Hello from 2022.  2021 completely got away from me and I didn’t post about it once, so I figured I would do a little quarterly recap of some of the highlights from the year (or you know, just random everyday things, since you know, COVID…).  So here is our year in review, first quarter.

January

The first couple weeks were a little uneventful.  We had a power outage, (something that fortunately doesn’t happen often in our city because the power lines are buried because we get so much wind).  Then on my drive home from my parent’s one night there was a pretty epic sunset.

The most exciting event in January (and really of the quarter) was a last minute trip to Disneyworld.  I did a lot more research for this trip than I have before, (thanks to discovering Disney Food blog videos on youtube) and despite the last minute planning I managed to find quite a few dining reservations that we wanted.  Not only did we have so much fun enjoying the theme parks, but we ate really good food the whole time too.

The crowds were pretty low and they were still keeping 6 feet social distancing in the lines so even though they stretched out pretty far, they moved really fast so we didn’t ever have to stand in one place in the line, which is what really kills my feet.

Vu got to build his own light saber, and his appointment was after the park closed, so after he built it we were able to take pictures in front of the Millennium falcon without anyone else there. We were able to get a boarding group for the Rise of the Resistance ride, which we both loved.  The Festival of the Arts at Epcot was going on while we were there and we got to go for the first time.  Vu found some really great Star Wars prints that he framed when we got home.  Lots of Star Wars themed things this trip.

It was our first time staying in a Disney resort and we fell in love with the convenience of that. It was a great trip, we had so much fun.

February

We got quite a few snow days, and got hit with some of those fairly epic wind storms in our valley, so the wind created huge drifts of snow in certain areas, with barely half an inch in others.  It is so interesting to me to see the wind patterns through the snow.  The nice thing about the wind is that how our house is situated the wind blows everything off of our front yard/drive and across the street to our neighbors so when it snows and is windy, we don’t have to shovel our driveway.  Not so great for our neighbors though…

Valentine’s day was right after the bigger snow storm.  We celebrated a couple days late (if we go out to eat we never celebrate on the day of, to avoid the crowds).  We went to the Dining room at Salish Lodge by Snoqualmie falls.  No one had scheduled the small private room, so they gave it to us, which was very nice.  We always love eating there.

After that I flew to Utah to visit my brother and his family.  I was going to help watch my nephew so my sister in law could paint their house as they got it ready to sell, but she ended up finishing it before I got there, so I just got to spend time with them and my nephew.  I had great views on both flights, I especially loved the flight to Utah because I was able to see Mt Si and our whole area from the plane.

March

March was an accumulation of small events: celebrating Pi day with a couple of mini pies, for St Patrick’s day my sister came over for a rainbow charcuterie board and shamrock shakes, and throughout the month I looked out for all of the cherry blossoms I could find around me as I ran my errands.  I found some pretty good ones I hadn’t noticed before.  March also started a trend of lots of Rook playing with my family throughout the year.  We played it a lot growing up, but it had been quite a long time since we had played.