Year in Review
We thought 2000 was exciting, but this year takes the cake!
The biggest change was the birth of our twin daughters on February 7th. Jordan was born first at 6lb 7oz and Taylor popped out 1 minute later at 6lb 9oz. We had a lot of wonderful help during those first 2 months - including MJ's mother and aunt who spent a total of 6 weeks in California helping us.
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The other craziness was that we moved back to Massachusetts!
For several years now we'd thought about moving back East. With the birth of the girls and the downturn in the economy in Silicon Valley - this year seemed to be a good time to make the change. We finished our home construction and put our house on the market and sold it 5 weeks later...
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The very next day, on March 28, our California journey came to a close as
we boarded an American flight bound for Boston.
This memorable journey included MJ, George, Jordan, Taylor, Carol (MJ's mother), 12 boxes of checked baggage and a cooler full of breast milk; conspicuously absent were Caesar (who joined us 6 months later) and Zuni (who was already back East with Carol and Joe).
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Our first residence in Boston was a lovely corporate condo in Andover, MA.
We planned on being there only 6-8 weeks, but that stretched into 4 months before we were done.
This 2-bedroom condo was not quite big enough for all of us, so we went on road trips as often as possible.
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Over the summer we traveled all over New England- we visited Rhode Island several times to see George's parents, sisters and other family, and we also traveled to the Cape to visit family at MJ's camp. The girls were at opening day of camp this year with their STAFF onesies on - of course there is NO pressure for the girls to be counselors one day ;-)
This traveling was a lot less painless than it could've been since we purchased a (drum roll please) Honda Odyssey MINIVAN!!! Yes just a year or so ago MJ was driving a Z3- now look what's happened?! Can you believe it?
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On August 1, we purchased a contemporary home in Carlisle, MA. The wait was worth it as we love the town and the house.
It is a real change from Sunnyvale- moving from a city of 120,000 to a town of 4,000, but it's a great place to raise the kiddos with a strong community and great schools.
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In September, we were very fortunate that none of our family or friends were directly affected by the tragedies in NYC and Washington. It was a terrible day in our nation's history and our hearts go out to those who were affected by these events.
While we were watching the events unfold, we were quickly reminded that life goes on and there is good in the world when we received word that our very good friends Cynthia and Jeff gave birth to their first child- a beautiful baby girl named Georgia. (George is very happy with the name selection!). Also our friend Cara was marooned in Boston that week and spent several days with us before driving home to North Carolina. It was great to have Cara around as she stood in as the interim nanny before we found a wonderful babysitter Jaimee who has been helping take care of the girls since.
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The dogs also had an exciting year - both having spent half (or more) of the year away from us.
MJ's mother Carol took care of Zuni (or Schmuppy as she was nicknamed) and our good friend Chris Wales took care of Caesar. Both Zuni and Caesar were so well cared for we weren't sure they'd ever want to come home, but we coaxed them with the 2 acres of land and the lack of leash law in Carlisle and they decided to come home after all.
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We had another family wedding this year- MJ's cousin Paula Collins married Rob McGlarry.
Paula and Rob met at the University of Virginia Law school and are now practicing lawyers in NYC. MJ attended their wedding in Virginia, which was absolutely perfect!
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In true Austin Hill tradition, Thanksgiving 2001 had many guests. George prepared some of his favorites including cheesy beans and Ma's stuffing.
George's daughter Becky and husband Brian traveled from Michigan and George's son Nick flew in from Atlanta to join us for the weekend. This marked the first time all 4 of George's kids were together, and we had a great time! We missed having our friends in California at the festivities however and received a phone call from our good friends Dave and Monica who decided to spend the holiday on Maui since they couldn't have dinner at the AustinHillResort!
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For Christmas this year we traveled to RI and to NJ. George's family congregated in RI to continue the "Italian Night" tradition.
Then we drove to NJ for a couple of days to visit MJ's family. We spent New Years at home this year (surprise!)- George was busy migrating the Tivo from the family room into the basement rack so we can share it throughout the house.
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For now life is relatively calm. The girls continue to grow and learn at an amazing rate, which is a lot of fun to watch.
They are learning to swim right now and they take lessons every week (so they can be sailing counselors at camp next summer). They're both crawling around the playroom and the family room. We are really enjoying being parents and find that the girls help us keep everything in perspective especially with all of the turmoil going on in the world right now.
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| Let's hope we all have a happy and healthy and wonderful new year in 2002! |