2014 Year in Review

I skipped a “year-in-review” post in 2013, and all of our readers (hi, mom!) were up in arms. So, here is a look back at some of the fun moments with the Mighty Johnsons in 2014. We have quite the collection of these from previous years as well: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, but I’m going to break this one up a little differently.

Milestone Moments

There were a few milestones in 2014. In January, Jacob completed his Eagle Project. He worked hard and did a good job gathering bikes from all over the neighborhood and Highland city to donate. His Court of Honor was also a big occasion later in the year.

Megan turned 12 and joined the young women’s organization at church. She’s grown into a beautiful young woman and has really matured this year.

Claire was baptized this year.

Ellie started riding her bike. No more training wheels in the garage, and I’m not sad about that at all.

Funny Stories

The post about Megan’s forgotten lunch generated by far the most traffic to our little blog this year. We’ve been putting links to some of our posts on our MightyJohnsons Facebook page, and our friends and family really liked this one.

Another funny post that didn’t generate near the traffic, but I think is just as fun was the time Drew left me a note after picking up some books from the library.

The story about our travel nightmare coming back from Puerto Rico (complete with bomb threat) wasn’t funny at the time, but is one of those stories we’ll tell as soon as anyone whips out a travel nightmare story.

Tons of Traveling

I know vacation recaps are among the most vomit-inducing blog posts, but we write them as remembrances for ourselves. And, since all our readers (hi, mom!) don’t mind too much, we don’t feel too bad about posting these types of stories.

We traveled a lot this year. It started with a Midway getaway and a fabulous cruise in the stunning Caribbean (I needed 7 words for 7 links).

In the spring, we went on a fun camping trip and also had a fun road trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We spent the summer a little closer to home, for reasons detailed below.

But early in the fall, Manina and Ellie went on back-to-back trips to San Diego and then Alaska while the rest of us stayed home and entertained ourselves. Just before Thanksgiving Manina and I were able escape for a few days down to Coronado to wrap up our traveling for the year. Now we will stay home and ski.

Summer with Elijah

The biggest event of our year was being able to look after little Elijah. Our family went from 6 kids to 7 literally overnight and everyone had to adjust and chip in to help. It dominated our entire summer and really changed the fabric of our family. When we see Elijah at family events, there is still a different bond and connection that is still neat to see.

So, yeah, 2014 was pretty fantastic, but I have a feeling that 2015 is going to be even better.