Monica & Jack's Year in Review
We started the year by spending the weekend at Egmont with Monica's family. Jayce (born June 2022) was the star of the weekend with his great attitude and big smile.
Every year Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (YMKG) invades Tampa and turns the city into a giant pirate-themed block party. Jack has the honor of piloting the Jose Gaspar during the Invasion as the ship is surrounded by hundreds of personal boats. It's very impressive!
Flip through the pictures below to see some of the fun.
The season of LOVE!
We took our nephew to the state fair, spent the weekend at Egmont with our friends, saw The Beach Boys with Monica's dad, and celebrated Jack's 36th birthday by eating hibachi and camping in the panhandle.
March started with an important meeting for the Tampa Bay Harbor Pilots and ended with a fun trip to the New Orleans area. In between was bike rides in Mount Dora and accidentally going to Miami Beach during Spring Break (via train!).
Boats and bikes! Monica, her mom, Dawn, and family friend, Diane, along with 38 other women biked across the state of Florida from Titusville to St. Petersburg over 4 days.
Work-wise, April was a big month for Monica! She was invited to present to Tampa City Council as a subject matter expert and officially launched Homegrown Hillsborough, the food system program she's been working on for a few years with Hillsborough County UF/IFAS Extension. In between biking and work, we found time to cruise on various boats with friends and family as well as cheer on the Bolts.
May was for music and mainsails. We hopped over to one of our favorite music venues, the St. Augustine Amphitheater, to see Tenacious D before leaving for our 7-day sailing trip to the Dry Tortugas.
Sailing to the Dry Tortugas was incredible. The conditions were perfect and we loved being in isolation without cell phone service. We had a great "crew" of some of our closest friends and had family meals followed by board games.
In June we strung together a few fun opportunities to make one big loop. We started by going to Chicago to see Dead & Company at Wrigley Field two nights in a row, then down to Asheville with some friends to see more music before ending in the Knoxville area. We feel lucky to have friends that live in cool places!
Jayce turned 1 in June, too!
We took advantage of the holiday and spent a long weekend at Egmont. It was so hot! Record heat, apparently.
Later in the month Monica and her sister-in-law Carly Timmel went to visit their other sister-in-law, Anne Timmel, in Kansas City! It was perfect timing to see the debut of the Barbie movie and we brought our own Ken (Callen Timmel, Nov. 2021).
We also made a quick visit to Fort Myers to see the Redfern-Karatums!
Monica went on the news to promote her new program, Homegrown Hillsborough!
August 2023 was the first time Monica ever went scalloping! A little embarrassing to admit but our trip made up for lost time. We took our boat from Tierra Verde to Homosassa on a slow cruise along the intercoastal but high-tailed it home on the Gulf. Caught enough scallops for a delicious pasta that night.
We also went to the Renaissance World Tour!
Labor day in Gatlinburg. We started the fall with the Timmel family in Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the long weekend. The weather was refreshing and it was fun to hang with our nephews Ben (Jan 2021) and Callen (Nov 2022).
We also became urban farmers and started a balcony garden.
September was also packed with presentations and outreach for Homegrown Hillsborough.
We started October by visiting Japan for 10 days! Toyko to Osaka and Kyoto. Lots of delicious food and iconic Japanese culture. Monica turned 32 on 10/5.
October is also when Monica's brother, Tony, got married to Stephanie! It was a perfect day for a wedding and a really beautiful show of love.
Halloween was spent with the cast of Ratataoullie (Timmels).
November 6th marked two years of marriage! Jack surprised Monica with a trip on the cross bay ferry to downtown St. Pete where we biked to dinner and saw a show. We share our anniversary date with our nephew Cal who turned 1.
Thanksgiving was spent at Egmont with both the Petrellas and most of the Timmels. Jayce was the star of the show. Thankful for all the fun we had in 2023!