Happy Holidays 2023!

Greetings, everyone!  We hope you're having the happiest, loveliest, most merry of holiday seasons!  The effort to save the trees by creating a holiday blog instead of sending out a holiday card seemed decently well received last year, so here we go again!

From our household to yours - happy holidays, all!

Like last year, we've rounded up a few notable photos and events from each month; many of these are described in more detail in other blog posts, and if so, I've linked to those in each section.

January 2023

In what I would imagine is common for many folks, during January, we stayed close to home, recovering from the 2022 holiday season (we hosted Amy's Mom for her birthday, Amy's Dad and his wife Risa for Christmas, and had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family).  We ate at some great spots, hung out on our back porch and enjoyed the amazing Phoenix weather, and visited some local attractions, including the Japanese Friendship Garden for their bonsai exhibit.

One of the bonsai creations on display

February 2023

February immediately started off with a bang, as on the 1st, we flew to Paris for an amazing, week-long trip around France.  What a great experience - we drank wine and visited castles around Bordeaux, ate so much incredible food, and roamed the streets of the capital we hadn't seen since before the pandemic.  

Bonjour from the City of Light!

And from Bordeaux!

March 2023

During March, we were lucky to attend our first Jimmy Buffett concert in a few years; looking back, our timing was even more fortunate than we initially knew, since this ended up being his last trip to Phoenix (we miss you, Bubba).  More importantly for our immediate family, around St. Patrick's Day, we changed up our already planned hiking/relaxing trip to Joshua Tree National Park to include swinging by the California Paws Rescue near Palm Springs, California to meet a year-old bull terrier named Beans, who ended up becoming part of the clan (and whom we promptly renamed "Bea").  We also had the opportunity to spend some time in the Verde Valley with Amy's Dad and Risa, learning about wine and chatting around the campfire.

Fins up!

Zoe (on our left) is not so sure about this little sister thing

April 2023

With our large "work from the camper" trip coming up soon, in early April, we headed to San Onofre State Beach, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, for a week to try our setup.  We were joined there by our friends Bryan and Jen, as well as their doggos, Bogey and Bronx.  It was Bea's first camping trip, and a great time was had by all!  On the way home, we swung by Amy's Dad and Risa's house for a night, which happened to coincide with his 70th birthday - we were happy to celebrate with the two of them.  Chris went on another epic hiking trip with friends Jake and Bill to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in late April, and they again had an amazing experience.

Hiking to the beach on our last morning in San Clemente

Lots of hiking going on in April for our family

May 2023

May was a relatively quiet month, but with the summer heat coming on fast in the Valley of the Sun, we headed north over the long Memorial Day weekend to White Spar Campground within the Prescott National Forest with friends Jake, Keeli, Amadeo, and Christina.  We had a great time visiting with one another and watching the F1 race (hooray, technology)!

Our girls, enjoying the cooler air at 5,000 feet

June 2023

In late June, we started the super mega "digital nomad" work trip - we left home on the 23rd and wouldn't return until mid-August.  Our first stop was in Southern California; Amy's Dad would be embarking on his third Transpac race, and we were excited to be there to help send him off in style along with Risa, Amy's Aunt Denise, and Cousin Rich.

Getting the proverbial show on the proverbial road

Aloha from the Transpac send off party

July 2023

July brought us the opportunity to see even more family and friends, all while we were on the great summer work trip.  We passed through Sacramento on our way to Bodega Bay, California, so Chris had a chance to visit his Mom, Susan, and her husband, Andy for an evening and celebrate her birthday.  Amy's Mom, Gwen, flew to Oregon during our time there, and she and Amy had a chance to visit with one another while seeing many of the incredible things the state has to offer (great wine, amazing coastlines, and Crater Lake National Park).  Our work trip reached its halfway and farthest point north in Port Angeles, Washington at Salt Creek Recreation Area, which we can't recommend highly enough.

All four of us at Salt Creek

Crater Lake was seriously incredible!

Chris and the girls at Russian River Brewing

August 2023

As summer wrapped up, we found ourselves turning southward and heading into warmer territory on the work from the camper trip.  First up was Coleville, California where we met our friends Bryan and Jen and enjoyed exploring the quieter side of Yosemite National Park.  After that, it was into Las Vegas, for a week of staying inside in the camper's AC most of the time, with a daily break after work to lounge by the RV resort's pool.  By mid-month, we were back at home in Phoenix; while the temperature was pretty horrible, being back in our comfortable house with fast internet service was absolutely worth it (not to mention having the chance to see our local buddies once more)!

Us at Yosemite - that's Half Dome in the background

Bea, enjoying her first ride down the Vegas Strip at night

September 2023

It was pretty quiet for us in September, as we got our lives back into order after being gone for two months (there was a lot of laundry to do and lots of mail to open).  We very much enjoyed getting back together with friends we'd missed and revisiting favorite restaurants in our area.  Chris also had the chance to visit with his Dad, Hugh, and his wife Ginny at their home in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Most of the September pictures on our phones are of the dogs,

but here's one of a grackle in the parking lot at Sprouts, clearly not enjoying the summer weather.

Grackles are normally pretty disheveled looking, but this bird has seen things.

October 2023

With the temperatures finally breaking a bit, we got back outside in October; Chris continued training for the El Tour de Tucson bike race (coming up in November), and Amy got back into a running routine.  Echoing our trip from Memorial Day, midway through October, we headed south to Benson, Arizona for a friends' camping trip at Kartchner Caverns State Park with Bryan, Jen, Jake and Keeli.  During October, Amy was diagnosed with skin cancer - thankfully, just a basal cell carcinoma - and underwent a successful Mohs procedure to remove it.  Getting old is the best!

Getting ready for our cave tour at Kartchner Caverns

All bandaged up after the skin cancer removal

November 2023

Per normal, as the holidays approached, life got a bit crazier.  In mid-November, we drove to Tucson for the weekend for El Tour; Chris and Jake successfully completed the 63 mile route, Amy ran the affiliated 5K, and we also got to spend time with Keeli, Bryan, and Jen - winning all around!  Although Thanksgiving Day itself was quiet (just the two of us and the doggos), a few days afterward, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary with a gathering of our closest friends; it was an incredible, love-filled affair, and we appreciated everyone joining us as we renewed our vows (here's to the next 20!).

Hooray!  All done!

Getting ready to run the Phoenix Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving morning -

it's our 5th year in a row!

At our anniversary party - time for cake!

December 2023

And here we are again, friends and family!  Although we're only halfway through the month at the time this is being written, we've already taken a trip to the Mogollon Rim to cut down our Christmas tree (for the third year in a row!) and had the chance to show Amy's Mom around San Francisco and Napa to celebrate her 70th birthday (blogs on that trip will likely be coming soon - stay tuned).

The girls enjoyed tromping through the snow on the way to find our Christmas tree

Got one!

Thank you to everyone who helped us have another incredible year - Amy's book club ladies and core work group friends, our used-to-be Ragnar teammies who are now camping, eating, and drinking buddies (major upgrade), and friends and family all over the country!  2023 was a great year because we got to spend it with all of you!

Best wishes!

Amy and Chris