2010 Year in Review

2010 was not exactly the best year for this blog. I'm not certain as to why that was, although I seem to remember an extended period in 2004 (through 2007) after Maggie was born when this blog went silent as well, so perhaps it shouldn't be too unexpected. Raising an 8-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a toddler can be pretty exhausting. At the end of the day, there's not much energy left for blogging, and at the beginning of the day, I usually don't have time enough to get anything thought-out and written before I have to get ready for work. Still, we did have a pretty good year overall, and I would have liked to convey that and to have captured some of those moments. Here, then, are roughly a dozen of the milestones / points of interest I would have liked to have blogged about throughout the year, which would have nearly doubled the bloggable output for 2010, by the way. (Click pictures to see larger versions in new window/tab.)

1) I grew a beard starting on Angie's birthday (Jan 6th). I still have it.

2) Our baby boy learned to walk and talk this year. Okay, so the talking is still a work-in-progress, but the walking is in full force. He also moves a mean vacuum.

3) Our niece, who was barely 2 years old when Angie and I met in 1993, graduated from high school in May and started college in Indiana this fall.

4) As in years past, in June we went to Ohio to visit Angie's extended family, took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun.

5) Also as in years past, in late July / early August we went to the beach with my family, took a lot of pictures, and had a lot of fun.

6) In September, we went to fall festivals and to Elijay for apple-picking.

7) In early October, we went to Stone Mountain Park for the first time. Not just the first time as a family; this is the first time any of us had been to Stone Mountain, even though we've lived relatively close to it for years, and Angie and I both grew up in Georgia. A good time was had by all.

8) In mid-October, we went to some sort of fall festival put on by an upscale subdivision which featured hot-air balloon rides. This ended up being a near-fiasco that really, really deserved its own blog post. Angie, Daniel, and Maggie rode the balloon while Joshua and I watched from below. The festival took place on October 16th, and I don't think a single day has passed since then that Joshua hasn't mentioned the "big a-boon" (trans: big balloon) at least once. Really. 79 days.

9) For Halloween, Daniel, Maggie, and Joshua dressed up as Harry Potter, Barbie Genie, and the World's Cutest Dragon, respectively (pictured below with their friend, Damon, as Iron Man).

10) The Hipps family had a small, Georgia-based family reunion in November, which was a blast.

11(possibly 11.a)) We had a great pre-Christmas Christmas time with the extended families the week before the blessed day.
12(possibly 11.b)) We also had a great actual-Christmas Christmas time here at home, getting to spend a lot of time with each other, playing with our new Wii, eating and eating wonderful foods, and even enjoying some time in the snow the next day.

And, of course, we did actually blog about a few of the big milestones, like our 11th anniversary, and of course, our Debt-Freedom! In conclusion, I can't promise that we'll do any better this year, but I do promise that I'll think about it at least once a week or so. Happy New Year!