2019 in Review

I miss blogging. I know I will never be as prolific as I was between 2007-2009 but once in a while, I like to fire up Pete Chat and do a post. As I thought about 2019 I thought to myself...this might just be blog-worthy.

Was this the best year of my life? It might have been. After a very polarizing 2018, 2019 was a year of happiness and contentment.

By far the most wonderful and surprising thing about 2019 was finding out that Shannon was pregnant. I am not sure I can express just how shocked we were. I had been traveling with the Young Men from my ward for their High Adventure trip and Shannon and Ella had been in Virginia visiting family. Shannon came home and was exhausted, exhausted in a way that she hadn't been since she was pregnant with Ella. Considering our fertility issues she figured she would just take a test to rule it out. When the test came out positive we simply did not believe it. Needless to say, we were shocked but in a really good way.

2019 we got to travel a bit. Like I mentioned before I took the Young Men for their High Adventure Trip. I thought a lot about the trips I had done when I was younger and I wanted my boys to have a memorable experience like I had. We hiked, we climbed, we swam, we ate and I would say we had a blast. As I get older and the opportunities shrink I like to test myself to see if I still can. So I climbed, I sort of wake surfed to see if I could.

After spending three of the last four years serving in the Young Men's organization for our ward including the last two as Young Men's President I was released.  It was bittersweet, I am not sure there is a better calling in the church and I loved my time with Young Men. I had so much fun and felt privileged for the opportunity. I did like getting my Wednesday nights back.

Besides a short layover in the Seattle Airport, I had never been to the Pacific Northwest, a place I always wanted to visit. So Shannon, Ella, and I went during the summer. We had such a good time and got to see my friend Dan a fellow 49er fan in Seattle and his kids, and my friends Jeff and Corrine and their kids in Portland.

We also crossed the border and visited our neighbors to the north in Vancouver Canada. We enjoyed Canada but never did eat poutine that I liked despite trying several different varieties. However, I was able to eat at a different Canadian institution.

Our summer on the road continued with a quick trip out to Virginia. We added a new member to the family when my sister in law Allison (who caught the bouquet at Warren and Rocio's wedding despite not participating in the bouquet toss) married Will Ashby. I was the MC for the wedding which was a lot of fun.

My final trip of the year was back to Utah to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my freshman year at BYU. My friends from May Hall had been talking about a trip for years and we thought this was the year to do it. I rented a house from Air BNB and we spent the weekend reminiscing and making new memories. We even saw BYU beat a ranked USC and rushed the field after the game. 

One of the things I wanted to do was recreate a photo we took 20 years ago. So we walked over to May Hall which is now a girl's hall and found someone to take our picture. This group hadn't been together since 2006 at Jim's wedding but we picked up right where we left off. I committed to finding our freshman ward yearbook for our next trip.

1999

2019

We had such a great time and before the weekend was over we were all already making plans for our next meet up.

2019 was an up and down sports year. The up being the 49ers going from one of the worst teams in football last season to one of the best, Mike Trout winning the MVP and the Lakers trading for Anthony Davis. BYU football and basketball were at times exhilarating and other times maddening so pretty typical in the respect. We took Ella to a few Angels games and a BYU basketball and football game. She is a pretty good spectator.

I also got to see Bayern Munchen when they came to town to play Arsenal this summer. Now all that is left to do is see them at Allianz Arena in Munich. They lost but it was still fun and I wore my number 30 Dorsch jersey.

Professionally I celebrated year number four with my firm Venture Strategic. We have an awesome team and we do interesting and meaningful public affairs work. I continue to enjoy what I do and I have great coworkers. 

None of this great year would be possible without my Shanny Boo. She is a great mom and she is very understanding of my sports obsession. In August we celebrated our seventh anniversary and once we found out that we were having a baby girl due February 2020 we knew needed more space so we took the next step in life and bought a house. We looked at a lot of houses but when we walked into our place we both agreed that this was the one we wanted. We had an awesome realtor Tracy who engaged her self professed pitbull skills and got us our house in Ladera Ranch. We moved into our new place in mid December and had our first Christmas here. 

2019 was a great year filled with great blessings. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty close. I know Shannon would agree that the best thing about 2019 was Ella Joy. She is our dolly delightful. She is busy, loud, and totally cute. We love to see her learn and grow. We are thrilled to be adding to our family and look forward to what 2020 brings.