2016 year in review

I didn't blog once in 2016. Maybe after you read about all the things that happened in 2016, you'll understand a little more. I have loved having this blog to look back on, to remember things, or to look up information I posted about and I'm sad I've lost a whole year of that, but when you barely have time to sleep, something's gotta give, and for me it was the blog.

For my memory's sake here's a 12 picture review of the crazy, awful, and wonderful year we've had.

1. I started paralegal school at Georgetown University

The main reason why this blog died this year was because of school. I enrolled in Georgetown's paralegal studies program and was working full time and going to school full time for an entire year. It ate up all of my free time, but I learned a lot and made some friends, and came out with my paralegal certificate in the end. Which then led to a surprise promotion at work. You're looking at the legal department's newest and only paralegal.

2. Hal started a new job

Hal very suddenly received an amazing job offer at a really cool biotech he just couldn't turn down. He said Bye Felicia to EY and working a billion hours and hello to growth, new opportunities and a company that is actually working to cure diseases and save lives.

3. We bought a house

After searching for a house for almost a year, we found our perfect little first house. It's exactly what we were waiting for, in the exact neighborhood we wanted to live in, and for the price we were looking for. Seriously, the planets could not have aligned more perfectly. We wanted something that was a good price and wasn't already remodeled, so we could make it exactly how we wanted. We bought a house and left for Asia the next day.

4. We spent 3 weeks in Asia

In January while we were snowed in a friend notified us there was a mistake fair to Asia. $450 roundtrip tickets and a break in-between semesters led to perfect timing to spend 3 weeks backpacking across Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. It was such an adventurous trip and we even came back with a huge dinner table from Cambodia. We had clothes made in Vietnam and ate all the pho, toured breathtaking ancient temples in Myanmar, got scuba certified in Thailand and went back to our village in Cambodia, saw our friends, family and students.

5. We gutted our first floor

We bought our house, left for Asia the next day and while we were gone, this is what our house looked like. The house was supposed to be almost done by the time we moved in, but we ran into some problems with permitting and plumbing, and it took a month and a half longer to finish than planned. Meanwhile everything we owned had to be in the three rooms upstairs, we had to live without a kitchen for two months and without running water for days at a time.

6. We remodeled it into a home we love

I literally just walked downstairs and took this photo since people had been asking for more photos of our house. While it was such a pain to live through the remodel, to say we're in love with how it turned out would be an understatement. We just ran with the ideas in our head, didn't listen to anyone else and are so happy with how it turned out. Now we get to slowly remodel the upstairs ourselves.

7. We expanded our animal farm

Little miss Maeby joined our family in July. We pulled the trigger right as our remodel was ending and rescued this snuggle bug. She was a breeder dog who was turned out and on death's door when the rescue found her. She loves people almost as much as she loves blankets and will snuggle all day long.

8. No more antibiotics

I took this picture the very first morning I didn't have to take antibiotics with my breakfast in almost 2 years. I still take quite a few supplements and tinctures, but my doctor has slowly been weaning me off of them, while ensuring my body will stay strong and healthy on its own. While my journey with Lyme isn't over, nor will it ever be, I'm finally on the up and up.

9. We went to Canada

Neither Hal or I had been to Canada before, so Hal planned a surprise anniversary trip to Niagara Falls and Toronto. Niagara Falls was breathtaking. And we stayed in Kensington Market area of Toronto, a wonderful hipster neighborhood which we loved. We also found Toronto was plentiful with mangosteen, our favorite fruit, which is hard to find in America.

10. Hal turned the big 3-0

Hal turned 30 the day after I finished school, and I was so glad we got to celebrate together. I threw him a surprise birthday party. We were so honored so many friends from all different parts of our life came together to celebrate Hal with us.

11. We ran a Spartan Sprint

Spartan Sprints are a 5 mile 25 obstacle race. I viewed this race as a sign of conquering Lyme Disease. For the first time in almost 3 years I had the energy to work out, so I set the goal to run the race with Hal's family. We had so much fun. We did it all together, helping each other and encouraging each other along the way. I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait until we do it again.

12. We survived

Hal and I enjoyed staying home for Christmas last year so much, we decided to do it again. We hosted Christmas Eve for some friends, then headed down to Williamsburg and spent some time in Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. It was so nice to have some time to do nothing but hang out and reconnect after such a busy, stressful year.  When 2015 ended, it was such a hard year and I remember writing the year in review just feeling like the hard times weren't over. While this list focuses on the wonderful things that happened to us in 2016, it was a hard year on so many fronts for both of us. We made it through remodels, awful elections, sicknesses and school and have finally made it to the other side of 2016. Thankfully it feels like 2017 is also going to be on the up and up. 

Christmas 2015 and Charlottesville

I'm so far behind in posting and I don't even care anymore. I'm working full time and essentially going to school full time, so if I get a chance to post, it's a lucky day.

We had such an amazing Christmas. After our trip to Cambodia fell through we decided to stay in the DC area instead of spending a million dollars to go home for the holidays. And honestly, it was such a great decision.

On Christmas Eve we had dinner and a little program with 3 other couples who also stayed home. Everyone brought traditions from their families and we played games and laughed and ate so much food. It was such a great night.

On Christmas we relaxed at home and opened presents. We were so lucky that we had such kind family who shipped us presents so we could still share the day with them. After sitting on our butts all morning we headed out to my family's tradition of seeing a movie on Christmas. I've done this my whole life and it's surprising how many people have joined in in the last few years.

Hal's work gave him a last minute gift and we decided to use it and go somewhere fun for a few days. We left Christmas afternoon and headed down to Charlottesville, VA. We took a little inspiration from A Christmas Story and tried to find a Chinese restaurant open for dinner. It took a lot of calling, but we finally found one open and had a delicious Christmas Chinese feast in our hotel room.

We started out our trip by heading up to Monticello. Unfortunately it was raining and super foggy the entire time we were there, but luckily it made for really cool photos. We both thoroughly enjoyed Monticello. It was really cool to see how Jefferson was impacted by his time in Europe and how he drastically altered his designs based on the inspiration he saw all over Europe. My favorite parts were the really cool clock in the first room of the tour, seeing his actual boots in his bedroom, and seeing his pulley door in the main sitting room.

That same day we headed down to see the Great Caverns. I realized I had never been in a cavern before, so I was pretty darn impressed. This is the longest continually operated show cave in America. On the same day Union troops and Confederate troops were given tours of the cave, within hours of each other. You can even see their signatures from their tours still intact. The other really cool thing about this cave is that instead of things growing horizontally they grow vertically, so the have some shapes that are rather unique to this particular cave. They also have a lot of shield shapes which apparently are very uncommon.

Our last day we decided to partake of the famous food in Charlottesville we've heard so much about. Duck Donuts, which we've had before surely did not disappoint again. We did finally get to try the famous Bodo Bagel and man oh man, we're both still dreaming of how delicious those bagels were. Plus it was an amazing 65 degrees that day, so we drove to a park and enjoyed our meal outside while being baffled by the December weather.

I'd highly recommend Charlottesville for a perfect little getaway. Just 2 hours from DC, it's very close to Shenandoah, and has delicious food; which is always the real motivator for us. 

Kiawah Weekend

After our amazing time at OBX, I continued down the coast to Kiawah Island for a very special bachelorette party.

One of my very favorite people had her bachelorette party on Kiawah island, so how could I resist? Friends? Check. Beach? Check. Have a Blast? Check.

It may have been a long drive there, but we had a good time. We went to dinner and ate brownies and chilled without the Netflix. I love when people all take the time to just talk and laugh instead of everyone being linked to their devices.

They had seen a shark the previous day so they hadn't even been in the ocean yet.

Well the beach was pretty much empty and we got right in. This was the laziest beach I've ever been too. The waves were almost non existent. it was great for relaxing in, but not so great for teaching someone to boogy board, or showing off your new found innertube tricks.

Before I headed back to DC we had to round out the trip with one last tradition.

It may have taken us 3 years to get this down, but we're getting pretty good at this jumping thing. And since I'm writing this post ahead of time, I can't wait to celebrate the wedding day of Stewart and Bret. Stewart was my very first Peace Corps friend that I made. She ended up sitting next to us on the flight to Cambodia. We shared our snacks with her, and a friendship was set pretty much right then. I'm so excited she's marrying Bret, a fellow volunteer and how great it has been to watch them get together and seeing their relationship progress.

Congrats Stewart and Bret!

OBX Part Deux

I'm so behind on blogging lately. Work has been really busy, and I guess just life has been really busy too. I guess I've reached the point where I'd rather just enjoy the moment and not worry about taking enough pictures to make a full blog post. So I'll blog when I want to instead of stressing about keeping up with all the posts and what not.

Over labor day weekend Hal and I decided to go to the Outer Banks with some friends. We went last year with 4 other couples from church and had an absolute blast, so we went again this year. This time there were 8 couples in one beach house, and we had an absolute blast.

I didn't take hardly any pictures, but just know that just means we had a fabulous time and I didn't want my phone to die on the beach. We also learned that Hal and I are pretty much the only ones who like sea foam. Something about it seems just so magical to me. So when the waves were crazy after a storm, I had to play in the seafoam.

We basically spent 3 whole days playing at the beach and never wanting to leave. We also learned that innertubes can be just as fun as boogie boards, and are much less work to ride a wave. I can't wait until beach time next summer to have more fun with the tube.

RIP beach, we'll miss you until next summer.

A Day in San Francisco

This past weekend Hal and I spent a little more than a day in the San Francisco area. What was worth flying all the way across the country just to spend the day and fly back across the country?
                        
This guy. Our last living grandparent, Hal's grandpa isn't doing well, so we flew across the country to see him one last time.

We were so lucky that he was awake part of the time we came to visit and could nod his head and speak a little bit. I'm so glad that we were able to see him one last time. It was the first time that I've ever hugged someone goodbye knowing it would be the last time I saw them. You know those people that have such funny personalities that when you see something or hear something you're instantly reminded of that person? That's Hal's grandpa. He always wore those blue jumpsuits with nothing on underneath. And his laugh. He laughs like The Count on Sesame Street, and is one of my favorite things ever about him. Good 'ol CD, we'll miss you dearly.

To temper the sadness of saying goodbye to Hal's grandpa we were so fortunate that his brother was working a MAC event that same weekend in San Fransisco.

We walked all around the city together and saw him in his element at the MAC event, and I was even lucky enough to have him do my makeup at the event. I loved that lipstick so much I snatched it right up. And in case you're wondering, he said it's his go to for weddings this season.

San Francisco has such a fun energy as a city, and has so many beautiful buildings, it's perfect for just walking. Not to mention I forgot how amazing west coast weather is. Coming back to heat and 70% humidity is making me miss those foggy breezy nights.

Beck, Thanks for showing us the town, and being a bright spot in our sad reason for visiting. If you don't follow Beck on social media, you probably should right now. He is such a bright spot of positivity on social media, and he's even making his own organic teas. You can thank me later for introducing you, and tell me you're jealous he's my brother in law. Watch his Konmari videos, they'll make you turn your house upside down, in a good way. Here's his youtube, etsy, and instagram. 

The Narrows & Orderville Canyon: Zion National Park

After hiking Observation Point in full sun we were ready for another water hike since the day was supposed to hit 96 degrees. The Narrows is a really famous hike in Zions, and we could definitely see that at the start of the hike. The trail starts out paved as we made our way down to the water. There are a collection of free walking sticks people have left behind if you feel so inclined. I started out with one; sometimes it was helpful, and sometimes it was more of a hindrance.

The hike starts out walking directly up the river. Then you criss cross the river to sand bars on either side as you go up.The water felt really nice on such a hot day. It may not look like it from these pictures, but The Narrows was SO crowded. There was just a steady stream of people coming down and going up. School groups, families, it felt like everyone and their sister was there.

We made our way up to where a side canyon joins up with The Narrows. it's called Orderville Canyon. We didn't really know what it was at the time and decided to explore and break away from the crowds. I'm SO glad we did. This ended up being one of my favorite hikes during the entire trip. There was way less people, and there were fun obstacles to overcome.

At this point I had to stop and clean out my socks and shoes. They were so full of little pebbles from walking up the river. The water in Orderville Canyon was much warmer, and less strong than in the Narrows.

                        

This Canyon was way less crowded, and the people that were in it, seemed more adventurous hikers. So we took our picture on a log and headed up the canyon.

We made our way to this large pool of water. Which finally didn't have a way of getting around it. We held our camelbacks above our head and swam through the pool.  We made our way through another large pool of water and were able to avoid getting wet before ending up at the area in the video below. Charles found that someone had carved out some hand and foot holes into the rock. With his long legs he popped right to the top. Meagan and I possibly needed a literal butt push to make it to the top. The video is us on the way back.

                                       

We then shortly made it to the picture above. This waterfall at the back of the picture was impassable without repelling gear, so we had to turn around. We did meet this really cool group of young men and their leader who was probably the best hiker I've ever seen. He helped us navigate some paths to prevent from getting our bags fully submerged.

On the way back Meagan and I finally jumped in the big pool of water together. It was a little frightening to think I might not jump far enough and hit rock, but when Meagan counted down I finally jumped.

I wish I had pulled my camera back out on the way back down The Narrows. There was almost no one around us and I finally got why people love The Narrows. It was just stunning. The height of the cliffs was so impressive, and with the sun coming down, it lit up areas and illuminated the canyon.

I can't recommend enough going up Orderville Canyon, and the group we met actually hiked it from the top down, which would be really fun. And definitely try to be in The Narrows in the early morning, or early evening when the big crowds are gone, it makes it all so much more magical.