January 2014

2013 was a year of milestones for the Andresen family. After Jason's high school graduation in 2011 and Marj's from grad school in 2012, it was Rachel's and Benjamin's turns to graduate from their respective schools – and all of the kids were at a new school in the fall (read on...) Marjorie celebrated the milestone of her 50th birthday (but refused to accept the AARP card!) And after 5 years of on-and-off development, Kevin finally got his iPhone baseball app approved for the iTunes App Store.

Rachel graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and turned 18 in June, and entered Northwestern University in Evanston near Chicago in September to study chemical engineering (Go Cats!) In between, she spent her second summer as a Junior Girls counselor at Camp Rotary – her first on the waterfront staff. She spent a week of her spring break with Kevin in Europe (look at their pages for the stories and photo album.)

Ben left West Middle School in June, showing leadership with his Rally Against Cancer team (raising $20K over three years) and Project 351. His town soccer team finished second in their last county tournament. His club soccer team was promoted to D1 in the spring; their goal was to avoid relegation, but instead they came within one point of winning the division – with goalkeeper Ben (and his strong defense) tying for fewest goals against on the season. Over the summer, he joined his siblings for several weeks at Camp Rotary. He is now following in Rachel's footsteps at Phillips Academy, with friends from home and new friends from other states and even countries.

Jason is still enrolled at University of Richmond – where he won the sophomore Chemistry prize and was handler for the club Ultimate Frisbee team – but September found him in Valencia, Spain for a study abroad semester through the University of Virginia. In between Spanish studies he was able to travel all over Europe. Jason also continued his Camp Rotary tenure as Junior Boy counselor and riflery instructor.

Marjorie and two friends took over our Old Town Hall for a joint 50th birthday party complete with live band, ice sculptures and many friends and family. She is in her 3rd year teaching math to 8th graders (and first year in a long time with none of our children attending West Middle School.)

It was a relatively low-key business travel year for Kevin – only one trip to Asia – as he continues to work for CSR trying to convince companies that the iPad hasn't replaced printing (yet...) Lots of domestic travel driving Jason and Rachel to various colleges, though, and one business trip to Rochester where a canceled flight led to an impromptu reunion of Xerox employees and alumni.

This summer Kevin and Marjorie had a chance to visit beautiful Camden, Maine and the Wyeth Center, a long time dream museum for Marj. We stayed at the Lodge at Camden Hills, which was quiet and peaceful. From there we trekked into town, dipped into the bay and had a wonderfully romantic dinner at Natalie's at the Camden Inn. Not since our honeymoon have we been treated so royally over dinner!

The whole family took a long-overdue trip to visit Kevin's sister and nephews in Montana between Christmas and New Year and revisited some of the sites of our 2006 Glacier Park vacation. A nice opportunity for family togetherness as everybody's jobs and classes conspire to keep us apart!

(2014 update: Sadly, Marj's mom passed away quietly on January 24. We were fortunate to have her close to us these past few years and to be able to share family dinners, soccer games, bar and bat mitzvahs (mitzvot!) and graduations. Donations can be made to the Lupus Research Institute and/or the Merrimack Valley Hospice House.)

Our best wishes for health and happiness in 2014,