Wow! It’s been an eventful year! I’m now presenting, in pretty much chronological order, some highlights of 2025 in the McArthur family:
New Year’s Day, starting with a bang!
It wasn’t cold enough in the new year, so we decided, with friends, to head where it was far colder! We went to Duluth, Minnesota to look for an eruption of Owls… and saw several wonderful specimens!
Just north of Lincoln is Branched Oak Lake, and it’s a great place to find Bald Eagles.
The snow is prettier in the parks than on our driveway!
I continued work on fixing up the garage. Here I’ve upgraded the electrical outlets, and installed heaters.
When the new year arrived, it was finally time to get our motorhome registered in our new home state. Nebraska plates for our recently vacated home!
This cool train museum is just outside of Omaha.
Snow plus high winds makes for drifts… only accumulations in edges. More fun for grandkids to play in!
We headed to Kearny to watch the Sandhill Cranes, and saw Bison too! As well as a beautiful sunset.
Since we were firmly anchored in our new home, the time had come to sell our previous “home with wheels.” Here’s the nice new couple and our last view of our gorgeous motorhome. Hope they have as much fun with it as we did!
April first brought mud pie with gummy worms!
Spring brought color back to our neck of the woods!
Becky displays her adorable creation at our Carving and Conversation Club. We also celebrated Danny’s birthday about then.
The Lincoln Adventist Men’s Chorus included me somehow this year, and here is our performance at the Glass Chapel, about 40 mins east of Lincoln.
Spring also meant we could finally get going on our landscaping! Yay! Everything took longer than expected, and the trees looked bigger on the plans… but maybe this year they’ll grow quickly!
Bryan graduated from 8th grade, so we got to fly to Spokane to celebrate with him (and the family.)
While there, we got to see Loren’s beautiful plane, take some scenic flights, and visit the wonderful Manito park.
We had the awesome privilege of touring Japan with the whole family in June. Fifty years to the month of when Cherryl and I met there! Look what became of that!
A class taught by a real Samurai master gave us experience with authentic Samurai swords!
We had some beautiful Japanese lodging and dinners…
Checking out famous temples and buildings was high on my list. Below is Kiyomizu-dera, one of my favorites. Built extending out over a steep cliff, the ancient timbers seem even more special.
Kinkaku-ji, or the Gold Pavilion, is pretty high on the favorites list too…
And of course, Osakajo, the castle in Osaka where Cherryl and I met, has special memories for us.
By the time we returned home, most of the landscape work in the back yard was finished… but still no fence!
Our little Carving Club had a booth at the farmer’s market held on Sundays (in the summer.) I took a little piece I was working on, with some pictures of how I’d started it.
More automotive work to make my garage upgrades feel worthwhile…
We had a Finch family build a nest in the flower basket on our front porch. We didn’t have to go elsewhere to see birds – we were growing our own!
With the back yard pretty much done (still no fence,) they started on the front.
We met friends at the Czech Parade – Fun, food, floats, friends, and lots of Czech Queens from all over the country.
Lincoln has a wonderful free concert series in the park. We managed to fit in a few…
To celebrate our birthdays, Becky hosted a themed “Murder Mystery Dinner.” Family and friends together being pretty crazy. Great time!
It was time to take the Tesla on its first road trip of sorts… we headed to Wamego, Kansas to check out the Oz Museum. Learned more about the Wizard of Oz books than I believed possible.
Continuing the visits from old pals on motorcycles, Darrell came by for a visit.
I can’t imagine why they would build a garage without a utility sink, so I had one added. We had to rip out a huge section of the wall to get the vent in, but I happen to know a guy who fixes drywall… so nice to have a sink there now!
Becky has won several ribbons for her awesome desserts at the Nebraska State Fair. We got to sample some of the fair’s health food…
Becky had said she’d rather have cupcakes than a big cake for her birthday, so we created this for her:
Holmes Lake is pretty all year:
The neighborhood behind our home is growing fast!
Often trekking somewhere to look for birds:
We checked out the Larsen Tractor Testing Museum with good friends.
Garage and I at work:
On our way to Denver, we stopped at the largest rail yard in the world – in North Platte, Nebraska. My buddy Mike has told me for years that I should stop there, and after driving by countless times, we listened. He was right: amazing place!
Speaking of Mike, here he and Debbie pose with Cherryl, in front of his gorgeous new truck.
Bill and I bought our Tesla Model Y’s on the same day, unbeknownst to each other. Here we share before dinner.
Walking around the lake, we were surprised to see a former colleague Steve and his wife Laura enjoying a walk too. We had a serendipitous lap around the lake with them. Then a fun time with longtime friends Dick and Eleanor at their home up in the mountains. So much fun to visit good friends!
The occasion that prompted this Denver trip was Annie and Ryan’s wedding. They held the wedding at parents Lonnie and Laura’s home, and it was fabulous.
Then a quick trip up to Fort Collins to see Giny and Joe. Talk about longtime friends – we’ve known them since grade school… and that’s a while now!
Kevin and Becky brought a portable fire pit over, and we enjoyed roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on our new patio.
All of a sudden it was Halloween! Cute neighbor kids and their parents stopped by.
Who knew we’d see Aurora Borealis in Lincoln Nebraska?! The best I’ve ever seen them. And I thought we’d have to fly to Alaska in midwinter! Wonderful to have them show up at home!
When I was a kid, I built a model of the Jaguar E-Type, or XKE. It was huge and really detailed. I thought it would be fun to do it again, and found one online. I’m having a lot of fun building it, and maybe in a little while you can see it!
Thanksgiving saw both our daughters’ families together here, plus cousins and some dear friends. We had 25 or 26 for dinner! Great time!! To give the kids something to do that might actually teach them simultaneously, I got a bunch of old electric gadgets from Goodwill, and let the kids dissemble them. It was a blast!
Fun family music fest at Steve and Jeanne’s home. And an afternoon at the Prehistoric Putt mini golf course.
To start the Christmas season, the whole family explored the Lincoln Zoo Lights. Electrifying!
Almost in time for Thanksgiving, our fence got installed! Yay! Thankful!
Cherryl is in a boxing program, and they invited spouses for a holiday party. My first time in boxing gloves! A great bunch of coaches led a very creative party time!
Who knew how much we’d use the jacks in our garage?
Another cold birding day ends with a perfect sunset.
Our clever grandkids starred in the church’s Christmas Program.
The Jag is starting to look like something…
Becky has taught a few classes in chocolate creations, and we were able to help and participate in a couple. You can see the silly Christmas Creatures I was able to assemble…
Another celebration… Longtime friend Malcolm married Mary Jane in California, but we had a reception here in Lincoln to share the joy with all of us here.
We love visitors! So it was great fun that Andrea and Norman called and said they’d be in town and could spend a bit of time with us.
Mannheim Steamroller rolled into town, and we got to see as well as hear them. Pretty cool!
We had Kevin, Becky, Dayna and Peter over for Christmas dinner. Awesome!
And what better way to spend the evening than with a Christmas movie, and the family tucked under a family-sized blanket?!
So that ends my 2025 in the Rear View Mirror wrap-up. God bless you, and have a Wonderful New Year!