2014: A Year in Review

January & February
 

 

We just tried to survive two-under-two in a tiny apartment in the middle of the winter. We spent the entire time passing colds back and forth between the four of us. It did snow once and Claire got to build her first snowman.

 

March

 

 

We moved into our lovely rental home. We enjoyed visits from my sister, Allison, and Adam's mom. We celebrated Claire's second birthday.

 

April
 

We celebrated Easter. We went to the tulip festival. Maggie started sitting up and eating solid foods. Pope John Paul II was canonized on Adam's twenty-fourth birthday, so we threw a "papal pierogi" party to celebrate.

 

May

 

I turned twenty-five over Memorial Day weekend, during which we explored Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill.

 

June

We went on an epic two-week long trip back east to introduce Maggie to her great-grandparents. First, we met up with Allison in the Chicago airport and spent a few days in Ottawa with my grandmother. We drove to Montreal, where we spent the rest of the week. We said goodbye to Allison in the Montreal airport and flew to Orlando, where we spent the next week at the beach with Adam's family.

 

July

 

My parents and brother, Scott, visited from Shanghai for a couple weeks. We went to the Museum of Flight and a Sounders Game. I spent a long weekend in Austin at the Edel Gathering. We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary.

 

August

 

Adam went camping with friends near Mount Rainier. In a curious turn of events, Claire and Maggie spent two weeks taking swim lessons with Adam's aunt.

 

September

 

We spontaneously cashed in some hotel points and spent Labor Day weekend in Portland, where we hiked Multnomah Falls. Maggie finally started crawling. We tried potty-training Claire, which was a miserable failure, but she also went horseback riding for the first time, which was a great success.

 

October

 

Maggie turned one and Aunt Allie came to celebrate. While she was here, we road-tripped to Spokane to visit some of her nursing school friends. We dressed up as Wizard of Oz characters for Halloween.

 

November
 

Claire and Maggie dressed up as Chinese Martyrs for All Saints Day and got their first real haircuts. We tried doing a Whole 30 and gave up after a week. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving break at home, complete with a trip to the aquarium and an unexpected snow day.

 

December
 

We rode the Santa Train in Snoqualmie for St. Nicholas Day and saw the Bellevue Botanical Garden's light show for St. Lucy's Day. We took advantage of our last chance to see the Sowell-Sendak Nutcracker at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. My whole family came to visit for Christmas and we got our first real tree. Maggie started walking!  

 

See 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009 at a glace right here.