About this time every year I am so glad that I take the time to keep our blog up-to-date with what’s going on in our little lives. It’s so fun to look back on what’s happened during the past year and put together a recap. 2017 has been a very special, joyful year for our family. It’s hard to believe that we started 2017 with an immobile baby and we’re ending the year with a walking, talking toddler! They say for parents of young kids that the days are long but the years are short. So far that holds true!
We began the year by taking up a new hobby: cross country skiing. It fulfilled our love of being in the mountains and we could easily bring Ben along for the ride. The winter was filled with far less downhill skiing as Alex and I had hoped, but we made do with what we could. Ben took his first trip to the playground in our neighborhood and fell in love with the swings!
Just after the turn of the new year, Ben learned how to sit up on his own. This, combined with beginning to eat solid foods, gave him a new lease on life. Now that he was a bit older, our nanny, Edina, became more able to take him to story time and other local kid-friendly attractions.
Winter was met with a bit of travel – our first trip was to Arizona in conjunction with Alex’s family, including our new nephew, Nico!
Somewhere along the line right around the time Ben began to crawl {8 months}, things got crazy. He started getting goofier, learned to pull himself up on things quite quickly and not taking our eyes off him for a second became the theme of the late winter/early spring.
Our first-ever family trip was to Whistler last March. We cross country skied one day, spent some time in the village another day and Alex and I hired a babysitter to enjoy a day on the mountain another day. Our trip came to an abrupt end on the fifth morning when Ben woke up with a 105 temperature, only for us to quickly realize that he had contracted hand, foot and mouth disease. He was absolutely miserable for a solid week. It was rough. That was the middle of cold season, of which he had something like 9.
Travel continued through the spring with a Ben and mama trip to Minnesota. It was really special to introduce Ben to his great aunt, my high school friends and their babies, meet little Madeline and spend time with other family and friends.
Before we knew it, it was time to celebrate Ben’s first birthday! We invited our families out to Leavenworth to mark the occasion.
With summer in full-swing, Ben and I walked down to our neighborhood farmers market nearly every Friday. We sampled berries, picked beautiful flowers, bumped into neighbors and made quite a few memories.
Edina quickly became a part of our family and she and Ben sported their matching t-shirts one day!
Early last summer, Alex and I took a trip just the two of us down to San Francisco and Sonoma to enjoy a long weekend together. We loved touring SF, stopping by Yountville and enjoying lunch at Bouchon, tasting Napa and Sonoma wines, staying in a beautiful hotel in Sonoma and just spending time together. We didn’t expect to miss Ben so much, but next time maybe we’ll bring him along.
To commemorate Ben’s first birthday we did a family photo shoot in our neighborhood. Ben loves ice cream so we thought it would be fun to include a little tasting.
Seattle’s summer 2017 was long and beautiful. Our family enjoyed many trips to the beach, a quick trip up to Vancouver, touring the parks across the city, our summer family vacation to Seabrook and watching Ben learn how to walk. In late summer we celebrated the purchase of a 3 acre piece of land out in the mountains to build a vacation home on.
Travel and busy times continued as summer turned to fall. While Alex headed south to Mexico for a friend’s wedding, Ben and I flew east to Minnesota to spend time with my family. Eventually Alex met up with us and the three of us drove to Wisconsin to see his family, then Alex and I went to Chicago for the weekend for another wedding. We loved seeing our family so much this year and getting the chance for Ben and Nico to play together.
Fall seemed to last forever! We kicked off the new season by sending Ben to a twice-weekly cooperative preschool, which has been wonderful so far. The rest of the season was spent enjoying the local playgrounds, exploring our wonderful tot gyms at the community centers nearby and with our annual Leavenworth trip.
Just as the snow started to fly we took a little day trip out to Leavenworth to see our property, sample sausages and play in the snow at Stevens Pass.
Just like that and the holidays were upon us. My mom joined us in Seattle for Thanksgiving, then Alex’s family came out for Nico’s birthday and Christmas, followed by my dad’s trip out for a few days between Christmas and New Years. Alex and I managed to get some skiing in and we hosted our fourth annual holiday party.
As 2017 has now come to a close we are looking forward to a new year that I have a feeling will be filled with firsts. Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!
