2017 was another fantastic year for us. Here are some highlights:
Katelyn is flying down the slopes, with me and John trying to keep up with her. John continues to swoosh down the slopes on his snowboard. I've become a big snowboarding fan - but keeping up with Katelyn on a snowboard is highly aspirational - so I'm still splitting time between skiing and snowboarding.
Spring brought kayaking and swimming. It turns out that Lovebug LOVES swimming. Our fence around the pool is no longer a safety feature for Katelyn, but rather, the only way to keep Lovebug from jumping into the pool every chance she gets.
The daddy-daughter dance was a big hit again, with our girly-girl loving her flowy dress and sparkly high heels for her night out with John.
Summer brought our first road trip to Colorado so that Lovebug could go with us. We stopped at the amazing Great Sand Dunes National Park, and enjoyed playing in the "river" at the dunes. John has his eye on returning to hike up the dunes to go sandboarding.
As always, hiking and camping was fabulous. Lovebug loved being off-leash and hiked several miles for every mile we hiked, as she herded us up the trail. We had one scare when she took off after a deer, but the deer got away (whew!)
As much as we were all bummed to be back in Dallas after the trip, I think Lovebug was the most bummed... She was extremely unhappy about being back on a leash!
On the way home, we stopped at Palo Duro State Park and were blown away. This is the second largest canyon system in the US after the Grand Canyon, and it's absolutely gorgeous.
We hiked for a few hours in the late morning heat, and just got a taste of this fabulous park. Thinking of getting a taste... The monster icee we bought at the trailhead at the end of the hike was the best icee ever! Maybe something to do with 3 hours of hiking in full sun in 100+ degrees... ??
Definitely on the list to go back there sooner than later...
In August, we went with my family to the Dominican Republic. It was an incredible trip that included amazing beaches, beautiful ocean, parasailing, snorkeling, sailing, lots of family time, sunrise on the beach with Pooh, and more....
And with all that sun, sea and sand, Katelyn and her cousins had *lots* of opportunities to channel Moana.
In October, Katelyn turned 8! (How'd *that* happen!??).
Amid tiaras and dress-up, frog kisses, swimming, kayaking, roller skating, biking, aerial silks, reading, art projects, squeals with Lovebug, making math worksheets for me and John to do, and much more, she lights up our lives every day.
John continues to climb stairs for fun. He recently completed the Vertical Mile. If you're doing the math, that's 12 times up 57 flights of stairs. He completed it in 1 hr and 18 mins (4th in his age group.)
And he did all that before Katelyn and I got out of bed that day :-)
Since we didn't have enough going on, we started building a house last year... Move-in is currently scheduled for April. (Fingers crossed!!)
We've worked hard to make it as environmentally-friendly, natural, and chemical-free as we could. It's been fun learning about all the different products that go into building a house. If you want to chat about the relative R-values and composition of rock wool vs. open-cell foam, or the Janka rating for various woods, give me a call :-)
After making a million decisions, with (hopefully) less than a million more to go (Who knew there were so many choices of faucets!?), we're all excited about actually moving in.
At that point, I'm wondering what we'll do with all that "spare" time we should theoretically have....
We hope your 2018 is off to a good start, and we wish you a healthy and happy rest of the year.
Love,
Donna, John and Katelyn
