week of dance! Käthe is teaching four classes this year and had fun creating a birthday board for the studio.
Hockey game number one of the season! We are still not entirely clear how Käthe ended up on the mailing list for free tickets to the prospect game but it was super fun to go!
We enjoy going to the Selby Ave Jazz Festival, and this year we thought far enough ahead to bring chairs!
Chandler serenading Mabel, his biggest (and only) fan, with the recorder.
When you are offered free tickets to a Wild suite, you obviously cancel all other plans and go.
Lake Out 2025: Sending an old organ to its final resting place (RIP), towing the sailboat to the boat launch, and delivering matching hats for next year's National Earthworm Day (iykyk).
Käthe was determined to host her birthday party in a usable basement, so we worked on installing the fireplace trim and doing some light cleaning… These images are all from the day before the party.
We did it! The alcove still needs a bar, flooring, and trim, but a majority of the basement is usable! Woo!
We have been going to more concerts this year which has been very fun. We commonly land at Dakota Jazz Club, but have also made it to a few Minnesota Orchestra performances, an organ recital, and the Concordia Christmas Concert.
We had so much fun putting our floor in this year, we decided to help Greg and Alexis do the same in their basement!
The Wild were playing relatively poorly for a while which was a bummer but also meant that tickets were C H E A P so Käthe and Claire definitely took advantage of that for a few games. According to Käthe’s watch, her nervous system does not know the difference between being chased by a bear and the Wild game going into overtime.
Käthe took her first ride in a Big Tractor! We joined Eric for some field work after harvest, and afterwards got to meet five of the farm cats.
Halloween week at dance! We did coordinated teacher costumes each day: Disney, Shrek, and Despicable Me.
Käthe is teaching the adult broadway class this year which she is loving, and it means she gets to choreograph a new short dance routine to be learned each week. The Halloween themed dances were “Sexy” from Mean Girls and “Let’s Do the Time Warp” from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
We have had a Costco membership for a few years now (obviously a household of two consistently needs 5lb bags of chocolate chips), but just this year really discovered the joy of the Costco food court. Cue more Costco dates.
If you want to go when it is not super busy, we recommend around 6:00PM on Halloween.
A fun dance combination from November came from Hairspray.
The MN Frost are going into their third year as a team and so far Käthe has made it to each of their home openers!
We thought we were going to have to go on a bit of a walk to see the aurora borealis from our neighborhood, but even standing at the end of our driveway under a streetlight the lights were visible and BRIGHT!
Another trip to the Dakota, this time with Ted and Grandmoms to see Connie Evingson singing the Beatles.
We went to Texas for Thanksgiving! Seven of us and two dogs loaded into Käthe’s parent’s RV and headed south. We left Saturday morning, stayed overnight in Vinita, Oklahoma, and then kept cruising until we made it to Ray Roberts State Park that evening. Mabel did much better on this trip than the one in August and Bodhi is a pro at RV travel at this point. We spent a few nights at the campsite (that had the bravest deer we have ever encountered) before heading into Dallas.
While in Texas, we got to visit with new kittens who are EXTREMELY mischievous little creatures and SO cute.
We spent a night at the Gaston House in Dallas Wednesday into Thursday where our Thanksgiving festivities were held. On Thanksgiving morning, we made use of the bikes that we had hauled from MN and rode around White Rock Lake.
That afternoon, we had some decisions to make: There was a snowstorm heading towards the midwest that looked like it was going to pretty much shut down Iowa, which unfortunately is a pretty good chunk of the drive home. Chandler and Greg sat down with some weather graphs (or something), did some figuring, and determined that we should either leave promptly or wait until Sunday to start getting home. Of course, leaving Sunday would mean driving in slightly clearer but still snowy roads, which no one was particularly excited about, as well as potentially impacting work schedules. With those as our choices, we decided our best course of action would be leaving at 6PM on Thanksgiving day. Thankfully, the main meal was planned for 2PM, so we were able to stay for the most important part before we hastily finagled the RV out of the extremely tight courtyard and began our trek back to MN.
With 5 drivers, we ended up driving straight through the night and made it back to Shoreview around 2PM on Friday. Upon return to Burnsville around 5:30PM on Friday, Mabel immediately said “see ya later” and went to sleep. We were not far behind her.
We capped off November entertaining ourselves with a small photoshoot in the Enchanted Forest. ’Tis the season to Save Big Money!
Thanks to Dave offering lots of time over a few weekends early in the month, we have a partially installed bar!
Some of the dancers from Shana’s Dance Studio got to perform in a Christmas concert two weekends in December, so Käthe went and helped out with coordination and quick changes.
Greg and Natalie joined Chorus Polaris (a local mostly-a capella choir) this year, so we enjoyed their holiday concert.
The Dakota again! This time, we saw Christmas in New Orleans from the Southside Aces with Maddy and Thomas.
It’s not Christmas if there’s not a doggies under the tree photo.
Cookie bake 2025 was a success! Mabel was wiped after being entertainment for two toddlers.
Mabel made a new friend. His name is Moose!