Happy Holidays 2024!

Hello there, all!

We hope 2024 treated everyone well, and that this blog post finds you all in excellent health and spirits as yet another year winds down.  We also hope you're reading this post stuffed with delicious food and drink - whatever makes you the happiest and concurs with your specific dietary needs/wishes - as well as being surrounded by the friends and family you love the most!

On to the annual wrap-up!  Like in past years, many of the hyperlinks below will lead you to a previous blog post about the trip or event we're discussing, but some will lead you to the restaurant, brewery, or state park for more information.  Have fun clicking around!


Getting ready to meet family for dinner in Kingsport, TN in October

January 2024

We kicked off the year in our normal style - by bundling the doggos up in the truck and taking the travel trailer on a camping trip - this time, to Roper Lake State Park in Safford, AZ.  Some hiking was accomplished, but mostly we just hung around and spent time admiring the natural beauty, as well as indulging in our traditional NYE meal of fondue and sparkling wine.

We'd been contemplating the idea of a cross-country move for a bit, and while we'd visited our prospective new area - the swath of the Southeast from Knoxville, TN to Louisville, KY off the 75 and 64 freeways - each year since 2021, we'd always come during summer or early fall.  Since winter weather would be the biggest change for us from the Valley of the Sun, we figured we should probably ensure we could handle it, and in mid-January, we headed to Appalachia to see what was brewing.  As it turns out, that was an unanticipated Snowpocalypse, which sent us fleeing Knoxville a day ahead of schedule to an Airbnb in a city called Richmond, KY, about 30 minutes south of Lexington.  Foreshadowing, much?  ;)


Auld lang syne, my dears!


What in the world is all this white stuff?

February 2024

Even after experiencing Snowpocalypse, we decided we were still interested in relocating closer to the East Coast, so we started working in earnest to get the Phoenix house on the market.  We booked packers and PODs, held a garage sale, and spackled and repainted the house.  While the house was showing, we also used the travel trailer as our temporary home, setting up at our friend Courtney's out west in Goodyear, AZ - we seriously owe her so much for letting us crash in her backyard!


We know this is blurry, but it's a good demonstration of the state of our life at the time -
stuff everywhere, all in the wrong place and/or half packed.
Bea loved the chaos while Zoe was seriously unnerved by all of this.


Working from the travel trailer in Goodyear with one of our excellent helpers


Since we knew we were heading out before too long, we made it a point to revisit some of our
favorite local haunts - including the Trophy Room at Wren and Wolf in downtown Phoenix


March 2024

In the midst of the packing/moving/living in a trailer frenzy, we had the chance to accompany Amy's Dad and his wife Risa on a weekend trip north to the Sedona area, to celebrate their first anniversary (they were married on Leap Day 2020, so 2/29/2024 was technically their "one year" mark); while the trip was short, we enjoyed seeing them and spending time together.  Upon returning from the trip, our AZ relators Melissa and Kelli phoned, letting us know that a full price offer was made on the NENA house - we accepted and were under contract!

Our initial KY living plan was to find an RV park near Lexington where we could set up shop while we looked for houses, but Chris had the good idea to fast track things a bit, in the hopes of getting us into our permanent spot a bit sooner.  In Mid-March, he flew to Lexington for a weekend to meet with our realtor (and Amy's cousin!) Scott; they looked at 800 houses (not really, but it sure felt like it) and we fell in love with one in Richmond, just outside of town (a city we'd never heard of until Snowpocalypse in January).  We made an offer and by the time Chris' plane landed on Sunday night, it had been accepted!  We were on our way to living as Kentucky residents!


One of the only photos we took during our weekend with Dad and Risa -
great food at the Merkin Trattoria in Cottonwood


We found time to snag tickets to a spring training game at the Goodyear Ballpark.
Go, baseball!


Chris toured our eventual new home first thing on his whirlwind weekend,
and he and Scott returned the second day, 
so he could Facetime Amy and show her the property in real time.
This is a very important screenshot from that conversation, clearly.

April 2024

With the Phoenix house sold and the Richmond house in the process of being purchased, it was finally time to close out our life in Arizona and head to pastures eastward (they may or may not be metaphorically greener, but they were for sure literally greener).  We had the wonderful opportunity to meet with most of our closest Phoenix friends before we left, and while the partings were bittersweet, we know this wasn't truly good-bye!

Our moving trip east had us camping across the country, from Grants, NM to Amarillo, TX (where we witnessed the solar eclipse) to Tulsa, OK, to St. Louis, MO, experiencing amazing sights along the way.  We finally ended up at an Airbnb in Winchester, KY for a week while we signed the papers on the new house.  On April 19th, we closed and got the keys!  We spent the rest of the month unloading PODs (everything made it!  hooray!) and settling in to the new place, including eating our first meal out at the local Outback Steakhouse (Outback was the very first place we ate when we moved to Mesa, AZ in 2004, so it felt like a good "full circle" moment).


The whole fam at the Gateway to the West - except, it's the Gateway to the East for us!




On the porch of the new house!

May 2024

During May, we spent most of our time working on the house.  We picked out paint colors and wallpaper, which were expertly installed by Maria and Miguel at Alonzo's Painting, and we celebrated our first Derby while living in the Bluegrass State, from our back porch.  We did find the time, however, to learn more about our local area, including Richmond and nearby Lexington.


Having Mother's Day brunch at Lockbox, inside Lex's 21c Hotel



Learning to live rural - a text exchange between the two us, from our separate offices


Bea, watching her first Derby - she really likes the "big dogs"


Chris also started making sourdough bread in May - this is an early attempt

June 2024

June brought lots of firsts in the new digs - our first road trip (an overnight to Cincinnati) and our first visitor, Amy's Mom, who made us the northernmost stop on her summer "Tour de Gwen."  We enjoyed showing her our new area, including our local teahouse, Dreaming Creek Brewery, and a distillery tour, as well as hanging out at home (homemade pizza night for the win)!


With Hamlet, outside of the Cincy Arts Center


Visiting Cincy's Rhinegeist, an amazing brewery


Getting ready to tour Castle & Key Distillery with Mom on Father's Day


Taking down a problem tree (it was getting close to power lines) with the new chainsaw

July 2024

Another months of firsts!  Our first Kentucky camping trip (to the Red River Gorge)!  Also, Amy's Dad's first visit - sadly, it was for the funeral of his cousin, Junior, but it did allow us to get together with the Goggin side of the family, which we'd been trying to do for some time.  We also killed several hanging baskets of plants on the front porch (we don't know how to care for them, apparently), but in doing so, we raised our first family of sparrows, right outside Amy's office window - that's a win!


Taking a selfie from atop the main event at Natural Bridge State Resort Park


Posing before our tour at Gorge Underground - super cool place!


All of the babies made it!

August 2024

August saw us continuing our work on the house and accompanying acreage, including finally finishing the interior (the exterior will never be finished, truly).  The last weekend of the month had us heading to Chicago for a visit over the long Labor Day weekend - while we had a great time, it was somewhat tempered by both of us coming down with COVID (we think we caught it before leaving home, so it wasn't the fault of the Windy City)!  Thankfully, all of those vaccinations helped us out, and our symptoms, while uncool, were mild, overall - mostly like a moderate head cold.


Bea having an absolute party in her backyard - 
we thought Zoe would be the one to go nuts over the yard, but it's been Bea


We stopped in Indy for lunch at the Smoking Goose Meatery and had the best
sandwiches we've ever eaten in our collective lives.
We're heading back through the area next week, and we already have another lunch planned.


An incredible dinner (and drinks!) at the Girl and the Goat in Chicago


Outside the amazing Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright creation


Back at home, sleeping off the 'VID

September 2024

In September, the weather started to shift a bit, and while it was still warm most of the time, we experienced our first Kentucky fall; that meant it was cool enough to wear long pants and drink hot toddies on the porch while watching evening college football!  We also took a short camping trip to nearby Shelbyville, KY to visit the local Highland Games (verdict: not that great, sadly - not a meat pie in sight!) and enjoy some bourbon.  


Porch sipping!


At the Highland Games


Attending a barrel tasting at Jeptha Creed Distillery, a really neat experience


Making friends with the neighbor's runaway cows - they're wintering on our back four acres.
They shouldn't be this close to our back "dog" area, but they had busted through a fence.

October 2024

October was a heavy travel month, for trips both planned and unanticipated.  In the earlier part of the month, we headed south to Kingsport, in eastern TN, to attend our very first bull terrier dog show, known as Silverwood.  We had a blast, and we were happy we could share the experience with Amy's great uncle and aunt, Bill and Mary Alice, as well as their daughter Kathryn.  As we were driving back from TN, we received news that Chris' half-brother Neil passed in an auto accident; upon returning home, Chris booked a flight to Texas to help his Dad with the situation.  Chris' return flight home landed at the Cincy airport an hour before Amy took off from the same spot - she was headed to Florida, for a preplanned visit with her Mom.  We're thankful we had time to grab a quick kiss and hug in the airport, as well as pass over the truck keys, so Chris could drive himself home, picking up the doggos from daycare on the way back.  Whew!  Are you exhausted yet?  We were!


A sweet old girl in the Silverwood costume parade


Cuddling is encouraged!


Hooray for quick airport reunions!


Posing with mural art at the St. Pete Pier

November 2024

Things always start to get a little bananas for us once November rolls around - Chris' birthday on the 14th kicks things off and after that, there's Thanksgiving and our anniversary (on the 29th).  This year, we headed to the Kentucky Castle for his birthday dinner, which was delicious (and lovely - it was all decked out for the holidays during our visit).  We experienced our very first snowfall in the new house, which was super fun, even if it was gone by morning.  Amy's Dad and Risa came to visit for Thanksgiving, and we had a great time hosting them; they let us drag them through a cold, gray Turkey Trot, and we enjoyed taking them to Buffalo Trace for a distillery tour, to visit cousins in Stanford, and to pick out our Christmas tree!  We also had the chance to get together for a lovely family dinner with the Fryar side of the family up in Lexington - it was great to see everyone and know we have so much family so close!


We also attended our first Eastern Kentucky University football game in November - Go, Big E!
(EKU is located in Richmond, just 15 minutes away from the house)


All gussied up for dinner at the Castle


A tiny backyard shrub, dusted with snow


Bea says she'll be all cuddled up inside, thankyouverymuch


It snowed over the Thanksgiving holiday, too, so Dad and Risa experienced it with us.  
It stuck this time, and we had a fun romp with the girls in the backyard.


Very snowy.  Very peaceful.

December 2024

And here we are!  The last month of the year is busy for most folks, and the Olsen household is no exception.  In addition to Christmas itself, we have approximately 400 family and friend birthdays to celebrate, Amy's included, so our calendar is normally pretty packed with holiday shenanigans (which we love).  We just got back from spending time in central Tennessee with Amy's Mom, Uncle Jim, and Aunt Kim; our main focus was attending the Jack Daniel's barrel tree lighting ceremony, but we enjoyed touring the distillery, too, as well as doing a tasting at Nearest Green in Shelbyville, TN - what an amazing story they have, as well as incredible whiskey, too!  (For those of you keeping track, we've visited both Shelbyville, KY and Shelbyville, TN this year - I think we get a ribbon or something for that.)  


Getting in a (cold!) morning hike at Tims Ford State Park - it was in the teens!


In front of the (unlit) barrel tree at JD

Best wishes to everyone for a peaceful holiday season and a great start to 2025!  

Later!

Amy and Chris (and Zoe and Bea!)

Comments

  1. WOW! You guys were BUSY the entire year!! What a delightful blog! Really enjoyed reading it! -- Mom/Susan and Andy

    ReplyDelete

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