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Friday, December 30, 2016

2016: our year in review

here's our annual year-in-review post!  i absolutely love putting these massive posts together every year because it is such a neat way to reflect back on the year.  looking back over the past year, so much has happened in twelve months.  here are our highlights from 2016 . . .

in january, we rang in the new year with our families and i set a few goals for the new year.  i turned 31 and we celebrated with dinner, cake, and presents and then we had a party with our families.  we also celebrated 4 years since we adopted leko too!  i shared my top ten photo editing tips and my mom and i took a women's self defense class.

in february, leko pretended to be punxsutawney phil and looked for his shadow and the three of us had a little super bowl party in our pajamas!  my parents surprised me with a private lyrical dance lesson with one of my former dance teachers.  we celebrated valentine's daychecked out a local ice festival, and cuddled close with our fur baby to stay warm during the cold weather.  i shared some tips for navigating nyc, ryan and i visited the nyc transit museum, and we spent a saturday together in nyc, before i spent a week in nyc for a conference for work.

in march, we celebrated ryan's mom's birthday, we celebrated easter sunday with our families, and we enjoyed the "spring" weather by hiking around two different trails.

in april, we went on a little date to see hello, dolly at a local high school, we cuddled with leko, and we celebrated ben & jerry's free cone day!  we spent so much time outside enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather, and poor ryan came down with a head cold.  we went to an ice hockey game and enjoyed some biking on a local trail.  we took a tour of historic bethlehem and toured covered bridges in the lehigh valley with my parents too.

in may, we celebrated mother's day by throwing our mamas a tea party!  ryan build new stairs leading from our bilco door to a storage area under our porch, and we enjoyed seeing the spring flowers bloom in our yard.  we traveled to portland, oregon for a conference for work.  while we were in portland, we rode the aerial tram, visited the international rose test garden, and ate at some really great restaurants.  we celebrated memorial day and ryan's dad's retirement with our families, and we took a trip to nyc with my parents to stroll around central park and to see an american in paris on broadway.  we also hiked the seven tubs too.


in june, we celebrated with colin as he graduated 8th grade and then celebrated again with colin for his 8th grade piano recital.  i performed in my dance studio's annual spring recital and i was featured on our local tv station.  we celebrated father's day and ryan's dad's birthday too.  we enjoyed lots of grilling outside in the nice weather.  we also took a family cruise vacation aboard the carnival sunshine with my parents and ryan's parents to canada where we visited saint john, new brunswick and halifax, nova scotia.


in july, we celebrated the fouth of july with our families.  my mom taught a middle eastern belly dancing workshop at my dance studio, ryan built a new bench for my dance studio, and my dance studio celebrated national dance day by performing a flash mob at a local art festival.

in august, we celebrated six years of marriage.  my dance studio performed at a local town festival and ryan built benches for my dance studio.  we saw summer fireworks, and we went to the county fair.  we celebrated ryan's birthday with an hawaiian-themed luau party with our families and with dinner, dessert, and a bike ride.  we took a quick weekend trip to massachusetts for my friend nicole's wedding (here's a little video too).  we also went to the harford fair, worked a blink 182 concert, and took a trip to ryan's aunt and uncle's cabin.  i helped to teach hawaiian dance lessons to summer campers too.

in september, we celebrated labor day weekend with our families and made our annual trip to the italian festival.  we took a trip to nyc to see paramour on broadway and to visit the central park zoo.  i went apple picking with my parents, we visited roba family farms, and we made a trip to ritter's apple cider mill.  leko decided to run for president too.

in october, we visited woodbury commons in new york and took ryan's parents to ritter's cider mill.  we took a trip to delaware with my parents to tour winterthur museum and gardens.  we celebrated my parents' 36th anniversary, we did some work painting our porch, and we enjoyed the fall weather.  we celebrated christmas early with ryan's north carolina family when they were in town visiting.  we went all out for trick-or-treating at our house on halloween too and we dressed like a construction worker and cleopatra.

in november, we celebrated my dad's birthday and cuddled close with leko as the weather got cold.  my dance studio kicked off the holiday season by performing several christmas dances at our town's christmas lighting ceremony, and we celebrated thanksgiving with our families.

in december, we decorated our house for the holidays and sent out our christmas cards.  we celebrated my mom's 65th birthday, and admired the lights and gingerbread village at stroudsmoor.  we worked a bunch of christmas shows, and i performed in 4 numbers in my dance studio's annual christmas showcase too.  we got in the holiday spirit by driving around to see christmas lights and admiring the christmas decor at skytop lodge.  we closed out the year by celebrating christmas eve at my parents' house and christmas day at our house.

hope everyone had a great 2016!

happy new year!
love, laurie

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previous year in review posts: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015