Travel. I was fortunate enough to travel a bit this year. A girls trip to Chicago with my best girls from high school at the beginning of summer. Then out east twice this year. And the second trip out east at Thanksgiving included a side trip to Turks and Caicos, which was basically a dream come true!
Seeing tons of great live music. At the beginning of the year, I saw Quicksand in Detroit. Laneway Music Festival had its debut this fall and I had the good sense to get myself there to see the National, Sigur Ros, Frightened Rabbit, Matthew Dear and Run the Jewels. If the stage times had been a little more spread out, I would have managed to see Chvrches. Also saw Lord Huron and Alt-J in Chicago this fall. And We Were Promised Jetpacks here in Grand Rapids. Oh, and there was Lamp Light Music Festival mere blocks from my house. That was a whole weekend of house shows. Good stuff! My favorite show of the year would be a toss up between Lord Huron/Alt-J and Laneway. Both blew me away, they we so much fun!
Personal Best Time in the Grand Rapids Half Marathon. After achieving what had been my personal best time in a half marathon in my very first half in 2008, I was happy to have finally surpassed that time after hovering mere minutes behind that time for the last five years! How did that happen? I ran outside nearly all winter training for Riverbank Run 25K then basically switched to biking all summer until I picked up running again at the end of August. Maybe the cross training had something to do with the uptick in time?
SiTE:LAB. I volunteered again (quite a bit) with this great group of folks. An event in the spring. Then I was part of the team that launched an international design ideas competition to gather ideas for what should become of the historic, former natural history museum in my city. Then, hello Blandford Nature Center for a summer event and right into ArtPrize. Loved every minute of volunteering and can't wait to see what's in store for 2014.
Biking this summer. Yeah, I already mentioned that I biked a bunch this summer up there with my bit about running, but there's more worth mentioning. There's something so satisfying about getting on your bike and being out on two wheels for a few hours. I did a handful of 60 mile round trip rides, and many more 30 milers. Yay for two wheels!
Overall. Looking at my highlight moments, this year boils down to doing the things that feed my spirit. While the activities themselves were part of what made my year a great one, the people I was fortunate enough to have shared time with this year - family and friends-who-feel-like-family made a huge impact on me this year. I'm grateful for everyone and everything that made my year an amazing one!
I hope you've had an awesome year! Here's to even more goodness in 2014. Happy New Year to you and yours!
Overall. Looking at my highlight moments, this year boils down to doing the things that feed my spirit. While the activities themselves were part of what made my year a great one, the people I was fortunate enough to have shared time with this year - family and friends-who-feel-like-family made a huge impact on me this year. I'm grateful for everyone and everything that made my year an amazing one!
I hope you've had an awesome year! Here's to even more goodness in 2014. Happy New Year to you and yours!
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