2023 brought us so many exciting life changes. January started with lots of home renovations, getting our Zeeland house ready to sell. February brought the end of my time at Holland Hospital, and SO MUCH PACKING, as well as trying to make my rounds and see as many of my favorite people as possible before we started our trip. March brought the beginning of our journey which included some major panic packing on the morning of our move. My 29th birthday happened on the road, and i’m still so thankful to Kevin and my parents for making it special despite the horrible day of weather and driving we all had. Shortly after moving I got my jeep that I still love so much! April came with lots of adjusting to our new life, and making new friends along the way. In May, we took our first “camping” trip with the dogs. We stayed in a cabin but it was so nice to be able to see more of this beautiful state! In June, we were so lucky to be welcomed at our first Washington wedding. We had a great time, and danced the night away with some of our friends. In July, I took my first trip back home to Michigan to see my family and get some much needed boat, and Lake Michigan time. End of July we got to go to the Eras tour in Seattle which was absolutely one of the highlights of the year for me. July ended with both of us getting COVID (Kevin’s first experience with it) and we started August being sick, but grateful to have a gorgeous backyard to spend our sick days in. August also brought us our first real tent camping trip with the dogs, where we went to the cascades to see the meteor shower. The dogs do great in the tent, however, they left their shared brain cell at home and spent way too much time licking dirt at the campsite. The meteor shower was absolutely incredible being out in the middle of nowhere with absolutely zero light pollution. In September, I once again took a trip home to celebrate the wedding of one of my favorite people to the love of her life. It was so great to be able to see friends and former coworkers, and catch up with people while celebrating on such a happy day! In October, Mom came out for a weeklong visit and we had way too much fun shopping, drinking wine, and watching hallmark movies together. Hopefully she’ll be able to make it out again in the spring when the weather is a little bit nicer! We also got to have a little getaway with some friends, AND all of the dogs in Stehekin. We got a little cabin and had a whole weekend of board games, drinking, and laughing until our abs hurt. In November we were blessed with being invited to our “Washington parents” home for Thanksgiving so we were still able to celebrate while being so far away from our own families. It genuinely touched my heart to be so welcomed for the holiday meal. December was definitely tough being away from my family for the first christmas ever, but even though I worked, we made my families classic christmas breakfast and had a wonderful christmas morning at home with our little family. New Years Eve, we hosted a get together and got to ring in the new year with some of our favorite Washington people. Games were played, marble races were enthusiastically watched, and beers were chugged.

There were so many more incredible moments this year, and memories that were made, but those were definitely among my favorites.

While there’s been so much good this year, there has obviously been not so happy things as well. Being away from my family for the holidays was so much harder than I thought it would be. I’m so grateful for all of the memories I have of Christmas morning at the Rice house, and I definitely missed my parents and siblings and not being able to celebrate with them on Christmas Day. I’m so excited to come home in a couple of weeks and celebrate with them all then. Thanks mom for leaving your tree up so it can still feel like Christmas!

We are also still struggling with getting Rex’s epilepsy under control. Ideally, we would be able to go a couple of months between seizures. However, we are still having a seizure every 2-3 weeks. When we moved out here, we had hoped to be able to go camping much more than we did this year, but having an epi dog makes traveling with them so much more complicated. We are thankful for the trips that we were able to take with the dogs in 2023, and are hoping to figure out a better combination of meds for Rex so we can have many more camping weekends in 2024! The few trips we have taken have definitely taught us what we need to have on hand for our future trips. Even with his messy brain, expensive vet bills, and 5 hour round trip neurology trips, we wouldn’t trade our boy for the world.

Moving across the country was one of the biggest leaps of faith we’ve taken, but I know I can speak for us both when I say that we are so happy we did it. We have made some incredible friends that have become like family to us and we couldn’t be more grateful. After such a great 2023, we are looking forward to more memories, more era’s tour shows, and more new experiences 2024 will bring!

Happy New Year! 🙂