Snow Bunny

E enrolled in Ski School at Elm Creek Park this winter and passed the short course with flying colors.  Bring on the moguls!

Fire & Ice

 An extended day of fun in the unseasonably warm January sun... 

Afternoon hooky to check out Eden Prairie's Ice Castle then skating and a bonfire at dusk with the neighborhood on our backyard pond.

Winter Break

 

With Evs in Kindergarten, our family/work schedule is now at the mercy of the public school calendar.  So, with the 2014-15 "winter break" we had 17 days of 24/7 family time, i.e. no school/daycare (the longest stretch since E was an infant).  

The holidays filled nearly a week of that block, but we had lots of time with just the four of us (& Big G), and tried to do one special event daily.  We hit the dog park, slid at an indoor water park, went rock climbing, and spent a few nights at Grand View in Brainerd, to name a few.  It was a fantastic way to wrap up 2014, and kick off 2015!

Now, back to reality...  

Travelin' man

[Editor's note:  Perhaps a misfit work post in a family blog, it's been a wild ride of a year for me at the Mills, and felt worthy of sharing.]

A "sprint" assignment (Jan-Dec 2014) had me on the road nearly monthly (see my 2014 travel mapped above), either connecting with the biggest game-changers in the world of emerging technologies, or on stages in front of hundreds of conference-goers pushing the marketing research industry to modernize (with said emerging technologies).

While taxing (especially on Linds as she holds up the fort back home!), it's been a great professional experience, career-wise, honing my public speaking skills, seeing the future and staying on top of industry and technology trends, enjoying a very geeky "15 minutes of fame", and connecting with potential GMI partners.  

On the personal front, it's been an even more wonderful opportunity to eat, drink, run and tour some of the country's (and Canada's & Europe's) greatest cities (Baltimore, Boston, Miami/South Beach, LA, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Nyon, Berlin), experience some of the most amazing and technologies that will dramatically disrupt the world, in a good way, in the not-so-distant future (e.g. artificial intelligence, 3D printing, advanced robotics, quantum computing, the internet of things, virtual & augmented reality, etc.), tour some of the world's most innovative spaces (e.g. NASA's Research Park, Singularity University, Harvard's Innovation Labs, start-up labs in Silicon Valley, Lowe's Innovation Labs, etc.), oh, and, along the way... catch up with long lost friends across the globe (Dustin, Dan, Aaron, Anna, Adam, Kerry, Joe, Sushant) and make some new ones along the way. 

Anyway, find above my year on the road in pictures...