One of my big projects for 2021 has been to cull photos from my google photos. Every month, I go through photos from previous years and delete things like duplicates, bad photos, screen shots, etc. Basically I delete anything I know I won't want/need to look back on in the future. It's a really easy process with google photos - I just search "May 2014" for example and all my photos I took May 2014 show up. It's become a really fun project! I love revisiting previous years through photos. It's usually an uplifting experience.
May in particular was a fun month to look back on. So I thought I'd share some photos from past Mays that stood out to me!
May 2014 - long time readers will remember that I was relocated to Charlotte, NC for a job in the spring of 2013. I moved back in May of 2014 after finding a job back in Minneapolis. Because I was going to a competing company, I had what was called a "garden leave" - which was basically 4 weeks of pay without working. I spent the bulk of those 4 weeks in Charlotte and did lots of hiking in the area which is something I wasn't able to do for most of my time in Charlotte. When I moved to Charlotte, I got diagnosed with a stress fracture and was in a walking boot for months and then I got diagnosed with RA and was in a lot of pain until it was well managed. So I really made the most of those healthy final weeks in Charlotte and did lots of hiking at state parks! I included a couple of photos below!
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| Hiking in the Asheville area |
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| Another hike in the Asheville area |
May 2015 - The highlight of this month was certainly going to Colorado with my friend Kyria. We packed a lot of hiking into that weekend trip!
May 2016 - This is one of those "not fun" flashbacks! I had surgery to repair a labral tear in my hip. I moved in with Phil on a Friday and had surgery on a Monday. I was on crutches for 3 weeks and needed A LOT of help from his so it was a real trial by fire for us! Ha! I wouldn't recommend getting surgery and needing to completely rely on your partner just days after moving in together but it showed us we could get through challenging circumstances together and still love each other!
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| Oscar was my constant companion while I recovered! It doesn't feel like we have a cat right now because she has spent most of the past year with my MIL as her "emotional support animal" during the isolation of Covid, but she'll be back with us this summer! |
May 2017- We got married on May 19, 2017 (yep, today is our anniversary!) so this is a very fun month to look back on between wedding photos and photos from our 1.5 week honeymoon in Maui! That was one of the best months of my life!
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| Our faces say - in 4 years we are going to have 2 kids, 3 and under! |
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| Our first big hike in Maui was so much fun! And so humid - hence the messy hair in the photo. |
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| Black Sand Beach on the road to Hana |
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| Hiking at Halaeakala |
May 2018 - This month was all about adjusting to having a 2 month old baby! The first couple of months of Paul's life were kind of stressful as he struggled to gain weight so we had tons of weight checks and other doctor appointments. Things got more enjoyable when we got past 2 months. And that's when he got really smiley which is such a fun stage!
May 2019 - Paul was just over a year, but not walking yet thanks to his tiny body and HUGE head. But he loved using his walker toy to get around the house - and he got to taste ice cream for that first time!
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| Mmm, ice cream! Funnily, Paul does not like ice cream anymore - although we haven't given him soft serve in a long time so maybe he would like that? |
May 2020 - Oof, this is not a fun month to look back on. We were in the beginning of the pandemic and felt so isolated. This photos is from an outdoor playdate with 2 other daycare families. It was the first time I'd seen people outside of our household in months so that was certainly the highlight of that month.
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| Paul loved playing on this swing set. He is typically extremely cautious so surprised me when he wanted to climb this ladder! |
May 2021 - And now here we are, a family of 4 with a 5 month old and 3 year old. These kids definitely keep us on our toes, but Will is hitting a more fun stretch of the baby stage as he's very happy and so in love with his big brother. The feeling is pretty mutual!
9 comments:
I have so loved this look back, Lisa. I've been doing much the same -- going through photos and dumping the bad and ugly. But I love how you've woven them into this wonderful life narrative!
What a fun look back! I use the time hop app and look at it each day, so I'm always seeing where I was multiple years ago. I like that in December, my photos are fairly similar, but slightly different, like a different view of grandma's living room on Christmas Day, but I have been there almost every Christmas Day of my life.
Love this! I didn't know about your blog back then, so this was fun to see. :) It is crazy to look back when you put the years all together like that...makes you really realize how much life changes, but in the moment it seems so gradual. I've been working on a huge photo project too, as I've mentioned, and it definitely is fun to go back through old photos. When I was a kid my sister and I used to LOVE to get out all of the old Beta and later VHS family videos on a rainy summer afternoon and watch them in the living room. I loved going through old photo albums from when I was a baby, too. It's a little more challenging in some ways with everything digital now- my kids don't really have access to all of the old photos and videos in the same way. They love watching old videos too, but they'd have to have access to my Amazon prime photos or the external hard drive I guess in order to see them! By the way- Happy Anniversary! I didn't realize you've only been married 4 years!! For some reason I thought it had been much longer. We will celebrate 14 in September- which seems crazy to me! Feels like yesterday in some ways.
What a fun idea!! I love Google photos for looking back on stuff :)
Happy Anniversary!
I loved seeing all of this! How much your life has changed since May 2014 - whew! May is usually the month I take my cruises, haha, so it would be fun to do a looking back post like this, too, and see how things have changed!
Happy anniversary!
Very cool to compare months past! I think all of us are probably enjoying this May over last May - that was a hard time for us, with lockdowns extended, no childcare, and total isolation with an infant. And the year before we had just found out we were pregnant - pictures from that day popped up on my Google album the other day and I had to laugh at how shell-shocked David and I looked. This May? We're practically booked solid with activities. We're definitely getting back to normalcy!
That is so fun to look back at previous years (and organize and declutter your photos in the process). I should definitely consider doing that. I have so many photos. I usually try to weed them out on my phone already before I transfer them to my computer, but still... so many.
I just found your blog recently, as well, so didn't know much of anything up until, well, about a year and a half ago! It must be fun for you to walk down memory lane - with visuals! - but it's also fun as a reader to see how your life has evolved. Wow!
Awwwe, so many wonderful memories. In that picture of you and Phil on the road to Hana, I can really see the Phil/Paul resemblance. I think that Spring in general stirs up a lot of memories for me, not necessarily any particular month.
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