Todd Swank's Favorite Moments of 2021

 

Todd Swank's Favorite Moments of 2021

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for January 2, 2022

I started off 2021 with a year in review post of 2020 so thought I'd do the same thing to kick-off 2022.  We were in Texas and Oklahoma for New Year's last year spending time with my sisters and their families.  The weather was so much more pleasant than the 20 below zero temperatures we've been experiencing in Minnesota this week.  

February was a tough month for us when we lost one of my oldest friends, Scott Barragy.  I first met Scott when I moved to Clear Lake, Iowa in 1985 and Krazy Kory introduced us.  Scott and his family were very good to me throughout high school and even convinced me to join the wrestling team which was a big stretch for the mouthy 90 pound kid that I was.  We stayed in touch over the years and would connect in the summer for golf and chat on the phone every few weeks or so.  Scott was a great guy and I miss him dearly.  May he Rest in Peace.

My family received the vaccines in March.  I asked the nurse if the government starts taking control of me immediately or if I have to wait awhile to sync into their system.  She didn't really respond, but I think she was happy when I was leaving.  

I'm not going to weigh in on the vaccine controversies that have ensued since, but doing this gave us the confidence to fully re-enter society and resume many of our favorite activities which we were nervous about previously.    Hopefully this horrible pandemic will officially become an endemic at some point in 2022 and we can all start getting along again.

That would be so nice.

In any case, we started getting together with friends and loved ones a lot more than we had been previously which is our favorite thing to do.

 Avery graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Computer Science and is currently working for Rocket Mortgage.  

Luke graduated from Minnesota State University in Mankato with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and is currently working for Wells Fargo.  

Both boys graduating and finding full-time jobs was definitely a highlight of the year.

We used the boat this summer probably more than any other year before which was a definite plus for 2021.

Reviewing my blog from the past year, I find that I share a lot of critter pictures.  We had a family of fox in our neighborhood this year, so we captured many shots of these cute little guys.  Some of our neighbors found them to be a nuisance, but we sure enjoyed having them around.

We had a family reunion in Lake of the Ozarks as Grandma Linda had been wanting to do that for quite some time.  Now it's been checked off the list.

We celebrated my 51st and Luke and Avery's 22nd birthdays in Las Vegas.  Krazy Kory & Young Ben joined us for the celebration.

Blue wishes he had a more exciting year.  Hopefully we can meet his expectations better in 2022.

We stepped in there and bought Vikings season tickets for the first time.  The team hasn't done quite as well as we would have liked but we did get to watch a lot of good games.  It was fun even if we did lose a bunch of them.

We had an opportunity to spend the day with Uncle Cliff back in September.  Unfortunately he was in town to attend his sister's funeral, but we did have some time to enjoy his & Bailey's company which was great. 

In October, a group of us went to see comedian Bill Burr perform at Mystic Lake Casino which ended up being a pretty crazy night.  He's a funny guy.

Grandma Linda joined us for Thanksgiving which made Blue pretty happy.

It certainly had it's shares of ups and downs, but all in all we were very blessed in 2021.  I have a good feeling for 2022 that it just could be our best year ever!  

I hope you all have a fantastic new year!!