Merry Christmas 2016 from Kaitlin & Shaun

By -

Dear family and friends,

Merry Christmas! We look forward to this time of year to reflect on what we've accomplished, and hope we did more than just sit on the couch. Just kidding! :-) This Advent season is a great time to reflect on how we've grown and all the reasons we have to celebrate God's goodness in our lives.  By the way, if you'd like to get email updates each time we publish a blog post (which isn't very often), you can follow our blog here by signing up here.

What a great year it's been! Some of the highlights:
  • Kaitlin gave a SEO lecture at the University of Washington in January, and hosted a SEO webinar on the popular Moz.com website in March. 
  • Kaitlin was promoted to Sr. Strategist at Getty Images in April. Woot!
  • Kaitlin took a road trip with Mary Anne and helped her move across country in April. It's been wonderful to have Mary Anne, Michaela, and Paisley in Olympia, much closer to us.
  • We enjoyed celebrating Anna and Rory's wedding in May, and seeing family and friends during our stay in Santa Barbara. 
  • Shaun finished his master's degree in teaching in June. What a relief! Check out our blog post about his graduation and grad party here.
  • We toured London and Paris for a week and a half. It was awesome to see so much history and culture, and taste great food! 
  • We went on a 3 day backpacking trip in the Olympic Mountains in July. Hard work, but worth it!
  • For our 5th wedding anniversary, we took a short trip to Snoqualmie Falls in August. 
  • Throughout the summer, we biked to 25 places in the Seattle area in order to win Seattle Bike Bingo prizes... lots of fun! 
  • We had lots of fun hanging out with family: blueberry picking (and pie making!) with Mary Anne, Michaela, and Paisley, and hanging out with Joy and Rick in Seattle when they visited in July. Plus, celebrating Paisley's 3rd birthday!
  • For Kaitlin's 30th birthday, we went out to Finn River Cidery near Port Townsend. We danced to live music, chowed down on pizza and cider, walked around the farm, and Michaela made chocolate covered strawberries! Check out highlights of our summer here.
  • Shaun started his first year of teaching, as a 9th and 10th grade ELL (English language learners) instructor at a high school
  • We went out to see a great play, The Man of La Mancha, with Sandy in October.
  • We paid off our car loan and become debt free! Wahoo! 
  • Kaitlin finished 2 Python coding classes... slowly but surely becoming a PyLady!
  • Kaitlin also joined two community groups this fall, one in Spanish! It's been great to practice Spanish while also participating in a Bible study, and get to know others in my church. 
  • Kaitlin's freelance business was profitable for the 3rd year in a row, and she got several new clients, including her biggest yet, Kavu.com.
  • Shaun was honored as one of the "125 Ones to Watch" in our SPU alumni magazine. Check out his profile here: https://response.spu.edu/alumni/shaun-mcmichael
  • Shaun had 1 short story and 4 blog articles published this year. 
  • We started cooking a LOT more this fall once we started ordering local grocery delivery from  ACME farms and kitchens, which we love! If you live in Bellingham, Snohomish county, Seattle, or Portland, check out this awesome service: http://i.refs.cc/4qV2ploL 
  • Kaitlin read 30 books this year. 
As we look forward to 2017, we are already excited for the upcoming year. Kaitlin is planning a short trip to Europe for a work conference in February, and another conference in Portland in March. Goals for Kaitlin in 2017 include finishing the certification for computer science fundamentals, continuing to practice Spanish, and go bike camping next summer (never done that before!). Shaun's goals include getting more writing published and reading several books.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season and that the New Year is refreshing and rejuvenating. We always enjoy hearing from family and friends, so don't hesitate to drop us a line! 

Popular posts from this blog

Mt Rainier Backpacking Trip & Bainbridge Island Bike Trip

By -
Image
View from Bainbridge Ferry Shaun and I have been trying to enjoy the last bit of summer weather before we go into hibernation for the winter. It always seems like winter comes close on the heels of autumn, so I'm already bracing myself for the shock of cold and rain.  Shaun has a 3-week break between summer and autumn quarter, so we've been taking advantage of it by going on a 1 night backpacking trip to Mt Rainier last weekend, and a short bike trip around Bainbridge Island this weekend. Here's some pictures and details from our peregrinations! Mt Rainier Backpacking Trip The backpacking trip was awesome. We drove to the Longmire entrance near Paradise, in the southwest corner of the park. I'd never been to Mt Rainier before, and it had been years since Shaun's last trip. On Saturday, the sky was partly cloudy and the air was a bit chilly, around 50 degrees. We set out in the brisk morning air, hiking along the Wonderland Trail from Longmire to Pyramid Cree...
Read more

The Mom Diaries, Part 1: New Mom Survival Guide

By -
Image
Now that I'm a "seasoned professional," I'd like to share the baby gear and other tips and tricks that I've learned during my seven-month-long reign as Queen Mom. :-) Much of the advice I learned from my family and friends and others who have been a tremendous help. When I was pregnant, I spent a lot of time researching and asking for advice on all the things related to baby gear, etc. Now I'm just writing it all down in hopes that this advice will help other new moms! And maybe in a few more months or a year I'll share my tips after I've entered the "I don't negotiate with terrorists" phase of mothering a toddler. Things to Purchase New  I got a kick out of the BuyBuyBaby pamphlet at my doctor's office that listed all the "must-haves" I needed to purchase from them in order to be a good mother. Ha! There's a surprisingly small number of things you need to purchase new for your baby. One of the things I've learn...
Read more

Europe Trip 2016: Part 2, Paris

By -
Image
by Shaun Day 1 The train dropped us off at the Gare Du Nord , from which we quickly learned how to use the Paris Metro ( may-troh ) to get to our flat in the arrondissement of Montmartre. We set our things down and hiked up an epic set of stairs to the Sacre Coeur, a ivory-colored cathedral keeping watch over the City of Lights. Below the domes and spires of the cathedral crowds from around the world were gathered, as they do nightly, playing music, taking selfies, drinking wine and speaking in French, Italian, Russian, English, Chinese, Somali, etc.... The scene was the love child of The Tower of Babel and It’s a Small World After All. Afterwards, we went to a café and used my survival French to order dinner. The French waiters gave me pointers and seemed to enjoy it. Day 2  Well, if we’d weathered the world’s tenth largest museum the day prior in London, what could hold us back from tackling The Louvre, the world’s second largest?...
Read more