2025: The Year in Review

Here we are at the end of our second year in retirement. I don't know how we had time to work! Our days are filled with travels, family and hobbies. Here's a quick look back.

In January we started out exploring the piney woods of Texas on a trip to Marshall and Longview Texas. That was fun. We even drove out to Caddo Lake for a quick peak. We also did another thing on our bucket list. 

We went to the Ft. Worth Stock Show. We didn't have a chance to actually go to the rodeo but maybe next year. 

We celebrated Laura's birthday with the family at their house in Richardson. It's always good to see my family. January was a good month.

In February, we'd never been to a live tennis match so we got tickets to the Dallas Open. Ben Shelton is warming up behind me!

It was also a big travel month. We hadn't been to Europe in a long time. Prices had finally come down so we jumped at the change to visit Portugal. We went to three cities: Lisbon, Sintra and Porto. Back home, we spent some time at White Rock Lake. We also got a membership to the Dallas Arboretum.

In March, we took our first big road trip of the year. We drove through West Texas and checked out several county seats and small towns. This was on our way to Phoenix to see my sister and knock another thing off our bucket list: Spring Training. 

It was fun to see the kids and spend time with family.

In April, we did a local day trip to Bonham, Texas. That was pretty fun. We also went with mom and visited Oregon to see the Chaney family...all of them! What a blast that was. We had a great time until my bulging disc decided to become permanent. Then I was down the rest of the month.

May brought us Mother's Day and several graduations.

Atticus graduated from Arizona State University. Unfortunately, while Atticus was graduating, I was getting a shot for my back so I missed it.

James graduated from West Point. I love the look on John's face. He's a very proud uncle. 

At the same time James was graduating in New York, Harper was graduating from high school in Phoenix. By this time, I was able to travel so John went north and I went west. I'm a very proud aunt.

John's "little brother", Walter, graduated from Community College. He has since gone on to SMU to complete his degree. We also celebrated John's birthday this month. 

June found us touring around Texas once again. We went to Belton, Waco, Amarillo, and Claude. Claude was one of those small towns on 287 on the way to Amarillo. I've always wanted to stop there and this time we did. From Amarillo, we stopped in Dalhart. All of that was on the way to see our friends in Colorado Springs. It's always fun to go visit them. But we were making up for lost travel time. So we also went to Galveston. We'd never been in the summer and wanted to check it out. 

This was also the month that our friend, David Tompkins, retired from the Ft. Worth Fire Department.

July found us back at the Dallas Arboretum. It's a lovely place for a picnic. We also visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum. We did not do it justice. I had no idea how much there was to see there so we'll have to go back! 

We went to a Ranger game. They played the A's and won. We also found time to continue on our baseball journey. We drove to St. Louis and Cincinnati with a stop in Jefferson City and Indianapolis. What a fun trip that was.

August was Mom's birthday month. We took her to dinner at her favorite Mansfield restaurant, Meehan's!

Hopefully, her wish came true. I think that was THE birthday place for her this year. If I'm not mistaken, Michele and David took her there as well. That's the sign of a good place.

In September, we toured around Texas a little more. It's a big place so there's lots to see. We went to Greenville, Van Alstyne and Anna. We also went on our annual trip to Annapolis. That is such a great time. We love spending time with Courtney, Dave, Maeve and Rowan. When Emily joins us, that completes the circle and it's a blast. We also decided to visit the Meadows Museum at SMU. I've driven by there several times. It's a cool little museum.

It was also our 25th Wedding anniversary. It went by fast!

In October, we went on the adventure of a life time. We went to Hawaii with our friends, the Turbevilles. What a great time! We saw the Iolani Palace, Pearl Harbor and then rented a car and drove around. From there we went to Tokyo where June took us on a culinary tour. We tried all kinds of different food and enjoyed it all. Our last stop was Taipei. We were there twenty years ago and had as much fun then as we did this time.

November is a time for Thanksgiving. This year we cooked and Mom came to join us.

But that's not all we did! We went to Alabama to see James in Enterprise. The drive was beautiful. We stopped for a night in Merdian, MS. That was a lot of fun. From there our drive through Alabama was just gorgeous. We got off the interstate as we crossed into Alabama from Mississippi. I think we enjoyed the drive almost as much as the visit.

Before we knew it, it was December. We added a new member to our family.  Meet Rex.

That car wasn't even a day old when we took it to Beaumont/Port Arthur. It's a fantastic road trip car. On the way south we stopped in Athens and Crockett, two small towns that were pretty cool. While in Beaumont, we drove through a little town called Nederland. That was a quaint little town. We also drove down to Port Arthur. While we enjoyed the visit, we wouldn't want to live there. I turned 59 and we spent Christmas with the family.

Katelyn brought a game called The Mole. We had fun trying guess who the Mole was.

James brought out a similar game called the Imposter. Guess who was the Imposter...twice!

A Merry Christmas was had by all.

What an amazing year. We are fortunate to have time to do all the things we want to do and spend time with those we love. I can't wait to see what next year has in store!