Hasta la vista 2019 and hello 2020!!

Long time, no see! The fall flew by and it seems like the national parks trip is a distant memory, though I relived it for our Christmas card this year. Sean had the vision and I made it happen--it turned out so great that I made a similar canvas print for the house.



We've been busy with the normal life/kids/school/sports stuff, along with some business travel for both Sean and me--I've been going to Puerto Rico monthly since September and it's been fun to reacquaint myself with the island again after all the time I've spent working there from 2010-2015. We made a few trips down to San Carlos to get our beach fix and the fall is a wonderful time to be there. Sean's parents came to visit in early November and it was a really great visit--we had fun sharing the Día de los Muertos traditions, taking them to eat at all of our favorite places, and just enjoying time together. 






We enjoyed the comforts of home this holiday season and it was GLORIOUS!! December was crazy with work/personal travel for both Sean and me, we have a December 23 birthday girl and hosted a painting party on the 20th, combined with "posada season" in Hermosillo and all the other pre-holiday activities, and we were all ready for some downtime to relax at home. I took work completely off from December 20-January 2 (perk of working for myself!) and was able to really spend some quality time with my people, get some much-needed tasks done around the house, enjoy some runs and hikes in the wonderful "winter" weather, and read a few books. Did I say it was GLORIOUS??
Rested and refreshed, we are ready to take on 2020 with vigor! We are already lining up our travel for the year--both personal and professional--and it's looking to be a FUN year!! It starts with more work travel--I head to PR tomorrow (a full day of travel for my 42nd birthday--woohoo!!) and then Sean to Virginia the following week.

I'll go to NY and PR in February for work, then March is a BIG trip first to PR and then straight on to Bangkok, Thailand!! It will be my first trip to Asia and I will be there to present at the Families in Global Transition conference on the topic of bilingual education and how to make the best language learning choices for your children when living abroad. I've barely had time to think about and plan this trip other than buy the plane ticket (25+ hours of travel-yikes!), but I'm excited for both the professional experience and the opportunity to see a new part of the world. If anyone has suggestions for things to do and see in/around Bangkok, shoot them to me!

Just two weeks later in early April we will go to Las Vegas to run the Mt. Charleston Marathon. I forgot to mention I'm training for a marathon this winter/spring on top of everything else!! It will be spring break for the kids so we'll travel around in Utah hitting up Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park and a few other stops in the area.

May and June will bring some more work travel for me, and I'm sure we'll get down to San Carlos a few times before summer. We're still working out the summer plans, but we'll spend some time in Flagstaff, AZ while the kids attend a soccer camp, then we'll do some traveling to locations TBD. In the fall we'll travel to Mérida and the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.

It is so exciting to have these wonderful trips to look forward to. Life is an adventure and we are making the most of it!!
Location: Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

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