2022 Year in Review

Hello, family and friends! We hope you’re well!

It’s hard to believe that we reached the end of 2022, but here we are again. This year was a momentous one for us as we made the move back to Australia in October after 8 years living in the US. The move gave us an excuse for a two month farewell tour visiting friends across the US and family in the UK.

We also settled into a groove as a young family, especially as travel and moving put us through our paces as parents! We are in awe to see how much Avery has developed in one year - from pivoting in circles on her belly to being a full-blown running, climbing, talking, meal-eating toddler. She is an opinionated, cheeky, fearless, hilarious little chaos monkey and we feel so lucky to be her parents.

Q1

Andrew headed back to work at the end of January after 4 months of parental leave, and we were fortunate to have Annika’s mum (Jane) come over to spend a month with us taking care of Avery. It was very special to have Avery meet one of her grandparents for the first time!

Sometime in this period, we finally crystallised on the decision to move back to Sydney after having circled around it since Avery's birth. Ultimately, we knew it was important for us to have Avery build a meaningful relationship with her grandparents, and to grow up and attend school in a more carefree environment.

Q2

Our Minnesotan friends, Dara and Andrew, came to stay with us in April. It was fun to watch Avery and Lucy interact more, and we had an absolute blast hanging out with them.

In May, Annika left her job to spend more time with Avery. This wasn't a decision she made lightly. Not only was it was scary to step off the safe and well-worn path of consistent career progression (especially with no concrete plans as to what would come next), but it was also a challenge to deal with the shift in identity from "career-focused business woman" to "full-time mum". She’s still figuring out what comes next, but ultimately feels good about the decision she made (and as an added bonus, it enabled her to focus on moving our lives back to Australia).

Avery hit the big ol’ 1 milestone on June 24. We held a lowkey celebration in a local park with some friends, and Avery enjoyed some homemade smash cake.

Q3

Andrew’s parents came to visit us in July — their first opportunity to meet Avery. We enjoyed some time up in Sonoma imbibing delicious wine and food.

Andrew continued to work as a Product Manager at Uber until September. At that point, he received a job offer from DoorDash Australia to join their newly formed tech team as the lead product manager, starting in mid-October. Fortunately, that meant he could relax and enjoy the several weeks of travel that we had booked in for September.

This included…

Another stint with Dara & Andrew in Minnesota (this time enjoying some summer vibes rather than a frozen tundra).

Visiting our friends Chris & Michelle in Philadelphia.

Staying with Annika's friend Christine and her lovely family in Charleston, South Carolina.

Meeting up with friends in New York and New Jersey

We then had a busy final 10 days back in San Francisco, packing and getting rid of the last of our belongings! It felt surreal to say goodbye to the country where we have spent the majority of our working adult lives. We knew that we would intensely miss the community of friends we’d built in San Francisco, and that we’d also miss the wealth of career opportunities at our doorstep. However, we were also excited about the new chapter in our lives, and being closer to family and old friends.

Some shots from the last couple of days in SF (including one very unhappy cat about to get on her first ever plane)

Q4

We spent a week in England on our way back to Australia, so that Avery could meet her great-grandma (her only surviving great-grandparent), and her great-aunt and uncle. It coincided with a trip Annika’s parents took to England which meant Avery got to meet her granddad for the first time. It also allowed us to partake in a beautiful ash scattering and tulip planting ceremony for Annika's step-grandma, along with some extended family.

After a couple of weeks staying with our parents back in Australia, we moved into a rental place about 10 minutes from the city. It felt good to be more settled after 2 months of living out of suitcases, and Kiki was very happy to escape from 10 days of quarantine in Melbourne and find all the sunny spots in the apartment.

Andrew started work at DoorDash in mid-October. However, a month into his tenure, DoorDash made sweeping layoffs (like much of the tech industry), which included the entire Australian tech team. So he is back on the job hunt! Fortunately they provided a generous severance package, so we feel very lucky that it was more of an annoyance than a castastrophe. And it came with the silver lining that he got to spend some additional time with family and friends over the holidays.

Avery continued to develop her motor skills and vocabulary. She hit the classic 18 month language explosion in December and we have been entertained by figuring out her new words ('nong' for milk, 'dur-du' for dirty). She also became a completely fearless climber, which is simultaneously fun and terrifying.

We wrapped up our year with our first Australian Christmas since 2017. It was wonderful to spend time with our families, though a bit jarring to have a summer Christmas again.

Last thoughts

It’s crazy that we’ve already been back for 3 months. We’ve slipped so seamlessly back into seeing familiar friends and cafes, that sometimes it doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone for 8 years. This has mostly been nice, but also a little unsettling!

Now that summer is in full swing, we’ve been enjoying the beach and warmer weather, which were a little harder to come by in SF. It’s also been lovely to see Avery start to build a relationship with her grandparents. So, while leaving the US was a huge and difficult decision for us, we also know that it was the right one.

We’re very much looking forward to what 2023 has to bring, and hope that it brings everyone else health and happiness!

Love,
Annika, Andrew, Avery and Kiki

P.S. Some general themes from 2022

Andrew spent a lot of time on the ground trapped under either a cat or a baby

Avery continued to get a lot of food on her face

Kiki developed much greater tolerance for Avery’s undying affection

We spent a lot of time hanging out with other babies

P.P.S. Additional Kiki photo dump for all you cat lovers out there