2019 was a great year for us! It was busy and a little exhausting, but that's life. Whose life isn't busy and exhausting?
This year we started one of our goals of making travel more of a priority, and went on some really fun trips! In March, we went on a roadtrip with some of our friends to San Diego (my first time going to California) and had the best time at Old Town, the San Diego zoo, watching the sunset and sea lions at the beach, and eating delicious sea food. California never really appealed to me, but now I definitely want to go back!
We also finally had the chance to go back to Washington state where Ryan and I both met while on our missions. We took as much time off as we possibly could from our jobs and did another long drive. We stopped in Oregon on the way to see Multnomah Falls, Portland, Tillamook, and Cannon Beach/Haystack Rock. Oregon was a beautiful state to drive through. Our trip to Washington was spent visiting people we love and miss and going to our old stomping grounds. We stopped in Montesano, Elma, McCleary, Olympia, University Place, Tacoma, Belfair, Silverdale, Chehalis, and Winlock.
When we got back from that trip, we immediately jumped into celebrating Rose's FIRST birthday! We feel like the luckiest parents in the whole wide world to have this sweet girl in our life. And she is the luckiest little girl in the world to have SO many family members and friends who love and adore her. Our tiny living room was completely full of people who wanted to celebrate her first year of living.
Over the summer, we spent a few days camping near Goblin Valley in Southern Utah with Ryan's family. The weather was surprisingly nice and we had a great time playing hide and seek in the park.
In July, we went to a Vorkink family reunion in Mt. Carmel Junction near Zion National Park. We stayed right across the street from the Thunderbird Restaurant, home of the ho-made pies. And we thought that was funny, so we had to try the pie and it really was delicious! We also hiked through the Zion Narrows (my first time) and it was way more fun than I expected hiking through a river would be! We also went sledding on some sand dunes.
In October, there were some AWESOME deals on flights to Austin, Texas and I hadn't been home in more than two years, so I snatched them up and flew with Rose to Texas to stay with my family for a visit. I thoroughly enjoyed having breakfast made for me every morning by my dad, getting to spend time with my mom, a day trip to Waco to see the famous Magnolia, and eating some foods I've missed (Chuy's and coconut ice cream from my favorite Thai place).
On Halloween, we announced that we are expecting baby #2 (in April 2020) and a month later we found out baby #2 is going to be another girl!
Around Thanksgiving, we decided to move into an apartment that is unfortunately not as cool as the historic house we had been living in, but has a lot of perks that make up for that like a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, a WAY bigger kitchen, and an extra bedroom. It's a much better fit for our growing family, and we are happy to be in our new home.
In between all of that, Ryan has been going to school at UVU and working at the Tire shop at Sam's Club, while I have been staying home with Rose during the day and working part-time at a Residential Treatment Center for youth 3 nights a week. Rose has been growing like a weed and learning how to do all sorts of things. She knows a good amount of sign language and has even started to use her words as well just recently. It's not fair, because adults don't really learn or accomplish that much year to year, while babies just learn all sorts of new things and grow a TON! Rose is a whole different person than she was last Christmas. It's a blast getting to watch her grow, I wish I had the words to share it with you. Just know that in my totally unbiased opinion, that Rose is the coolest, smartest, sweetest, and funniest 18 month old in the whole wide world. ;)
It's been a great year and we are so blessed!
And just know that we have had our struggles and downsides to the year too, but I want to look back on all the good and happy things that happened this year, so please don't look at this and let it get you down.
Merry Christmas! Love, the Vorkink's
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