Oh Where Has the Time Gone? 2014: The Year in Review

Happy Holidays one and all! Welcome to our final blog post of the year 2014. We've had a busy year and what better way to tell you all than with a Top 5 list of our big moments of this year. We will begin with number 5.

5.) We ran our first Marathon!
That's right. On April 5th we ran in the Charlottesville Marathon. It was a beautiful spring day with leaves budding all around. The weather was perfect and it was "fun". It was also one of the hardest things we've ever done. Thanks to the support of our family, we finished in just over 5 hours. When it was over we ate at Red Robin and listened to General Conference. Not sure if we'll do another one but who knows!

4.) A visit to the city that never sleeps.
On Memorial Day Weekend as an Anniversary gift to ourselves, we went up to New York City on the bus. We stayed with Scott's brother Darren and his wife Carey for the weekend and had great fun. We saw a unique off, off Broadway show and walked around Central Park and then even went on a hike about an hour north of the city. But more importantly we went to a Hungarian restaurant very near their apartment called Andres' Café. They had fruit soup! one of Kiersten's favorite Hungarian dishes.

Aww, look how happy she is!

3.) Kiersten went back to school.
What? Why? Both are valid questions and concerns. She too thought she was done with school but her heart and desires thought differently. After debating and thinking about grad school for about 3 years Kiersten finally decided to go for it. The goal: Doctorate of Physical Therapy. She is currently enrolled at the local community college completing pre-requisite courses and is on target for enrollment in the DPT program in Fall of 2016. It's a competitive program but we're optimistic. It's actually been a fun semester. Finished with finals and getting ready for Spring 2015!

2.) We moved!
Yup. We moved. Not very far though. We are still in the northern Virginia area because going any where else was not an option. We are against living in Maryland and DC was kind of out of the question although it was fun to think about. We looked and looked for months and all that hunting paid off. We are living in Reston, VA and loving it! Still close to family but more importantly, shaving off time from our lengthy commutes gives us more time to spend together and explore our new area.

1.) A trip to Europe!!
Yes sir, we traveled to Europe this summer. You see, Scott's younger sister was serving her church mission in Portugal and his parents had the idea to go pick her up and anyone who wanted to join them were welcome to come, provided they pay their own way. That's fine with us we shouted with glee as we danced a gig on the rug. In August we flew across the ocean and traveled around Lisbon and Porto and saw Jenna and had a wonderful time. After spending about 5 days in Portugal, we decided, why not make the trip two weeks long and go to HUNGARY to visit Kiersten's mission. So that's exactly what we did. We saw many places, met up with some of her old contacts, went to church and ate lots of really delicious food. Scott said he'd go back some day. Good! Let's set a date! It was a fabulous trip and ended far too quickly.

It was a pretty exciting year for us. We saw lots of things and traveled to many places. Here are a few other note worthy highlights from this year:

• Scott and Kiersten celebrated three years of marriage in May.

  

  Ain't we cute?

• Spencer and Emily Machado, our good friends from BYU, traveled to DC for a visit! It was great to have them stay with us for a few days.

  

  We hit up a National's baseball game while they were here.

• BYU Homecoming 2014. We saw many old friends and watched the Cougars not quite to victory but it was a really fun trip.
  
• We ran a half marathon for Kiersten's birthday. It was way better than the full marathon. We finished in just over 2 hours. Personal record!!

  

  After the race with our sah-weet medal.

• Scott grew an awesome beard as you can see in the progression of these pictures. He didn't shave on our Europe trip and kept the trend going until Thanksgiving.
• Biking the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail to Thanksgiving dinner from our new apartment in Reston to Ashburn. 14 miles! We deserved that dinner!

  

  We have reached our destination! Scott, cleanly shaven.

• Scott and Kiersten both got raises! Yeah, money!

And the rest were moments that made up the year. Thank you for spending your time reviewing our year. You are all very special to us and we wish we could see you during this wonderful time of year but sometimes that just isn't possible. Stay tuned in the new year to see what new adventures we find ourselves in. Warning: I've said it before, I'm the worst at updating this blog so if you don't read anything new, you have officially been warned. Worst case scenario, we see you back here for 2015's yearly review. Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!