We Bid Adieu to 2011

So, I have thought about this post for a few days now...not really knowing in what direction I wanted to take it.  I had mentioned to Dan when we went out for New Years Eve (first time out alone in 15 years...yay us!) that I wanted to think this was a pretty good year for us.  Jobs are good, we are good, kids are good, etc, etc, etc....but then of course my Grandma passed away in May and that sort of trumps everything so as to not make this a really good year.

But then Sophie was born last week, so does that even it out?

So, I will go on record as saying there were definitely some good points to 2011 but then there are some bad points.  How does that sound?

So, a brief recap of things this year:

January - went to the Detroit Auto Show with our awesome friends, The Washeleski's and had Chicago style deep dish pizza at PizzaPapalis after.  Celebrated my mom's and Bacia's birthdays.  Dan's sister got married and we officially welcomed Drew into the family.

February - Celebrated the Chinese New Year, complete with bunny ears for the kids (Year of the Rabbit), had a few snow days from school and work and all of us were down and out for a week with strep throat and bronchitis.

March - Ari travelled to Memphis with her grandparents to see some extended family.  Dan and I took the boys to a local farm for the day.  We had our first Science Olympiad tournament for the season and it was so cold and windy that our water bottle rocket failed miserably. 

April - I had the opportunity to spend a few one on one days with Bacia while my parents were in Florida.  I also took my first business trip to Indianapolis for 3 days.  We took the kids to Niagara Falls. It was pretty but cold. We mastered potty training with Will. My parents returned from Florida just in time to celebrate Easter but Bacia wound up in the hospital and this was the beginning to the end for her.

May - we said our goodbyes to Bacia. We opted not to celebrate Mother's Day.  Ari. Lauren, Gina, my mother in law and I took a quick trip to Chicago for a cousin's baby shower.  We also were able to meet up with our cousin Shara and her beautiful family (who moved out of the Chicago area shortly after that....good timing!)


June - We started to enjoy some summer like weather.  School let out for summer break.  We visited the dinosaur exhibit at Cranbrook Science Center. Ari officially became a red head.

July - Dan and I decided to celebrate our July birthdays by planning our summer vacation around those dates.  We had a great week planned on the west side of the state, camping, exploring, eating yummy food, hanging out at the beach....Three days before we left, I was diagnosed with pneumonia and it was over 100 degrees the entire time we were gone.  The inhaler and the a/c in the camper and I became very good buddies that week.  I think we managed to still make the most of the week...though we found several indoor, air conditioned activities (ie: museums) to partake in.

August - We took a long weekend camping trip to Brighton (one of our favorite local state parks). We began enjoying some wonderful veggies from our garden.

September - Back to school!  Dan's sister, Rachel and her husband Drew came in for a visit.  We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary (on the 16th) and we celebrated Jared's 10th birthday.

October - I just realized that we did not post in October.  We celebrated Halloween and our dragon really got the hang of the whole trick or treat thing this year.

November - Ari and Dan participated in NaNoWriMo and I did NaBloPoMo.  We all succeeded!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Lauren's and did our annual shopping trip the next day.  We welcomed Ranger into our home and started planning for the December chaos.

December - It rained all month.  No snow.  Yeah, I'm a little ticked about that one.  Anyway, moving on.....We celebrated Will's 4th birthday, Arianna's 14th birthday and we welcomed Sophia Irene into our family on the 27th.

Over the Christmas break, I was off with the kids (return to work tomorrow - BAH!) and Dan was able to take some time off as well....so we did some sight-seeing.  We even had Gina with us for a few days while her Mom recuperated in the hospital.

I would post some pictures....but blogger seems to be in a mood tonight!

Here is hoping your 2011 was all that you wished for and more and that 2012 will be outstanding!!