End of the Year 2021

  Oh, snap, I missed the 2020 review. I made the whole draft, wrote captions half way through, and then never finished it. Whoops.

  But hey, we're back and I'm making my one appearance on my very old blog, and writing my year end review. (Maybe while I'm here, I should just throw the 2020 review out too?)  

 2021 is over and I'm having a hard time believing that. Didn't this year just start? This year has been one for the books. Wow, what a year. A bit unexpected, a bit challenging, but very memorable and beautiful. I'm thankful for God's faithfulness to me year after year...going back and reading these year end posts is always a reminder. He has been so good to me, even in the unexpected and harder moments. I'm so thankful I can trust my unknown future to a known God and that "in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." (Ps. 139:16)  

So, anyways, lets go....

JANUARY 

Spent the day skiing with William, Lena, and Chase. Lena and I started on the beginner slope, then we got daring and went on the more advanced slopes. It was all fun and games till we got to a huge hill and then all I wanted was one of those snowmobiles to come pick me up and take me off that mountain. I was so scared. 

Janeal and I went on a quick visit to surprise the Montana Arnharts for Faith's birthday!  

A rare sunny day when I was on my way home, noticed the sun set looked promising, so I turned around and drove out to the bay cuz I missed the water and watching sunsets.  

The last visit I had with Grandpa before he passed

These two, always getting into some kind of mischief 

FEBURARY 

February started with Triple Wren starting work back up! We had the huge project of clipping tubers and getting them ready to ship out. Sarah set up work stations for all of us, gave us heated mats and often, you could find me standing on those mats with my boots off, trying to beat Rosa's tuber total for the day or listening to music or old sermons from my pastors archived sermons. (I listen through his series on the book of Acts during that time and wow, so good and so encouraging!!) 

February 5th. Grandpa came home from the hospital on hospice and we weren't really sure what would happen, so I last minute packed up a bag for Mom so she could spend the night, and made my way down to Stanwood to join some other cousins, aunts, uncles at Grandma's house. We sat around in the living room, put on some old home videos from when my mom was a child and my aunts and uncles told their memories, while we listened to Grandpa's raspy breathing. Those final moments with Grandpa are such a strange mix of beautiful and sad. We were all getting ready to head back home, when we noticed Grandpa wasn't doing as good anymore, and pretty soon, everyone was gathered around his bed as he took his final breath. And then, we sat around more, crying, laughing, telling each other stories of him, texting family members. What an evening. Probably the most impactful moment of 2021. 

And then began all the funeral plans, but in the middle of that, I got my braces taken off! 

The night of the funeral. It all came together, we all got to be together, and it was a special time remembering Grandpa. 

Michael and Anna got engaged!! 

Those early blooms are so happy. 

MARCH

Dinner with Janeal and our friend. The three of us spent so much time together this year and always made a lot of classic memories together! 

Meanwhile, at Triple Wren....Rosa trying to pull out the rose hip t-posts. 

Eating lunch with Jensen (Actually, I was eating lunch, he was eating my french fries)

Filled up a lot of time this year with lots of FaceTime calls to my cousin

Grade A tubers and daffodils.

Early morning walk down my road. The sunrise was stunning and also, I had company for a moment

APRIL

The start of planting the 70k tubers Triple Wren planted this year. It was a huge project that lasted for a couple months. By the end of it, we were all pretty sick of tubers. 

Shipping out dahlia orders from Triple Wren! I dragged Janeal to work with me which was fun.

Glow in the dark frisbee with glowsticks 

Easter Sunday and my first Easter at my new church. Janeal and I got to sing on the worship team and it was such a memorable day. I'm so thankful to be a part of GS.

Birch Bay

Babysitting the boys. This one was is such a sweetie.

Tulip fields with these ladies! (And the boys. They were so funny and adorable the whole time)

Finishing up the last of Bible quizzing with my team, 'The Bee's'

Shipping at Triple Wren. This candle was a big part of the shipping process. It made us feel like we were at a coffee shop. Somewhat. After a while the smell got really old.

Mom's 60th and Jensen's 3rd birthday celebrations

MAY

I always love spending time with these sweet boys.

Lots and lots of games of ultimate frisbee this year. Always a fun part of the weekends though.

I got to drive along in the silage truck with Tommy and Taylor for a little bit one Saturday, and then we stopped for lunch out in the field. Tommy was trying to look like a farmer and Uncle Fred was laughing at him in this photo. Classic.

Michael's wedding week!! We carried on the tradition of our sibling outing for food. We decided on breakfast since it was Michael's wedding week and he had to get to work later that day. It was a super fun morning....the first time seeing Zach that visit, the restaurant all to ourselves for the majority of it, and me ordering a side of fruit for my main thing after everyone had gone around ordering a full breakfast. Their reactions were pretty funny to that one.  

Team effort practicing music for the wedding: Tommy and Karin playing together, Mason adding some little notes here and there, Zach being a human music stand, and Dad making sure Mason didn't fall off the side of the piano bench. 

Dwight and Mason 

One last bridal shower for Anna before the wedding. The last sister to join the group. 

Rehearsal dinner that included a special sharing time telling memories and stories of Michael or Anna and expressing the thankfulness we have for their examples and influence in our lives. Such a special evening with a good amount of happy tears. 

The morning of the wedding. That drive out to the church was so incredibly beautiful...the Canadian mountains, the stunning green that accompanies every spring here in Washington, little flakes of cotton floating around in the air, and of course, all that excitement that it was Michael and Anna's wedding. I pulled into the church the same time the other girls did and we had a small moment of freaking out that it was the wedding, and then began the curling irons warming up, makeup getting spread out everywhere, last minute touch ups and getting to beauty up lots of different family members who showed up throughout different times that morning. 

That last minute rush right before the wedding...making sure everyone was ready, getting the last photos, and then stopping for some food quick and a quick selfie with Janeal, Benjamin, and Dwight

The ceremony!

Faith and me at the end of the whole event. She was a great little flower girl. 

After we cleaned everything up at the wedding, we all gathered back at the house to eat left over rehearsal food, spend some last moments with Zach's family, and of course, look through phone pictures and talk about our memories from the day. Honestly getting together at the end of a sibling wedding where we can all talk about everything are some of the best memories 

And then to end that day....we were outside, waving good bye to all the people and the sky was amazing. It was all pink and blue....kind of like the wedding colors. That whole week and day was such a special time together!! 

Annnnd, then, back to work after a week off for the wedding. The roses were starting to pop, we were getting closer and closer to being done with tuber planting, and everything was looking pretty good.

The newlyweds opening their gifts with both families gathered to watch. Mason enjoyed sitting on the presents. 

JUNE

Screenshot of this because this was a bit of a scary moment for me. I was on my way home, getting close to this intersection when a northbound car hit a different car turning into his lane, and the northbound car swerved into my lane and went straight into the ditch. What if I wouldn't have had to stop for those pedestrians a little earlier on or what if I wouldn't have gotten stuck behind that slow car  that left me a little irritated when we were going under the speed limit on my drive home?? I would have been right there at that intersection and no doubt would have got hit head on. Left me a bit shaken up, but I was so thankful for God's protection on me that day! 

Getting close to the end of tuber planting. What a huge job.

Classic screenshot of a typical 'Nikki and Caroline' conversation. We often just text each other, 'Send help' but sometimes we get a little more dramatic than just, 'Send help.' Haha!  

Janeal's birthday. We were trying to get a sisters picture, but the boys kept running in the background and then William had to do a quick cartwheel right behind us.  They know how to make us laugh! 

I decided to put a flower in my hair every day at work. (Well, okay, it might not have ended up being every day, but it was definitely several days.) 

Strawberry picking! Jensen and Mason ate so many berries that day! 

Sunset over the bay with this group

I got to make this bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets for Anna and Matt's wedding. Making bridal arrangement is always fun, but doing it for friends is way more fun. Rosa and I met early that morning at Triple Wren for some early morning harvesting, I picked up the peonies I had ordered from Geraldine and starting in on the process. I made Anna's bouquet early on when no one else was there yet and it was a great time, listening to my music, designing that bouquet and texting Rosa to get out to the barn for the final critique before I finished it off. Good times.

Went on a long walk with the Kirk girls...although, at this point, they had all decided to go for a run. I didn't. 

Like father, like son

Chilling in my hammock at the beginning of the super crazy hot weekend in June. The weather was pretty great at that point in the morning...I wasn't really sure why everyone was freaking out that it was gonna get hot.

But anyways, it did get pretty hot...reaching up to about 111 degrees. We spent the majority of that weekend down at Michael's river. This picture was taken on Tommy and Mason's birthday which included a last minute get together at Michael's house for hamburgers, squirting each other off with the hose, and heading back down to the river to cool off. We were all thankful to have the river to spend time in that weekend!

JULY

Work things: scooping steaming manure into wheelbarrows with these girls while listening to country music. Honestly, such a gross job, but memorable because of how terrible it is. 

Sunset on the 4th of July was so amazing and beautiful. In this picture, I was on my way to watch fireworks with a bunch of my friends, but we stopped so I could jump out and grab a photo (and so Kat could run around the van a couple times.) The 4th was a such a great day!

Helping Papa water the dahlias

Hay fest 2021, complete with matching shirts, a huge crew, an accident that left all of us a little shook up for the rest of it, and lots of food

The middle of July, my boss changed my position from manager to a marketing position, so for a couple weeks, my jobs looked like taking pictures and making arrangements for reels, etc. 

Zach, Karin, and the kids came to visit before their big move to Florida and having that unexpected family time was a lot of fun.

Daisies, picked for my by Dwight. "Here, aunt Caroline, I picked these for you!" 

Family times

This just makes me laugh. Mom always likes to trap flies in the window by quickly closing the window when a fly flies in, and then she'll always put a note to not open the window. She had caught a bee and a fly, but Zach just decided to be funny and add a murder hornet to the list. 

Lots of frisbee games with the crew

Bible study ending with a walk down this path to see the sunset over the bay

My oldest brother and his family made it to Florida! My parents went to help them move, and spend some time with them. They went to an alligator farm here and I love this picture of my brave little niece!

Summer evenings

One random Friday, weeding the roses with Rosa and getting drinks from Woods that Sarah got us and we took a sip of our original drinks and immediately decided to switch cuz we both wanted the other person's drink. Classic times. I didn't know it at the time, but my days at Triple Wren were quickly coming to an end so looking back, I'm thankful for these last memories.

Spontaneous shopping trip with Melodie and Betsy

AUGUST

Jakob and Kerry's wedding day!

The very beginning of August, I went to talk with my bosses and ended my job at Triple Wren Farms. The last couple weeks there were challenging and stressful, but in the end, I was happy with the decision I made. Annnnd, then for the rest of August, I dealt with lots of job searching, lots wondering what was next for me, and drawing. Lots and lots of drawing, because I didn't really know what else to do with my time and I figured I could at least start selling art. 

It was cool how right after I quit at Triple Wren, I was able to connect with all sorts of other flower farmers who had heard that I quit and wanted me to come help them. I thought for sure I would get back into some type of flower job, maybe freelancing for weddings, but I did one freelance wedding, and decided very quickly that it wasn't what I wanted to do.

Flowers have been a huge part of my summers for the last three years, so even though I had quit my job at Triple Wren, I was thankful to have my own little garden to get my flower fix.

Boulevard park with some of my friends

Artist point during sunset is a big win. Janeal and I took our friend up to Artist point since she hadn't ever been up there and it was such a great evening! We listened to (loud) music the whole way up, and took lots of pictures. 

The very end of August, I took a quick trip to Colorado Springs to visit my friend, her husband and meet their baby. I got to see some fun touristy places, but my favorite parts of that trip were the times we'd just sit around in the living room and talk about all sorts of things.  

SEPTEMBER:

Bedtime stories for sweet Mason

This is one of my favorite pictures of my sister and her boys!

A fun afternoon hiking around Chain Lakes with this crew 

The beginning of September, I started my new job at the ChessHouse. Not at alllll what I would have seen myself doing after I quit at the flower farm, but a friend recommended this to me and I got hired, so I went for it. We ship chess sets out to people all over the world, and even though I'm really not into chess at all, it's been fun to get all the experience that comes with this job. Also, this is a tiny, tiny king and my nails were like really long in the photo. 

The last of those summer nights....

This photo was aesthetically pleasing and fall is beautiful, soooo. 

Shipping chess pieces is going well. Clearly. Why do you ask?

OCTOBER:

Papa passed at the very end of September which was a bit of a shock even though we'd been preparing for it for the past two years. The funeral was over the first weekend of October, so Tommy rented us a big van, we loaded up, and took one last memorable trip over to eastern Washington. We drove past Granny and Papa's house that we'd spent so many good times at and got to see Granny's rose garden that's still there, and we met up with the other Arnhart's and had a special time just being together. Our hotel also had a pool in it which we managed to spend lots of time in even though we were only there for less than 24 hours. 

The funeral. Papa got a 21 gun salute and William read a sweet letter he had written as a final good bye. I don't know if there was a dry eye there at the end of his letter.

Emily and Jeff took a week vacation to FL so we got the boys. It was sure a sweet time having them at the house. Jensen's little remarks were so cute (like what I had written that he said when Dad came home from work one day) or funny little stories we would tell each other at the end of the day after they were in bed. 

During that week, I decided to take Jensen to the pumpkin patch. He wasn't super impressed, but he picked out a tiny pumpkin anyways.

Boxes of chess sets waiting to be labeled at my job! Monday's are our busiest days and on this particular Monday, I had successfully managed to 'bury' my coworker who was labeling with 'ready to be labeled' boxes.

Hanging out with our friend and getting food which is what we usually do. (Also, going to her apartment after to watch a terrible hallmark or an intense war movie. We should find an in-between style of movie. haha!)

Rosa and I carried on the tradition and made a pumpkin roll cake. It turned out way better than the one we made last year, so that's a win.

Melodie started digging up her tubers, so since I wanted to get some tuber digging in for the year (maybe because I missed it since I'm not at Triple Wren anymore?) I made my way out to her house and we had a great morning, digging tubers and hearing updates about all her recent adventures. Also, look at that amazing background we worked against. Fall was so stunning and vibrant this year.

One very rainy, windy afternoon. Janeal and I decided going hiking would be a good idea, so we drug a bunch of the Kirks into our idea and went up to Haystack. Honestly, it was beautiful (look at this pathway!!) but there were a couple moments I was actually a bit scared that a tree would fall on us. 

An early birthday present for me....AirPods! 

Janeal and I took a spontaneous drive up to Mount Baker and the views.....wow!! It was a quick trip with lots of driving, but it was so worth it to see all the fall colors.

NOVEMBER

Sunrise

This little one came to visit me and came away with his own chess set! 

Mid November was some bad flooding for us in surrounding towns. This was absolutely crazy....I was at work, getting updates from my family, reading Facebook to see what was happening. This picture was taken in Sumas on the worst day. Lots of people from the community went out there with big tractors and boats to try to rescue people. It was a pretty devastating day for lots of people 

Coffee break. I'm pretty thankful for this coffee machine that I get to use every day at work

My boss decided to let me start taking pictures for marketing, so now one of the jobs I do for my work is photography, videos, social media posts, etc. I've enjoyed getting to do that!

Christmas decorations for my room this year included my own little Christmas tree

DECEMBER

Christmas party at church!

Lynden with snow. Kinda looks like a hallmark movie. 

This was me and Nikki, having a virtual Christmas baking party. (We actually just happened to FaceTime right when we were both baking, so we decided to call it a virtual baking party)

Baking Christmas cookies with my grandma! Always a fun tradition

These sweet boys on Christmas eve. Carson's little smile....ahhh! So cute.

I made Eior Brot for the family for our Christmas gatherings and with some help from Mom and the main Eior Brot maker, (Grandma) it turned out!

Sibling Christmas Eve photo

And then it snowed all Christmas Eve night and we woke up to a white Christmas

Well, that's all I got, folks. We ran in the new year in a very low key fashioned....sitting around playing games and laughing way too hard at stupid things, and then counting down to 12:00. Here's to 2022!