2010: The Year We Forgot To Blog
So long, 2010. It’s been nice knowing you.
Several of my friends — and a lot of people the world over — didn’t have such a great year. Recessions, earthquakes, hurricanes … you name it, and it happened in 2010. A lot of good people spent the year having, frankly, a pretty lousy time of it.
I’m extremely grateful, then, that Katie and I managed to escape pretty much unscathed. I don’t know what we did right, and I can’t offer an explanation for it other than that we’re very fortunate, and we love each other. Life always seems pretty good when you get to spend every day with your best friend. We’re also extraordinarily lucky to have an incredible group of friends and family around to make life 99.999% fun.
So, on the last day of 2010, I’m choosing to look back on the stuff that made the year great. The crappy memories will just have to take care of themselves. Plus. I realized this week that, after not updating my blog for a year, it might be a good idea to do a big recap … so here goes.
We kicked things off this day last year by ringing in the new year … for science! In honor of our friend Alicia returning home for the holidays from a stint working for the Undersecretary of Science in the Dept. of Energy, our friends Dave and Crystal themed their annual New Year’s Eve party around “science.” This meant lab coats and chemical cocktails for everyone.
A year wouldn’t be complete without our annual trip to the desert for the Coachella Music Festival. Except for 2011. We’re skipping the fest this year to bring two more music fans into the world.
We didn’t really have the budget for a big vacation this year, so we made good use of my family’s condo in Mammoth. Our first trip, to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary, gave us a chance to visit Yosemite for the very first time. We took our bikes, and spent a full day riding around the entire valley floor. We made sure to take a bunch of pictures, including a great shot of Katie with Half-Dome in the background as we drove out of the park.
Mid-Summer found us able to make a quick trip to Chicago to spend some quality time with Katie’s family. We were especially pleased to visit at length with Katie’s Grandma Groble and parents. Katie and her dad used the time to scan in dozens of old family pictures, and to talk at length with Grandma about the history behind each photo. This is something I never took the chance to do with my grandparents, so I’m really happy that Katie and her dad made the time to do it with their own family.
For our big end-of-summer vacation, we returned to the Eastern Sierras, this time for our first camping trip as a couple. We car camped at upper Rock Creek campground, managed to not get eaten by bears, and spent 3 days enjoying the wilderness. The highlight was a hike from Mosquito Flats (the highest trailhead in the Sierras) to Morgan Pass, well above the timberline. We then spent about 5 days in Mammoth, hiking, and taking day trips to places like Mono Lake (little knowing that NASA would be discovering new life forms there just a few months later).
At the end of the Summer, Katie said good bye to her “Roaring 20s” with a Prohibition-themed 30th birthday party at our house. Our friends all came dressed in their flapper finery, and we proceeded to usher in the next decade of Katie’s life with more than a few libations.
The biggest news of the year, though, was waiting for the day AFTER Katie’s birthday … when we found out that she was pregnant. We’d started trying in mid-August, thinking it would take us a while to conceive. Apparently, we’re more fertile than we thought.
This proved to be doubly true when, several weeks later, our nurse midwife informed us that we were having twins. We now know that we’re expecting two girls in early May.
Speaking of babies, several of our close friends brought new faces into the world this year. Aaron and Gissela introduced the world to their daughter, Zoe. A week later, our good friends Mike & Joni in Chicago welcomed Dexter to earth. And this Fall (on the same day we found out we were having twins), our close pals and neighbors John & Alicia gave birth to beautiful Juliette. We’re thrilled for all of them — selfishly, too, because we get to pick their brains for advice AND because our little girls will have plenty of playmates their age.
We rounded the year off by spending Xmas with my folks here in Tustin, and then with Katie’s family, plus Mike & Joni, Erika & Rick in Chicago.
Phew. That didn’t even account for all the concerts, birthday parties, work crap, house stuff and so on that filled in the countless days and weekends throughout the year. Good stuff.
2011: be good to us, and to everyone.
Happy New Year!
[...] I thought, after posting my big year-end wrap-up at the end of 2010, that I’d effectively shamed myself into blogging more on my personal site [...]
36 « Sean Flinn said this on June 22, 2011 at 9:39 pm |