Celebrating 2024

What a year! So many accomplishments and milestones to celebrate. Here’s a brief list (pictures below):

• Preston joined the Wayland High School ski team for the 2023-2024 season and really loved it.  He’s doing it again in Junior year and can’t wait to get out there.

• Joe formally launched his business, Runway Hero, helping companies soar to their maximum potential by navigating the forefront of digital transformation.  Check out https://runwayhero.com.

• In February, the 3 of us enjoyed an amazing week in Val d’Isere, France. The skiing was incredible, as were the views and food.  Such an epic trip!  This was our first time skiing in Europe.

• Joe also got a couple of bonus ski days in with Brian (a co-worker from Fresenius) in Chamonix, France after a work trip to Frankfurt.

• It was another great ski season at The Hermitage Club.  Despite the iffy snow conditions in New England, the snow ops team really pulled together and did some serious snow farming to make it work.  Joe hosted another fun boys ski weekend.

• For his birthday in April, Joe treated himself to a solo trip to the Sun n’ Fun Airshow in Lakeland, FL where he attended seminars and learned a ton about general aviation.

• Preston played lacrosse in the spring after taking a few years off and plans to continue with it again in 2025.

• Graham completed his final season of rowing for the Wayland/Weston Crew Team.  He’s been rowing with them for 6 years!

• Preston also took a trip with his Wayland High Chinese class to Taiwan for two weeks.  He saw so many interesting points of interest and learned what life is like there for kids of his same age by attending a school for a few days.

• Joe & Michelle spent Memorial Day weekend in Nantucket with Jon, Jen & Brendan and saw Becca sail in for Figawi.  The weather was great this year!

• Graham graduated from Wayland High School and received a bevy of awards and recognitions for all his hard work.

• Joe was lucky enough to see Weezer & Smashing Pumpkins play in Dublin while on another work trip for Fresenius.  Weezer rocked…can’t say the same for the Pumpkins who were so disappointing, Joe left early.

• All three of us took a very long day trip to Chatham, MA to hit all of the fam favs, including breakfast at Hangar B, Ridgevale beach, strolling around town for some shopping, a slice at Carmine’s Pizza and of course a stop off at Marion’s Pie Shop and Schoolhouse Ice Cream on the way home.

• We spent July 4th in NJ with the Culley’s and then with Michelle, Tenley and Winslow in Nantucket where we went on a super fun fishing trip together. Joe and Michelle spent another few weeks together in ACK with visits from Duke & Micha, Kate, Carlen and the Beaton’s.

• This summer, Joe chose to give up alcohol as part of living a healthier lifestyle.  This is on top of him giving up caffine 7 years before. He’s been feeling great and hasn’t looked back since, enjoying the challenge of finding N/A options that are enjoyable.

• Michelle’s bestie Kate invited us along to her brother Kevin’s movie premiere of The Instigators in Boston with an intro by Matt Damon & Casey Affleck.

• Graham spent the summer working for Land Rover in Sudbury, MA as a valet in his first 40 hr/week job. He got a good taste of the real world and learned that he never wants to work in a dealership again.

• Joe & Michelle took a quick trip to Las Vegas in the heat of the summer to see Dead & Co at The Sphere.  It was such an amazing show…highly recommend getting to experience a show there.

• While Preston was away at Camp Coniston doing his CIT summer, Graham and Joe did a weekend of camping & biking in Burlington, VT. We crossed the Lake Champlain causeway and toured around South Hero Island on our 30+ mile adventure.  We also toured the extremely underwhelming homestead of Ethan Allen.

• Another great year of concerts, seeing Pearl Jam at Fenway, Charly Bliss and Tedeschi Trucks Band in Boston and Postmodern Jukebox in Germany.

• Graham started this fall at UMass Amherst working towards a bachelor's in Behavioral Economics and is rowing for the UMass Men’s Crew team.  He’s been loving the journey despite all the 5am practices 7 days a week!

• Preston decided to retire from soccer this fall and instead started playing ultimate frisbee for BUDA (Boston Ultimate Disc Alliance).  Coincidentally, Joe also retired from soccer this fall as he decided it wasn’t worth continuing to get injured anymore.

• Joe was lucky enough to be in Frankfurt once again in September, just in time for Oktoberfest.  He attended the Frankfurt Oktoberfest for the second year in a row, only this time drinking N/A beers.

• Michelle and Joe teamed up with Carlen and Thomas and went as Ghostbusters (with legit proton packs and all) to the ‘Quin House Halloween Party this year with Questlove spinning killer tunes.

• This year, Preston got more into mountain biking and became obsessed with Formula1.  F1 is this generation’s WWF…it’s all about the drama between the drivers and owners.

• And last but not least, Preston got his drivers license and Joe got his Private Pilot License, two huge accomplishments.

OMG…you made it this far!!! We’d love to hear from you. Please say hi below or email us at joe@schwendt.com.