2014 Highlights:
Mitya is 8 years old, he is in 3rd grade and studies 5th grade math at his mom’s math club. He made a huge commitment to play soccer until he drops and took his first overnight trip for a tournament in Maryland in November. He and 6 friends formed a “Destination Imagination” team to develop creativity and problem solving skills culminating in a challenge competition in March 2015 (if Coach Dad’s patience with the rambunctious 3rd graders holds out long enough.) Sasha is 13 and in 8th grade at William Annin Middle School (next door to our house) and loves his Stronghold Shock soccer team. He challenged himself with a summer Algebra course this year and enjoys writing, bike riding, and FIFA15 on XBox, iPad, and his new iPhone 6.
Iulia completed her first Half Ironman race outside of Boston in June and followed with a second Ironman 70.3 race in Austin with Wes in October, where we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. For the last year she trained 7-15 hour a week and covered thousands kilometers (or hundreds of miles) on bike and run and about 100 km swimming. Wes was a huge support thought countless hours of training, making her dream come true, but needed to cut his training. For a new challenge he joined the Garden State Track Club, a competitive running club, participated in USATF national cross-country championship in December and ran a 10K race in just over 39 minutes. He also made a new goal for 2015 – finish his 5th Ironman. We will definitely need to work out a training plan for both parents now.
The Basking Ridge Math club continues to grow and enrich the math and problem solving skills of Mitya, Sasha, and other students from the town. Two of Iulia’s students won a prize in local math competitions.
In August Team Cole rode bicycles more than 100 miles in 3 days on the P’tit Train du Nord (a bike trail constructed along a former railway line) through the Laurentide mountains in Quebec, with a stopover in Mont Tremblant.
We enjoyed the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade again this year.
Wes spent much of 2014 splitting time between New Jersey and Austin where he was CEO of a mobile collaboration software company. He enjoyed being back in Austin and reconnecting with family, friends, and favorite run and bike roads, but is happy to be back in New Jersey full-time as of October.
Wishing you love and happiness.
Wes and Iulia