A year in Review {2018}

As the year is literally coming to a close... its like 4pm we getting closer and closer to the grand finale. I see a lot of people / memes online talking about how hard the year was. I personally didn't have a "hard" year. Sure there are lessons learned and hard parts to anyone's life let alone a year at a glance but overall I look back on 2018 with good feelings

December 2017 / January 2018

We rang in the new year in Australia. My first time visiting, my husband was born there and my father in law and brother in law currently reside there as well

Avalon beach

Iconic Bondi Beach

Katoomba &

Cowan

We stayed for three weeks and saw quite  a few things. Highlights for me included, being there period! Celebrating Christmas at summer time, several hikes and seeing the Jonolan Caves. I got to try driving on the other side of the road which was also interesting

FEB - 2018
Travel seemed to be a theme this year. In Feb alone I got to go to Toronto and Las Vegas. Both of these trips were through work. Toronto, I went for a course and Vegas was a special trip from our boss to take the office

After my course was over I went out with friends that live in the area and we did our very own "tour de Toronto" where we got into a Harry Potter themed bar and the drinks we had were on fire! 

A whirl wind of a weekend blessed not to be hungover for my flight home the next morning

Later in Feb my boss took the office (dental office) to Las Vegas. At 31 yrs of age I had never been to Vegas before! We stayed at the cosmopolitan (where these pics are from) things got a bit boozy (thanks boss!) The ladies went to Sephora and got our makeup done -- which I would recommend for a weekend in Vegas, and got to walk the strip. It was certainly an experience definitely made better that someone else was footing (most) of the bills

April 2018

Back to Vegas! This time with my family. My dad wanted to surprise my mom with a trip! They were doing a vow renewal (35 yrs strong) and asked me to help him plan it. This go around we were staying at the Flamingo. We had an elvis impersonator (re) marry my parents and it was a fun weekend. This time we made it to Freemont street and got to try a few new spots to eat -- In N Out Burger and EggSlut totally worth all the calories haha

My sister and I, then our spouses on Freemont street. Las Vegas

June 2018

My 32nd bday! I also completed a Half Iron Man triathlon. It was difficult both mentally and physically. Blake started a new program that monday and instead of coming home with another car on monday I opted to go home right after our race and resting at home. Boy, was I tired that whole week! I took several days off from the gym and one extra day off work (mon) it took a few weeks to get back into a groove but I really enjoyed my training. I had even signed up for another race later that year that I ended up being too ill to do that Sept. So that's a goal for 2019 for sure!

the "try-athlete" crew. At 5'10" I was the shortest!

August 2018

Softball season came to a close! This year Pink Energy had quite the season! We placed first in play offs and 4th in provincials. We had a stellar year and I"m hoping for some great things in this season to come. We've got a great group of girls and our coach is divine

I also got to head to Seattle for another weekend with the girls to watch the Blue Jays game! Our game had a big old W and there was also a streaker! 

1st place! Play offs

September 2018

The previous year my dad and I went to EC Manning Park and spent a few days camping and hiking. This year I asked if he wanted to go a bit... farther. I was thinking Montana or close to Lake Louise and spend several days hiking and he seemed into it. Except for the Montana part, dads not too partial to travel to the states when there's plenty of opportunity for hikes here. We eventually decided upon Tofino. I had never been there before either! (a year of firsts!) and my mom, sister and husband joined us. We stayed 5 days in a Cabin in Crystal Cove. It was a lovely first experience and I'll happily return -- maybe for storm watching

We hiked in Tofino & Uclulet 

These photos are both walking distance from our Cabin

Hikes

Hikes were a big thing this year. Managed to check a few off of the list including Lindeman Lake (my dad had never done it before!) Mt Cheam and Mt St Helens 

If you're near the fraser valley or Vancouver I would highly recommend both of these hikes. Lindeman is high reward for a relatively easy trek. Mt Cheam requires a 4x4

Personal Care

This year I spent more time in the hair dressers chair than I think I ever have! I naturally have dark hair. Since I was about 16 I started getting grey hair. Mostly in the front of the face (aka bangs) and then slowly moving throughout my head. Well, I wanted to try a bayalage style hair do and I also wanted my grey hair to look like it belonged... fast fwd to almost a year later and I have grey hair! It took a while, considering the dark hair and I was spending a lot of time in the pool for training so I would wait a while in between dying sessions. As you can imagine grey hair doesn't last super long and needs to be touched up

So, as the year comes to a close I like to reflect and set some goals for the year ahead. This year, I don't have a huge list but still one of the biggest and hardest things I'll likely every take on 

We are expecting a wee one this spring. April 2019 a little boy or girl will join our small family. We have opted not to find out the gender ahead of time. I found out in August and still played softball and obviously, have gone on hikes etc. Feeling wise I've been very good. Minimal to no morning sickness, tiredness or fatigue was common but it sounds like its quite common altogether. This is why I didn't do the triathlon in Sept. Aside from stopping my training and feeling unprepared I did feel better by that time but was happy with my decision to put it off until 2019

Currently, I'm still working 6 days a week (arguable too much) and working out 4x weekly. I do not do anything too intense and I've been seeing my chiropractor and RMT on a fairly regular basis 

So that's 2018 wrapped up! Cheers to 2019 Hoping everyone has a safe night tonight celebrating with the ones they love most