Happy new year! Per tradition the last couple of years, we wanted to write a year-end wrap-up to 2022! We also made a video of clips we took throughout the year so if you'd rather skip all of the words and just watch the video, I wouldn't blame you! Check it out at the bottom of this page.
First, let's pick up where we left off - September! We fit in one more camping trip at the end of August, just south of us near CO Springs with a nice, private viewing of Pike's Peak! Then Labor Day weekend one of my best friend's from PT school, Lexy, got married! Her wedding was also down in the Springs. More convenient these days living in South Denver! Lexy made a beautiful bride and it was a fun little PT school reunion!
Another weekend, we got to host Jeremiah's family for a couple of days. We went to an antique mall, returned to a favorite restaurant, D Bar, played games, and introduced them to Prost, a brewery just up the street from us. In fact, we walked to it!
The last weekend of September Tommy and Emily came for a fall-filled weekend! We drove into the mountains to enjoy the fall colors and got plenty of them, complete with a couple of different hikes. We also got pumpkin-inspired drinks and stayed at a cozy cabin to really round out the fall feeling!
On October 6th or newest nephew, Reid Robert Lucas, was born! We love him so much and are soo happy to welcome a SEVENTH niece/nephew to the clan! If you know us, you know how much we love all of them and talk endlessly about them. My sister, Heather, and brother-in-law, George, moved to NYC just a few weeks before he was born so he was born in the city! Pretty cool!
Later in October, we went to Rochester, in part to see my Grandma Warren, but also to visit a lot of other family members who live there! We stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's lake house right on Lake Ontario. The night we arrived, a couple of my cousins and their families came over for dinner and had a really nice time catching up! Then unbeknownst to us, in the middle of the night Heather and George drove up from NYC to surprise us! We were woken up in the morning by Madeline and Luke walking into our room and George followed them in and put Reid right in my arms! We were simultaneously confused and very excited to see them! If you aren't familiar with NY, NYC and Rochester aren't close, and especially when you have a newborn who has to be regularly fed! So we were so thankful and happy to have them join us for the weekend and got as many snuggles with Reid in as we could in addition to playing with the other kids! Madeline's birthday was that weekend too, so we celebrated her with an Abbott's ice cream cake - delicious! The rest of the weekend, we had lunch with my grandma, aunt, and great aunt, played a handful of Upwords games with Grandma Warren, went for a few nice walks, made a stop in to Wegman's, watched my cousin, Dan, play ice hockey, had a couple more nice family dinners, and met up with Sarah and DJ for brunch! We always love trips to Rochester!
I was probably way too excited for Halloween in our new house. To actually have kids come to our door unlike in out apartment! Unfortunately being in a cul-de-sac did not bring in that many kids, but it was still fun to see the ones who did! Jeremiah and I watched Hocus Pocus and ate pizza that night too. That's our tradition - takeout and a Halloween movie.
Went to the ASU v CU Football Game!
The first week in November was a trip with the Dwight's... If you know them, you will be able to guess where we went... Did you guess Disneyworld?? That's right, we travelled to Orlando for a fun-filled few days in Disney! We stayed on property, and had a full day at Magic Kingdom, 2 full days at Hollywood Studios, and half days at Animal Kingdom and Epcot! We got quite a bit of rain on our Epcot day, but otherwise had great weather and decent crowds. We also of course ate a lot of delicious food! It was a blast, per usual! That is until, we found out a hurricane was coming our way the day we were supposed to leave and our flight was cancelled. To set the scene, all of us were flying back to Phoenix, Jeremiah's parents and brother on a 2-part flight leaving at around 2:00 and us on a direct flight leaving about 5:00. Getting into Phoenix around the same time, sounds like we got the good end of the deal right? It was even a cheaper flight! Except that the Orlando airport closed at 4 pm. No ifs, ands, or buts - closed. We tried to reschedule, but everything prior to 4:00 was unavailable. No problem, we thought, we'll rent a car and fly out of Atlanta so we could still make it to Phoenix. Well turns out in the case of hurricanes, rental car companies will not let you return the car to a different location than you rented from. So we were stuck in Orlando... For two more nights. And Jeremiah's family made it to Phoenix without issue! We were glad for them, but frustrated at our situation. We missed my cousin's wedding in AZ because of it so we were very bummed. To make us feel a little bit better, we stayed with my sister's friend, Lauren and her boyfriend, Tommy, the 2nd night and went to dinner with them. For us, the weather never got very bad. It seemed to hit the coast really hard though, so we were glad we were safe at least! Since it was a 2-night delay, we just headed straight back to Denver.
For Thanksgiving, I actually had to work, so Jeremiah pretty much did all of the food prep! We decided on a slightly more traditional meal this year except we exchanged ham for turkey, since we both prefer that anyway. We had our friends Mel and Mason over for dinner followed by plenty of Ping Pong in our basement. Mason is really good and always even brings his own paddle!
The first week of December is always a favorite of the year - Beaver Creek! And my birthday! That means the whole family flies into Denver and makes the drive up into the mountains! We were able to take a few days off of work this year so we had some really great family and ski time! We had some incredible snow conditions this year too, including a powder day that was probably the best I have ever skied in. It was so much fun! The crew this year was my whole family + 2 cousins and their families. So 14 adults and 12 kids. This year everyone actually headed back home on Saturday which was my birthday, so Jeremiah and I were able to go out to dinner on my birthday which really never happens! We went to a delicious Mediterranean restaurant, Safta.
The weekend after Beaver Creek we headed to AZ for a different cousin's wedding! It was great to see my family back-to-back and we got to see Jeremiah's family again as well! We always try to split the nights half and half if we can manage! Stephen and Quinn's wedding was beautiful and a lot of fun! The trip also served as our Christmas trip since we were not going to be going back to AZ again for Christmas, so we had a very nice pre-Christmas with both my family and Jeremiah's, and on both sides they really went above and beyond to make it similar to actual Christmas! We also got a quick visit in with Tommy and Emily of course! Unfortunately my dad was not there when we were because he was back in Rochester with my Grandma Warren who was in the hospital. She is since out and settled into a new place with a higher level of care.
Our trip to AZ landed on our 12 year dating anniversary, so we had to take a picture on "the red couch" where Jeremiah asked me to be his girlfriend! See below for a throwback!
Leading up to Christmas, some other highlights included: the Nutcracker Ballet with Mel & Mason, a Christmas lights & hot chocolate drive, a "staycation" at The Crawford hotel in Downtown Denver, the Cardinals v Broncos football game, and listened to plenty of Christmas music throughout! It was a quieter Christmas season for us, but we loved experiencing Christmas in our home and making it our own!
On Christmas Eve, Jeremiah and I went to church with Mel & Mason before coming home for appetizer-y foods for dinner and watched "the Holiday." Christmas morning we had extra large bowls of our favorite overnight oats, opened gifts and stockings, and Facetimed both of our families. Then we prepped some food to take over to our friends, The Hubbards, house. They were nice enough to let us join their family for dinner! I unfortunately had to work the whole week between Christmas and New Years just like normal, but it wasn't too bad because Jeremiah also worked a few of the days, and we laid low in the evenings, not doing much!
New Years eve, we had, guess who? Mel & Mason over! And another friend Kristen for appetizers, hot tub, and games! We also just spent a lot of time chatting since I had written some reflection-type questions out for us to think back on the past year and ahead to 2023!
Before I go on to the first couple weeks of 2023, here are some of the highlights of 2022!
1. Moving into our very own house in Highlands Ranch, CO!
2. Starting a job I really like at Swedish Medical Center!
3. ITALY!
4. Georgia summer trip with lots of family!
5. Disneyworld with the Dwights!
6. And lots of little weekend trips, family and friend time, and just-the-two-of-us time in between!
In the first few weeks of 2023 we have already had a couple more ski days. One with Jeremiah's coworkers, and one just us, both great weather and snow! We also celebrated Jeremiah's 28th birthday with a sushi dinner and presents just a couple of days ago!
We entered into 2023 without much planned as far as trips go, but we have already booked a couple of additional trips for the summer that we are really excited about! And will be recapping here, even if it is months late!
Thanks to everyone who was a part of our 2022. Some of it was what we expected, some of it was not, but reflecting back there were a lot of really wonderful parts and wonderful people that were a part of it! We are looking forward to seeing what 2023 has in store for us!
