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Wow 2021- you were much needed after 2020. Like most others, 2020 was really tough for me. Jay and I are both pretty social people. I was also pregnant and very covid cautious, so we really did not get out much. The best part of the year by far came at the end when our sweet William was born on December 18th.

2021 came like a breath of fresh air. Duke announced in the previous fall that they would be virtual until the end of the school year (which was Jay’s last year in law school there). That meant we didn’t really have to stay in Durham if we didn’t want to. Still, the thought of packing up the house and moving states with a newborn was less than appealing. Jay and my mom finally convinced me to move to Beaufort by talking about how much help I would have with the kids being only 15 minutes away from my parents.

I’m not going to lie – in terms of where I would rather spend a global pandemic when my options are Durham and Beaufort, Beaufort wins hands down. The weather is beautiful year round. There are so many more opportunities to get out of the house. My parents have a boat, so we could have an all day outing without coming into contact with a single person outside of the family.

Things were actually open in Beaufort. In Durham, you literally were not allowed to walk around the Duke Gardens. Let me repeat. The OUTDOOR very spacious open air gardens were closed. Restaurants with ample outdoor seating would not open their patios and continued to do take out only. It was very hard to find things to look forward to while living there. In Beaufort, all restaurants were open indoor and outdoor. Before I was vaccinated, I only ate outdoors, which was fine, because there were many restaurants with outdoor seating.

Once the vaccine was available to me, I felt myself relax even more. I was truly enjoying life. What a refreshing feeling. William was getting older and cuter. His personality was shining through more and more everyday. I’ve absolutely loved watching him go from sleeping newborn, to rolling over, sitting up, and now crawling like a madman.

When we were in Beaufort, Hollings wasn’t in school yet. We did A LOT of playing and crafting at home. We went on many ice cream and park outings. Most of all we went to the pool and on the boat. This was very different from the summer before when we had 0 access to any sort of water, so we bought a $40 blow up pool and put it in our backyard.

The best part of all was being able to live so close to my parents again. This was especially sweet to me, because I’m not sure if we will ever get that opportunity again. I will always look back on those 7 months and smile big thinking about what happy times they were.

In August we moved yet again – this time just 2.5 hours north to Chapin. We moved into Jay’s grandparent’s basement for a year while Jay clerks for a judge downtown. Life is very sweet here as well – we are right next-door to Jay’s dad and stepmom. I love the memories that Hollings has made and the foundation to a great relationship with his family that William has made while living here.

Hollings started school while living here. Jay started his job while living here and is out of the house for the majority of the day for the first time in a long time. It is very different from life in Beaufort, but I would be lying if I didn’t say I enjoy having a routine to stick to these days (I am very much a routine person).

In October, I got to go on a bachelorette trip to Mexico with my best friends. This is the first time I have gone on a girls trip since I was in college. While I missed my sweet babies, this time was much needed. I’m making it a goal of mine to not wait quite so long before going on another one.

Something that we absolutely did not plan on happening in 2021 was getting our sweet golden doodle, Penny Lane. In fact, I swore up and down that I would NOT get a dog until I was done having babies. Man, I am sure glad we did though. While she keeps me extremely busy, she is so sweet and already such a good dog. The kids love her and she loves them. While it wasn’t the exact timing we planned, it honestly worked out pretty well, because William is very close to walking now and isn’t a newborn, and we don’t want to get pregnant for a little while longer. Hopefully by the time our next baby comes along, Penny will be on her way out of the puppy phase. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway 🙂

All in all I simply loved 2021. That isn’t to say there haven’t been hard times – there absolutely have been. I recently read an article about toxic positivity. It’s not really my style to share/post/dwell on hard things in life. There have been a few really hard things that we have gone through as a family, like Jay’s moms passing and my miscarriage, that I have talked about before. Jay’s grandfather who we lived with passed away earlier this month, and that was extremely hard for us. The small day to day hard times happen as well, whether the outside world sees them or not. Trust me, I have had my fair share of breakdowns to my sweet and patient husband.

I just truly believe in finding joy in life. I love sharing happy things, but I love seeing happy things even more. So that being said, 2021 was overall a very happy year for me. Here’s to 2022, and may it be even better!