Cheers, 2018!

pc: Alex Monette

Writing these posts at the start of each year is one of my favorite ways to spend New Year's Day. It helps me to reflect on the year as a whole and gain new perspective on what I thought mattered... and what actually mattered.

This year was a big one for us. Ryan switched careers, his father passed away, then my dad got sick, and moved in with us for a bit, we planned a wedding, and we got married. And those are just the really big things. As I wrote this post, I realized just how much we packed into every month of 2018.


January

• Wedding planning started moving fast! By January 11th we'd set a date, purchased our wedding website domain, found our venue and put down a deposit. 
• We headed out of town for a quick weekend camping trip at Agua Caliente with our friends Lindsey and James. 

February

• Scanuary came a little late this year and I got my second annual colonoscopy screening (thanks, Lynch Syndrome!) to kick off the month. 
• Bonnie and I went to a fun Galentine's Brunch #bloglife event at Cucina Enoteca hosted by Pomp & Whimsey.
• We sent out all our wedding invites!

• The blog turned 5... though it wasn't much of a blog last year.  :(
• I kept my ecoconcious efforts up by setting up a San Diego-wide beach clean up event at work and got the whole company to watch "A Plastic Ocean". 
• Ryan got the heartbreaking call that his father had passed away after a stroke. The world lost one of it's greatest adventurers, pranksters, storytellers and surfers. 

March

• Just a few weeks after Dean passed away, I got a terrifying call that my dad was headed to the Emergency Room for shortness of breath and I headed there to spend most of the night with him in the ER. He was admitted and spent a week in the hospital while they tried to find the right combo of meds for his heart... what turned out to be congestive heart failure caused by A Fib.
• I rogue ran my first 5K, the San Diego Half Marathon 5K (don't worry I didn't cross the finish line or take any of the swag :P) and realized how very out of shape I was!
• My dad came home to stay with us and recover and it was such a relief being able to keep an eye on him while he got better.

• I cooked what might have been my best St. Patrick's Day dinner yet, along with a lentil version of my Shepherd's Pie this year. 

• I was invited by Sweet Valley Organics to run another 5K, the Hot Chocolate Run, with my friend Megan.
• Ryan and I got a very fun #bloglife invite to the San Diego premiere of "Barry" on HBO and got to meet Henry Winkler at the after party.

April

• We enjoyed our first Couchella, watching the Coachella livestream for the first time in 8 years instead of heading to the Polo Grounds. 

• My friend Marty came to San Diego with a musical he was in, "Soul Doctor" and got us tickets to see it at the Lyceum.
• Ryan and our friends surprised the hell out of me with a birthday dinner at Alexander's in North Park.

• Bonnie, Makena, Shanna and I headed to Venice Beach for the weekend to shop for and say yes to my wedding dress!

May

• Ryan graduated from his teaching credential program at SDSU!

• We booked our amazing wedding photographer and finally checked one of the most important things off our list. 
• I went to my first concert of the year: seeing Andrew McMahon at Humphrey's by the Bay with Shanna and Tori.
• Then went to many concerts a couple of weeks later, when Shanna and I closed out the month with the Bottlerock music festival in Napa!

• Got crazy tickets (VIP club and seats behind home plate) to a Padres game via my friend / co-worker, Liz through a work vendor. 

• My dad left the recovery ward in our spare room and headed home 30 lbs lighter. 

June

• Started off the month with a show at the North Park Observatory, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
• Spent a pretty day finally testing out my paddle board with Pre, Anj and Meera at South Shores. 

• Rode the Coronado Ferry for the first time when I took my team to Peohe's for lunch. 
• Saw Minus the Bear with Bonnie and Jason at the House of Blues. 
• Spent Father's Day at the County Fair with my dad, Ryan and Ryan's parents. 

• After only studying for two weeks, I passed my SPHR exam!

July

• Had an awesome 4th of July party at our house and paddled out for the OB fireworks for the second year in a row.

• We got to have an epic weekend at the Safari Park and do Roar and Snore thanks to our friend Jason!
• Got to check out Wonderspaces again this year with Ryan, Makena, Liz, Bonnie and Jason.
• Visited Denver for the first time on a whirlwind work trip. 
• Celebrated Dean's life on what would have been his birthday weekend by paddling out and spreading his ashes at Swami's. 

August 

• Finally got to eat at The Marine Room in La Jolla during a free work lunch.
• Finished my hair and makeup trials and locked in my wedding beauty team. 
• Got another scary call (the kind that I was hoping to never get again) saying that my dad was headed back to the ER. He was admitted again for another week and after all kinds of scary stuff, finally had a pacemaker put in at the end of it.
• Had the best bachelorette weekend I could ever have dreamed of in Palm Springs thanks to having some of the best friends in the world. 

• Ryan was offered his first teaching job and officially became a middle school math and science teacher!
• Finally got to see our friends Des and Ian perform at the Luau at The Catamaran and had a great dinner and night out with them and Makena.

September

• Watched our friends Shanna and Scott renew their vows after 25 years (!!!) of marriage!
• Got the sweet note from my future SISTER-IN-LAW inviting me to be a bridesmaid at their wedding next year. 

• Ryan and I got to go to a free pasta making cooking class and delicious dinner with my friend Liz and her husband Brad through a vendor at work. 

• We ordered Ryan's ring, wedding decorations and the dog's wedding outfits... less than a month to go!
• My co-workers threw me a surprise bridal shower at work.

• Saw Dani Bell and the Tarantist at the Casbah with Des and Ian. 
• Ryan and I also saw Beyonce and Jay-Z (!!!) with our friend Megan.

October

• We spent our 7th (and final) Dating Anniversary by picking up our Marriage License.
• Flew up to Portland, OR for a quick weekend trip to see our friends Ann and Guy get married. The wedding was beautiful... my 24 hour stomach bug? Not so much.  
• I spent 3 Mondays with my friend Liz at her childbirthing classes at Kaiser... prep for next year!
• WE GOT MARRIED! Our family and friends started arriving on Wednesday and we spent Thursday night at Starlite, then Aero Club with everyone, our rehearsal dinner at Stone Brewery at Liberty Station on Friday and then our incredible wedding at the cliffs and reception at The Pearl Hotel on Saturday! Can't wait to share so many more memories from this week. 

• I took a day trip to LA with Matt and Lauren and showed them the canals, the Bronson bat cave, and Hollywood. 
• We closed out the month with an epic Guy Fieri Halloween party at Des and Ian's house.

November 

• VOTED for the blue wave. :) 
• Had a little mini-moon honeymoon in Joshua Tree. Saw Dani Bell at Pappy and Harriet's, camped in Pioneertown, got brunch the next morning, checked out the Noah Purifoy art exhibit and drove through all of J Tree on the way home.

• Our little home got a much-needed fresh coat of paint. 
• Cooked a (much smaller) Thanksgiving meal for Ryan, Cindy, Ray, Bonnie and my dad and hosted at our house again this year. 

December

• Got our tree and Christmas lights up right on the 1st!
• Headed to December Nights with Ian and Des. 
• Finally sent all our thank you cards out.
• Spent an afternoon shift volunteering at the San Diego Food Bank with some co-workers, boxing up over a thousand senior meal boxes. 
• Went to Alleviating Whispering Waters Day Spa with my co-workers for an afternoon of facials and champagne. 
• Had wonderful Christmas: Christmas Eve dinner at our house with Makena, Bonnie and my dad and Christmas Day at my in-law's (!!!) house. 
• Rang in the New Year with Bonnie at Redwing in North Park. 

There was a lot of tough, stressful stuff happening this year behind the scenes. But we made it. And more importantly, we made it together. And now I'm looking forward to a different kind of year. Potentially an even bigger year than this past one. 

Because hopefully? This is the year we start our family...