Ben traveled with work, a LOT. It started in February, and continued on to Labor Day. I have to say, the 3rd year in IndyCar was the hardest on our relationship. I am so thankful we are on to other things now, although the current transition period is a bit tough...but more on that in another post! :)
2014 started out with a polar vortex, and Ben and I, and Kato, were stuck in the house for days. That turned out alright, it was nice to just have time together and do nothing but eat macaroni and cheese and watch Netflix. Our furnace started leaking during this time, although we didn't know it until Spring. Our electric bills went up and up and up (like up to $800) before we decided something wasn't right and called someone to fix it. Whoops. Luckily it was still under warranty and we didn't have to pay for repairs.
Polar Vortex- 9 inches of snow at this point, the total was 14!Through January and February of 2014, I was unemployed by choice. I started to get bored towards the end of February, when an opportunity popped up! I was got to be our neighbors nanny for March, April, and May. What a fun experience! I watched 2 of the sweetest and best-behaved little girls I've ever met, and I truly enjoyed spending days with them. Plus, I was able to get closer with their Mama, and she ended up being one of my few close friends in Indy. I also met other nannies during this time, and we went on lots of adventures! Another reason nannying was great-I was able to introduce Kato to young children while he was a young puppy, which I think is really important. Especially being that I would like a house full of children in the not-so-distant future. :) Kato did great with the girls, and they did great with him. Fun times for sure!
Dad, Morgan and I drove to St. Pete for the first IndyCar race in March...which was a blast! St. Pete is beautiful, and the race experience was spectacular. I loved it and would like to go back again. I sadly don't have pics on my computer from that because I dropped my phone in the toilet in April and pretty much lost all my pictures from February and March. Rawr!
In April Dad and I did the Mutt Strutt-basically a walk for dogs around IMS! This was a blast, and I wish we could do it again.
We celebrated Easter with my family, which was fun as usual. :)
Cousins!May started with Derby Day! Sister and I went and met up with my buds and had so much fun!
We also spent a ton of time at IMS. Ben was obviously there everyday all day, and I took the girls for practice (fun!), went to the Grand Prix with Dad and sat in the Cummins suite (Awesome!), and went to Carb Day by myself. I witnessed Ed Carpenter (Ben's driver) get the pole for the Indy 500 for the 2nd year in a row and that was AWESOME! I was in the Fuzzy's Vodka suite at the track with several other families, and a great time was had by all! The 500 started out great, but Ed got crashed towards the end. Major bummer.
In June, I started nannying for another family, this time with 3 boys, and woo! What an adventure. All I can say about boys is that they have a LOT of energy. Their favorite activity was to take off their shirts and play UFC in the bouncy house in their basement. Yep. Haha. We had a fun summer though, going to lots of parks, SkyZone and BounceU, and pools. That was the best strategy I could come up with to keep everything under control, get them out of the house! I babysat them 3 days per week through August, and the summer went by so fast!
Dad and I drove to Belle Isle (Detroit) for the race there in June. The races (double header) were great and Belle Isle was fine...but Detroit is not that nice of a place. I was glad Dad was with me, and we had a fun race weekend as we usually do! I got super sunburned though..
In July, my insane wedding season schedule started. I literally had a wedding to attend or be in every weekend from the middle of July through Labor Day. It was nuts! But-I LOVE weddings and continue to love them, even after attending so many! I love that they are all different and have unique qualities about them. I love seeing friends and family I haven't seen in a long time, I love the beautiful emotions on display, I love trying the food, love the unique decor and details at each one, and I love the dancing. :) The only downside to this summer's wedding season was that Ben was only with me at 1 or 2 of them. Going to weddings alone is kinda lame....but I still had a great time at every one of them!
This is just a sampling of wedding pics...there are so many more!
August=weddings. My sister also turned 21 in August so that was exciting! I picked her up from the airport when she returned from her summer at Disney, and took her balloons since it was shortly after her birthday. She cried when she saw me. Hehe.
The fall of 2014 was great simply because the racing season was over and we could get back to some semblance of normal married life.
In September, we went to Naples with Ben's German brother-from-another-mother Alex, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's brother and girlfriend, and Ben's parents. We had a GREAT trip. The weather was fantastic and it was so great to spend time with our friends from across the pond! We went to the beach (obvi), went on a catamaran, shopped, and sat by the pool. It was SO nice, and I can't wait to go back!
(This is where pictures end because I haven't uploaded the rest of the year! Wah wah..)
Halloween was kinda sad because the weather was terrible and we had about 4 trick or treaters.
Just before Thanksgiving is when our life began to change, because Ben heard from this Nascar team. We spent Thanksgiving with our amazing families, eating and enjoying each other's company. We were blessed to spend time with my family as well as Ben's family, so that was great.
Christmas was BUSY. We started our Christmas on Monday night, when we went and saw Straight No Chaser. They were amazing, and if you ever get the chance to go see them please do. It was seriously awesome. Ben and I had our Christmas morning on Tuesday, and got some great and useful gifts. On Tuesday afternoon we went to Georgetown. We spent Christmas Eve with Ben's parents, letting Kato run around on the farm and eating a fantastic meal. Christmas Day was with my family, and that was amazing as usual. We got to see many of our friends from high school in the days following Christmas so that was fun. We even got a group of friends together and surprised our high school band director at his house. I'm pretty sure we made his week. It was the strangest yet coolest thing, standing around drinking bourbon (straight up! agh) with our teacher. His quote was: "I really liked you all as students, but I like you even better as friends!" Love it.
After Christmas the real craziness began, and we spent the rest of 2014 preparing for our move! When our house sells, (hopefully soon), I will do a post about the moving process and the adjustment to North Carolina life..thanks for reading all of this if you made it through! 2014 was a great year, and we can't wait to see what 2015 holds! :) :)
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