2018 in Review
Oh Tawny, my dear sweet love. Once again here we are. Somehow I thought you might not need a re-cap of 2018. Boy was I wrong. You always seem to forget what we do during the year and when the clock hits midnight on December 31st you get sad and remorseful as if we didn’t do anything with the last 365 days.
Luckily for you, I keep detailed records of our year and I am here to remind you of all the powerful moments we shared in 2018.
This was a big year for us, a hard year at times. When 2018 began we were living in Spokane with family, unsure of what was coming next for us, and we had no plans. You were also pregnant, and we had a toddler, so anxiety was high. However…
We still rang in the New Year with fire, passion, and hope.
We cleared a choking forest so that the trees could grow. We also taught Holden how to be a woodsman.
We had one of the best meals of my life. Roasting handmade chorizo sausages and drinking ale behind the castle.
When the snows came in earnest we got creative for our morning walks with Holden. He loved every minute of it.
I know that it felt like we were in Spokane for a lifetime but before winter was even finished we moved all of our worldly possessions back to Tacoma… across the mountains… in the winter… with a 1 year old… while you were pregnant. Bravo us.
Holden learned to shoot a crossbow.
We had a sponsorship with Reddi Wip real cream topping and accidentally got Holden hooked on this delicious, real dairy whipped topping.
International adventurer and famous thrill seeker Mike Corey challenged us to a video production contest and we managed to make content every week for a solid period of time. Some of that content is now featured below. We should thank him for pushing us.
Oh yeah, you got to see Hamilton. Wow. Lucky lucky lady. Somebody must love you.
Which that isn’t surprising since you are so incredible, and you look so damn good.
We got ourselves a nice new apartment that oddly has two showers next to each other but no tub. No big deal, we just bought Holden his own inflatable Japanese bathtub. It was the perfect spot for him to binge watch the Legend of Korra.
You might remember Pretty Gritty Tours, that tour company we started. It turns out it has been doing really well.
We got access to some of the most exclusive and long dreamed of buildings on our wish list. Like Old City Hall.
Official Tour of Old City Hall from Chris Staudinger on Vimeo.
The Realart Theater
Oh, yeah, and Stadium High School, currently our most popular tour.
We got to use our blogging expertise to start some new enterprises and work with some truly amazing clients.
Somebody turned 2 years old! He then regaled us with a beautiful rendition of the Train Song by Blippi.
There was a healthy amount of sailing.
Also fish.
It was exhausting, but you managed to be so radiantly gorgeous throughout it all.
Then we got one of the best surprises of our life. Young Henley was born and our life felt quite a bit more complete.
Holden was thrilled.
Everyone was very impressed because you didn’t think you were in labor. I kept telling you that we needed to go to the hospital and you just wanted to watch Justified and do the dishes.
This year we also dedicated a lot more time to art projects.
Also trains. Which was cool since we got to meet Holden’s hero, Thomas the Tank Engine.
Holden learned a lot about gravity.
We got to spend a lot more time outside, and you did something you would never have done two years ago. You took your new born (1 week old infant!) outside to experience the world. We’ve all come really far in a lot of ways that never get acknowledged.
We did lose the castle. That hurt a lot. We lost some dear friends too, long before their time.
We did have a great deal of new adventures with this young lady.
We were featured in a few really excellent outlets. Which is always nice.
Oh yeah, you were published in National Geographic.
You came to really love Red Velvet as a band. (It’s not true, Tawny hates Red Velvet.)
We took Henley on her first international trip to Canada. There were fish, “seaducks,” locations from Twice’s music video, and the coolest breakfast cafe we have ever been to. Holden got to sit and watch seaplanes take off and land right next to our window. I admit, the Flying Beaver was amazing.
Pretty Gritty Tours got to tour a lot of Tacoma’s Underground and haunted locations.
We got to stand on the roof of Stadium High.
We drove around with elk.
And bison and bears…
…and Holden kissed a tortoise against all our wishes.
There were so many highs. Indoor skydiving, the fair, Portland with the Baos! We rallied hard in a hundred different directions for a multitude of days trips. Something we don’t normally do.
It was a visual year.
And you, of course, were the most stunning part of it.
As we do every year, we hosted an archery tournament. It was nautical themed and well attended by some of the finest people we know. And hey! I beat Kyle! They said it couldn’t be done, and yet it happened.
We did this thing called autumn and we did it with class. Cider presses, leave peeping, pumpkin patches… it was a cornucopia of autumnal glory. 20-something baristas in Uggs across the nation quivered with jealousy at our fall time Instagram.
We nailed Halloween!
You got to pet a wolf and walk with him in the dense cedar forests of the PNW.
That was nice since you yourself are a wolf. Although I think you’re a fox.
We took our kids to Korea this year. Both of them did incredibly well with the 24 hour travel day and 17 hour time change. That might be our greatest achievement of the year honestly.
Master Sim got to meet both our kids and Holden had the best time of the trip playing in our old Hapkido dojang.
You also got this very sexy Hwasa coat.
This year was honest and chaotic. We spent a lot of our time raising Holden and Henley and trying to reconcile what it means to be parents and not just world travelers. It’s difficult for me to see our life with clarity lately because I’m usually dodging Cheerios but when I look at moments like this I can see how these moments are changing the foundation of who were in ways that I love.
You were a patient and devoted mother all year long and it always impressed me.
Returning to Hawaii this year with our friends and our kids was a real gift.
From sleigh-rides to winter games we have done so much this year and rebounded so much farther than we thought we would be able to one year ago. We have our purpose back and a clear direction.
I know this wild haze of rearing children and reinventing ourselves has been messy and savage but I want you to always remember that I love you unconditionally and…
