2021 began much less dramatically than 2020. After seeing my grandfather doing as well as possible after his heart attack, we went back to Cocoa Beach and celebrated a quiet New Year’s with my mom. Several lazy, relaxed days later, we drove to Marco Island to spend time with Frank’s family at his parents’ condo. We deeply enjoyed taking Victoria to the condo’s pool, which she LOVED! Our sweet girl made tons of friends with the other condo inhabitants while we soaked up the sun. We relished our break from winter up north!
Before we left town, I indulged in another airboat ride with the family! Meanwhile, Frank stayed with Victoria and prepared for an interview for a new job. (Spoiler: He crushed it and got the contract!) We went back to Cocoa Beach for a few more days, seeing friends and eating more of the excellent food the Space Coast has to offer. Before we knew it, it was time to head back up north. We arrived, and began to prepare in earnest for Victoria’s first birthday!
Victoria Turns ONE
My dear sister-in-law Brittany helped me throw a super sweet and fun first birthday party for the nugget. To keep things simple, we leaned heavily into “pink” for our theme, and swiftly put our plans in motion. We ordered a beautiful (and bigger than expected) pink funfetti smash cake for Victoria from Emmy’s Kitchen in Blissfield, MI. Brittany found a whimsical pink balloon arch for our little wild one, which I particularly adored. Finally, my pièce de résistance: a time capsule for Victoria to open on her 18th birthday! I confess, I did not come up with this idea on my own. Regardless, I am beyond thankful I stumbled upon it!
We encouraged everyone invited to bring along something emblematic of the era surrounding Victoria’s birth, such as newspapers, ads, or unused masks (naturally), something meaningful to their earliest relationship with her, and/or write 18 year-old Victoria a note or letter. Frank and I selected a “trunk” from Hobby Lobby to hold everything, including all of the above and a photo album I put together of my favorite pictures from Victoria’s first year! I am PUMPED to reminisce and bask in the nostalgia when that fateful day comes. For those familiar with our digital nomad plans, fear not: we plan to keep a small storage unit for invaluable keepsakes such as the treasure described above.
I nearly forgot to mention! Roughly a week before her birthday, Victoria took her first steps and began walking independently 😭. Personally, I was torn between overwhelming pride and wishing she would stop growing up so fast!
The Day of the Party
The day of her party, as might be expected, did not go completely to plan, but turned out lovely anyway. We attended our usual noon Mass with my mom, who had flown up to celebrate with us, and headed over to Frank’s parents’ house afterwards. They graciously hosted the party at their house, and Victoria has a crib there so we brought her over to nap beforehand. However, with all of the hullabaloo from setting up, Victoria refused to go down for her nap! The poor thing has major FOMO (the fear of missing out). We feared the worst, as babies who don’t nap can become awfully cranky. Shockingly, Victoria was an angel! Her demeanor was perhaps a bit more mellow than normal, and she seemed so tired the whole time, but she never fussed! We ate, opened her presents, and brought her that magnificent smash cake.
After eating a solid third of that cake, we put her out of her misery and laid her down for her nap. We continued to hang with her guests until they left, and at the end of the day, we sat around, thankful for the incredible gift of our wonderful baby girl.
Our First Child-Free Getaway
The month of March passed by in a blur. At the end of March, we conducted a little experiment. We left Victoria with Grandma and Grandpa for a weekend, and we took Augustine back to our favorite boutique hotel, The Talbott, in Chicago. Yes, Chicago again, because 1) we are obviously obsessed, and 2) it provided an easy test run to see how Victoria (and us) could handle being apart overnight. Spoiler: we all passed!
Once again, we bought and drank our weight in tea, ate far too many crepes and soup dumplings, and indulged in a ton of sushi on our way out of town. We also snapped a few artsy shots of some of our favorite churches in the area, and vowed to be back soon to do an official church tour. We may never actually get tired of Chicago, as (for now), it still has many of our favorite restaurants, and there is always something new to discover.
Back to Ordinary Life
After we got back from Chicago, we settled back into our usual routine. However, things had changed, because we now needed to work that much harder to corral an independently mobile Victoria! Besides covering outlets, we hadn’t Really baby-proofed our cabinets and drawers and whatnot. We quickly learned how badly we needed to.
Picture this: We have an overabundance of cabinet space (Praise God), and we decided to store cooking utensils thusly. In descending order, silverware and cutlery occupied the top drawer, followed by a drawer filled with spatulas, then large cooking spoons, and finally two small frying pans in the bottom drawer. Victoria became exceedingly fond of removing all of the spoons and frying pans, and she would frequently carry them everywhere and bang them on anything and everything. After endlessly washing and re-washing many of these utensils, Frank came up with a brilliant compromise. We separated the utensils into two categories: things I regularly cook with, and things I don’t. The spatulas and spoons I use went into the second drawer, while the potato masher, ladle, meat masher, etc. now reside in “Victoria’s drawer.” We rubber-banded the bottom two drawers together so she can’t get to the frying pans, and voilà!
I know anecdotes such as these are mundane and the opposite of adventures and bucket lists. Yet, the little moments in the ordinary humdrum of life possess their own extraordinary sweetness and amusement. Staying grounded in the present and appreciating small things like the memory above prevent us from living solely for checking boxes and thrills. Barring mental health crises, we can and do choose to be happy while we are out doing fun things AND while we are simply living in our current home. Both have value, and both are making our life so full!
Great Smoky Mountains Getaway
I wrote my first novel detailing our amazing adventures in and around Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so I won’t say too much this time around. Nevertheless, I will state again that we had a marvelous time and we wholeheartedly recommend that everyone check it out!
Our Big Road Trip South
A few short weeks after returning from Tennessee, after the bliss of weekly hangouts with Kyle/Kelsey/David, Brittany, and Family Dinners, we set out on our first slow-paced road trip!
We left Ohio the week before Memorial Day and set out for Kentucky, to visit my dear friend Catherine and her lovely family! We spent a wonderfully relaxing pool day with her and her son. Mid-afternoon, Frank worked from her dining room table while the little ones napped, and she and I spent quality time catching up and just enjoying each other’s presence. That evening, her husband Jon joined us and we ate delicious hibachi! It was a perfect day that I know I will always treasure ❤️.
The next day, we set off for our next pit stop, Atlanta! Again, given it was a weekday, Frank worked from our hotel room while Victoria and I played until she went down for her nap. I snuck in a quick workout, then waited for Frank to finish his workday. Evening rolled around, and we began looking into options for dinner. We finally selected 3+3 LanZhou Ramen, a Traditional Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Kennesaw, GA. According to their website and hundreds of reviews, they have the Best Chinese noodles, dumplings, and appetizers in Atlanta. We must say, we fervently agree! We ate fantastic xiao long bao (soup dumplings), pork buns, garlic steamed bok choy, and edamame. Victoria’s loud “MMMMM” every time she ate some edamame cracked us up, and she enjoyed the buns as well. If you are ever passing through the Atlanta area and are craving Chinese, GO HERE. You will not regret it!
Back to Florida
After Atlanta, we went back to the city where it all began for us: Gainesville! I graduated from the University of Florida in 2014 and met Frank when he lived there for his first job. Let me tell you, the city looks quite different from then to now! Businesses we loved have sadly closed and much of the area around the university has actually expanded. Nevertheless, thankfully several of our favorite restaurants are still there and, more importantly, a handful of our loved ones from back in the day live there! Thus, we had the enormous pleasure of catching up with some excellent folks!
That Friday, we wandered around the church where we met in hopes of running into anyone we might still know. Imagine our delight when I found four Mercedarian Sisters! Sisters Eucharist, Josephina, Trinity, and Chiara met and played with Victoria, and we shared our digital nomad hopes and plans! We parted ways with promises to pray for one another and an overabundance of new, warm memories. Following these chance encounters, we met up with Dan, Joanna, and Judah for dinner at One Love Café, a cute Gainesville hotspot with plentiful outdoor seating. Delicious food, live music, and easy conversation had us pick back up as if no time at all had passed since we last got together. All that was different was the existence of our two precious little ones!
Let’s Eat
Saturday revolved around, you guessed it, foooooood. We ate brunch at Maple Street Biscuit Co., where the three of us shared Sticky Maple chicken biscuits. YUM. Later, Frank and Victoria napped while I blogged for a little while, and in the evening, we ate scrumptious Korean food at Garlic & Ginger. Frank shared his spicy squid platter with Victoria, and I had bulgogi. Our little wild one loooooves spicy food, and she was a big fan of the squid! She did not, however, care for the kimchi or bulgogi, but neither does Frank. For the overwhelming majority of Victoria’s first year, we never took her out to eat because of COVID. Thus, all of these restaurants this trip have been an adventure in and of themselves. Besides getting a little noisy on occasion, she does very well out and about!
More Friends
On Sunday, our little family went to Mass at St. Augustine’s and saw a few more familiar faces, which is Always lovely. After another Victoria nap, we shared a meal and visited with our dear old friends Vincent and Maria and some of their friends. We talked for hours and hours about all kinds of topics. Something about Gainesville makes Frank and I extra sociable, so we soaked up as much quality time with our old friends as we could.
Down to My Hometown
We took a longer, leisurely route to Cocoa Beach on Memorial Day. Instead of merely heading south, we drove to Jacksonville to take our favorite route, A1A south, along the beach to St. Augustine. We pit stopped at both the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche and the Kookaburra in Downtown. A quick hour and a half later, and we made it to Cocoa Beach!
Gramps and Abuelita always love seeing their grandbaby, who somehow has already reached toddlerhood. We spent nearly two weeks at their house and had many of the usual domestic adventures. Victoria got to meet many of my parents’ neighbors and friends, go swimming in a pool, build sand castles at the beach at Jetty Park, play with my dear friend Nathalie’s little boy again, watch more movies, and eat more yummy food. The primary standouts were my brother’s enchiladas, a ton of poké, and Mangia e Bevi, the BEST pizza in Cocoa Beach. Our two new adventures, however, involved 1) more of my parents’ friends, and 2) nature!
During our last week, we participated in a Trivia Night at Nolan’s Irish Pub with my parents and their friends. Our team, Lil Red Wagoner, came in third place, and we all had an excellent time! A few days later, Abuelita, Victoria, and I drove up to Titusville and hiked a trail in the Enchanted Forest. Visiting this remote slice of woodland paradise was a first for all three of us. Sadly, given the heat, we didn’t see much of it. We can’t wait to go back again with Frank next time!
Time to Go Home
All too soon, it was time to head back up to Ohio. We left in the afternoon on Friday and are arriving back very soon! We love you Florida friends and family, and we will be back before you know it!
