2012 in Review

We began the year in Spokane, drinking sparkling cider at midnight on January 1st, watching fireworks, and breaking our Taco Bell fast (we have not craved or even eaten any since). We played in the snow as well. 

In February, we celebrated Valentine's Day, and apparently didn't too much else, or else I didn't take pictures of it! 

In March, Carson's cousin Savannah got married in Seattle, and Carson was the officiant. We celebrated my birthday the day before that, and one of my gifts was to see Straight No Chaser in concert in Spokane. During spring break at the end of March, we drove up to Canada for the day, and back again. 

We celebrated Easter in April with good friends - old roommates of mine, now married and old "Spokane friends" of ours. This was also the month that we discovered we would be moving to Cleveland!

  

May was a busy month. At the beginning of the month, I "ran" Bloomsday with Izzy, then we helped plan John and Rachel's wedding reception, I was finishing up school, we had Moody's Spring Formal, our second anniversary, our families visited, and I graduated. 

In June (okay, the last day of May), I went to Ukraine. It was supposed to be until mid-July, but I had a miscarriage and came home after three weeks.

 July was our last full month in Spokane, and it was full of crafting, goodbyes, fun outings, and time with friends. We celebrated 4th of July with good friends, and fireworks downtown, went to Olympia for a garage sale, walked around Spokane for the last time.

In August, we drove across the country to Ohio! We saw Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, visited with Kristine and Ryan in Iowa, stopped by South Bend, and finally made it. That weekend we celebrated Zack and Erica's wedding in Akron! 

In September, we went back to the Lowcountry for the first time in almost two years. I got to spend a little time with Emily in Beaufort and to see my family, but the main reason was for Becca and Thomas' wedding in Savannah!

In October, Carson rode his first roller coaster at Cedar Point, Morgan and Caleb got married in Florida and I got to escape the cold Cleveland weather to be a bridesmaid, and we celebrated Halloween (well, technically, all we did was dress up)

In November, we took our Christmas card pictures and celebrated Thanksgiving -- twice! 

In December, Carson had a birthday, we did a lot to prep for Christmas, worked a lot, and finally celebrated for the first time in our new home in Cleveland! We got to see friends from "back home in Spokane" as well: Rachel and John, Zack and Erica. We finished the new year off right by having friends from Beaufort (now Virginia): Brooke and Levi come for the weekend to ring in 2013!

It was an eventful year! Can't wait to see what 2013 is going to hold!

Here's our 2011 Recap, if you're interested.

Christmas Cards

I shared our Christmas photo shoot last week and since I think I can safely say that all of the cards have arrived at their destinations, I'm sharing what they looked like (for me, since I didn't save one for myself).

I designed these myself on Picasa and printed them through a website, so they're not world class, but they were fun to do!

Kiev

Last Sunday morning, the team left Vinnitsa. We drove five hours to Kiev. A good portion of the team is new this year and hadn't toured the city, so we spent the afternoon in the city, exploring and souvenir shopping. 

We celebrated Kristine's 25th birthday on the bus. Yes, candles on a bus! Masha and Eunice were so thoughtful and also brought the things to make Kristine's favorite coffee drink while on the bus. 

Rainy Kiev. It rained the whole drive there, but stopped almost as soon as the bus parked. After that the day was sunny, hot and humid!

This is a public bathroom in a mall in Kiev. I had to pay 2 grievna to use this and it smells worse than it looks.

Euro Cup things are EVERYWHERE. Ukraine and Poland are hosting right now.

Russian Orthodox Church

 We went to a famine museum, there in memory of three forced famines during Ukraine's history during the 1930s-40s. 

We lit candles in honor of those who died in the famine (25% of Ukraine's population during one of the famines!)

All around the museum, names of people who had died scrolled on the walls. There were little platforms all around the room with huge books on them that listed every person who died and their cause of death (they had about 900 pages of names)

 A view of Kiev from the steps of the museum

My very first Ukraine roommate, Kristine, seven years later.

We arrived at our hotel after the famine museum, hot and tired. Everyone changed and cooled off and then we met for a worship service. 

After our service, we had a Georgian meal. We mistakenly thought that the food on the tables when we arrived was the meal in its entirety, so we consumed meats, cheeses, fruits and bread before realizing that it was the appetizer. Oops. I think there were four courses after that. 

On Monday, we saw the team off to Paris. It was SO strange hugging them goodbye, leaving them at the airport, and riding in the huge coach bus with only four of us as passengers.