Reflecting on 2017
2017 was quite the year! Early on I had ambitions about starting this blog, but was too scared to actually make it go live. Then, life got crazy. We decided to move, I spent time packing and then unpacking, I ended up leaving my job for several different reasons and have settled in nicely to being a stay at home mom for the time-being. We did a lot of traveling this fall, did some major renovations on our new home and suddenly we’re celebrating New Years! What happened?!?
2017 was maybe our best travel year – we had many trips with both friends and family. In 2015, my grandfather somewhat unexpectedly passed away. It made me realize that we don’t know how much time we have left with our loved ones, especially elderly grandparents! So we made it a priority to make those trips with Kayleigh’s great-grandparents that we had been talking about for awhile.
The year started off with a college friends reunion in Savannah, where we were blessed with gorgeous weather for February. We also traveled domestically to Assateague Island in Maryland, showed one of our favorite cities, Boston, to friends and explored San Diego, California.
Our first big trip of 2017 was to Israel with Ben’s grandfather, Kayleigh’s great-grandfather. While in Tel Aviv, we celebrated his sister’s 97th birthday. We also spent a few days exploring Jordan, both Petra and Wadi Rum. Shortly after we returned home, we celebrated his 96th birthday! There’s something to say about healthy lifestyles and good genes!
Then in September, we traveled with my parents and my grandmother, Kayleigh’s great-grandmother to Ireland. My grandmother had been to Ireland several times before but my grandfather had never honored her wish to stay in a castle. Luckily for us – we were able to help cross a castle overnight off her bucket list, at the amazing Ashford Castle (on her birthday!).
Kayleigh joined us for all of the trips above, but we snuck away for some adult-only only trips too š In July, I surprised Ben with a trip to Scotland for an extra-long weekend where his closest friends joined us, the who and where were both a surprise! We ran the Spartan Beast (a 16+ mile and 25+ obstacle race) which made us feel better about the subsequent whisky tasting in Speyside! 
St Andrews Links, ScotlandIn September, my closest girlfriends from college met in Bermuda to celebrate our second to last Bride-to-Be! It was nice to relax and soak up some final rays of summer. Bermuda is such an awesome destination, a gorgeous island, not far at all from the east coast, but it can be pricey. Lastly, we all met up again in Portland, ME for Robin’s wedding. We lucked out with the weather, it felt like summer at the end of October!
2018 will not look the same, that’s for sure. As of now we don’t have anything planned except a friends weekend in Mystic, CT and in the pipeline a trip to Seattle to visit my brother. 2018 will be a little different as I’ll be grounded for awhile, Baby Jayson #2 joins the family in July! Ben assures me that we will keep traveling with two little ones and I know we will. But it’s scary, at least we don’t have to pay for the baby’s plane tickets for a few years š
