1. House Guests: In March my parents came to visit, which was a nice break from my day-to-day alone with Santiago. We were able to see Prague with them (for the second time) and explore the local area. Mostly, they just gave their grandson a lot of love and attention for the whole week.
2. End of deployment: It felt like the whole first quarter of the year was a wind down of the deployment. April couldn't arrive soon enough! From Hyrum's end, the weather started warming up a bit, and their base endured an explosion from suicide bombers which lead to a lot of injuries and one fatality. It made us grateful for the blessings we'd received during the deployment, and even more anxious for the soldiers to come home. On my end, I'd pretty much accomplished most of my 'deployment goals', most significantly losing all my baby weight (it was a lot! and I almost want to include it as a main highlight of the year because of the amount of broccoli I endured...) I was excited to be done with our terrible Skype connection once and for all.
3. Homecoming: Hyrum would classify this as one of the happiest days of his life. Not only was he home from Afghanistan, but he was meeting his son for the first time. There was so much excitement and anxiety in the minutes before the troops marched in, but it was well worth the wait. Tiago mostly cooperated as he tried to figure out who this new guy was, and only melted down during our first family picture. But he still looked adorable in his little army outfit. The readjustment period following the homecoming had its challenges but nothing that a little time can't fix.
4. Greece & the World Cup: After the deployment Hyrum had plenty of vacation days, plus paternity leave that he'd never used, so we were able to take a nice relaxing family vacation to Greece. White sand, pink sand, feta cheese and fresh tomatoes, sunsets on the water, and very little on our itinerary.. it was great and very relaxing! Hyrum followed up that vacation with a whirl-wind trip to Brazil for the World Cup, which would also probably account for some of the happiest days of his life, something he's looked forward to for over 25 years. He traveled to 4 different cities with some Colombian friends watching as much soccer as possible, and eating at several churrasquerias. (He even made it onto the news a few times.) Colombia did well, and even after he returned back to Germany we continued to cheer on both Colombia and USA.
5. Sleep: A significant event for me this year was when Tiago started sleeping through the night. I never had the chance to split feedings with another adult, since Hyrum was far, far away, so getting 8 consecutive hours of sleep was magical. Maybe this seems extra wonderful to me right now because I'm foreseeing a lot of sleepless nights in my future.
6. Travel: We had so many opportunities this year to visit new places, in addition to Greece and Brazil. One of my favorites was the Netherlands, with the Keukenhof tulip gardens in full bloom and beautiful weather to see all the windmills. We also saw London, Berlin, Poland, and other parts of Germany. I took a trip to Scotland with some friends to run in a half-marathon, which turned into half of a half for me.
7. Tiago: In general, we had fun watching Tiago hit several milestones this year. First, he got hair, which has made a huge difference in his appearance. He finally had his baby blessing once Hyrum returned from deployment, he got teeth, learned to crawl, then walk, and in general has become a lot more fun and is as cute as ever.
8. Local living: If it's possible to get burned out on travel, I think I'm close. One thing we've enjoyed about this year is sticking close to home and enjoying some of what's offered locally. In the spring there were beautiful yellow fields popping up all over the place, and we spent many hours at pools and playgrounds. In December we've enjoyed local Christmas markets and seeing new towns.
9. Utah: We spent 3 weeks visiting family in November, and we're lucky enough that our parents live only 30 minutes apart. My sister got married, we shopped, ate, and celebrated Thanksgiving. It was Hyrum's first trip to Utah to see family since Christmas of 2011, so being able to see everyone was a treat for him. Most of our nieces and nephews have grown so much they look like different people.
10. Twins: And probably our most life-changing highlight of the year was finding out I was pregnant... then finding out they were twins.. then finding out we'll have two girls at the beginning of 2015. I'm counting down the days because I'm excited to meet them, and I'm excited to not be pregnant anymore! We've been busy gathering things like a double stroller, two more car seats, a second crib, and of course lots of cute baby girl clothes. Their presence alone in 2015 will definitely make it a year to remember... or maybe the sleep deprivation will make it a year we forget.
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