Annual Family Update 2025

 

Elliot, Libbie, Aaron, Maya
Wilson 
Spring 2025

2025 has been some year!

Here's an update on each of us: 

Maya (13) loved her first summer at German language camp (Waldsee) in Concordia Villages near Bemidji, Minnesota; she hopes to return for high school credit this summer. Seventh grade marks the first time since fourth grade she hasn't been the new kid at school, a fact she relishes almost as much as her main adventure this year, a week with Aunt Kelcie in the Bay area. Closer to home, her adventures number honors baroque orchestra (cello), chorus recitals, piano lessons, youth group, robotics club, honors society, speech & debate, and a lot of homework. Her busy schedule is, in her words, "really teaching me how to lock in and learn." She also serves as our congregation's chorister. Her favorite book in 2025 is Lois Lowry's The Giver, a dystopia about sameness and memory fit for rapidly developing thirteen year olds.

Master of creative side quests, Libbie (16) entered her upperclassman years at Holland Hall with polymathic force, circling summer ACT, FSY, girls, and architecture camps, long hikes through Arches National Park, managing and then playing on her school's soccer team, and stake youth council sessions. Her job evolved from scooping ice cream to mathematics tutoring. She continues to prosper from early morning seminary at 5:45 am in the morning to late evening tutoring, leaving us wondering if sleep is merely an optional cultural construct. She successfully convinced her parents not to move abroad for their next sabbatical, much to the delight of her high school teachers. Her favorite book of 2025 is The Princess of 72nd Street, a witty novel about a New Yorker whose radiances border on mania. With her academic record, she's aiming to prepare college applications outside of Oklahoma next year.

Having hopefully topped out at 6'5" (about 195 centimeters), Elliot (19) graduated in May from Cascia Hall with many accolades. After admission to enough colleges to fill two athletic conferences, he has just completed his first semester in the Honors College at the University of Oklahoma, a short two hours from home, where he is studying on scholarship some combination of economics, philosophy, and mathematics. His favorite book of 2025 is Plato's Republic, a foundational philosophical text on justice whose paradoxical method of written conversation interests him. The rest of the family has enjoyed his self-taught love of Oklahoma Thunder basketball and, as ever, piano played at forte.

Aaron (22) fell in love with skiing this year, spending two weeks over Spring Break and then most of the winter holidays in Brighton, Utah. When not shredding the slopes, Aaron is writing his senior thesis on the relationship between statistics and truth after Nietzsche; not unrelatedly, his favorite book in 2025 was Nietzsche's The Gay Science (1882), a famous exploration of freedom and free thinking. He also completed a remote summer internship creating financial frameworks for value-based investment. With college graduation coming this May, he is exploring job market opportunities, especially introductory research and analysis positions that reward his love of statistics, reading, and problem solving (his LinkedIn profile). He is also applying for more collegiate and postgraduate study in the United States and Europe.

We are excited to follow each of their next steps, wherever they may lead.

Ben spent a summer fellowship revising two book manuscripts in Siegen, Germany, where he collaborated with colleagues researching digital networks and their discontents. During an upcoming reprieve from chairing his department, he aims to spend an upcoming sabbatical finishing those manuscripts. The May trip with his father to Rome, which happened to coincide with the announcement of Pope Leo XIV, proved especially memorable (read more here). Universities in Urbana-Champaign and Chicago, Baltimore and Washington DC, Ephraim, Utah and Stillwater, Oklahoma welcomed him as well. A part-time recovering audiophile, he serves as leader of our congregation's Sunday School. His favorite work of 2025 is Schelling's 1809 "Freedom essay," a high mark in German idealism.

Kourtney has settled into her new full-time career as a mathematics education consultant, contributing to or coauthoring a number of new mathematics curriculum books and traveling to Atlanta, Austin, and Washington DC for work. She regularly donates blood and platelets, enjoys a serious book club with friends, and serves as leader in our congregation's youth group. Her favorite book for 2025 was Russell Cobb's The Great Oklahoma Swindle, a fascinating account of Oklahoma's history. We have lived in that state for more than one-eighth of its history and one third of ours.

As a memento mori, we remind ourselves that in about twenty-five years (the same period between our first courtship and now), Kourtney and Ben will be seventy years old.

We welcome it, wherever the future takes all of us.

We seek to make hope realistic for our country; perhaps our volunteering with a 2024 refugee family, and now dear friends, from Nicaragua has felt the most meaningful. Meanwhile, as a colleague recently pointed out, this short video somehow represents our views of the changes in US politics (and tech) in 2025.  

Our guest room awaits: come visit us in Tulsa. We wish you a peaceful, joyful, and restorative 2026! 

--
For a deeper scroll, a few out-of-order photos from 2025: 

Aunt Kelcie and Maya whale watch and celebrate a week in the Bay area together

Elliot graduating from Cascia Hall with Libbie and Maya

Libbie and Aaron in Arches National Park

Libbie pointing out her trails in Arches

A watercolor of peach branch, one of Libbie's many morning side quests 

Aaron, enjoying the vistas (below) in his newly adopted habitat

Kourtney and Libbie, spotted in their native habitat

Aaron and Ben at a chess tournament in Houston

Homemade Thanksgiving dinner, plate close-up 

Dropping Elliot off at college (with cousin Tucker top left)

Visiting great Grandma Carolyn in Salt Lake City (with Aunt Kelcie and Winston on right)

Thanksgiving Dinner, full table version

All four kids, playing four square in the school park near our home

Maya, in her native habitat on the back patio at sunrise 

One half of the homemade Thanksgiving pies

Libbie and Grandpa John at U Chicago

Cousins at a Christmas lights park in Utah

Grandpa John, Libbie, and Ben in the Windy City

More foursquare action

Kourtney and Maya perform a Christmas cello duet at the Gathering Place (public park)

Libbie and Aaron set out on Libbie's first ski trip ever (at Brighton)

Summer family vacation (with the Pinegar family friends near Dallas)

Friends assembled at Grandma Marsha and Grandpa John's in New Haven, CT

John and Ben in London

Colleague and friend Sebastian Giessmann and Ben in Freudenberg, Germany

Elliot and Ben at Elliot's high school graduation

Daniel, John, Marsha, and Ben in New Haven, CT

The C family with Maya and Libbie at the Tulsa zoo

Ben before the Dom in Cologne, Germany

Grandpa John observes the Turner in London, with trip insights narrated here

A typical lunch salad in Siegen, Germany

Marvelous clouds in New Haven, CT

Friend Ravenia and Maya

Elliot (fourth from right) and peers at a senior scholastic awards ceremony

The family, minus Elliot, gathered in Libbie and Kourtney's native habitat

Ben, Grandma Marsha, and Grandpa John in New Haven, CT

Ben and John before the Colosseum, Rome, Italy 

John and Ben in Rome, Italy

Aunt Susa, Cousin Beau, Grandma Carolyn, and Ben in Salt Lake City

Manuel, Jordi, John, and Ben near St. Peter's Square in the Vatican (more adventure here)

Elliot and friend at high school senior party

Maya, Kourtney, Libbie, and Ben at Elliot's high school graduation

Happy 2026 from the Peters!

Annual Family Update 2024

Happy New Year!

(Yes, it's February 2025 and an 2024 annual update might appear late but, thankfully, we can dust off an old proper theory for late annual updates.) 

The Peters family, a motley crew of young giants and their middle-aged admirers sporting sweet winter hats (thanks Grandma Karen!), remain inexplicably well. 



As a double major in philosophy and the history of mathematics, Aaron, our now distant giant, continues to tutor in mathematics as a junior at St. John's College (Santa Fe) after spending the summer knocking doors selling pesticide in Tulsa. Working on game research, he is eyeing graduate school with his girlfriend after college. 

Elliot, our vertical giant, is finishing high school before looking to college next year (he applied to 22, heaven save us all!): he stays busy with senior year APs (Literature, Physics C, Calc BC), academic bowl, friends, exercising, early morning seminary, church, and piano practiced (how else?) at fortissimo at midnight. He is eyeing economics and philosophy in college. 

Libbie, our giant in spirit, is having a superlative sophomore school year having doubled up in science and orchestra (violin) with extracurriculars circling around friends, early morning seminary, mathematics, piano, academic bowl, soccer, and both Tulsa City & Church Stake Youth Councils. Libbie lived with dear family friends in Switzerland last summer. With her Spanish and German, she is eyeing a possible senior year abroad in a third language.  

Maya, our giant at heart, is prospering in sixth grade at her new school, which she adores, on Ben's campus; before or after school, she can be found participating in student council, a collaborative maker club, robotics, and speech club. Away from school, she fills her remaining waking hours with mathematics, piano, cello, youth activities, new friends, art, and books. She is eyeing the weekend: whew!

The parents, now respectively almost the shortest by gender, feel decidedly less giant:

Ben continues to enjoy teaching, writing, and serving as chair at the local university. In 2024 he gave talks at Cambridge, Yale, and in Los Angeles, with articles appearing in Nature, the Journal of Communication, Wayfare Magazine, and participated in a rewarding second books workshop, among others. For some reason--call it a managed midlife crisis--he became obsessed over the summer with the real of acoustics (and phony home audio), eventually assembling bookshelf speakers for Kourtney's home office (i.e. closet).  

Kourtney has paused her graduate study in data science to accept a new position with a national mathematics education consultancy, which has since taken her on business trips to Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Switzerland, Chicago, and Austin. Looking to cover one seventh-grade mathematics class at her previous school in 2025, she also traveled with a sister to New York City and San Francisco in an entertaining search for the archetypal opera performance (which began with that same sister in Italy in 2023). Apparently, 2024 was a year for adults to pursue quixotic hopes--in our case, audio.  

Other highlights include our somehow surviving 14 separate no-fault auto incidents among now almost five drivers (oh, American carpocalypse!), making nine pies for Thanksgiving dinner, and a visit to grandparents, uncles, and aunts near NYC for New Years. 

Our 2024 book recommendations include Is Math Real? by Eugenia Cheng, A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume, The Story of Your Life & Other Stories by Ted Chiang, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, Avant-Garde Post- by Marijeta Bozovic, Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Struggle by Emanuel Lasker, The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin, and, when in doubt, How to Get an A in Biology.

2024 was hard for those who read the news too. We do not fully buy New Year Resolutions either. Instead we will cheer a future world that improves on 2024. Here is to building a better future together!   

Times Square, New Years Eve 2024-2025

A-Carolin'

Annual Family Holiday Update 2023

What a year 2023 has been! The wars in Ukraine and the Holy Lands, two of our family's second homes, continue to weigh heavily from afar. May we all wish, work, and live for peace. 

  

(Left to right: Aaron, Kourtney, Maya, Elliot, Libbie, Ben at Grandma Karen's house)

Thanks to a fellowship in Germany, our family had a 2022-2023 adventure, living, attending school, and working on new projects in Aachen, Germany. (The previous two posts list unsorted photos from 2022 and 2023, respectively.) Hochdeutsch lohnt sich! 

Maya (11) speaks arguably the best German in the family and went to fourth grade entirely in German at a public school in Aachen, Germany; has blossomed in fifth grade back home in Tulsa, Oklahoma (where she serves in student leadership); practices piano, cello, and choir with some regularity; studies with mathematics and science clubs; is entering the youth program in our Church; and enjoyed returning with Grandpa John (“Saba”) to visit London and Paris this November. She is preparing to enter middle school, with aplomb. A friend to many, Maya is a light and joy in the lives of all who know her. 

Libbie (14) speaks arguably the best Spanish in the family as well as some fine German, given she attended eighth grade in a mixture of German and English at an excellent Gymnasium in Aachen, Germany; she continues to prosper now in ninth grade in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she runs cross country and plays soccer, practices violin and piano with some regularity, and studies advanced mathematics. An early morning seminary ace, she is also president of her youth organization at Church and is preparing to return to life and language learning through living and studying in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, or Morocco in the coming years. A pro student and force for good in the world, Libbie brings focus and charm to all whose lives she touches: for example, a rare gem among her peers, she recently and voluntarily quit social media. 

Elliot (17) spent the year in Germany growing almost a foot (30 cm), towering over us all now at maybe 6'5" (195 cm). He now maintains and is developing intellectual, social, car, and life autonomy through classes and friendships as a junior at a new high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also plays a lot of video games with friends online. Rumor holds he's an excellent student! An early morning seminarian, he also works out at the gym and recently demolished a standardized test meant to help open doors after high school graduation. We all are very excited to see where life takes our resident jokester in the coming years! 

Aaron (20) is now a second year student at a very fine college in Santa Fe, where he is blossoming into the life of mind as an excellent double major in philosophy and the history of mathematics and science. A game strategist, he is developing research interests around applied and theoretical mathematics through readings, essay writing, campus club leadership, and summer courses. When not at seminar, reading, or at campus events, he can often be found hiking the trails and camping among the beautifully austere Sangre de Christo mountains with delightful friends. His parents and siblings felt a recent swell of pride watching him lead seminar conversations on Copernican geometry, Greek vocabulary, and St. Matthew on campus.  

Ben prospered in Aachen, Germany, enjoying many new colleagues, improving his German, and completing what he calls "bad drafts" of book manuscripts on the Soviet prehistory to artificial intelligence, a (brilliantly coauthored) book on Russian hackers, and a book of letters to young college students. In addition to the usual dozen talks a year, he helped launch a year ago a new magazine called Wayfare (more of his scribbles here: for example, on 2024 new year resolutions). Excited to get back to the classroom after a welcomed break, he begins teaching in and chairing his department again this coming January. 

Kourtney also flourished in Aachen, mastering fine German and traveling across Europe with visiting sisters and subsets of our family. Having stepped back from teaching to move abroad, she recently pivoted to join an excellent nationwide mathematics education consultancy, where she enjoys working remotely with a great team on curricular content meant to encourage playful discovery and avoid rote memorization. This January she opens a new career chapter by beginning a second masters program, this time in analytics and data science at Georgia Tech. The adventures continue! 

Our collected 2023 book recommendations include Bates' An Artificial History of Natural Intelligence, various short stories by Ray Bradbury, Capote's In Cold Blood, Desmond's Poverty, by America, Hardy's The Annotated Book of Mormon, Hunt's Fish in a Tree, Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed, and Ukrainka's Forest Song. Something for almost everyone. Enjoy! 

We wish you and the world peace, joy, and good tidings not only during these holidays and the new year but to all years. 

Unsorted Photos from Germany+ 2023

The following photos, which are not in chronological order, come from extended family and friend visits, as well as regular family and school life in and near Aachen, Germany, such as Carnival parades (family), visits to Monschau (Grandma Karen and Doug with family) and Cologne (Jen and Jonnie Wrathall and family), and extended stays in Aachen suburb, Stolberg (Ben). It also includes family, extended family trips to Paris and Metz, France (family, both); Barcelona, Spain and the Almalfi coast, Italy (Kourtney and Kelcie); Bucharest, Romania (Ben); Amsterdam, Utrecht, and den Hague (Madurodam Park), the Netherlands (family, all); and Uppsala, Sweden (Ben). These photos were quickly selected and are not meant to be representative.