December 2009

Liliana continues to shine in 2009

COVER STORY: Rapid City, SD. Liliana Kowalski continues to amaze family and friends alike.

In March she turned three years old, celebrating with a princess-themed bash that was the talk of the town (or at least, the princess-obsessed subset of it). Her fascination with princesses continues unabated, as evidenced by her neon Cinderella costume for Halloween, or her request for complete Disney princess gown collection from Santa in December.

This was a year of many firsts for Liliana. For example, this year she started preschool, and has begun learning to swim and skate, and is fond of miniature golf. Liliana also mastered the art of bike riding over summer (well, with training wheels), and now often takes her dollies with her on quick bike trips to the local park.

Liliana is also a great fan of singing and dancing in general, and of Mamma Mia! in specific. She can perform most of the dance numbers from the movie from memory, and loves to give impromptu performances to, well, anyone. She saw a live production of the musical, but for audience members unprepared for a 3-year-old capable of singing the ABBA discography by heart, she was the real star!

Of course, there's not nearly enough room in this Christmas edition to document all of Liliana's adventures from 2009! Fortunately, these are well documented in Travis' series of Monthly Newsletters.

In memoriam

Jerome E Franz
May 8, 1938-
June 22, 2009.

Beloved husband, father and doting grandfather. We miss you, Papa Franz.

Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays!

Kristin Bailey a dream in Joseph

Kristin Bailey returned to stage this September and October with the Black Hills Community Theater's 2009 production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

It was an exciting and fun production, peppered with funny dialog, beautiful costume changes, and non-stop singing and dancing. Kristin Bailey didn't even audition, but was offered the role of Joseph's mother by the director himself! Ace theater critic Liliana gave it two thumbs way up, as did Travis and grandparents Bruce and Patty Schuler, who made a special visit from California in October to see it.

In addition to her time onstage, Kristin Bailey continues to edify young minds (and pad her resume) as the mathematics teacher of Core 801 at Dakota Middle School, as well as serving on the school's Building Leadership Team.

Travis says math "sum fun"

Travis had a very busy year in 2009. Earning his pro- motion to Associate Pro- fessor at the beginning of the year, he has had two papers accepted for pub- lication, has submitted a third, and is busy writing a fourth. He was invited to Alaska in January to attend an ANSEP conference, presented a pedagogical idea in Colorado in April, and was an invited speaker at MathFest 2009 in Oregon in August. Of course, as fun and interesting as these trips are, he is always glad when he comes back home.

In addition to his job as a professor, Travis also signed on as an assistant liaison for GEAR UP, a nationally recognized sum- mer program aimed at preparing Native American students for college. He enjoyed working with students from several area reservations. Let's keep our fingers crossed for tenure!

Summer time to visit family, friends

As is the annual tradition, the Kowalski family travelled abroad to visit family and friends. In June, they travelled to Florida for a few weeks to visit Kristin Bailey's family, including her mother Judi, the Hoyt family (Heidi, Gene, and Sara), and aunt Sandy. Suffice it to say, cousins Liliana and Sara became quick conspirators in little girl fun.

In July, the Kowalski family joined Judi Franz for a trip to Europe to visit the Franz family's long-time Belgian friends Marcel and Melanie. For Kristin Bailey and Judi it was a chance to see old friends; for Travis and Liliana, it was their first time to experience Europe.

For three weeks, they travelled the Belgian countryside, visiting Ger- many, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands along the way, enjoying sinfully delicious chocolates, cheeses, and beer... oh that sweet, sweet trappiste beer.

In addition to simply relaxing with old family friends, highlights of the trip included a visit to the Atomium in Brussels (off of which Travis rappelled from a zip-line), the Eftling amusement park in the Netherlands, a boat cruise along the Mosel River in Germany, and a super-park called Zilmermeer in Mol (so much fun, they did it twice!).

It was a wonderful experience for all involved, and the Kowalskis are especially grateful to Marcel and Melanie for being such superb hosts. You can visit their on-line vacation picture album for more European sights.