here's our annual year-in-review post! i absolutely love putting these massive posts together every year because it is such a neat way to reflect back on the year. looking back over the past year, so much has happened in twelve months. here are our highlights from 2016 . . .
in january, we
rang in the new year with our families and i set a few
goals for the new year.
i turned 31 and we
celebrated with dinner, cake, and presents and then we had a
party with our families. we also
celebrated 4 years since we adopted leko too! i shared
my top ten photo editing tips and
my mom and i took a women's self defense class.
in february, leko
pretended to be punxsutawney phil and looked for his shadow and the three of us had
a little super bowl party in our pajamas! my parents surprised me with
a private lyrical dance lesson with one of my former dance teachers. we
celebrated valentine's day,
checked out a local ice festival, and
cuddled close with our fur baby to stay warm during the cold weather. i shared some
tips for navigating nyc, ryan and i
visited the nyc transit museum, and we
spent a saturday together in nyc, before i
spent a week in nyc for a conference for work.
in march, we
celebrated ryan's mom's birthday, we
celebrated easter sunday with our families, and we enjoyed the "spring" weather by
hiking around two different trails.
in april, we went on
a little date to see hello, dolly at a local high school, we
cuddled with leko, and we
celebrated ben & jerry's free cone day! we spent so much time outside
enjoying the sunshine and
the warm weather, and poor
ryan came down with a head cold. we
went to an ice hockey game and enjoyed some
biking on a local trail. we took a
tour of historic bethlehem and
toured covered bridges in the lehigh valley with my parents too.
in may, we celebrated mother's day by
throwing our mamas a tea party! ryan
build new stairs leading from our bilco door to a storage area under our porch, and we enjoyed seeing the
spring flowers bloom in our yard. we traveled to
portland, oregon for a conference for work. while we were in portland, we
rode the aerial tram, visited the
international rose test garden, and
ate at some really great restaurants. we
celebrated memorial day and ryan's dad's retirement with our families, and we took
a trip to nyc with my parents to stroll around central park and to see an american in paris on broadway. we also
hiked the seven tubs too.
in june, we
celebrated with colin as he graduated 8th grade and then celebrated again with colin for
his 8th grade piano recital. i
performed in my dance studio's annual spring recital and i was
featured on our local tv station. we
celebrated father's day and ryan's dad's birthday too. we enjoyed lots of
grilling outside in the nice weather. we also took a
family cruise vacation aboard the carnival sunshine with my parents and ryan's parents to canada where we visited saint john, new brunswick and halifax, nova scotia.
in july, we
celebrated the fouth of july with our families. my mom taught
a middle eastern belly dancing workshop at my dance studio, ryan
built a new bench for my dance studio, and my dance studio
celebrated national dance day by performing a flash mob at a local art festival.
in august, we
celebrated six years of marriage. my
dance studio performed at a local town festival and
ryan built benches for my dance studio. we saw
summer fireworks, and we
went to the county fair. we
celebrated ryan's birthday with an hawaiian-themed luau party with our families and with
dinner, dessert, and a bike ride. we took a quick
weekend trip to massachusetts for my friend nicole's wedding (
here's a little video too). we also
went to the harford fair,
worked a blink 182 concert, and took
a trip to ryan's aunt and uncle's cabin. i helped to
teach hawaiian dance lessons to summer campers too.
in september, we
celebrated labor day weekend with our families and made our
annual trip to the italian festival. we
took a trip to nyc to see paramour on broadway and to
visit the central park zoo. i
went apple picking with my parents, we
visited roba family farms, and we made a
trip to ritter's apple cider mill.
leko decided to run for president too.
in october, we
visited woodbury commons in new york and
took ryan's parents to ritter's cider mill. we took a trip to delaware with my parents to
tour winterthur museum and
gardens. we
celebrated my parents' 36th anniversary, we
did some work painting our porch, and we
enjoyed the fall weather. we
celebrated christmas early with ryan's north carolina family when they were in town visiting. we went all out for
trick-or-treating at our house on halloween too and we dressed like a construction worker and cleopatra.
in november, we
celebrated my dad's birthday and
cuddled close with leko as the weather got cold. my dance studio kicked off the holiday season by
performing several christmas dances at our town's christmas lighting ceremony, and we
celebrated thanksgiving with our families.
in december, we decorated our house for the holidays and sent out
our christmas cards. we
celebrated my mom's 65th birthday, and admired
the lights and
gingerbread village at stroudsmoor. we
worked a bunch of christmas shows, and i
performed in 4 numbers in my dance studio's annual christmas showcase too. we got in the holiday spirit by
driving around to see christmas lights and
admiring the christmas decor at skytop lodge. we closed out the year by celebrating
christmas eve at my parents' house and
christmas day at our house.
hope everyone had a great 2016!
happy new year!
love, laurie
. . .
