wan life to live: 2016: the good, the bad and the awesome

Friday, December 30, 2016

2016: the good, the bad and the awesome

okay, so 2016 was full of lots of lows for the world. it was a pretty sucky year - we lost some major icons, watched some pretty ugly political battles, mourned with communities who faced terrible tragedies.

and yet there were lots of great things that happened this year, too. unemployment rates are super low, the world series saw a decades-long streak broken, the $20 bill is going to see harriet tubman on it, and hey - leo finally won his oscar! i even found myself sitting in the very seat he was in during the academy awards just a few weeks afterwards.

as for us...well, we had a pretty good year too. the hub and i were able to spend a lot of quality time together on a nice little string of day dates, date nights, an overnighter to vegas and even a getaway weekend with friends.

there was, of course, lots and lots of disneyland. there were trips with just me and the bean, me and the old lady, with friends, and once with the hub.

we do love other amusement parks, too. universal studios, the l.a. county fair and knott's berry farm saw us a couple of times over the year:

i didn't do as much running as i have in previous years, although i did manage to get both of my girls to run disney races in 2016.

i did races with friends and by myself...plus i took home a pretty decent amount of running bling.

there was more barre than running this year, and the old lady hit her own xtend milestone this summer.

speaking of milestones for the old lady, she turned 21 this year!

the bean celebrated milestones of her own. she finished second grade, started the third, took home ribbons from both the speech meet and piano festival plus the art competition at the fair, turned 9, got her ears pierced, got featured on two news channels, had her braces put on, hosted her first sleepover, cut her hair, performed in the talent show, learned how to play monopoly, took her first biplane ride, went to animation camp...

she also did a lot of cheering this year, taking home a win at her first cheer competition (where her mother embarrassed the hell out of herself with the parent squad but had a blast anyway) and participating in a junior cheer clinic where she got to perform with a local high school.

and she continued on with her other extracurriculars too.

were there cookies, you ask? well, of course there were.

i somehow managed to expand my crafting skills even more with the addition of some pretty sweet new equipment - a heat press, an embroidery machine, an edible ink printer and a coverstitch machine.

there was a lot of sewing, of course.

along with my co-leader, who's become my frequent partner in all sorts of shenanigans, i got to be on not just one game show, but two!

we also spent a lot of time girl scouting, of course.

we even planned a disney cruise with our families together which took us to nassau, castaway cay (disney's private island), and disney world.

we spent fourth of july week at a sweet beach house in newport.

and then the girls and i took off on a fun road trip up to san francisco. while the bean spent her days at walt disney family museum's animation camp, the old lady and i explored the city.

when camp was over, the hub flew up and joined us for the fun, taking us to napa before road tripping it back home.

we saw a lot of art this year, too.

we spent a lot of time with friends and family.

we went to a few concerts, had a couple of celebrity encounters, watched kobe play his final game as a laker and worked as extras on a couple of yet-to-be-released movies.