2016: A Year in Review

This is one of those posts that probably won't interest too many of you, especially as I've blogged (not too well this year!) about many of these topics already... but this is more of a post for the books. For my memory. For my family... and especially for my daughter. 

Regardless, 2016 was good to us! It was less life-changing than 2015 was, but it did bring along a cross-country move and home-ownership for the first time. Each month was filled with many different events, and I want to remember as much as possible.

In January, we took our first family vacation to Niagara Falls, Canada (with a stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on the way) when Annabelle was four months old. 

In February, we had lots of visitors to our home in Ohio - my mom, followed by Lydia, followed by Michelle! 

March brought Annabelle's half birthday, Dan graduating with his Master's in Applied Physics from AFIT, and saying goodbye to good friends in Ohio before moving to Texas. 

We stopped in Missouri to see family for Easter on our cross-country drive and got settled in Texas in April. Annabelle went to her first air show and (kind of) enjoyed it. 

We traveled to Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and New Mexico in May, and Annabelle got to go on her first six flights, including one Space A flight on a C-17. We visited family and friends on that trip and even took Annabelle to our favorite places from our years in Colorado Springs. At the end of the month, Dan and I celebrated two years of marriage. Exciting! 

In June, Dan promoted to 1st Lieutenant and started pilot training at ENJJPT, signifying the real beginning of our life in Texas. 

July was hot, and we spent a lot of time walking around our neighborhood in the mornings before it was unbearable. 

August was spent with a trip to Branson for a wedding and a trip to Kansas City for a bridal shower and bachelorette party. Dan flew his Dollar Ride in the T-6, and Annabelle and I went to the airfield to watch Dan fly his first solo in the T-6 - how fun! 

September brought our sweet and sassy Annabelle's first birthday, which was a blast, and a family trip to Dallas to take her to the zoo for the first time. That month ended with a trip to Kansas City so I could stand by one of my best friend's side as she became a wife, and then Annabelle and I visited another best friend in St. Louis so we could meet Baby Huxley! I also finished my exclusively pumping journey, which was a long but well worth it year-long extravaganza for me. 

In October, Annabelle and I returned from our road trip, and we celebrated her second Halloween by taking her to a Trunk-or-Treat event on base. 

November was busy with Dan flying long hours, hosting a giant Thanksgiving dinner, and just living life. 

December brought about Dan completing his training in the T-6 and traveling to Missouri for Christmas and New Years! 

What a wonderful year we had as a family. Here's to 2017 - hopefully it will be even better!

First Vacation as a Family of Three: Niagara Falls, Canada

Back in January, Lieutenant Lovemuffin had a three day weekend due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so we decided to head out on our first official family vacation as a family of three! Of course, we had already traveled over winter break to see family, but it wasn’t a real “vacation”, so we were pretty stoked!

It turns out, Annabelle is a great traveling companion, and she LOVES the snow! Sorry we’re moving to Texas in a couple weeks, kid… you won’t see much snow there. But seriously – it snowed the entire weekend, and she LOVED it.

We wanted to put Annabelle’s brand spankin’ new passport to good use, so we ventured to CANADA! Niagara Falls was beautiful, and it was all of our first time there. (Dan says he went as a tiny baby, but he obviously doesn’t remember it… much like Annabelle won’t).

On our way to Niagara, we stayed one night in Canton, Ohio so we could check out the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I had been wanting to go since we first moved to Ohio, but the three hour drive just didn’t seem worth it for one museum where there’s not much else going on. Since it was on one route to Niagara Falls, however, we got to see it! And how fun it was! There were so many cool Chiefs things to see, along with lots of players who have been inducted. I really enjoyed it, and Dan reacted exactly like he does to football games: he didn’t care. At all.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove the rest of the way through Pennsylvania and New York and ended up in Canada at our hotel. We had dinner and saw the Falls all lit up from our hotel – it was magical looking, but the windows weren’t very conducive to picture taking, so we saved that for the daytime when the Falls weren’t all lit up. We had dinner at an okay restaurant and saw the Chiefs lose their playoff game, so that was disappointing, but I was having so much fun with my little family that I didn’t let it bother me as much as usual.

 

Sunday, we set out for fun! We hiked through the snow, pushing Annabelle in the jogging stroller all the way. She was bundled up tight with a jacket, scarf, and hat and covered with a blanket AND her car seat cover, but the girl is warm-blooded like my side of the family, so the poor thing was sweating bullets despite the crazy cold and snow. We drove back to the USA for some New York pizza, and we hiked around some more. We checked out a cool gift shop in Canada, went to the Daredevil Museum (about people who have tried going over the falls in different contraptions), which was really neat, and ended up having dinner at the coolest Asian restaurant ever, where you pay a flat price, like a buffet, but you order from a touch screen at your table. They just keep bringing you whatever you want, so we were able to taste lots of appetizers, entrées, and desserts, and Dan even had some sushi. Annabelle was a ham, as always, and flirted with everyone around us.

We spent that evening taking pictures of the Falls and then went back to our hotel room. The next morning, we left pretty early since we had a long drive back home. We took better lit pictures of the Falls and hit the road through Canada to go through Michigan on the way back and add another state to our list. We stopped for poutine before leaving the country, of course.

Overall, we had a great weekend and an amazing first family vacation! I can’t wait to do it again… who knows where we’ll end up next?!

Honeymooning Isn't Good for Blogging

As my last post stated, I am getting married NEXT FRIDAY! We will be leaving shortly after for a long drive to drop our cats off with a family member. Then, we're heading to a friend's wedding in another state, and finally, we leave for our HONEYMOON!

After graduation from the Academy, fresh 2nd Lieutenants get 60 days free from all military duty, and we are definitely living it up during that time!

We'll be exploring many different European countries this summer (and even a special surprise - for one week, I have NO IDEA what we're doing or where we'll be, and I can't wait to see what my handsome man picked out for us!)

Due to being out of the country, I will not be blogging... but please don't leave me! I'll be back at the end of July and will be posting regularly again. Hang in there with me... and I MAY schedule some posts for this summer so I'm not just falling off the face of the earth.

• Have you ever been to Europe?
• What's your favorite place to visit?
• Where did you go on your honeymoon?