Two Thousand Fourteen

I'm 96.2% sure that a small part of my brain is on strike; specifically, the part that handles the business of memory. I often misplace pieces of information quickly...eerily quickly that sometimes my friends are borderline horrified. So you can only imagine what reminiscing about my life without friends and photos would look like for me...futile! I've always loved taking and keeping a ridiculous amount of pictures because looking through them feels like partially re-living all those memories and events...which is awesome. So my memory problem isn't all bad, right? After sifting through pictures to put together a photo-book for a bestie this past Christmas, I decided to put together a year in review post. Reflecting back on the destinations, coffee dates, births, lessons learned, and blessings of 2014 leaves me with a full heart of gratitude and appreciation for all the irreplaceable and supportive people in my life that I have had the joy and privilege of sharing those moments with. I need to do this more often!

Here are the highlights of my 2014, in a giant nutshell...

Halifax + Cabot Trail. For our twenty-fifth birthday gifts, my parents gave my husband and I plane tickets to Halifax! I had visited a few Maritimes cities several years back and had a great time but I was excited to go back this year to check out the main destination that Ola and I missed out on: the Cabot Trail! After spending a night relaxing in Halifax and a short detour of a cracked molar (thank goodness for the helpful staff at the restaurant we were at, I had it fixed within a couple hours) and a couple wrong turns on a highway with no lights whatsoever later, we arrived at the cozy cabin in Ingonish Beach we booked via Airbnb. It was built by a tall Dutch man who lives 400 metres from the ocean, owns chickens, builds his own wood furniture and cabins, bakes fresh bread every morning (!!!), and serves the perfect Dutch breakfast. We regretted booking only one night and begged to stay another but they were fully booked up! This was my favourite part of the trip; it was dreamy and the minimalistic cabin nestled in the windy coastal roads of northern Nova Scotia, just close enough to the ocean to hear the calming wooshes when you get out of bed... was the perfect place to relax and unplug. Spending quality time with my parents was great, too. We hiked, ate lobster or fish + chips for dinner every night, visited Peggy's Cove (and had to try very hard not to get blown away by the strong gales that day), and stayed up talking a couple nights. I can't wait to go back to discover more of the Cabot Trail!

New York, it was lovely to meet you and I hope to see you again soon! Ola and I visited NYC in May and attempted the life of a New Yorker by walking an average of 40 blocks a day, stumbling upon Banksy graffiti on a random street, having drinks in a speakeasy, sitting cozily in a quaint restaurant rubbing elbows with someone at the table over while enjoying wine and a jazz show, hailing cabs like Carrie Bradshaw (but a little less graceful), grabbing bagels and coffee for breakfast on our way, and doing some good ol' people watching on patios and random benches along the busy streets. By the time we left, I was in love with Cereal Milk soft serve and handmade dumplings in Chinatown and we had 97% of the subway map figured out, biked through (some of) Central Park, enjoyed a ballet at Lincoln Center, watched Les Misérables, went to see a (mediocre) comedy show, walked the High Line and around the Chelsea Market + Meatpacking District with a New York native who gave us a food tour (which came highly recommended and I highly recommend!), and strolled through the MoMA and the Museum of Natural History. Until next time, NYC!

Running. Who would've ever thought that running would ever be something I voluntarily did regularly?! Definitely not me. If someone told the 14-year-old me that in 10 years I would run a half marathon, I would've chortled and guffawed at them. HUGE thanks to my running buddy, Mandy, I've been able to go from huffing and puffing and considering walking after 1 minute of running (no jokes!) to running the entire length of a half marathon! I am so proud of us for finishing the Banff Half Marathon! ...and very surprised that I may even enjoy running (:

Adelyn. We welcomed our third niece into the world in June. It's been extra special to be in the same city as a baby in the family! Seeing her transform and grow over the last seven months has been heart-wrenching because it feels like she's growing freakishly fast (I assure you, she's normal; I'm just a tad crazy) but also amazing and exciting! I can't wait to see who she'll become. I love you, Addie!

Celebrated one year of marriage. Oi vey, that makes me feel old. We often sit back and think, wow, how did we go from being strangers to being married in what felt like no time at all?! It has been a great deal of learning...from learning how to manage the details of chores and cooking together within our busy, colliding schedules to loving someone when its difficult to do so. We celebrated our one year with a bang! I was surprised with a thoughtfully planned out weekend, which was pretty much a tour of small town Alberta: dinner + musical in the lovely hamlet of Rosebud, hiking the badlands in Drumheller, and a two-way train ride in an open air coach from Stettler to Big Valley. I became even more attached to and proud of Alberta...along with the man who planned the entire weekend-long shindig (: My favourite part is that we came back with souvenirs: freshly pulled raw honey from the cafe next door to the theatre in Rosebud, a hammered copper teapot from the second floor of said cafe, and a rustic, vintage trunk from an elderly couple in Stettler that we now use as our coffee table!

First house-boating trip. We drove to Sicamous, B.C. with four friends and enjoyed a relaxing few days filled with innovative food creations by Kim and beer pong (and driving back to fetch ping pong balls that flew overboard).

There were many more memories that are missing from this nutshell (SHNO ski trip, first pickling session, weddings, hosting our first house concert with Me & the Mrs, several wine + cheese nights, camping Tunnel Mountain, watching The Lego Movie and a tribute to Disney outdoors, connecting with old friends, making a few new ones, hanging out with my favourite twin boys, being in the Singing Christmas Tree, enjoying a white Christmas in Edmonton, all the Christmas and New Year meals and festivities) and I am grateful for it all. Here's to another year that's hopefully full of adventure with great company!