Globe-trotting Grovers: 2014- Year in Review

What an incredible ride we have been on with the boys, and our 2014 took it to a whole new level. We traveled more, learned more, achieved more, evolved more, and best of all, created even more memories as a family. We settled into our WNY life a little bit more as well, as our social calendar was always full, met even more friends (with similar age children), and were fortunate to have a babysitter to help us at a minute's notice. It was also a year, Brad and I resumed, if not tripled, our date nights, group dinner dates, concerts, fancy dress up parties, adult boating days during the summer, and especially those overnighters sans kids! We began 2014 with a solo trip (a "post-2 kids" honeymoon) to Miami, FL…. and like they say, how you spend the first days of the new year is a reflection of the year to come. We saw Babi & Deda not only out here for the 2013 Christmas season, but again in California where we spent 3 weeks of our Feb-March Winter, and then again for a special Thanksgiving in CA close to the end of the year. California travel was high on our list in 2014, spending a combined 31 days on the West Coast… that is a little over a month! We also took advantage of any excuse we had to visit friends and celebrate our friends' special occasions, whether it was in California, or Charleston, South Carolina, or Punta Mita, Mexico, or in NYC. We had many visitors, 5 to be exact, from CA, SC, AZ, and Germany that made our Summer of 2014 super fun and busy.

We added finishing touches to our house renovations (like our beautiful drapes), updated the guest bathroom and guest room, fixed and updated some outdoor things, had a shed built in the backyard, and the boys received a beautiful Amish playground. 2014 was also the year I did my first gardening and our house never looked more beautiful with all the floral and hanging plants…. especially the seasonal front door decor and plants! We got new patio furniture too that made entertaining even more pleasurable!

2014 was the year that Taj got a new bunk bed, learned how to ski and swim, learned how to fish, began riding a bike with training wheels, started karate, and attended a daily UPK preschool at the big boy elementary school and may I add, has been at the top of his class ever since! He also began riding the school bus home…. another big boy milestone. He matured and became responsible and a helpful 4 year old. In 2014, Jax became fully potty trained and we said buh-bye to diapers (only pull-ups overnight), stopped taking lunch time naps, began assisting mommy at Story time every week at the Ashville Library, became a huge book worm, and very verbal and mischievious!

Together, in 2014, these brothers attached at the hip even more. They were inseparable everywhere they went and whatever they did. Despite Taj meeting new friends at his new school and seeing his old friends from time to time (they go to different schools), every weekday after school and all weekend long he and Jax created and played many games, pretend play, colored and drew galore, built amazing cities and cars out of Legos, and wrestled. They are the best of friends, and have an unbreakable bond that seems to grow each year they grow. They are each other's perfect play buddy, they help and learn from each other, and of course, they also disagree and fight over toys. What is amazing to me, is how many wonderful adventures and experiences they have shared already, especially this past year. Jax is finally big enough and old enough to do a lot of the things Taj enjoys, and he gets a kick out of Jax copying him and following him around. With the boys growing, we have been able to have more fun with them!
Here's a recap of our adventurous year and the beautiful experiences the boys had: