Virtual Christmas Card 2020

We are back with our annual, virtual Christmas Card! Maybe some day we will actually send regular Christmas cards, but for now this is a way for us to share our year in a lot of detail. 

First, I will fill in the second half of our year and then I will do a 2020 wrap-up. We finished the summer out with five more 14ers/camping trips, including Mt Bierstadt, Mt Elbert, Mt Oxford/Mt Belford, and Mt Sherman! Of those, my favorite was definitely Mt Oxford/Mt Belford. It was a double summit, meaning both peaks are above 14,000 ft and we did them in one day. We were both dragging our feet by the end of this hike, but the views and feelings of accomplishment were definitely worth it! We also made a trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in July! We camped right inside the park and did a couple of different hikes. Even though the hiking on the dunes was a lot shorter distance than we normally do, hiking in sand is no joke! 

Starting out on Bierstadt

Partway up Bierstadt

And we made it!

The Great Sand Dunes

The Great Sand Dunes from a distance!

Do I look so Colorado yet??

A little intimidated by how far away the peak looked!

In August my parents drove up to Frisco, CO where we were able to meet them to do a little bit of biking, shopping, and just spending time together. A quick trip, but it was great! 

Also in August we made a very quick trip to AZ to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary! We had a nice adults-only dinner which was a highlight of the trip. No pictures, whoops! I'm realizing we are pretty bad at taking photos of a lot of these fun memories. 

In September we went to our friends Emily and Chris' wedding and it was beautiful and so fun! She and Chris are amazing friends to us!

Mason, Mel, Emily, Chris, and us! 

We took a little hike to see Fall colors somewhere in there. Jeremiah loves fall colors! I mean I do too, but he like them with just a little bit extra awe. 

I ran a half marathon!! It has been a goal of mine for SO long. I have had injury stop me before, but I had no problems this time. I was just consistent all summer and it paid off! 

We were also able to host the Dwights in early October so of course we had to do a hike and still managed to get some fall colors even though it was nearing the end of the season. It was a quick visit, but always nice to have them in town.

Jeremiah is a big fan of pumpkin-carving around Halloween so we always make the time to pick out pumpkins and carve them up! I, on the other hand, did not grow up carving pumpkins and quite frankly it is hard work! So Jeremiah's designs always are much more thought out and detailed than mine, but hey it's a fun tradition either way. We also watched a semi-scary movie (more of a thriller, "Get Out" it was called and it was really good. Highly recommend it!) and ordered food in. Also on the actual night of Halloween we went to our friends' Mel and Mason's house and had a delicious fall-themed meal complete with soup served in acorn squashes and pumpkin cheesecake. Too bad I don't have a picture of the meal because it was beautiful too! 

In November we made the drive to Gunnison, CO (about 4 hrs away) to where my friend Stacey lives! She got a job there after we graduated so she made the move and we had been trying to make a trip out to see her for awhile. Luckily we made it before the Winter got too underway. We hiked, ate lots of good food, explored Crested Butte, and played games! Once again, it was a really quick trip, but it was so great to see her! I'm trying to get her back out here to Denver for the Super Bowl next, so we will see if the weather holds up for that! 

One of the most anticipated trips of the year going in to 2020 was our trip to Disney World with Jeremiah's family! It was our one trip that did not get cancelled when Covid hit, but we were still holding our breath until we were practically on the plane, knowing it could get cancelled at any time. But thankfully it did not and we travelled to Orlando and had an absolute blast!! This trip was in part a celebration of my graduation and it was fun, at every dinner we would cheers and Jeremiah's dad would say, "congratulations on graduating!" So it was a fun little reminder for 5 days straight of the celebration of my graduation! We arrived there before his family because coincidentally one of Jeremiah's friends from college was getting married in Orlando that week! And what do you know my sister Emily was also there that week to visit a friend! All perfect timing for us, so we met my sister for brunch, we went to our friend Ryan and Emily's wedding, and spent a couple of days in the park before his family arrived. The wedding was gorgeous and had really fun, Disney-theming to it. For example, our table was the "Toy Story" table and the background music during the ceremony was instrumental Disney music. We also were lucky enough to catch back up with the newlyweds in the Magic Kingdom park the following day to spend a little bit of time extra together! (And yes, I have mentioned three people named Emily just this post. We have sooo many people names Emily in our life). 

With Jeremiah's family we went to each park, one per day, ate soo much good food, rode everything we wanted to, explored Disney Springs a bit, and had great conversation! We were so glad this trip came together and actually happened! And we all stayed safe and healthy before, during and after so that is even better! 

Thanksgiving was very low-key for us this year. Having just gotten back from Disneyworld we were particularly cautious of being around others so we just had dinner the two of us. I worked a half day Thanksgiving morning while Jeremiah was busy baking bread for us. We decided that since it was just us two it would be a great opportunity to eat whatever we wanted, traditional or not! We went completely untraditional and did mac and cheese filled Sourdough bread bowls! Can you say carbs on carbs?? It was delicious and just really fun! We also FaceTimed both of our families, and watched a movie that night. 

I mean, does this not look better than turkey??

Then it was suddenly December! And the beginning of December is probably my favorite week of the year. It is my birthday and Beaver Creek trip! This was another trip we were holding our breath over waiting to see if it actually happened and were so thankful when it did! My family came in to town for the annual trip and we skied three days in a row, we played games, we talked, and all around just loved the family time together! Once again we were also grateful to have all remained healthy before and after! 

This was the easiest goodbye I have had in awhile too because just a couple of weeks later we flew home for Christmas. Last year we didn't get to go home for Christmas so we were both very excited to have a more traditional Christmas this year. Our trips to AZ always fly by because they are packed full of the best memories! Christmas Eve with Jeremiah's family, Christmas Day with mine, roller hockey, games, lunch with Tommy and Emily and seeing their new house in Scottsdale, and celebrating our nephew Preston's 4th birthday! We were very thankful it looked more or less normal for us. 

Mae enjoying some whipped cream!

New Years Eve was another quieter holiday than normal for us. You know, since we're usually such big partiers... We made steaks on a new grill I got Jeremiah for Christmas, we watched the new Disney movie "Soul," and talked all about the past year and the coming year. I love to ask those classic questions of favorite memory, biggest thing you learned, thing you're most looking forward to in the new year, etc. 

In between all of the fun we have managed to have in 2020 we have both been continuing on at our same jobs, Jeremiah at Stryker and me at the Center at Northridge. I have been learning a lot each day and getting better slowly but surely. I get to interact with a lot of really great people and help them get better, so that is pretty special! It is a challenging environment to start out in because of all of the Covid precautions. No family members allowed, no patients allowed outside of their rooms, etc. I have had dozens of Covid tests at this point and have been learning to get creative in the challenging environment. Jeremiah has continued the part time in the office and part time at home set-up which he enjoys the flexibility of but of course still misses some of the camaraderie of the normal office environment. Stryker does a good job of trying to do Zoom social hours, holiday parties, etc. so that is nice of them to make that effort! And really big news for Jeremiah's work. Drum roll please... He got rookie of the year!! And let me tell you, he earned that! He is an incredibly dedicated, hard worker. But I may be a little bit biased. He got 12 separate nominations and there were 46 eligible rookies for the award! Go Jeremiah!!

Other little things we have been able to do include a few dinners with our friends Scott and Liz, celebrating their daughter Claire's first birthday, and weekly Wednesday morning runs with Liz. We did a staycation for our 10th dating anniversary at The Crawford Hotel in Union Station. It was beautifully decorated for Christmas, we had a tapas-style dinner, got breakfast in bed delivered to our room. It was extravagant for us so it was a fun way to celebrate! We were also able to see Jeremiah's cousin Carly and her boyfriend, Josh for dinner. They were in town for a trip up to Breckenridge but made a little time to see us! It had been since our wedding since we had seen Carly so we were so glad to finally see her again even if it was just a short time. We have made pizzas and had ramen with our friends Lexy and Jared, and Lexy and I have gone on hikes, walks, and bike rides. And besides that, we've done puzzles, read books, played games, watched football, watched the bachelorette, had more FaceTime dates with Tommy and Emily, Jeremiah has gone to a couple football watch parties at his boss’ house, we’ve gone on a winter hike, switched back to Zoom small group,  watched virtual church, tried cooking new meals, baked more bread, and much more! 

Little Man Ice Cream. What else??

Wandering around our beautiful city! 

My sweet friend Lexy brought Acai bowls after I had a very hard day at work.

Look at that beautiful sourdough! Jeremiah is mastering his techniques!

Jeremiah was in San Diego for Ryan's Bachelor party in September

A spontaneous Oktoberfest date in Boulder. I drank maybe 1/4 of that!

Inside Union Station for our staycation

We kicked off the year with a ski day in Copper Mtn. The first of 6 ski days we have planned this Winter. It was a beautiful, blue sky day and not too crowded! 

2020 was a much-anticipated year for us, with graduation, lots of trips, start of my career... Many of our plans were changed and cancelled, as everyone's were. But we both feel like we did a good job adapting.  We were able to still do many of the things we wanted to, we tried new things, we got creative. Obviously we can't deny it was a really hard year too. It was pretty hard entering into the workforce period, but in healthcare during a pandemic it added another layer of overwhelming! Especially when I have been used to the normalcy of school for my whole life! Then of course all of the chaos of the world that our eyes were opened to this year. We learned a lot. And are definitely still learning every day and wrestling with our own biases and opinions and questions! 

Entering into 2021 we have a lot fewer concrete plans then we did in 2020. Not many plans at this point at all really. We are just open and ready for whatever comes our way with work, family, friends, vacations... Sure we have hopes/tentative plans for what's to come, but if we learned anything in 2020 it's that you can never plan too much! 

We hope you all have a wonderful 2021 - whatever comes your way! 

Doctor, Doctor, Give me the News!

Can you believe we're halfway through the year already? About 2 weeks prior to July 4th people started setting off fireworks in our neighborhood which is pretty much the only reason I realized that we were almost to July. What a strange year it has been so far... I hope that in this year you all are able to find some silver linings, to learn and grow from things being exposed in the world, to get creative with family and friends, and to find some sense of normalcy! We are trying to do all of those things the best we can here!

There have definitely been some exciting things happening for us that have been silver linings in this time. For one, I graduated with my Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Regis University! Oh yeah!! The whole reason we moved here to Colorado! It was hard not to end the program in person with my classmates. We went through so many experiences together that it felt like it needed a more conclusive ending, but my family put together this amazing virtual graduation ceremony for me and some of my closest friends from school. If you are reading this blog, you were probably watching that in fact. But it was really amazing and really made it feel like a satisfying conclusion to so much hard work! I mean they even played an old Regis commencement speech, got one of my professors to create a video speech, and gave us each a little time to say a few things. It was really cool. And I know I have said this on our blog before, but it has to be said again. Don't I have the best family??

Regis DPT Class of 2020!

A couple of weeks after the virtual graduation ceremony I took the long-awaited NPTE, the national licensure exam for PTs. I was originally supposed to take it April 23rd, but because of Covid things got postponed. It was a bit of a mess there for awhile and I wasn't even sure if I would be able to take it until July, but I was able to secure a date in May thankfully. I put a ton of studying into this exam. I was really proud of how much I prepared and I felt ready to crush it. But then on May 18th when I walked out of my exam I felt crushed because I really did not feel good about it. I pretty much was immediately convinced that I had failed it. Poor Jeremiah had to listen to all of my concerns/frustration/sadness for a week while I waited for the result. And then a week later I found out I passed!! It was immediate tears of joy and relief when I got that result. With that I officially became a licensed PT: Hannah Dwight, PT, DPT (yes, that is the official way it is supposed to be written. Seems redundant, I know.)

Studying outside with Lexy!

During that week of waiting on my result, Jeremiah and I rather spontaneously decided to take a weeklong trip to AZ! We were both anxious to see our families and we love an excuse for a good road trip. Beautiful scenery and I mean, road trip snacks. Enough said. I was up to absolutely nothing and fortunately Jeremiah's work is flexible enough currently that he was able to work from home that whole week! So Saturday of Memorial Day weekend we took off from Denver, passing through Durango on our way to Phoenix. It was a route we had yet to do so we were happy to see some new parts of CO. We started the week of staying with my parents, then the second half of the week with Jeremiah's parents. We always try to do an even split, and it usually works out pretty well! With my family we had a few big family dinners, a pool day for Memorial Day, a Memorial Day "Murph" workout with my brother, took some new family pictures, Jeremiah golfed with my dad and brother, a couple of nice walks with my mom, more pool time/playing with all of the kids, and a bike ride with my dad. It was on this bike ride that I found out I passed the NPTE. We were at a stopping point and I quickly pulled out my phone to check if the result has been posted and sure enough it had! That's when the tears exploded immediately. I think my dad was a little surprised because he didn't even know I was checking at that moment, and I just shouted, "I passed!" I called Jeremiah right away to tell him and I think he was just as relieved and happy as I was. He definitely went through school right by my side the entire time. The rest of the bike ride was pretty carefree after that and certainly made the rest of the week in AZ a little extra happy! At my sister's house that night she even had decorated with streamers and balloons and bought a cake! So fun!

As I said, the second half of the week we were with Jeremiah's family! With them we played games, went to our first meal out since the start of Covid, saw Jeremiah's grandparents from a distance, worked on a puzzle, and helped make arepas for the first time! That was fun, and also delicious! I love having two very different experiences with each of our families. Mine is busy and loud most of the time, and Jeremiah's is quiet and simple. We always look forward to having both. A trip to AZ isn't complete without either! And while we were in AZ of course we had to stop by Tommy and Emily's to see them! We just ate Crumbl cookies and talked! It was great!

Happy third anniversary, my love!

On our way home we drove up through Moab and across all of Western Colorado. We just wanted to see the red rocks of Monument Valley and Moab, but turns out this wasn't a great idea because the Native American Reservation we drove through was supposed to be closed to through traffic even though there weren't any signs indicating that. But we got pulled over and warned that nothing was open and we shouldn't make any stops. He also warned us that we could get pulled over again from another officer and be fined $1000/person in the car. I was just a touch anxious driving the next two hours while we were still on the reservation but fortunately we had enough gas and were not pulled over again!

Once we got home I started to loo more seriously at jobs and one of my classmates posted on our class Facebook page that one of the sites she had a clinical rotation at was seeking to hire someone. I quickly reached out and went in just a couple of days later to speak with the Therapy Director. He pretty much offered me a "PRN" position on the spot. PRN just means "as needed," essentially a substitute teacher for physical therapy. Things moved rather quickly and I was suddenly at my first day! The thing about PRN is that it should be someone who is pretty independent and can just pick up and go, and as a new grad I am not exactly confidently independent. So for better or worse I was given a quick morning intro/orientation and then thrust into patient care! Fortunately they only started me with a couple of patients and I have been slowly ramping up numbers since. Also fortunately, everyone there is very willing to answer my many questions and they check in on how I'm doing pretty regularly. So the PRN position started about a month ago, and just last week they offered me a full time position which I happily accepted! I didn't expect to find a job this quickly in this crazy Covid job market right now, and it is adjacent to what I want to be doing long-term, so I feel very fortunate. I will admit it has been hard though, because I want to be a really good clinician for my patients and as a new grad I just feel like I am trying to stay afloat, rather than really providing the highest quality of care at this point. There is so much paperwork to stay on top of too that I am struggling to keep up a little bit, but also trying not too focus too much on the paperwork so that the patients are my number one focus. Needless to say, it's been an adjustment! But I am trying to remember that I am just doing my best and my goal is to do something a little better each day.

My first day!

Meanwhile Jeremiah has been so supportive and as always, my biggest cheerleader this whole time! I saw him go through many of the same things I am currently going through when he was starting out his career at Lockheed, so he has been a great empathizer. Now it is about time I update you on Jeremiah! Whenever I update the blog I talk way too much about myself. Sorry, Jeremiah!

He has continued working about three days in the office, two days at home, so I have selfishly enjoyed having him at home a little more often throughout this whole thing. Also, I didn't mention but my current work schedule is Sun-Wed so we only actually have one full day off together. That really stinks. But that makes it even nicer to just have him around at least one other day at home while I'm off. He has been rather busy at work lately! Which he is simultaneously grateful for, but I think also a little ready for it to slow down a bit! He is currently on multiple projects and helping to onboard a new test engineer so he is spread a little bit then. And if you know Jeremiah, you know he really likes to invest time in things to be detailed and give his full attention to, so that has been a challenge for him. But I think the end of this busy season is in sight, and regardless, he still manages to find a way to do high quality work for everything assigned to him! I mean I guess I don't really know that because I'm not working with him, but come on, we all know he is. I also think I mentioned that he has gotten more into bread making lately. As I am typing this he is carefully inspecting his sourdough starter as he is preparing to make a loaf this weekend! Most recently he made a couple of delicious white and wheat sandwich loaves. My mom had just given us a jar of her homemade jam that we were able to use on it, and there is not much better than a hot, fresh piece of white bread with homemade jam on it.

Another one of Jeremiah's bread creations: Focaccia! So delicious!

A couple of weeks after we were in AZ my parents flew up to us and we drove into the mountains for a weekend in Leadville. Leadville is the highest elevation established town in the US, if you didn't know! Jeremiah and I were supposed to be going to a friend's wedding nearby, but she had to limit it to immediate family only unfortunately. Still I got to celebrate her the Friday before her wedding with a "Bride's hike" and picnic lunch. It was a really happy, celebratory time regardless of the situation! The rest of that weekend Jeremiah, my parents, and I did an 11 mile hike/nature walk around Turquoise Lake right outside of Leadville and an 8 mile hike the following day to Chicago Lakes near Idaho Springs, along with wandering around the town of Leadville and Idaho Springs a bit. Both hikes were beautiful and it was so great to have three days of hiking in a row. I love just being out in nature and enjoying the quality time!

The adorable picnic lunch off of the beautiful Twin Lakes as part of celebrating Mel and Mason! 

Mel and Mason are on the ones sitting in the middle! 

Jeremiah's graduation gift to me was a weekend trip of hiking in Beaver Creek, camping somewhere in the mountains, and going white water rafting! So a few weeks ago I cashed in on that and we had such a fun weekend! We drove up Friday morning and found a campsite at Guanella Pass and set up our stuff, then drove up to Beaver Creek for a hike to Beaver Lake. It was so quiet up there, it was gorgeous. We have only ever been in the winter so it was fun to see it in the summer. We were speculating whether we could sneak into the Timbers (where we stay in the winter) for their 3:00 cookies while we were there, but alas we decided not to! We wandered the village for a little while, but most places were closed so then we just headed to our campsite to enjoy the evening. It ended up getting super cold that night so we probably weren't quite as prepared as we should have been, but we still enjoyed ourselves! The next morning we got up and headed to our rafting site. They supplied us with full wetsuits and booties so we couldn't feel the full effect of the 38 degree water! Really it wasn't bad at all with the gear. Neither of us fell out, and we got to be in the front of our raft so we were definitely in the full splash zone! A job well done to Jeremiah for planning such a fun trip and graduation gift!

Beaver Lake

Last weekend (4th of July), Tommy and Emily came to town for a visit! We were not sure basically up until they were on the plane whether they were for sure going to come or not because of Covid. But they came and we just tried to be extra cautious with the activities that we did, and we had such a great long weekend! We went on a beautiful hike that quickly turned into a freezing, rainy hike, we watched probably 30 fireworks shows happening from the top of the hill that our apartment sits on, we bought paint supplies and found a spot to paint the scenery, we picked out beers to make our own flights at home and ranked them, we played a bunch of games, and of course ate lots of delicious food. I did have to work the last day they were here, but I got three full days with them still. The one day that I worked Jeremiah took them to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs and got sushi (since I'm the only one who doesn't like sushi it was perfect). We slacked on pictures both for this weekend and the whole week we were in AZ, but that just means we were having too much good, quality time!

Other miscellaneous things that have been happening in our lives (that I will fill in with pictures as well) include celebrating our third anniversary. We were in AZ on our actual anniversary so once we got home we went to Fleming's Steakhouse and Little Man for ice cream which was a very nice date night! I have been consistently running with my friend, Liz, we have gone on bike rides. We have had dinners with our friends Scott and Liz, Tyler and Emily, and Lexy and Jared. We went on a hike and had a picnic lunch with Emily and Chris. I hung out with my friend Stacey and said goodbye to her for awhile as she just moved to Gunnison, CO for a job opportunity there. I have gone on multiple other hikes/bike rides/walks with friends, we have been reading new books, I started a small garden, we have enjoyed continuing to try new recipes, and watched plenty of good shows and movies!

I surprised Jeremiah with a date night to TopGolf!

Easter breakfast! Jeremiah made both the cinnamon rolls and the sourdough toast that you see! He was especially proud of these cinnamon rolls. 

Date night to Oregano's where we picnicked in the back of my car! 

Boba date with Lexy!

So we are settling into more "normal" life since we last updated the blog, branching out with the people we are seeing, but being diligent about wearing our masks, don't worry! I hope those of you reading this are staying healthy and finding some silver linings and things to enjoy.

There is no shortage of outdoor activity to enjoy here in CO in the summer and we are doing out best to take advantage of it.