Another year has come and gone. It's time for another end of year review post! This was definitely an interesting year. A lot has happened!
Without further ado...here we go!
January took me to the Middle East, but this time to Qatar instead of Bahrain. I got there on a Monday night and spent 3 days working in Qatar on a project that we started a year earlier. We didn't get to do any sightseeing, so I didn't get to explore any of the souqs or any of the local culture. I left Qatar and did a 24 hour stopover in Amsterdam. Amsterdam in the middle of January is COLD. But I was able to see sights such as the Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Experience, and the Red Light District. It was a lot of fun even in the cold.
February saw us changing day cares for Emily to one closer to home and a little smaller. It made dropping her off and picking up easier for both Lauren and me. We saw a lot of changes in the first two weeks.
February also brought my return to Daytona for Speedweeks. After taking a year off, I was excited to be going back, albeit a week later than in previous years. I did my garage tour on Thursday, getting up close with a few personalities. I enjoyed the qualifying races on Thursday, having a great view of some of the action. Friday I spent the morning at Ponce Inlet, enjoying a beautiful Florida sunny day. I went to the truck race Friday night, enjoying it very much. Saturday my friend Bart drove down from Jacksonville to attend the Nationwide race. It was his first Daytona experience, and I think he was enjoying himself. We went to dinner Saturday night with one of my friends who was in town with her husband for the race. We ended up eating at a restaurant in Ormond Beach, and discovered Richard Petty would be there soon. I got lucky and got a picture with him before he had to run inside for a dinner. That made my weekend for sure!
Then the fun began. The rain Sunday delayed the race until Monday. I had to check out of my hotel Monday, so we waited out the rain delay and went to the race Monday night. The jet dryer fire combined with the late start made for a very late night, but a memorable race!! I drove to Jacksonville with Bart, crashed at his place, and drove home on 2 hours sleep. That was insanity.
March brought on my first hockey playoffs. I was pretty nervous going in. We had a good regular season but faced a tough road ahead. We easily won our first game, then barely squeaked by in a shootout win to go to the finals. Right after our shootout win, I was informed I would be going to Florida on an unexpected trip to fix a problem with a system we had down in Tampa. I went to Tampa, spent 3 days there, and returned home. We didn't fully understand why there was a problem, but it got resolved. I took in a Lightning game while there, which was good. I came home to start our hockey finals. We won game 1 in a best of 3 series. Before the 2nd game, we were scheduled to play in a tournament in Atlantic City. We went up there and while we were outscored 26-4, we walked away with 3rd place in our division, which meant we won medals! Insanity! We came back home and lost game 2 of the finals in our home league, so we went to a tiebreaking game. My team put up enough offense, and we won the league championship! It was the team's first championship in about 8 years of trying. It was awesome. I had never been part of a championship winning team, even going back to my younger days, so it was a great experience.
Right after winning, Lauren, Emily and I boarded a plane bound for Buffalo. We decided our big vacation for the year would be Niagara Falls and Toronto. I had never been to either, so I was excited.
We saw both sides of Niagara Falls. The Canadian side was much better, and I think Emily enjoyed her first experience out of the United States. She thought the mist from the falls was fun to play in, and ran around a lot. We took her to a Sabres game and met up with my friend Jen and her boyfriend. We had a great time. Emily was kinda bored and fell asleep before the game ended. She was worn out from running around Niagara. We headed to Toronto on my birthday, going to the Ontario Science Centre spending the day there. Em had a lot of fun. They had lots of areas just for kids, so she got to play with a lot of cool stuff. We had a small dinner and dessert that night. The next morning we went to the CN Tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame,where I got my picture with the Stanley Cup! It was amazing to be that close to it. Hopefully one day I will watch my Caps raise it! We headed back to Buffalo, and made a stop at Duff's for some wings. Definitely worth it!!! The remainder of April was quiet, watching the NHL playoffs and spending time with Em and Lauren.
May was a pretty quiet month. Playing hockey, watching the Caps get eliminated from the NHL playoffs, time with Em and Lauren, and that about sums it up.
June rolled around and started with a trip to the Reston Zoo with Lauren and Emily. Em had a great time looking at the animals. She wasn't a big fan of the goats and sheep since they made loud sounds, but she liked the monkeys and the watsui that came to greet us on the tram ride. She was worn out when we left - that means she had fun! June also brought a return to Dover for NASCAR. 25 consecutive years of attending at least one race at Dover! It also brought my first battle with a severe case of poison ivy. What I thought was a downed branch turned out to be poison ivy. Two weeks of agony and looking terrible. I learned the hard way what poison ivy roots look like and discovered my back yard trees are full of it. The end of June brought in a line of thunderstorms, and the word "derecho" entered into many vocabularies. What a mess. Luckily we were spared the worst of it at our house and never lost power, but several friends lost power for more than a week. Insanity.
July took us to New York to our family cabin for a few days, then Lauren and I left Emily with my parents to go to Dorney Park near Allentown. We had a great time riding roller coasters!! It had been a couple of years since we really got to do so, and since we went during the week, it was almost a ghost town. We had a great time. Went back to NY for a few more days, then headed home. Lauren and Emily went to Williamsburg the last week of July, leaving me home alone to fend for myself. I ended up going to a product testing event for M-Edge which was a lot of fun.
August saw me head to Houston to help give a training class for work. We were working at Johnson Space Center for NASA. I was surprised how small it really was. I had envisioned JSC to be a lot larger than it was, but there wasn't a whole lot there. While not working I did take in a trip to the Kenai Peninsula, an Astros game, and a visit to the St. Arnold brewery. All were great times. Also did my first round of paintball with some guys from church at the end of August. It was a lot of fun! I do want to go again sometime.
We went to NY for Labor day, then I boarded a plane bound for Belgium. I was headed to Brussels, then Mons, for work. We spent 4 days in Belgium. Since we got done with work slightly ahead of schedule, we were able to sneak in an afternoon trip to Brugge, and then a day trip to Paris. Paris was very interesting. We did a blitz trip to see the Notre Dame, then quick stops at the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I do want to go back and spend more time there. I'll just have to take Lauren sometime. :) Came home and went back to the grind. I did go back to Dover at the end of the month for the September race. I went with 10 other people, some who had never been to a race before. They all had a great time. They all wanted to go back next year, so Dover gets more of my money. :)
October was quiet since we had decided to drop our Caps season tickets. Then again, the NHL locked out in September, so we didn't have any hockey to miss. Watching the Orioles get as far as they did in the post season brought back memories of the Orioles of the mid 90s, when they were in the playoffs every year but never could close the deal. But after 15 years of nothing, they were back. It was too bad they ran into the Yankees and were eliminated. It was amazing to see how much orange and black came back after their amazing run. A lot of people are excited about the future. Hopefully Emily will see a championship in Baltimore or DC sometime in her lifetime! :D Hurricane Sandy came through the DC area with little to no major damage to our area. We were lucky that we were spared the worst. Unfortunately for people in NJ/NY, they got it bad. It was really sad to see the damage and destruction left by Sandy. I had a few friends in the area that were luckily unaffected other than power outages. We celebrated Lauren's 30th birthday quietly, with a bigger party to come in November. Emily had fun trick-or-treating. I think she was starting to get the hang of it when we quit. Next year, look out neighborhood!
November saw Lauren's 30th birthday bash. She had a great time with friends and some family. We had a night out in Annapolis. The rest of November was pretty quiet, except Emily doing more and more things to remind me that she's a growing girl. She started talking more and more, and was excited when we put up the Christmas lights and tree. She definitely knows what they mean now! November ended with some sad news, as a co-worker was killed in an auto accident a few days before Thanksgiving. She was one of those people that always made you smile and always stopped to say hello. It was a huge blow to the office. She will definitely be missed.
December saw Lauren and I taking a weekend trip to Cleveland. Her 30th birthday present was a trip to see the Redskins play in Cleveland. We flew in Saturday morning and hit the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. It was good, but I just felt there was something missing from it. I personally thought the Country Music HOF was better. We hit up the Great Lakes Brewing Co restaurant and brewery tour. Both were excellent. I highly recommend picking up a Christmas Ale if you can find it! Then the game. The stadium was probably 25-30% Redskins fans. The Browns fans weren't too bad, but I've heard can be awful when the Steelers are in town. Of course seeing the Skins win was great for Lauren. We then went to Skyline Chili and drove around Cleveland looking at Christmas lights.
Then the fun began. We were supposed to fly home Monday. Due to heavy fog in Baltimore, our flight was cancelled. Southwest basically told us because it was "act of God" they were offering no hotel or meal money, and we were on our own for the night. The best they could do was a 6 AM flight the next day. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. Rather than sit around all night, we rented a car and drove home. 6 1/2 hours later, we got home. It was a long drive, but not bad.
Christmas came and went, with Emily enjoying her gifts and spending time with family. Then we celebrated Emily's 2nd birthday 3 days later. She had a great day, spending time with family and getting to play at the park. She continues to amaze me with everything that she does.
A lot happened this year, but it doesn't sound like it from reading what I just wrote. It's hard to make a year sound exciting in just this one post. I continue to enjoy watching my daughter grow up, play ice hockey, and spend time with my wife. It's a great life.
I look forward to 2013 with a few unknowns, but also a lot of optimism. I can't wait to watch Emily grow for another year, play some more hockey, and do a little traveling. Lauren and I are planning a trip to Vancouver this summer. I've never been, so it will be a lot of fun.
All the best for the new year!
Without further ado...here we go!
January took me to the Middle East, but this time to Qatar instead of Bahrain. I got there on a Monday night and spent 3 days working in Qatar on a project that we started a year earlier. We didn't get to do any sightseeing, so I didn't get to explore any of the souqs or any of the local culture. I left Qatar and did a 24 hour stopover in Amsterdam. Amsterdam in the middle of January is COLD. But I was able to see sights such as the Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum, Heineken Experience, and the Red Light District. It was a lot of fun even in the cold.
February saw us changing day cares for Emily to one closer to home and a little smaller. It made dropping her off and picking up easier for both Lauren and me. We saw a lot of changes in the first two weeks.
February also brought my return to Daytona for Speedweeks. After taking a year off, I was excited to be going back, albeit a week later than in previous years. I did my garage tour on Thursday, getting up close with a few personalities. I enjoyed the qualifying races on Thursday, having a great view of some of the action. Friday I spent the morning at Ponce Inlet, enjoying a beautiful Florida sunny day. I went to the truck race Friday night, enjoying it very much. Saturday my friend Bart drove down from Jacksonville to attend the Nationwide race. It was his first Daytona experience, and I think he was enjoying himself. We went to dinner Saturday night with one of my friends who was in town with her husband for the race. We ended up eating at a restaurant in Ormond Beach, and discovered Richard Petty would be there soon. I got lucky and got a picture with him before he had to run inside for a dinner. That made my weekend for sure!
Then the fun began. The rain Sunday delayed the race until Monday. I had to check out of my hotel Monday, so we waited out the rain delay and went to the race Monday night. The jet dryer fire combined with the late start made for a very late night, but a memorable race!! I drove to Jacksonville with Bart, crashed at his place, and drove home on 2 hours sleep. That was insanity.
March brought on my first hockey playoffs. I was pretty nervous going in. We had a good regular season but faced a tough road ahead. We easily won our first game, then barely squeaked by in a shootout win to go to the finals. Right after our shootout win, I was informed I would be going to Florida on an unexpected trip to fix a problem with a system we had down in Tampa. I went to Tampa, spent 3 days there, and returned home. We didn't fully understand why there was a problem, but it got resolved. I took in a Lightning game while there, which was good. I came home to start our hockey finals. We won game 1 in a best of 3 series. Before the 2nd game, we were scheduled to play in a tournament in Atlantic City. We went up there and while we were outscored 26-4, we walked away with 3rd place in our division, which meant we won medals! Insanity! We came back home and lost game 2 of the finals in our home league, so we went to a tiebreaking game. My team put up enough offense, and we won the league championship! It was the team's first championship in about 8 years of trying. It was awesome. I had never been part of a championship winning team, even going back to my younger days, so it was a great experience.
Right after winning, Lauren, Emily and I boarded a plane bound for Buffalo. We decided our big vacation for the year would be Niagara Falls and Toronto. I had never been to either, so I was excited.
We saw both sides of Niagara Falls. The Canadian side was much better, and I think Emily enjoyed her first experience out of the United States. She thought the mist from the falls was fun to play in, and ran around a lot. We took her to a Sabres game and met up with my friend Jen and her boyfriend. We had a great time. Emily was kinda bored and fell asleep before the game ended. She was worn out from running around Niagara. We headed to Toronto on my birthday, going to the Ontario Science Centre spending the day there. Em had a lot of fun. They had lots of areas just for kids, so she got to play with a lot of cool stuff. We had a small dinner and dessert that night. The next morning we went to the CN Tower and the Hockey Hall of Fame,where I got my picture with the Stanley Cup! It was amazing to be that close to it. Hopefully one day I will watch my Caps raise it! We headed back to Buffalo, and made a stop at Duff's for some wings. Definitely worth it!!! The remainder of April was quiet, watching the NHL playoffs and spending time with Em and Lauren.
May was a pretty quiet month. Playing hockey, watching the Caps get eliminated from the NHL playoffs, time with Em and Lauren, and that about sums it up.
June rolled around and started with a trip to the Reston Zoo with Lauren and Emily. Em had a great time looking at the animals. She wasn't a big fan of the goats and sheep since they made loud sounds, but she liked the monkeys and the watsui that came to greet us on the tram ride. She was worn out when we left - that means she had fun! June also brought a return to Dover for NASCAR. 25 consecutive years of attending at least one race at Dover! It also brought my first battle with a severe case of poison ivy. What I thought was a downed branch turned out to be poison ivy. Two weeks of agony and looking terrible. I learned the hard way what poison ivy roots look like and discovered my back yard trees are full of it. The end of June brought in a line of thunderstorms, and the word "derecho" entered into many vocabularies. What a mess. Luckily we were spared the worst of it at our house and never lost power, but several friends lost power for more than a week. Insanity.
July took us to New York to our family cabin for a few days, then Lauren and I left Emily with my parents to go to Dorney Park near Allentown. We had a great time riding roller coasters!! It had been a couple of years since we really got to do so, and since we went during the week, it was almost a ghost town. We had a great time. Went back to NY for a few more days, then headed home. Lauren and Emily went to Williamsburg the last week of July, leaving me home alone to fend for myself. I ended up going to a product testing event for M-Edge which was a lot of fun.
August saw me head to Houston to help give a training class for work. We were working at Johnson Space Center for NASA. I was surprised how small it really was. I had envisioned JSC to be a lot larger than it was, but there wasn't a whole lot there. While not working I did take in a trip to the Kenai Peninsula, an Astros game, and a visit to the St. Arnold brewery. All were great times. Also did my first round of paintball with some guys from church at the end of August. It was a lot of fun! I do want to go again sometime.
We went to NY for Labor day, then I boarded a plane bound for Belgium. I was headed to Brussels, then Mons, for work. We spent 4 days in Belgium. Since we got done with work slightly ahead of schedule, we were able to sneak in an afternoon trip to Brugge, and then a day trip to Paris. Paris was very interesting. We did a blitz trip to see the Notre Dame, then quick stops at the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. I do want to go back and spend more time there. I'll just have to take Lauren sometime. :) Came home and went back to the grind. I did go back to Dover at the end of the month for the September race. I went with 10 other people, some who had never been to a race before. They all had a great time. They all wanted to go back next year, so Dover gets more of my money. :)
October was quiet since we had decided to drop our Caps season tickets. Then again, the NHL locked out in September, so we didn't have any hockey to miss. Watching the Orioles get as far as they did in the post season brought back memories of the Orioles of the mid 90s, when they were in the playoffs every year but never could close the deal. But after 15 years of nothing, they were back. It was too bad they ran into the Yankees and were eliminated. It was amazing to see how much orange and black came back after their amazing run. A lot of people are excited about the future. Hopefully Emily will see a championship in Baltimore or DC sometime in her lifetime! :D Hurricane Sandy came through the DC area with little to no major damage to our area. We were lucky that we were spared the worst. Unfortunately for people in NJ/NY, they got it bad. It was really sad to see the damage and destruction left by Sandy. I had a few friends in the area that were luckily unaffected other than power outages. We celebrated Lauren's 30th birthday quietly, with a bigger party to come in November. Emily had fun trick-or-treating. I think she was starting to get the hang of it when we quit. Next year, look out neighborhood!
November saw Lauren's 30th birthday bash. She had a great time with friends and some family. We had a night out in Annapolis. The rest of November was pretty quiet, except Emily doing more and more things to remind me that she's a growing girl. She started talking more and more, and was excited when we put up the Christmas lights and tree. She definitely knows what they mean now! November ended with some sad news, as a co-worker was killed in an auto accident a few days before Thanksgiving. She was one of those people that always made you smile and always stopped to say hello. It was a huge blow to the office. She will definitely be missed.
December saw Lauren and I taking a weekend trip to Cleveland. Her 30th birthday present was a trip to see the Redskins play in Cleveland. We flew in Saturday morning and hit the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. It was good, but I just felt there was something missing from it. I personally thought the Country Music HOF was better. We hit up the Great Lakes Brewing Co restaurant and brewery tour. Both were excellent. I highly recommend picking up a Christmas Ale if you can find it! Then the game. The stadium was probably 25-30% Redskins fans. The Browns fans weren't too bad, but I've heard can be awful when the Steelers are in town. Of course seeing the Skins win was great for Lauren. We then went to Skyline Chili and drove around Cleveland looking at Christmas lights.
Then the fun began. We were supposed to fly home Monday. Due to heavy fog in Baltimore, our flight was cancelled. Southwest basically told us because it was "act of God" they were offering no hotel or meal money, and we were on our own for the night. The best they could do was a 6 AM flight the next day. It was 2:30 in the afternoon. Rather than sit around all night, we rented a car and drove home. 6 1/2 hours later, we got home. It was a long drive, but not bad.
Christmas came and went, with Emily enjoying her gifts and spending time with family. Then we celebrated Emily's 2nd birthday 3 days later. She had a great day, spending time with family and getting to play at the park. She continues to amaze me with everything that she does.
A lot happened this year, but it doesn't sound like it from reading what I just wrote. It's hard to make a year sound exciting in just this one post. I continue to enjoy watching my daughter grow up, play ice hockey, and spend time with my wife. It's a great life.
I look forward to 2013 with a few unknowns, but also a lot of optimism. I can't wait to watch Emily grow for another year, play some more hockey, and do a little traveling. Lauren and I are planning a trip to Vancouver this summer. I've never been, so it will be a lot of fun.
All the best for the new year!
