2023 - Year in Review

And just like that - 2023 has come to a close! I'll finish this year out with my usual Year in Review post! I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year and 2024 is everything you hope it will be and more! 

January: A good month but a hard month. Ryan and I got in some ax throwing & traveled into DC for the DC Auto Show; Ryan was in his element. We also said good-bye to Watson. My pup was with me for thirteen years and what a wonderful thirteen years they were. We closed out the month doing some hiking to scatter Watson's ashes in some of his favorite places. 

February: A pretty laid back month! Ryan and I attended the Marriage Conference at our church in early February and in the middle of the month we went to Seven Springs for a skiing weekend. Ryan was incredible at it and I barely made it down the slope once! We closed out the month getting tattoos together; that's what happens when I tell my husband to come up with "unique" dates. 

March: What a full month! We began fostering Luna in March; she was a wonderful addition to our family for a short time! We graduated from Financial Peace University with goals to achieve for the rest of the year! The end of the month saw us traveling to Nashville for Ryan's graduation from Sales Fix Academy - we took in a Bu-cee's, downtown Nashville, Loveless Cafe and more before returning home!

April: Another month filled with activity! The month started as we were returning from Nashville, with stops at the Corvette Museum, Buffalo Trace Distillery and New River Gorge in West Virginia! We celebrated Easter and went to a DC Defenders game (shields up!) before the end of the month ... when we hopped on a plane and headed across the pond. The end of April found us in the UK!

May: What an eventful month! We spent the first week of May exploring the English countryside: London, Oxford, Lavenham, Cambridge and many more spots. It was a wonderful trip and we had a spectacular time! We celebrated Mother's Day with my parents at the Mimslyn Inn and on the last day of the month we found out we were expecting. 

June: Another hard month; really hard. After two ER visits and so many prayers, we lost our baby on June 15th. We trust and know the Lord has a plan and His ways are higher than ours, but goodness it hurt to lose that little person we were so looking forward to meeting. We soldiered on and ended the month with a weekend trip to Latrobe, Pennsylvania for an air show and to tour Falling Water.

July: I started the month with a much-needed break. I went to Florida for about a week with my mother-in-law and spent the days lounging by the pool, poking around at Lake Weir and reading on her lanai during afternoon thunderstorms. I even got to meet lemurs and play with them! It was a wonderful way to decompress from June and all it had held. We closed out the month deciding to put our house on the market.

August: We had something happening every weekend in August! We started the month fixing up our house to go on the market and the next weekend headed to Six Flags and Fredericksburg to see friends. The next weekend we were in Florida visiting Ryan's mom and we closed out the month with a trip to DC to check out the Bible Museum. 

September: Another busy and good month! We spent a lot of time outdoors with the Scottish Festival, hiking, exploring and taking in an exhibit at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. We traveled to Virginia Beach for a weekend for an air show and enjoyed getting to walk on the beach... me a little more than Ryan. I also attended our church's women's conference! Oh yeah - we also closed on the sale of our house on September 20th and officially became debt free! 

October: We kicked off the month with some birthday fun; exploring the National Botanic Garden and going to the Chocolate & Coffee Festival in DC. We explored nature as the leaves turned, I went to Luckett's Fall Market with friends and we all went on a ghost tour of Winchester the weekend ahead of Halloween. We closed the month with Halloween - we dressed as characters from Bridgerton! 

November: What a full month! My husband absolutely surprised me by whisking me away for a three-day weekend to the mountains of West Virginia for our first anniversary! We started the weekend getting matching tattoos in memory of our baby and explored the countryside all weekend long, exploring caves and hiking to a waterfall! We closed out the month with a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and a trip to Luckett's Holiday House!

December: Another full month in so many ways! We enjoyed making cookies with Katie and her family and had so much fun at Ryan's office party! We celebrated Christmas with my family a week early with a trip to DC to see the sights and lights and then celebrated a Christmas together - just the two of us. We tried to keep things low key post Christmas and closed out the year as calmly as possible.

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This year held so much - some of it wonderful and some of it absolutely devastating. We made some wonderful memories in 2023 and there are some moments I won't mind leaving behind. We accomplished so much together and I can't wait to see what out future has in store - I know the Lord has great things for us!