2015 in review

Looking back on 2015, we saw a lot of delightful changes in D and in the house.  D went from just pulling up to standing, to walking, to running along with lots of other exciting developments.  It’s been really exciting to see him develop friendships and relationships with extended family.  Some of his milestones are described in:  the state of the vocabulary, D's 15 month vocabulary update and D's 1st birthday pictures.

Construction on the house started in August, and here’s how it looked at the end of the year.  There’s also been a lot of visible progress in the weeks since 2016 started, but that belongs in a different post.  The progress for 2015 can be seen in these posts:  ready set go, month one, month two, month four and onward and upward.


Books, Blogs and Work

• We spent the year at the same jobs we have had since returning to Seattle.  I wrote about how I generally like my job and then was lucky to survive two rounds of layoffs. 
• Ever so slowly, I made my way throught excellent collection of essay by Anne Patchett, called This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Anne Patchett.  Jack got back in the habit of reading (post baby) and particularly enjoyed The Circle by David Eggers.
• Jack read a great article (for those who are interested in sabermetrics)  and then was shocked to learn that it was written by his former baseball teammate, who was also one of our last roommates in 2007. http://www.fangraphs.com/community/stop-thinking-like-a-gm-start-thinking-like-a-player/
• This blog will live to see another day thanks to the Microsoft making Windows Live Writer in to an open source tool.  Trying to write long posts on Google blogger directly might have driven me crazy.

Recreation and Travel

• In February we visited Anne and Read in Portland.
• I spent five days away from D and Jack in Montreal for work. 
• Jack watched the winning Mariner’s opening day game with some of his teammates.  Like the Mariner’s, it wasn’t a great season him but he had a good time all the same.  We also went to a game on Jack’s birthday and managed to stay the whole time.

• At the Iron Springs Resort, we had a nice Washington beach weekend in May.
• On the 4th of July weekend we camped with our parenting friends at Deception Pass State Park. 
• We went to a couple of baseball games together, and even made it through a whole game.  We also spent a lot of time in parks and doing lots of little outings, fairly close to home, including a few rides on our old tandem, towing D in our new trailer. 

• Over Labor day weekend, we camped at at Illahee State Park.

• We celebrated our October anniversary, with our first little trip without D to a B&B on Lake Joy in Carnation.
• In November, we went to an Illinois wedding.
• We rang in the new year with my parents and Becky at Pt. Robinson on Maury Island.  It was clear and cold and lots of fun.

Friends and Family

• In June, Jack’s maternal grandfather passed away: Remebering Grandpa O.
• A new friend from our birth class, in whom I saw the potential for a closer friendship, was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, just after our kids’ first birthdaies, which is when we last saw her.  She tragically passed away in December.  She was generous, kind and smart and she wrote about her illness as long as she could at rubyroxy.wordpress.com.
• Three babies were born to our friends: Rufus (to K&C), Jamie (to P&K) and Olivia (to A&B).  Soon we’ll enter the wave of second and third babies among our friends.
• Becky and Jason visited twice this year and the best news of the year is that they’ll be moving to Seattle in 2016.

• Our friend, Gabrielle, who was a summer exchange student from France in 1999, spent a few days visiting us in Seattle.  She writes a great blog mostly about work and recreation in Africa at: http://gabakin.blogspot.com.
• We caught up with another fun and interesting friend, Rachel, as she passed through Seattle on her way out of Alaska.
• Jessica also paid us a fun visit last winter.

Personal Growth

• Abascal class – In January I took a class from Kathy Abascal, who wrote a book (and ongoing blog) about anti-inflammatory eating: ToQuietInflammation.com.  It is the new gold standard for how we should eat, but I struggled with it for most of the year, accounting for considerably and undesired personal growth.  
• I sailed quite a bit and we even took a J 80 sailboat out together with just the two of us in November, which was a really big milestone for me. 

• Jack worked really hard on the house and ventured in to new territory with design and construction administration.  Getting bids and value engineering them was a new and challenging task that took about six months.
• D moved to a new daycare in August and transitioned seamlessly.  After we move to our house, it will be very convenient, but for now it is just less expensive, less convenient and more suited towards playing outside than his downtown daycare. 
• Emo and D’s relationship is vastly improved. 

• Jack spent most of the year sporting an on-trend beard.  D learned the word “beard.”
• A year ago we bought a much nicer camera, which makes it look like we became more talented photographers.