2012 Year In Review

I’m pretty sure if we didn’t have calendars or photographs I would be completely useless in remembering what in the world took place over the past year. A little scared to see how two kids alters my brain power!

In lieu of a Christmas letter, we will be taking this opportunity to reflect on the highlights past year both in photos and text. Bear with us as we take it month by month (this is totally  more for us than anyone else!)…

JANUARY

In preparation for the 2012 Winter Olympics, we kicked off the year with an Olympic themed New Year’s Eve party complete with a parade of athletes and serious Olympic competition (on the XBOX Kinect). Our own winter sport endeavors extended to a handful of trips up to Mt. Hood for snow-shoeing and telemark skiing (John’s first year giving it try). This particular photo is from Sage’s first snow shoe–we took her to the top of the Palmer Glacier (you can see Mt. Jefferson in the background).

FEBRUARY

We have been talking with friends for ages about that old Presidential Fitness Test we all did growing up in PE so we decided to take on the challenge once again. We were quite impressed with our over-30-selves as we all (I believe) passed every challenge, excluding the pull-ups. John and I both ran our fastest miles ever in our lives which was pretty awesome. John’s time was around 5:45 and mine was about 7:20.

A HUGE, HUGE highlight of the year was getting to welcome William Merrick Macy into the Macy Family!!! Erin even got to be at the birth! We have been loving getting to know this kid ever since.

And… one of our favorite pictures of Sage from her first year was taken in February. She’s a beauty, isn’t she? We are hopeful she’ll grows out of it by middle school and that it’ll come back around somewhere in her late college years =).

February always brings a lot of George Fox University women’s basketball, of which we try to be faithful fans attending as many home games as possible.

Another February highlight which we do not have a photo of is the Justice Conference. This was an incredible weekend conference, held this year in Portland. Every speaker could have been a key note speaker and every presentation was impactful. Good conversation and good action has come from this weekend time.

MARCH

Our sweet girl turned 1 in March and we celebrated with family!

We learned quickly that Sage likes to collect things! Demonstration below–she uses her new birthday present to collect all her favorite toys.

Beach day! Although it wasn’t Sage’s first trip to the beach, it was her first trip at an age where she was interested in exploring the sand.

Later in the month we joined the throngs of movie-goers on opening day to see Hunger Games. John read the entire series out loud during and just after pregnancy with Sage so it will always have a special place for us.

APRIL

Our girl became a book reader! She hadn’t really be interested in books, but just after turning one some sort of switched flipped and she is a full-on book lover. We probably spend close to an hour a day reading books. Hence, we like to go to the library often and get a little variety in our book diet!

On Easter afternoon we left our daughter with a baby sitter and scored (cheap) floor tickets to Wicked. It was so fantastic! Can’t wait to see it again!

Not quite sure what this was about. I think John just wanted to scare me. It worked and I asked him to remove it as quickly as possible. haha…

We completed our (dare I say, first, but not last?) 100K bike ride (about 60 miles) in Corvallis. It was a great route and we quickly learned how people do this–it’s all about the snack stops. The first was at a bakery where they were giving away cinnamon rolls. That’s what I’m talking about! It was a satisfying and fun ride and so great to be able to do it together. Sage didn’t tag along for this one–we figured four hours in the bike trailer would be a bit much–but she got to have a fun weekend with her grandparents instead!

MAY

May was the point of no return. Somewhere in mid-August we realized that since the first weekend of May we hadn’t had a break. All good stuff, though! Visits from family and friends, camping trips, photography, and much more was packed into the spring and summer months. One of the other good things was a clothing swap some friends and I organized. Our church basement was turned into a used clothing store and it was a success! The first pic below is of one of the car loads of clothing we transported to the church.

A visit from cousin OK! He and his mom came to meet cousin Will and we got the bonus of spending lots of time with him too!

Sage’s first pig tails! Oh man and they are so long now!

JUNE

John made the “investment” in a slack line and we all had fun playing on it throughout the summer. Although it was about this time that we learned we were pregnant so Erin’s slacklining days were shorter than the rest.

We planted our garden again this year and quickly learned of Sage’s love for strawberries. It was super fun to watch her navigate her way to the strawberry patches and pick as many berries as she could eat. She would eat them whole–stem and all! Later in the summer it was tomatoes that she would pick and eat like an apple.

John kayaked the Illinois River (Oregon) for the fourth time. This is a three day trip on a very remote, 30+ mile stretch of river in Southern Oregon. He leaves early, early Friday morning, is on the river just after lunch and is back home by nightfall on Sunday evening. It’s a beautiful stretch of creation!

We stuck out the annual “Pete’s Birthday Camping Weekend” despite the forecast calling for rain all weekend long. It ended up being much better than expected, but we still decided that perhaps June camping in Oregon is better done in a house in Central Oregon rather than in tents at the coast. =) It didn’t phase Sage, though. We just threw on boots and waterproof “bubble suit” and she was completely happy (although the photo looks quite sad, she really did have a good time!).

June ended and July began with a visit from a long time friend, Kim (Grimes) Porter. She has lived out of the US since 2008, but we have been able to see her once overseas and two other times here in the States. It was good to be together!

JULY

We rolled through July in a blink! The every three year Macy Family Reunion started off the month and we extended the weekend through Wednesday enjoying another several days of camping at Nehalem Bay State Park. This time the weather was better and we even got in a beautiful morning hike up to the top of Neah-kah-nie Mountain (pic below).

In between beach weeks we squeezed in photographing two weddings, a couple of newborns, an anniversary party, and an engaged couple; make a weekend trip out to Bend; and had our first pre-natal appointment for Tiny.

The Macy Beach Week is always a summer highlight and this year was no different. There’s always the fun traditions of a day in Cannon Beach, a trip to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, s’mores and sparklers around the campfire, and, of course, a new family photo! It’s a great time of being together, sharing meals, catching up, playing together, and just chilling out.

AUGUST

The month of celebrations! Erin’s Birthday (Aug 3rd – turned 34 this year); our anniversary (Aug 14th – 8 years!); and John’s Birthday (Aug 28 – 35 this year). We have traditionally gone backpacking for our anniversary, but this year it was just too much to squeeze in. We did, however, fit in the Providence Bridge Pedal (pic below).

We also spent LOTS of time outside. Sage hasn’t shown us she’s a full on water baby yet, but she certainly enjoyed dumping water into the bins and playing with the hose. It’s a start, at least!

Our last family camping trip of the summer was in our new Jumping Jack trailer. This thing is awesome and even though the trip was a little last minute, it was great to get out at Detroit Lake. Sage loved playing in the dirt and we all loved the new trailer!

SEPTEMBER

Our 20 week appointment was right at the end of August and our ultrasound was just a week or so later. Even having been through it before it was incredible to see the little life moving around on the screen. I wasn’t feeling any movement at that point so it was especially odd to see Tiny moving but not sense it at all. More ultrasound photos can be seen just a few posts back…

Sage and Will share a sweet moment. She likes babies, but isn’t so sure about her mom holding other babies (or kids, for that matter). We shall see how things go when Tiny arrives.

We did a little combined family photo session at one of our favorite summer places–Bear Hollow–where we go each year to pick blueberries.

Oh yeah, she’s still got it!

John was able to spend a weekend backpacking with a few long-time friends. The original plan was to climb South Sister, but the forest fires around Sisters prevented the summit so they opted to do climb up Mt. Jefferson instead (not quite all the way to the top as it gets a little technical toward the end).

OCTOBER

We busted our butts between May and September with the knowledge that in October we would be going to Hawaii. Well, we didn’t exactly know that in May, but by July we had decided it must be done. We have a full post on our time in Maui, which was a vacation that was definitely anticipated.

Our little reader continues to amaze us with her attention span for book reading. She and John did not get through this whole stack in one sitting–it was a little ambitious–but her love of reading is something we hope to continue to encourage!

Oh yes, Halloween came. Sage got to wear her skeleton pjs all day long.

We did host a small Halloween party.

NOVEMBER

The first couple weeks of November brought another big push to wrap up our photography season and give ourselves some time off to think about and prepare for having a baby. At the end of the hard work was our third consecutive Thanksgiving trip to Arizona and Mexico. We spent time with friends, hiked for two days in Sedona, and then made our way to Juarez.

DECEMBER

One week after Thanksgiving we started POTTY TRAINING! Oh my…it was/is a good reminder of how tough kid-training can be. It’s been awhile since we had to do any training types of things (i.e. sleep training, food/eating training) and we had been cruising along perfectly fine. But, with the baby coming and a diaper rash situation for Sage that we have battled for months we decided it was time. It’s hard. But it’s good. We are now on week two and there are promising signs that she will catch on. In the mean time we keep a stack of towels clean and our vinegar spray nearby, spend lots of time sitting on the potty reading books, and allow Sage to watch a short potty movie from time to time (which is what she and John and Baby are doing, below).

Looking back over the year we are so grateful for so many things, particularly people. None of the things we have done in the past year are meaningful outside of the relationships we treasure with friends and family. We are blessed to have family near and to have a wonderful community of friends–both of whom provide us amazing support and love.

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