2020: well, that was weird
we've arrived at the end of the weirdest year ever. 2015 was a pretty life altering year with our move to seattle and losing my dad, but i think this year takes the cake for feeling the most surreal. if anyone would have told me a year ago that we would be living through a pandemic for 9 months of 2020, i wouldn't have believed it. in the blink of an eye so many things we took for granted disappeared from our lives: hugging friends, gatherings, events, traditions, eating at restaurants, having people in our home. thatcher has been home from work and the kids from school since last march. it's been a lot of togetherness. it hasn't always been easy, but i know we will remember this time in our lives forever and be thankful that we had each other. there is so much to look forward to in 2021: biden/harris coming into office and a covid vaccine, which will hopefully lead to more normalcy over time.
here are my year end posts for the last ten years!
january
january was a wet month! it rained or snowed 28 of 31 days. the kids did a camp at seattle gymnastics academy that they loved. they both went to their friend jack's 7th birthday party and our whole family attended ewan's 6th birthday party. we got a little snow (nothing compared to 2019...). the kids had a couple delayed starts and one full snow day from school. i saw "little women" in the theater with friends. we took a day trip to tacoma. thatcher and the kids were both off for MLK day. i got to see my friend teresa who was in town from the phillipines. the kids started attending "lego club" after school once a week.
february
azalea went to her friend audrey's 9th birthday. thatcher took the kids biking in woodinville. we watched the super bowl. ashford lost a bunch of his baby teeth in a short span! i helped plan a kindergarten parent social at a local brewery. i chaperoned ashford's field trip to the pacific northwest ballet. ashford went to his friend raleigh's 6th birthday. azalea and i went to the "pajamboree" party at school. our family flew to washington dc for the kids' mid-winter break to visit cedar and jack and explore the city. the rest of the break was spent back home visiting the library, scootering at playgrounds, and thatcher took the kids to see "sonic the hedgehog" in the theater.
march
march was when things started to get really strange :/ after a couple months of hearing about a novel virus that came out of china in december, covid-19 made it's way to the u.s. - seattle to be exact! for a while it was contained to a nursing home outbreak and our lives continued as normal. thatcher was going to work, the kids were going to school, we were frequenting restaurants & stores. we went to see our friends ian, joanna, and kyla in portland. i went to my friend rachel's housewarming party. then one day in mid march, everything came to a screeching halt! thatcher's employer mandated that everyone work from home. next the district announced school would be closing for 2 weeks. everyone thought "yikes". but the next day they announced school would actually be closed for 6 weeks to help stop the spread. how naive we were to think that would be the end of it! before the stay at home order was announced, we booked an airbnb on the oregon coast for 5 days. we enjoyed a little getaway while keeping our distance from others. we cooked and baked, hung out on the wide open beaches, did a puzzle, watched movies, and ate lots of treats :) we spent the rest of the month at home (except for a few trips to the grocery store). i became a (reluctant) home school teacher. "self isolating", "social distancing", and "quarantining" quickly became everyone's topics of conversation. azalea turned 9 on the 26th. we gave her as fun of a day possible with her favorite foods, a call from her teacher, a scavenger hunt, and cake/presents over zoom with our entire family. i was sick for a week at the end of march (with covid? or something else? i'll never know since there wasn't widespread testing. thankfully i recovered at home).
april
the entire month of april was spent at home. we only ventured out for groceries, walks/bike rides around the neighborhood, and weekly takeout. thatcher & i worked from home, the kids continued school at home, they played in the yard/scootered, we baked lots of treats, zoomed with friends and family, and tried to keep our sanity. thatcher was sick (sicker than me). we still don't know if we had covid or not. we participated in a car parade for the kids' principal. we found out that in-person school would not resume for the rest of the year :( we celebrated easter with baskets from the bunny, homemade brunch, a drive to sunset hill park to look at the water, and an egg hunt in our yard. spring break was a downer - we mourned our cancelled trip to minnesota. my blog turned 10!
may
another month under the stay at home order. the duplex we had been renting for 10 months went on the market, so we had to look for a new place to live in our neighborhood. thankfully we loved the first place we looked at. a 1990 townhouse with way more space than any place we lived in before. i had my first socially distanced wine date with my friend megan in my backyard. i lived for weekly takeout dinners. we had some beautiful weather and spent lots of time playing outside. we celebrated mother's day with a picnic on the beach at ebey's landing. we distance schooled some more and picked up the kids' stuff from their teachers outside the building. my mom wasn't able to come visit in may for the first time ever. we went on lots of evening "scooter walks" around our neighborhood. we all attended an outdoor socially distanced birthday party for azalea's friend simone. a drunk driver plowed into our empty parked car (and 4 other cars) in front of our house at 10:30 one morning! we organized and packed for our move. after yet another killing of an unarmed black man in minneapolis, protests, marches, and demonstrations exploded all over the country.
june
the stay at home order ended, but washington was very slow to re-open (and rightfully so). we moved into our new townhouse. it felt like home from day one. and the extra space felt like a dream! we celebrated 5 years of living in seattle and our 13th wedding anniversary. thatcher turned 38. he went for a hike with a co-worker and celebrated with us in the evening. thatcher's grandpa passed away at age 96. :( i got a pedicure and went to a brewery patio - both of which felt thrilling! the kids had their last day of school - with very little closure since everything was still remote. we celebrated with a trip to cupcake royale. on father's day we went on a family hike near snoqualmie. covid cases started to ramp up again around the country after many places re-opened too soon. we spent lots of time at golden gardens in the weeks after school finished. i had some "socially distanced" outdoor wine dates with friends in their yards.
july
we were so happy to have our deck to enjoy on warm days. i spent as much time as possible out there. we took many trips to golden gardens - our most frequent destination during the summer. the parking lots were closed, so we often had to park far away and walk. the kids almost always convinced me to get them ice cream at little coney's. i took the kids to a farm at mount vernon to go strawberry picking, but the fields were too wet for u-pick. i turned 36. i celebrated with some solo shopping, watched hamilton on disney+, and had a cake/wine date with two friends on my deck. our family went camping for two nights near mount rainier. we did a couple hikes in the area and enjoyed the change of scenery. july had some cool spells. wine in friends' backyard continued to be the extent of my social life :) we went on some neighborhood bike rides and one on a trail in carnation. the district announced school would be starting 100% remote in september. our downstairs neighbors had a very tiny wedding ceremony in their backyard and we watched from our deck. the last week of the month we isolated at home and took a covid test in preparation for our road trip to minnesota!
august
august 1st marked 5 years since my dad died. 26 days of august were spent driving to and from minnesota (3900 miles!) and visiting family there. we know traveling during a pandemic has risks, so we did not take the decision lightly and did it as safely as possible. we had an amazing time and saw so many beautiful places: teddy roosevelt national park, glacier national park, and middle of no where pullover spots in montana:) we were so happy to see our families after almost a year, but mostly forwent seeing friends this trip to limit everyone's potential exposure. thatcher and i had some date nights, i got to meet my life-long friend kelli's daughter (they were visiting from CA), we played lots of games, and i read 4 books. thatcher worked remotely most of the time we were there, it was so nice to have help with the kids. when we returned, we visited golden gardens a couple more times, watched a live-streamed concert from ashford's bedroom window on the driveway next door, and visited the zoo for the first time in a year.
september
the kids started school before labor day for the first time ever. 100% distance learning. it wasn't ideal, but we made the best of it. it went much more smoothly than last spring. over labor day weekend we went apple picking at jones creek farm. thatcher gave ashford a hair cut after 7 months of his "covid hair" look. after a couple smoke-free summers here, wildfire smoke hit the seattle area - with a vengeance. we were stuck in the house for 10 days, but people closer to the fires experienced much worse. my cousin ryan got married in new jersey. i was looking forward to their wedding for 2 years and couldn't go because of covid. thankfully a lot of it was live-streamed. we had to cancel a camping trip due to the smoke, but we did a camping night at home. our old neighbor friends moved back from mexico city after 2 years (yay!). azalea started her (very pared down) soccer season. we did an overnight on the olympic peninsula where we explored dungeness spit and hiked the hurricane hill trail.
october
we entered our second month of distance learning. we had one last "warm" day at golden gardens with friends. thatcher took a friday off work to go hiking/camping with a friend. we took a trip to bailey farm to get pumpkins. we baked lots of goodies and drank hot cider. the playgrounds re-opened in seattle. we decorated for halloween. azalea played more "socially distanced" soccer and i soaked up the last of the nice nights on friends' patios. we had an outdoor movie night and a halloween party one afternoon at my friend kay's. vanessa and i had a 24 hour "momcation" at an air bnb in green lake. we received our ballots in the mail and dropped them off to be counted. we enjoyed the fall colors. distance learning got extended until the end of january 2021. covid cases started spiking all over the country. we celebrated halloween by carving our pumpkins, dressing up and doing some low contact trick or treating in our neighborhood. it ended up being such a fun halloween thanks to everyone's creativity.
november
we kicked off the month with a day trip to fort ebey state park on whidbey island for a picnic lunch and hike to the beach. november 3rd was the (crazy) election. it was a long election season followed by a stressful few days post election but when they announced biden had won, it was all worth it. by far the most redeeming thing to happen all year. thatcher built model rockets with the kids and took them to a field in redmond to shoot them off on veteran's day. the governor announced a new round of covid restrictions. the kids had the whole week of thanksgiving off. we kicked off the week with (virtual) conferences with both of their teachers. we watched lots of movies, baked pies, got out of the city for some adventuring. we celebrate thanksgiving with the macy's parade, and lots of delicious food. we decorated for christmas. we did an overnight to la conner, wa.
december
my favorite month of the year! we filled it with lots of baking, christmas music & movies, our advent calendar, a hot cocoa bar, and cozy nights by the tree. thatcher got a promotion at work. the covid vaccine was released to healthcare workers. the kids started their winter break from school. i wrote my 1000th blog post. ashford turned 7 and we celebrated by dropping off donuts for his friends, and pizza, cake, and family zoom in the evening. there was also a dusting of snow on the winter solstice. we went to see the "snow globe santa" in greenwood, we walked around olympic manor to see the lights, the kids played christmas games in our friends' backyard. we spent christmas just the 4 of us: baking, watching the grinch & home alone, opening gifts on skype, and staying in comfy clothes all day. we closed out this wild year with a trip to the oregon coast where we enjoyed the ocean views, hot tubbing, games & puzzles, and relaxing.
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