January
January was a chill month spent mostly with family and friends. With a few family birthday’s to celebrate, box seats at a Falcon’s game (thanks Adi!!!), a crop dusting of snow, and mom bought home a new member of the family: Sparky!
February
The month starts with my mom’s birthday celebration then quickly disappears in the chaos of designing a new kitchen for our house along with the weekly shopping jaunts for home essentials.
By the end of the month we needed a break and went to see Kacey Musgrave’s in Concert at the State Farm Arena. Sparky continued growing like a weed.
March
In March we took some time to relax and began the month with a short visit to Amicalola Falls.
A week after the Amicalola falls visit, I went for a casual run on a nature trail near the house, fell, and broke my left pinky finger. Finger surgery to put in three pins followed by several months of physical therapy and as I type this nine months later I still can not completely bend the finger like I used to.
In happier news Jack celebrated his 14th birthday with a visit to the theater to see Uncharted and a family dinner.
We ended the month with the delivery of our dining room table that we had ordered the previous October.
April
April kicked off with Cherish and Bryan’s anniversary.
An Easter Celebration in Tennessee with the family brought smiles:
Bryan got to sit in the Atlanta Brave’s dugout as part of the Atlanta Braves Fan Experience (Thanks Adi!!!)
April was also the month the kitchen remodel officially kicked off leaving us without a dining room, kitchen, and living room for a few months. We ended April with a day hike.
May
After almost three years without business travel, May kicked off with a business trip for Bryan to a week long tech conference in Minnesota – home to the Mall of America. Cherish joined in on the shopping extravaganza!
Cherish celebrated another day around the sun:
And later in the month Cherish took her first trip to the Georgia Aquarium.
May ended with our neighbor Jacob’s graduation where we attended the ceremony to celebrate.
June
June was a life-changing month: Bryan and Cherish married and honeymooned!
You can read more about the wedding on this blog
Other events in June: Haley found time off her busy college student life to come visit.
Jack joined Cherish and Bryan for a Braves Game where Bryan surprised them with great seats!
Cherish and Bryan attended the Dierks Bentley concert at the Ameris Bank Amphitheater and the month ended a return from the honeymoon with a finished kitchen, living room, and dining room. The full details about the kitchen remodel are also blogged about by clicking here
July
In July we celebrated the 4th by running the Atlanta Journal Constitution Peachtree 10K Road Race.
We took a visit to Fairway Social in Alpharetta for some indoor zombie dodgeball and then went outside to brave the humidity and play some miniature golf
Luke Bryan came to Georgia and we went to see him perform at the “formerly-known-as-Lakewood” Amphitheater. We decided we are too old for lawn seats.
Cherish developed a green-thumb and the resulting mutant tomato plant provided us a wonderful crop of side dishes for the next several months
August
On August 8th Jack started 9th grade at Johns Creek High School. Look to the bottom right of this photo where he’s on the second row from the bottom at the end in the blue shirt.
August was also a special month for visitors as we were excited to share our remodeling work. Cherish’s family joined us for a BBQ:
And the extended Garmon family came for a visit…
September
September kicked off with Cherish leaving the country with my mom and my mom’s best friends for a five day cruise.
Bryan spent the week with Dad and Sparky.
We said a public goodbye to Elton John at his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour” concert in Atlanta, though from our seats I don’t think he heard us. It was a great show!
October
October was a good month for being outdoors.
Buddy turned 17th and celebrated with a bath at home. He opened a present, had lots of rubs and hugs, and enjoy his last trip around the sun.
We ran the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler which is both a 10-mile and a 5K race opting for the 5K portion this year. Cherish finished 2nd in her age group!
We took a trip down to Atlantic Station and saw Cirque Du Soleil – Kurious Cabinet of Curiosities. It was a wonderful show!
For Halloween we decorated some pumpkins:
and enjoyed the neighborhood Pub crawl where Buddy the Super-Bat-Dog made an appearance.
When it was time on Halloween for the kids to trick-or-treat, Buddy took up guard duty to make sure each child only choose 1 candy bar.
November
November was both wonderful and terrible. Dad turned 75, I turned 45, but we had to put Buddy to rest on November 22nd. We posted about Buddy here.
With heavy hearts we pressed on and the next day celebrated my birthday with dinner at a local steakhouse:
For Thanksgiving in Tennessee Cherish has her nephew trained well at such an early age:
We took Bradley to Top Golf for the first time, continued our home improvement projects, and worked through the grief of losing Buddy. The house is just not the same without him in it.
December
A trip to Trader Joe’s grocery store taught us something new. Did you know Brussel Sprouts grow on stalks? They taste so much better fresh off the stalk!
Later in December Jack rented his first tuxedo and put on some dancing shoes for the 16th Annual Christmas Formal Ballroom Dance at a local church:
We took a family trip to Gatlinburg with mom and dad to watch Brooklyns Cheerleading competition where her team won first place.
Bryan dog-sat Sparky. It’s amazing how fast dogs grow in a year!
I took the last couple of weeks of the month off work to reflect back on what an amazing year it has been and enjoy Christmas. This year we decided to head to Tennessee for Christmas Eve celebrations with Cherish’s side of the family and then on Christmas Day we celebrated at Bryan’s parents.
In closing, we are grateful for all the time spent with family and friends this year and hope each of you reading this have a wonderful holiday.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This is spectacular! What a GREAT new tradition! REALLY enjoyed reading it and catching up! Best wishes, good health and happiness in the NEW YEAR!
Still waiting to see the kitchen! ๐
What a great year you have had with the exception of Buddy now in Dog Heaven. He will always be smiling down on both of you and watching you from above. So glad Sparky made the post, hoping some day we will leave the puppy stage and become a well rounded dog.
Your house is beautiful and I know you will enjoy it for years to come. Blessing to both of you for a wonderful 2023! Love to all