Man, this year was one for the books! It wouldn’t be a year’s end without a little retrospective, and this year was a good one. You might be taken a-back at that, but 2020 was a good year. Yes, a global pandemic sucks, sucks hard. Political and social unrest also make for unsettling discourse and shows that we all have some growing to do. But, for us, the Montana Powells, it was a good year.
In January, we started the year off by driving back to Helena from Dufur, OR on New Year’s Day. We had just had a great time with family for Christmas and were excited for the new year ahead. We were just a month out on closing on our home in Helena! Elijah and I headed back out to Oregon at the end of January so he could get some more time with my parents and I had a week long video project filming a set of commercials for a private school in Hood River. It was my first trip solo with Elijah, and it was a blast. We stayed with my sister in Vancouver, visited OMSI and just generally had fun.
As mentioned, we closed on our house! We moved on an all-too-pleasant day for mid-winter in Montana. Our family has enjoyed our 1880 farmhouse this year. It has provided a great refuge in a year when good refuges were hard to come by. I feel very blessed that we got into the house before the pandemic broke loose.
Along the lines of blessings, I also had a job that kept me gainfully employed and it even helped with making work-from-home conditions better. I can’t state this enough, I love my job. We also deepened friendships before and after the Montana lockdown. We hung out with two other families during the whole thing. This provided good relationships for all of us as we are all families in a similar stage of life.
Jessica’s photography business also picked up and has matured this year. Even through a pandemic, she has seen growth and I couldn’t be more proud of the imagery she is pumping out. I’ve even been getting some extra side projects in, filming a commercial for Mattress Mill in Bozeman.
We’ve kept pretty low key this year, but we got out on some adventures. We made a week-long trip to the Flathead Valley and Glacier and spent a few weekends in Bozeman. We also adventured closer to home and Elijah honed his bike-riding skills.
The house also provided some projects to work on. We tore down an old shed and utilized part of the concrete pad for a patio, using some of the old wood for an outdoor accent wall. Jessica used the patio to stage an outdoor bridal photoshoot, pulling together several vendors. We threw a couple birthday bashes and generally enjoyed our little outdoor space.
Elijah attended preschool this year. I can’t believe he’s off to Kindergarten this next Fall! He’s quite the builder and loves to make crafts any day of the week. Fitz ended the year finding his footing and walking all over the place.
Work gifted us time off between Christmas and New Years, so we ended the year with nearly two weeks of family time! Krista came up for some of it and Jessica and I even got away for a night to Missoula before the New Year.
So there you have it. 2020 was a pretty good year for us. About the only thing I wish was different was that I ran more! 2021, who knows what you’ll bring, but here’s hoping for hugs, car rides with friends, and more love and grace to share.
