5th Year: In Review

YEAR FIVE!!! It seems like another lifetime when Jason was still working at Ernst & Young. We had another amazing year of travel and, of course, all of our travels are possible thanks to Southwest.

There was a ton of international travel this year (a trend I would like to continue), and all of our trips were thanks to amazing airline perks - Southwest Rapid Rewards Points to get us to Tulum and Russian River Valley, Positive Space tickets to both Puerto Rico and Ireland and the good 'ole standby flights to Italy and for other random domestic trips! Here's a recap - month by month.

August: Orlando, FL - fun spontaneous day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

September: Tuscany, Amalfi Coast & Rome, Italy - 

Italy is one of my favorite places ever and this trip didn't disappoint. I found a new love of Rome here and we're even planning on making a return trip to Italy within a year!

October: We took a fun day-trip to visit Galveston State Park with Indy. He LOVED the beach!

November: Culebrita & Old San Juan, Puerto Rico -  Jason won some "gold passes", so this trip was free AND confirmed. We love Puerto Rico - it's such a great little escape.

January: Tahoe, CA - Disaster of a trip. We've love to go back when it's warm though!

February: Ubud & Legian, Bali - Amazing 30th birthday trip!

March: Tulum, Mexico - Jason's 31st birthday trip! We are both obsessed with Tulum. Hoping for a return trip ASAP!

April: Russian River Valley, CA - Amazing Trip with the Linebergers. Hoping to make this an annual thing!!

May: Dingle, Kinsale, Cork & Dublin, Ireland - Just an amazing trip - easy, yet so beautiful. And yes, everything really was THAT green!

Boston, MA - A few days to sample some of the most famous sites in Boston and eat some delicious food!

In the next year, we have plans to:

Have a cousin reunion in Portland, OR (just me)

Take a long weekend with the pup to New Orleans, LA

Enjoy fall in my hometown of St. Louis, MO

Celebrate our anniversary in Broken Bow, OK
Spend Thanksgiving in London

Attend multiple wedding events, with the grand finale in Comfort, TX
Head to NYC to visit friends

Explore the great outdoors in San Juan Islands, WA

Soak up paradise in Kauai

Attend a family reunion/wedding in Portland, OR

I am also planning a glorious road-trip around Southern England for late summer - to include London, the Cotswolds, Bath, Cornwall, Dartmoor, Stonehenge and a trip to the Harry Potter Experience! Very excited about this!

Christmas 2015 & Looking Forward 2016

2015 was great - we just get better at planning trips and traveling together each and every time. Work-wise, Jason has moved teams within his same group at Southwest and is loving his new role. I'm always glad to hear these things, because it means many more years of amazing travel await us!

That said, I am so excited about the plans we have for 2016. We're will for sure be going to Bali to celebrate my 30th Birthday in a few weeks. I can't wait to meet the people, eat some Indonesian food and get lots of massages. We also have a fun long weekend booked for Jason's birthday to Tulum, Mexico. Another fun airline perk is winning 'positive space' (or confirmed) tickets on other airlines through various raffles and auctions. We have two seats on Aer Lingus, so we'll be heading to Ireland this summer! Somehow this year turned into the year of confirmed seats, but the good news is that all were obtained through points & other airline perks.

We have many weekend trips planned - San Juan Islands, Russian River Valley, Brooklyn, Boston. I'm also dying to go back to St. Louis (my hometown) in the fall. Wrapping up the year, our family will be gaining a sister (!), so there are plenty of festivities surrounding the wedding to look forward to as well.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year!