End of Year Overview, 2019

I’m getting excited to move into the 2020s! This year was filled with lots of activities, including visits to new countries and exploring more of Colorado. One of our biggest changes in 2019 was that we moved into our new home! I am hoping that we’re done moving for a long time.

Here are a few of our highlights from 2019:

• Traveled to the Netherlands during Tulip Season
• Traveled to Italy and visited Amalfi, Naples, and Pompei
• Traveled to Belgium to see Bruges
• Ran the Bolder Boulder 10K
• Bear turned 5 years old. I don’t want him to ever get older
• Ike turned 8 years old, and I hope he makes it to his 25th birthday.
• Hiked our 3rd 14er
• Construction on our home was completed, and we closed in July.
• I started grad school at Rutgers
• Spent a long weekend in New York City
• Reed Graduated with his Masters from Georgia Tech
• Improved our skiing abilities

Europe Trip 2019

I could write so much about our visit to Europe this past April. We spent 10 days between the Netherlands and Italy and also did a day-trip to Belgium. The best part of the trip was visiting the famous tulip gardens at Keukenhof. We stayed at an upscale hotel called the Kimpton De Witt in Amsterdam and had so much fun exploring the city. One of my other favorite parts of the trip was visiting the ruins at Pompeii and going to the top of Mt. Vesuvius. We ate some wonderful food including pizza in Naples, waffles in Bruges, and stroopwafels in Amsterdam. It was an amazing trip filled with springtime flowers and charming Holland windmills.

Our New Home in Colorado

Probably my favorite happening in 2019 was that we moved into our house! We signed the papers to begin building in December of 2018 and construction was completed in July. I am so happy to be living in our own home again after selling our house in Texas and living in a rental for the past year. The process of moving was not the easiest and we ended up living in a hotel for a week with the dog and the rabbit. Our house already feels like a home and I am looking forward to making more memories with family and friends in this house.

Bear has a Big Yard: The home we rented over the past year had a patio with a tiny patch of grass. We now have a good-sized yard for Bear and a 3-post fence so he can look out on the neighborhood. Bear loves sleeping in our bed and begging for treats. He’s had a lot of fun in our new house with all of the snow we received this fall and winter. Bear went on several hikes with us over the summer and regular runs in our neighborhood. He was happy to show off our Christmas tree this year!

Ike has a Huge Basement: Ike once again got a great upgrade with the new house and now has a giant basement all to himself. I let him out of his enclosure every night so he can run around. The builder left some extra carpet in the basement and I cut pieces for Ike to use in his rabbit house. I am thankful that Ike is a healthy and happy bunny.

Cooking Habits: This year we tried a couple of new recipes that turned out great. We’ve been cooking Chicken Biryani and have found that we like Indian spices. We also got a grill and loved making blackened fish tacos with chimichurri sauce. Other new recipes were skillet baked mac and cheese and we made our own Texas-style kolaches. Each year we’re married it seems like the food keeps getting better!

Outdoor Adventures:

Hikes this year involved day-trekking around the front range. We hiked Mt. Evans Loop Trail where we summited two mountains in a single day, a new first for us. We hiked Eldorado Canyon Trail, which is a 20-minute drive from our house and tried more hiking in RMNP. Another new favorite hike this year was Crater Lakes Trail near Nederland. We got too close for comfort to a moose on the hike!

We visited Reed’s parents and walked around the Garden of the Gods. My parents came into town later and we took them to Estes Park where they got to see the Elk herd in the town and go to the Loch in Rocky Mountain National Park.

I encountered two wild cats this year. The first one was a bobcat at the Garden of the Gods. Reed and I had just finished walking on a trail with Bear and we were in our car leaving the park. The bobcat was about 30 lbs. The other encounter was terrifying. I was at a ranch house in southern Colorado for my family’s reunion. I was sitting out on the back porch looking at my phone and all of a sudden I look up to see a 130 lb. mountain lion about 15 feet from me. Thankfully, my mom opened a door loudly and it scared the lion, making it run straight past me. I’ve never been so scared and hope to never be that close to a mountain lion ever again.

Work and School Updates:

I almost forgot to add that I received an award at my work this year. I got the MVP award for my team! I am grateful for the recognition because the award was based on votes from my co-workers. I also received approval to begin my Master’s program to study Supply Chain Management. I had been on the fence about applying, but I received recommendations from my managers and encouragement from Reed to go for it. I applied to only one program with Rutgers and received acceptance in July. My first semester kept me really busy, but now at least I have 9 more classes to go.

Reed Graduated:

Congratulations to Reed on his graduation from Georgia Tech! Reed received his Master’s degree in Computer Science. He was working on his degree for the past 2.5 years and I am proud of him for finishing the program. I even convinced him to go to his graduation ceremony.

Weekend in NYC:

We traveled to New York City at the beginning of December to see the holiday lights. I enjoyed going to the top of the Empire State Building and checking out MET and MOMA. We also found some amazing restaurants. It was a quick trip but really fun to walk around the big city.

Wishes for Next Year

I am hoping to invest in our house in 2020. We purchased the home without adding backyard landscaping, and we are required to have it within the first year of moving in. I want to create a comfortable space where we can host guests outside during the summer. Maybe even a place for a fire pit! The interior of the home is still in need of some more furniture and decorating. It will be fun to spend more time fixing the place up.

We have some big travel plans coming up and I’ll be sharing the details in a new post. Our next trip will take us to a side of the world I’ve never been to. I also hope to try some new hikes in Colorado in the summer and spend plenty of time skiing in the winter and spring. I will be taking online courses with Rutgers to continue working on my Master’s Degree. I hope it will be another busy and adventurous year.