Tag Archives: Anticipating the new year

Family Ramblings, Troy's Blog

2014 In Review, On to 2015

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Reflecting on the Setting Sun

Reflection is an important piece in learning but I don’t want to spend too much time on it because going forward provides the ability to experience new things. With that in mind, how did I do in accomplishing my 2014 goals? Here’s what they were from my 2013 in review post:

-Finish the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board

-Explore Gettysburg, Edison, and the Lewis Falls Trail

-Share these travel experiences with others creating life long memories they can reflect on.

-Send Lysa off on her own European adventure

As I look over these I see I only accomplished a parts of most of them. Finishing the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board was close. There were five spaces that I didn’t complete – Flash, Fill Flash, Rock Climbing, and Travel Portraits. There are a couple of reasons they went uncompleted. First, these are unavailable on Peter Carey’s blog, and secondly because these aren’t experiments that seem as interesting or useful for me. Having said that I did start playing around with fill flash late this fall and realized there are times it can be quite useful so I may try to accomplish this space in the new year. Travel portraits are something I should probably pay more attention to as I tend to focus on scenery more than people taking in the scenery. Another goal for 2015.

Looking Towards the National Mall

We did get to explore Gettysburg and Edison but changed our plans to include the National Mall, Valley Forge, and a stop in New York which means Lewis Falls Trail is still on our list of places to experience. I have been debating since we started this National Parks adventure on how many places to cram into one trip and if it should be done at one time or split into multiple trips. Opportunity provided the answer with a conference in Baltimore making more sense to visit areas around that city. Lewis Falls Trail goal will be added to another year. In addition to only partially completed Gettysburg, Edison, and Lewis Falls Trail, I didn’t fulfill the goal of sharing those travel experiences with others. That was a little bit beyond my control. I did share other travel experiences with people beyond the four of us on a journey to Mammoth Cave, Churchill Downs, and a few days in Las Vegas.

Lysa made it to Europe so that goal was completed.

Another goal that I made but didn’t really push for was to take at least 3,500 photos to improve my photography. Surprisingly I took over 5,000 pictures this year. I write surprisingly because by the forth of July I had only taken 1,300 photos so the last half of the year provided more opportunities.

The Sun Setting on 2014

That essentially recaps the 2014 goals. Let’s move on to 2015.

The goals for this next year don’t include quite as much travel at this point. Here there are:

-Explore Padre Island and Hot Springs

-Complete the window replacements at my house

-Finish a few more spaces on the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board such as Fill Flash and Travel Portraits

-Take 3,500 more photographs in an effort to continue improving.

I started replacing windows in the house back in 2011 and figure I better finish all of the windows before styles change or the stain I used at that time become unavailable along with trying to keep all of the windows about the same age. Since there is not expected to be as much travel in 2015 I figured it’s a good year to complete windows.

Celebrating the New Year

Family Ramblings, Troy's Blog

2013 in Review

Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park

It’s always interesting to look over the last year to see where you were so that you figure out where you’re going. We choose what point we call a year in order to do this. It doesn’t have to be when the year changes. Maybe there’s an anniversary of something meaningful or another date in the year that makes more sense for you. Most people decide to do this as the year comes to a close on the calendar and a new one is beginning. I guess mentally it gives us a sense of finality and an opportunity to start fresh with the change of a number in the year.

Questions I like to ask are:  Did the goals set get achieved ? If so, were they beneficial goals? Was there satisfaction in achieving them? If not, why not? Should those goals be extended another year? Where there other achievements that weren’t set as goals but happened anyway? How did those unexpected achievements affect you? There are a number of other questions you can use to analyze the year and how you used it but these will get me started.

An Alaskan Cruise

My goals for 2013:

-Complete the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board

-Explore Olympic National Park

-Cruise to Alaska traveling through Glacier Bay National Park and hiking on the Chilkoot Trail.

-Share these travel experiences with others creating life long memories they can reflect on.

Well, how did these come out?

Before the Photography Experiment

I completed over half of the Photography Monopoly Board but have yet to finish it. I will continue this in 2014.  While working on this I got involved with photography so much that I spent quite a bit of time out and about taking pictures. Just to give you an idea of what I’m referring to, I took over 55,000 photos in 2013. While this seems like an incredible number to me, 48,000 of them are from a time-lapse project covering our entire Alaskan Cruise. That leaves 7,000 images taken while working on photography this year. Still a lot of images to go through for a year. Many of these are not great pictures but I still like looking through them as they remind me of the adventures taken in order to get the images. As I’m sure you can imagine there are a number of really nice photos as well. Just the laws of probability suggest that if you take enough pictures, some of them will turn out. This has created an unexpected issue for me. How do I display the number of images I really like? There are too many and not enough wall space. This photography experiment will continue into 2014 because it has helped me improve and I enjoy it a lot.

During the Photography Experiment

We did explore Olympic National Park and were joined by 5 other family members as we did so creating some wonderful memories while learning some great information. Also, the Alaskan cruise taking us through Glacier Bay National Park and to the Chilkoot Trail was accomplished. There were a total of 14 friends and family on that part of our adventure, 7 of which had never been on a cruise before. There are a couple of posts yet to come from this trip. So, all in all, 3 out of the 4 goals were accomplished. Why is sharing these experiences a goal of mine? I love seeing and doing things I’ve never seen or done before. Probably the only thing that I enjoy more than that is to watch others as they experience new things. These adventures don’t mean much to me unless I can share them. As an example, while working on photography I found a nearby park reserve that offers many opportunities for some great photos. There have been numerous trips there this fall with many more coming I’m sure. Only a handful of times has there been someone with me. It is those few times that stand out for me more than the others because I get to share that with the people who have been with me.

Some unexpected achievements this past year include a couple of trips to the North Shore of Minnesota along with a few weekends camping with friends. One big one was the opportunity for Lysa to go to Europe during the summer of 2014. That one has definitely altered this next year for all of us both economically and time constraints.

Minnesota's North Shore

Moving on, what are some goals for 2014?

-Finsh the Photography Experiment Monopoly Board

-Explore Gettysburg, Edison, and the Lewis Falls Trail

-Share these travel experiences with others creating life long memories they can reflect on.

-Send Lysa off on her own European adventure

May you have new life experiences in 2014 and find some great adventures!

Family Ramblings, Troy's Blog

What Will 2012 Bring?

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The Dawn of 2012

As one year ends and another begins I like to reflect on the events of the previous year. On what worked well, things that did not go so well, and maybe even pass briefly over those memories that are better off forgotten. Why do this? For me, I imagine myself much older and unable to do the things I can now. When I get to that point in life I want to have as few regrets as possible. Whether that be things I regret doing or things I would regret not doing. Reflecting on the past year helps to find things to improve upon or objectives I did not meet as well as those I did. Once I figure this out I can determine why I did or did not meet those goals and what I need to change for the next year. The ultimate goal is to end the year completing all of my objectives unable to improve upon them. Well, I’m sure we all can guess how many years go by that I can improve on nothing else. NEVER!

Watching the World Go By

Last year was almost a blur if went by so fast. Every year one of my goals is always to take a beautiful summer day and watch the clouds float by enjoying a light breeze and the sounds around. I may have forgotten to do that in 2011. Fortunately there were some nights sitting by the campfire after everyone else had turned in for the night watching the fireflies and enjoying the peace of the moment. Watching the world go by for at least part of a summers day is yet again one of my goals for 2012. Along with that, a trip to California to explore Yosemite and a week in Northern Minnesota/Michigan camping in Isle Royale and possibly Voyageurs National Park are on the list of places to experience. Travel tends to be a fairly high priority in my house so many of our goals are centered around that. There are objectives to provide as many experiences for Lysa and Kristy without over doing it. They are still kids and need to spend some time being one.

There are home improvement goals, financial goals, and professional goals to go with the objectives decided on for travel. It is fun for me to look at what we accomplish in a year and sometimes there is disbelief that certain goals are met. I tried the New Years resolution for a couple of years and decided that setting goals was more encouraging and ultimately more successful.