My 2018 in review

January 2018

We enjoyed quite some snow weekends in the Ardennes






And at the end of the month I celebrated a late 40th birthday with my friends in a girls' weekend in Lille, France




February 2018



In this month I returned to my home town and area where my family has its roots unfortunately twice to attend a funeral. I also reconnected with a school friend that I hadn't seen in years.



It was a tough month and we had more snow in the Ardennes, but by the end of the month I found the energy to relaunch the last stretch of renovations in our attic in the Ardennes.



March 2018

We started the month with all of us taking turns in getting ill. As a result our planned visit from Canadian friends got cancelled.  Instead we visited with Train World with the boys.




We still got some more snow in the Ardennes while we enjoyed the playgrounds in Leuven.   At the end of the month we succeeded in rescheduling the Canadian visit so we got together after all.




April 2018

April brought us Easter and Easter vacation and time with our families. 




With my in-law-family we spent a week in Cannes where we sucked in the first spring sun at the beach.




May 2018

In May we left for our summer vacation to roadtrip through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, ...where we visited the center of the American power, its colonial history, the Amish farms, wetlands and beaches and searched for bears in the mountains.







June 2018

In June unfortunately I had to say goodbye once again to 2 relatives: Willy and Mona.  We managed to attend Willy's funeral in Germany but unfortunately I missed Mona's in Canada.


There was also a positive family gathering for my cousin's once removed's wedding.



July 2018

Despite the hot summer, I perservered to spend most of my late spring/ early summer weekends wall papering and painting our Ardennes attic to complete the rooms there.


there was also sufficient time left to simply enjoy summer (and escape the heat wave in the city)



August 2018


Kabouter mastered biking this summer so we profited to dust off my old biking skills as well to enjoy some easy family rides on the Ravel bike roads in the Ardennes.



August was also the end of an era when Beertje spent his last days in daycare and at the same time we realised that he'd fail potty training by the time he had to start school.



September 2018

Our routines changed drastically with Beertje starting in school. He started with a lot of enthusiasm and adapted quite well.



We visited the bells for the new Peace Carillon at the abbey and ended the month traditionally with birthday celebrations.






October 2018

October was a crazy month of travel that we started of in Hamburg, then Denmark and finished with a family sun vacation in Gran Canaria.







November 2018

We welcomed the return to routine and normal work in November.   In the weekend we started off a nice autumn weekend with friends in the Ardennes.



While Sinterklaas arrived in the country and the children got toy fever, we spent a weekend fruitfully to clean up some closets and get better organised.



December 2018

December started with a city trip to Paris, right during the yellow jacket riots downtown but we were spared from the unrest, except for the public transport which was seriously disrupted.



In order to take in a bit more of France, my sister and I treated my mom to a little trip to Lille. 


Just before spending the Christmas days with our family and then retreating for a week of much needed relaxation in the Ardennes, we participated in the #duwmee charity walk.









If you are also curious what my 2017 looked like to compare, you can read my review here.

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