Today is a sad anniversary for our family. It was a year ago today that Angie’s dad, Gary lost his two and a half year bout with pancreatic cancer. In honor of his time with us, the Minnesota contingent of the Hanning clan got together for a dinner. Angie was able to head in that direction already for Christmas so she will be able to join them for this celebration. I however, won’t be able to attend the festivities, so this is my contribution.
I have been around the family long enough that I truly felt like Gary was my second father. I miss his stories (even if he would tell you the same story 10 times in a day), his kindheartedness, and his no nonsense way of life. He was a big role model in my life, and I know that he touched many others in this same way. He lived with his cancer with a dignity, grace, and perseverance that no one who encountered him during this time will soon forget. We love you Gary and you are missed every day.
We’ve had a very busy weekend, and although it was fun I’m glad it’s finished. After the fishing trip we came back home and had people show up for Angie’s graduation party. We had about 40 people come for the open house on Saturday afternoon. The weather was great and a good time was had by all.
Today Angie’s parents, grandparents and I went to see her graduate from Cardinal Stritch. She got her masters degree in instructional technology and we are all very proud of her. She worked hard for the last two years for the right to wear the funny cap and gown. Even though she couldn’t figure out how to wear the sash correctly, she still proved that she knows a thing or two.
After the ceremony we went to one of Angie’s favorite restaurants Yokoso for some sushi. It was excelent as alwa
ys. The meal was extra fun because her grandparents had never had sushi before, and weren’t well practiced with chopsticks. They were good sports and insisted on ordering themselves a king crab roll to share, and only ate with their chopsticks even though we had the waitress bring them out some silverware. Angie’s grandpa Gale really liked the wasabi and didn’t want to see it go to waste so he ate it in larger portions than any of us would be able to handle. They said they really liked it, and even took some chopsticks back with them so they could show off their skills to their friends in Illinois.
Angie’s parents and grandparents are leaving to go home tomorrow, and we’re all pretty beat from the excitement around here this weekend so I’m off to bed.
We’re still here. Lots of stuff going on recently and haven’t had much time to keep up with the TLC required on this site.
Since I last posted, we had the kids over for a week of pure excitement, we went up to Door County and I went Salmon Fishing with my dad and Angie’s dad, Angie’s parents visited for a weekend, we went to the Rufus Wainwright concert at the Pabst, another school year started up, my mom came to visit, I sailed in the Louie’s Last Regatta and we went to a Salsa-Off.
Since I’m so slow to post updates to the site, I won’t bore you with details of all those items, suffice it to say that we’re as busy as always, but we’re still managing to fit some fun in occasionally.
