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Christmas Letter 2025

Wow, how is it the end of the year again and time to write another Christmas letter?

January started with snow and the snow hung around all month for the most part. We sent Dustin on a quick trip to FL for the end of his sabbatical since he never really rested and worked on things around the house, projects for my business, and coaching basketball. He enjoyed some time with his parents and reading books uninterrupted. The month was filled with basketball when we weren’t working or at school. 

February came and we had a heat wave for one day (the kids pulled chairs outside to eat dinner in the sunshine) and then snow again. I took a quick trip to NYC for a conference (I’m learning how to be a New Yorker, my New Yorker friend was impressed that I navigated the metro/bus system with ease.. but that’s thanks to Apple/Google maps!) I got to take some of my team that lives in the area out to brunch before I left which was fun to see them. Basketball ended the last weekend of Feb and our 2nd grade boys finished 3rd in their division. The girls had a lot of improvement over the season. 

March we geared up for some travel. I went to a training in Orlando at the beginning, we celebrated birthdays with our friends the Duerr’s, the 5 kids have birthdays from end of January to end of March so we normally pick a day and have dinner together. We celebrated birthdays with the Hall crew on our way to the airport. Then we went back to Venice, FL as a family for spring break. Instead of birthday parties for the kids, we had them pick their favorite things and have a day to celebrate while we were down there. It was a tad chilly for March weather, but we enjoyed the sunshine, good food, sand, and blue water. We did a day trip to Naples to see some friends and check out the beaches there. 

I got invited to speak at the American Pharmacists Association meeting Expo, so I left the evening before the rest of the crew and made a pit stop in Nashville. I had a presentation in the morning, then rented a car and meet them back at CVG. They only had to wait about 20 min for me after they landed and got to the car. So that worked out well! I headed to Minneapolis the last weekend in March for another training, but that was fun because I got to see one of my good friends from pharmacy school and have dinner with the team that live in the twin cities. 

April came and soccer games were back on the calendar. Bro loves soccer, and he’s pretty good too! His current dream if you ask him his career is to play in the NFL, but lately he’s been saying he wants to play soccer for Ohio State. The Columbus Blue Jackets give free tickets to kids with straight A’s so we did a hockey game with my sister’s family who are big hockey fans! 

After Easter services, Dustin headed on a work trip to London. He had a chance to catch up with some of his coworkers as they visited some of their customers. That following weekend Sis and I went to Kentucky to help out with my youngest nephew who was the ring bearer in his aunt on the other side’s wedding. My sister and brother in law were in the wedding so we got some snuggles. Bro got to spend the weekend with Jaclyn’s crew at a lacrosse tournament. (He wanted to play lacrosse when he came home.. shocking ha!) This boy loves all things sports. 

As we wrapped up the end of the school year in May, we had choir concerts, went to a Reds game (the rest of the crew would say we went to the Guardians game), had field days, and Dustin and I got to go see Nate Bargetze. We celebrated Memorial Day at the Hartzlers, not warm enough to swim but we had a driveway pickle ball tournament. 

Are you ready for June? It was a crazy one. Weekend #1 was a soccer tournament for bro (he guest played with the Miamsburg Stars and they won their division), Sis had her dance recital that Sunday. Then Monday afternoon we headed out on our next adventure, to Aruba, with a quick overnight stop in Philly. (To us that was better than getting up at the crack of dawn!) I had researched what flights were best and ended up opening a couple American Airlines cards to get our points for the tickets. So we all flew to Aruba for just the taxes! This was a trip with the Duerr family and we all had a great time. From sunset dinners to pool time, beach time and exploring the island, this crew was in heaven! At some point I’ll publish an Aruba blog posts with all our travel hacking deets! 

After couple days home, we packed up the truck and headed to Destin, FL with the Hall family. We celebrated Father’s day on the beach with a beach bonfire which was really fun. The crew enjoyed the pool, the beach, and watching fireworks from the balcony. We took a day trip to Seaside, FL, played mini-golf and ended our time there with a sunset dolphin cruise. 

After 5 nights there, we headed back north, Sis and I got dropped off at the Nashville airport, and took a flight to San Antonio, I spoke at an American Pharmacies Meeting that was at a really nice hotel in San Antonio Hill country. While Dustin and Bro headed from Nashville to St Louis to get to another ballpark. They watched the Reds play the Cardinals (shocking bro wore a Reds shirt!) He’s now made it to 5 ballparks. More to come, a player threw him a ball, and that made his night!

Since Sis and I were in Texas, we headed over to El Paso to see our friends the Rose family. They had lived in Dayton for several years and the girls became friends in preschool. They were such gracious hosts, they took us to see their family pecan farm, and to see sights in New Mexico that included White Sands National Park. It was crazy, even though Texas felt like the surface of the sun, the sand wasn’t even hot to walk on! We also got to see M perform ballet! 

We celebrated 4th of July with friends on July 3rd we had a private firework show and cookout, and then on the 4th we had a patriotic brunch! Sis started rehearsals for School House Rock with her bestie which was for 3 weeks and then they preformed on July 19th. I did a quick trip to Iowa to speak, it was a super small town called Burlington, but despite the small town they had a fun food scene between a couple local places and bakeries and it was really fun to land in a super small airport! The kids got tickets to Dude Perfect for their birthdays so we enjoyed some time with our Columbus friends and an evening at the show. We made it to Kings Island for the first time mid-July despite having annual passes. 

We had one more epic trip up our sleeves, we used our Delta companion passes to head out to Kalispell, MT and visit one of my friends and colleague. That also deserves its own blog post but the TLDR is that it was amazing, we started in Flathead lake at her parents cabin, kayaked on the lake, explored the area (drove to Idaho for a quick stop-another state for the rest of the crew), soaked in natural springs, went to a Kalispell Range Riders game (highlight for bro), and of course explored Glacier National Park. We had all the huckleberries and huckleberry milkshakes, cider, etc! We finished the stay in White Fish at the Residence Inn which was nice. Friends from church were out there at the tail end of our trip and pulled our arm to join them on the Highline trail on our last day. Let’s just say that was amazing and hard (15+ miles) but one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. 

August the kids spent the first week at Grandma and Grandpa’s which they love doing in the summer, and I did a presentation in Cincinnati for the National Pharmacists Association meeting and then headed to Chicago for the Global Leadership Summit which is always inspirational and great time to spend with colleagues. Then it was time to start the school year. How do we have a 3rd and 6th grader? Soccer season was in full swing, Bro was still playing for the same organization and made the elite team for his age. Sis started dance and is doing some competitions this spring. 

In September I got to have a booth for our CE business at the Microbiome Labs Keynote in Nashville, and one of my pharmacists joined me for the weekend, we ate some amazing food and enjoyed the Grand Ole Opry. I always think of my grandma when I’m there and feel like she’s sitting with me. 

In October I met my team in Austin Texas for a retreat, and that was so much fun to spend a weekend with these amazing ladies and get to know them better, talk marketing and functional medicine, and explore! Three of us also spent a day exploring Waco before coming home. The end of October came and we could finally wear sweatshirts to a soccer game (summer lasted so long but I’m here for it!) We had a construction themed Trunk or Treat, we joked it should have been called “almost done” construction because that’s our life with house projects. 

In November Dustin’s parents came in while we took a cruise with our friends Matt and Melissa, an early birthday trip for me, which was good because I was sick the week of my actual “big day!” We did the the Utopia of the Seas and really the destination is the boat its self! We enjoyed the food, the shows, they had an aqua show, ice skating show, and a broadway style one, and enjoyed the sunshine! We got to see the Royal Caribbean private island for the first time, it was really nice. 

To finish out November we celebrated our nephew E turning 2, we spent Thanksgiving at the Hartzler’s and got to see some extended Hartzler family. Bro was so excited to meet his 2nd cousins. And we left from there to head to Washington DC area to spend the weekend with our friends the Zaman family. (We miss having them down the street!) We enjoyed exploring the city despite the the cold weather. 

December started off with a bad virus for me and we got a good amount of snow so lots of canceled activities, but sometimes the slowing down of life in those moments helps you to re-focus. Basketball season is off to a good start. The girls 6th grade team is 5-0, and the 3rd grade boys are learning and growing and have played a couple games. Both kids love basketball and we love it too. And it’s climate controlled, so I enjoy that part ha! (Soccer mom life brings lots of weather from 90 degree days to 40’s ha!) 

2025 was a great year. I (Melody) am still an entrepreneur with her own business PharmToTable, and also her FxMedCE business was separated into another company called Revelar Health this year. Revelar means reveal in Spanish so it fits with our revealing the root cause of chronic conditions focus. I also co-own the Integrative Metabolic Center which is located in Dayton and now Ft. Wayne, Indiana in partnership with Indiana Wesleyan University. My passion is to see patients get better by addressing lifestyle, nutrient deficiencies, gut health, and stress. 

Dustin is still working for Automatic, he celebrated 12 years this month. He is now working on the WooCommerce marketing team and is a Customer Success Manager and works with the biggest customers using the eCommerce software. It’s been a great fit for his skillset. He is off to Croatia for a meet-up in January. (Jealous!) He also is coaching 3rd grade basketball and co-leading our church small group.

We are thankful to be celebrating Christmas with both sides of the family this week and thankful for health and for all the provisions of the Lord over this last year. We are thankful for community near and far, meaningful work, and kids that are growing up too fast before our eyes. 

Sis is in 6th grade taking her 6th grade classes plus a high school Spanish credit. She loves her friends and spending time hanging out with them as much as she can. 

Bro is rocking 3rd grade and playing way too many sports, soccer, basketball, and come spring will be playing baseball. (Yes we are crazy). But this kid thrives on the field. We will have to figure out in the coming years what to pair it down to, but until then i’m enjoying the sports mom life! And honestly as much as it seems busy, it also creates great friendships for both the kids and for us as parents. 

We wish you a blessed 2026, one full of health, drawing near to the Lord, and of adventures! 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Peter 1:3

Family Life

Christmas Letter 2024

2024 was a year another year of growth and exploration. It started off with snow days and basketball Then we took a winter escape to Florida a bit earlier this year to Florida. It was quicker trip this year because of cheap flights and trying to avoid being gone two weekends with Dustin coaching Bro’s basketball.

We had all the good Florida food with Grandma and Grandpa, and ended our time in Venice with the most stunning sunset I’ve ever been blessed to photograph! We ended the trip going to Universal for the first time this year with our annual passes. We met our friend Lydia there the first day and then had a couple more days there before we headed back to the cold. The kids loved it. Some of the older rides make us parents dizzy with the 4D situation but we loved several of the Harry Potter ride especially Hagrid’s Motor bike (3 of the 4 of us say this is the favorite), the little guy is in love with the Minions Villiancon ride. We stayed a few nights with our friends the Kuhns that live outside of Orlando we went to a fun park in Lakeland, FL called Bonnet Springs Park. We also got to have breakfast with our friends the Tiptons who are stationed in the panhandle (had been part of our house church years ago) as they were heading to a Disney cruise. 

In February I got recognized at my high school as a Distinguished Alumni so we went down to Harrison for a basketball game for that. It was fun to see some friends from Harrison and see the kids and my nephews decked out in their wildcat gear. Both kids played basketball again this year which was fun. Dustin coached Lil bro’s team alongside our friend who is our neighbor! It’s fun to see the kids grow in learning this fast paced sport! We had a couple good snowfalls one of which we went to a friends house to sled with her and other friends which was a highlight for the kids going down her super big hill and having homemade hot chocolate!  Bro was also able to try out hockey one night with his cousins. Unfortunately the month ended with the flu after that but thankfully the kids were the only ones to be down with it. 

In March we celebrated being parents for a decade.. just kidding we celebrated our beautiful girl and then of course lil bro with a sports party, but our biggest celebration was for Dustin who hit a milestone bday this year! We surprised him with friends over and one of his friends Adam coming all the way from NC! We also spent part of Spring break week in NYC with our dear friends the Duerr family. We had traveled with them to PR in 2023 and the kids and adults had so much fun. Glen was there for work but was able to join us for a few things, the kids were troupers and walked all over Central Park with us. We explored the Natural History Museum, Central Park, found a famous gluten free bakery called Glace, saw the Statue of Liberty and Times Square. The kids went ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Rebecca and I went to my fav daytime TV show Live with Kelli and Mark, one of my team who lives nearby joined us, so that was super fun! 

We were back home to celebrate our Risen Savior the following week and the kids and I went to Lexington to visit with my sister and squeeze in some baby snuggles. I did some traveling for work, drove to Iowa because of a canceled flight, and then back to Columbus to speak the next weekend. Now we were into soccer season, and our #22 was having a blast. He also played flag football which worked out nicely in the spring games were on Sunday afternoon and Soccer was on Saturday. He thinks he is going to play in the NFL some day.  April 8th was pretty Epic, we saw totality of the eclipse in our own neighborhood. Our neighbors had a party and there were goodies and everyone watching it together in aw. Definitely a fun memory for all.  

Sis and I went back to Lexington for E’s baby dedication. Dustin’s parents visited for a weekend of soccer and football fun. We also went to Loveland Castle that day because it was so close to the soccer field. It was fun to see. I had spent the night there as a Girl Scout a long time ago. It seemed bigger then ha! 

I made my first TV appearance as part of the Cincinnati Refined show. Episode 1 is on our Youtube channel. I will add more here when we get them up. Sis also had a performance at school where she was a Wofie #2 in a Little Red Riding Hood production. She did a great job. It’s fun to see see her grow in confidence on stage! She also had a few jump rope team shows that were cool to see how much they learn in a short period of time. 

The kids and I enjoyed a Dayton Dragon’s came with friends from sis’s school. It was a bittersweet end of the school year. We closed out the school year with a girls shopping day to help with the emotions. I was pretty emotional too especially leaving Spanish immersion behind. What a blessing that school was to us. It was exactly what we needed and to watch our kids converse in Spanish is an amazing gift. 

Earlier in the school year, we decided Fall 2024 we needed a change up in schools because bro was coming to the end of the Spanish immersion program and while the home school hybrid option is amazing for folks that are able to be home the other days with their kids, we were sending her to Spanish other days which made it hard, as work for your off days increased. We had spent a lot of time driving a 45 min round trip to the separate drop offs and lots of time spent in pick up lines. So we pivoted in the fall and everyone is thriving and mom and dad might be in the best shape of our adult lives now because we have some time in our week for taking care of ourselves. Change is hard but it can also be just what you need.  

I had a quick trip to Las Vegas (my least favorite city, but it’s growing on me because I’ve found my foodie places, Delta probably thinks it’s my favorite!)..to be on a panel at Institute of Functional Medicine meeting. That was super fun! I love learning from the other panelists as we talked about use of GLP-1 agonists from a functional and integrative perspective. In May, we finally started seeing patients at our new clinic Integrative Metabolic Center in Centerville, Ohio. It’s bringing the kind of care we offer virtual at PharmToTable to a local clinic! 

Summer always kicks off with a dance recital for our gal, she did her first solo this year and did amazing! We love her artistic spirit! She did her solo to the song Rain (can’t post with copyright but if you want a video I think I did post on Facebook!). One of her advanced classes did a Newsies’ song which was one of my favorites, I love musical theatre! Sis and I enjoyed a girls day with our friend Lydia who was about to move due to military location change. Living in Dayton brings so many amazing people in our lives, but sometimes we have to say see you later, until hopefully they come back to the base or we get to go visit. In June we also celebrated our step-nephew graduating high school! Seems like it was yesterday he was 10. Swim team was in full force, we didn’t sign up for a ton of meets, but the kids still enjoyed it and bro was all about getting those ribbons! Mom and Dad are thankful they are comfortable in the water! And sis was given an award for most improved diver!

We made a quick trip back to Orlando, thanks to Frontier deals, we all four flew for $250 RT total! So we enjoyed the water park this time and that was really fun. I will say I think Universal’s Cabana Bay waterpark is better than any other I’ve been too. They had a “lazy” river where everyone is in life jackets just floating around! We saw the Kuhn’s again and enjoyed some good eats. The 4th of July we hosted some friends and played a backyard game of kickball which was super fun! Sis and I went back to Lexington to get some more baby snuggles and had a shopping day. 

Then we started our great Washington and Alaska adventure. You can read all about that here on the blog. We started in Seattle, went on the Ovation of the Seas, and then finished up with Mt. Rainer National Park and Olympic National Park. It was so much fun. I can’t wait to do something like this again. Having our family, friends, and colleagues all on a trip together was the best part. I also finished my 50 states with that trip!

It seemed like we didn’t have much time between the trip and school starting but we soaked up what we had left of summer break with friends, I went to Chicago for the Global Leadership Summit with colleagues, and we celebrated a big birthday for Grandpa. Then it was back to school in a new place! We still enjoyed what was left of the warm weather and summer as much as we could at the pool and other outdoor activities/ice cream. We even went to C-bus to a skull session where the band plays before the OSU game, it was the hottest day of the year, but we went to the Sweetgreen soft opening and got Jenni’s! (life is about balance right?)

I got to go out to a beautiful area of California in Monterey for the Microbiome Labs Keynotes with my friend/colleague Lauren. I haven’t been to this part of Cali before and it was beautiful! The Carmel by the Sea town was so cute. Feels like someone dropped you in Europe! In the fall lil bro convinced us to play flag football again but this time it conflicted with soccer a lot. We did our best because he loves both. Flag football is nice at this age, one game he was the quarterback and threw a touchdown pass, played as a receiver and got a 2 pt conversion, and also ran a touchdown in as a running back. It’s fun they get to experience different positions. Some days he’d have goals in soccer and football points. 

In October while Dustin went to a work conference in Mexico, our dear friends the Rose family visited us from Texas. The girls were in school together when they were stationed here and were besties. We visited them in Texas back in 2021, but they hadn’t been together since. It was fun to see them pick up where they left off. It was also fun they could keep us company while Dad was gone. That weekend we also fit in our annual Duerr-Hartzler family apple picking and some Miami Redhawks Youth Hockey.

When Dustin got home, he had one more day of work and then has been on sabbatical ever since. He gets 3 months off paid every 5 years. Pretty sweet perk he gets working at Automattic. So he’s been helping me with the businesses, working on house projects, and coaching basketball. He needs to take some days in Jan to actually rest before he goes back! This October was an epic one when it came to sunsets and fall colors. Halloween we did a Target themed trunk or treat! I did several photo sessions for friends and a couple new clients in Oct. It’s my favorite time of year to capture families with the sunset. We also had a fun block party in the neighborhood. I spoke at the National Community Pharmacists Association meeting, thankfully it was in Columbus so I was able to drive and spend some time with my good friend Melissa.

November we celebrated cousin E turning 1, went back to Orlando to finish out our year of Universal and enjoyed 80 degrees on Thanksgiving day at the waterpark. The water was a little chilly but we will take it! We did a day where we went to all the Disney hotels to look at Christmas decor and visited Disney Springs. They had a fun Christmas Tree stroll, we would search on the map and place stickers for the theme that each Christmas tree was. We rode the skyliner for the first time too! We also had a few down days to enjoy the pool at our resort and enjoyed a Brazilian Steakhouse for lunch one day. Thanksgiving day the kids also had pumpkin pie by the pool and we made a stop at Ponce City Market in Atlanta for doughnuts and Sweetgreen on the way home.

December is here and we have had lots of birthday goodies, yummy dinners, basketball, Christmas programs and a dance recital, a quick trip for me to ASHP’s Midyear, a piano recital, and Sis was student of the month for her grade! Both kids are playing basketball and enjoying it! They are getting better with each practice and game. Our girl is great rebounder and has had some points on the board! Bro also has had some points and getting stronger to overcome his lack of height this year! We are truly blessed with our friends and family and community that we live in. We enjoyed a Noche Beuna themed Christmas Eve with friends and family joined us for Christmas. We are so thankful for the many blessings in our year, too numerous to put it all here. Thankful to God for his indescribable gift and the reason to celebrate this season! (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Alaskan Cruise 2024

Mt Rainer, Olympia, Olympic National Park

Friday, July 19th, was our day to get off the ship. This was the day the Crowd Strike update happened and all the fights on Delta and other airlines were delayed. Thankfully we had another 5 days of our trip still to go. At first, we thought, wow it would be nice to go home because we were tired, but this last part of the trip might have been my favorite.

We went to check into our hotel, the Embassy Suites right in downtown Seattle near the football and baseball stadiums and we couldn’t get checked in because the systems were down there. So we walked to find food and ended up back at Target for some snacks/bread/peanut butter for our car rides and then when we got back to the hotel waited in a long line to get a room.

The indoor pool there was super nice, and Dustin, Ron, and Bro ended up coming to the Seattle Mariners game that night. The Guardians weren’t in town, but Bro got into his fourth MLB stadium. The girls did laundry and took a journey to the pier for some ice cream. Not as good as Molly Moons but still yummy. 

On Saturday, Dustin and I took the light rail back towards the airport to pick up a Turo. Thankfully the person was able to leave it in a lot just before the airport stop to make it easier.

Then we headed back to Seattle to get the crew. We were thankfully able to snag an entrance pass to Mt. Rainer National Park. Make sure if you are visiting the national parks now, many require timed entry which is somewhat new since Covid times. It was a beautiful day, we saw the peak in all its glory and enjoyed the ride. Only one person ended up car-sick around the turns.

We found a random discount grocery store at the bottom and enjoyed a pizza dinner in Olympia Washington, that felt like we were eating in Yellow Springs on steroids. IYKYK. Arriving at our hotel in Olympia, they were not able to make keys, so that was interesting they were logging on paper what rooms they gave to everyone.

One of our rooms didn’t have a key and someone had to let us in each time. It sort of disappeared from the Marriott system and we had to ask for our points later ha! 

Sunday, we had a nice brunch at Uptown Grill in Olympia and then headed to Costco and Trader Joe’s for groceries for the last leg of our stay. We booked a cute Airbnb near Lake Cushman outside Olympic National Park.

We definitely want to go back and explore this area, 3 nights wasn’t enough to be able to do the peninsula. I’ve gotten to drive around it before on a trip with colleagues lots of years ago, but this was the first time for everyone else. The house had a gym in the garage with a sauna and a trampoline outside which was fun for all. They sold me on having a Nespresso and I brought my own espresso pods ha! 

On Monday we went into Olympic National Park and hiked at the very southeastern edge of the Staircase Rapids Loop. Dustin and the kids played in the chilly river.

Monday afternoon we took a dip in the lake, and then Tuesday we kayaked on the lake and Dustin hiked Mt. Eleanor. Dustin thought the kids wouldn’t last long on the kayak and thought I was crazy, but everyone loved it.

I think this was my favorite day. I could totally be a lake girl if every lake looked like this, the water was so clear you could see the bottom in the shallow areas.

Wednesday Delta had recovered and our flight back to DTW was fine! We got up early to make the trek back to the Sea-Tac airport and had a long but uneventful flight. We grabbed Chipotle, returned to Findlay to drop off Grandma and Grandpa at their car, and parted ways back to Dayton and Wayne County. This trip was one for the memory books. So thankful for this opportunity to see God’s beautiful creation. Can’t wait for the next exploration!

Alaskan Cruise 2024

Alaskan Cruise

It’s cruise ship day! Slow morning. We worked out and washed clothes and walked to Doce doughnuts again and I got coffee next door. Dustin, Sis, and I walked back to Target to buy a new suitcase since we had a broken wheel on the adventure to the hotel. We packed up and came aboard the Ovation of the Seas! 

We explored the ship, ate lunch and rock climbed, and then we didn’t have our luggage in time for dinner so we just wore the clothes we came aboard with. I saw a few of my team, several of them are seated near us for dinner! 

On Day 2 it was a Continuing Education Day for me, the rest of the crew played pickleball after breakfast. They also hunted for ducks around the cruise ship. And they found Foosball tables and explored the more of the ship. The kids had pizza for lunch and visited the kids club while Dustin went to the gym. We met up again for dinner with the whole crew! We recorded our CE program so it’s now available on-demand.

On Sunday (Cruise Day 3) we were at our first stop Sitka, Alaska. Originally I had planned to do a hike here, but it was super rainy so we decided to keep it low-key. This port had a free shuttle service from the port to the downtown area. We strolled through the Totem Pole Trail at the Sitka National Historical Park and walked around town. I got a blueberry tea and we shopped for souvenirs and got a fun set of salts from the Sitka Salt Company. We found some good deals on T-shirts as well. Even though it was misty, it was a nice day.

On Monday, July 15th (Day 4), our Port was Skagway, Alaska. We rented a Turo minivan. I had booked through carrentals.com /Avis for ~450 for the day but got one on Turo last minute for under $300!

We drove the Yukon highway and saw beautiful sites, which is similar to the trek the train takes. We stopped off at various times for photos. We entered Canada and headed to the Carcross Dessert. This was super cool and probably a highlight of the trip for the kids! It reminded us of sand dunes in Oregon but with a huge hill to climb. 

We spent some time there and lo and behold some of my team stopped there at the same time so we got a picture together. We saw the crescent lake as well which wasn’t as cool since it was mainly just viewing from the road vs. down by the lake. 

We stopped at Wild Adventure Yukon. This happened to be the stop of a bus tour several of my team were on as well, so it was fun to see them along the way. The highlight of the trip for the kids was also holding a husky sled dog puppy. We headed back to Skagway (lots of fog and rain). The crazy thing is that somewhere along this road about 8 days later, there was a rockslide that caused cruise passengers to be stranded and have to go 6 hours to Haines, AK to meet their ship. I can’t imagine what we would have done given we were on our own vs. a tour. Always a risk you take I guess. Thank the Lord that wasn’t us. 

In Skaway, which is a super cute Wild West-type town, we browsed in some stores and then headed back to the ship. 

Tuesday, July 16th (Day 5) was a great day, but a bit sad start. We were supposed to wake up to being in the endocott glacier arm but instead, it was foggy and we saw some floating ice out our balcony window. Shortly after the captain came on the intercom and let us know the ship was turning around and it wasn’t safe to continue to the glacier due to fog and ice. We made the best of it, we took a group photo with the team and their families on the deck. (Finally not raining!) and I went to a dance class with Melissa before we got off! 

We made it to Juneau early which was good because we were able to snag a bus tour to the Mendenhall Glacier with enough time to get back to our helicopter tours. We enjoyed the ride out to the glacier, we saw bald eagles on every light post and saw salmon jumping in the river. At the glacier, it was amazing to feel how much colder it was, outdoor air-conditioning!

We took the path to Nugget Falls as well. We got back and had about 40 min to run on the ship and sis and I had to get back outside to go on our helicopter tour, we got in the van and rode out to the airport passing the same river and eagles but when we got there, they let us know visibility was not good at the time and the tour was canceled.

Dustin and bro were scheduled to go later and theirs was canceled too. It was a bummer but getting the money back was also a blessing so it just wasn’t meant to be this trip. Next time when we go back, that will for sure be on the bucket list! I pulled up my friend Lydia’s video on her IG that she set her glacier helicopter ride to the Soarin music, I couldn’t tell if the guys we were riding with were amused or not ha! 

We ended up going walking around a bit in the shops and Sis finally found the sweatshirt she wanted and then we swam the indoor pool and swimming and enjoyed dinner. It was sort of crazy swimming in the pool looking at waterfalls at the same time. Alaska is beautiful. 

Wednesday, July 17th was another day at sea, unfortunately lots of rain that day, but for us in classes, it made us not feel like were were missing much.

Bro enjoyed kids club and sis played cards with one of my friend Lindsey’s girls and hung out with grandma for a bit while Dustin did a workout. We also enjoyed dinner and had a cocktail party with all the attendees afterward. I’ll add some of the evening pictures from various nights here!

Thursday, July 18th, I finished up the conference, and as I was teaching I was also watching whales jump in the water as we were moving, I told the attendees to turn around and watch while I continued!

That seems like a once and life time teaching view!

After lunch, we packed our bags. We also got off in Victoria, BC, and took a walk around town after dinner. Lil bro loved the kids club so much he stayed on the ship while we took the evening stroll, we were all exhausted and legs hurting from all the walking but it was almost like spring in BC and the flowers were beautiful sites. 

We strolled down to the Fisherman’s Warf, through town a bit, then to Beacon Hill Park, and then back to the ship. The sunset coming down the hill back to the ship was a gorgeous view to end the cruise portion of the trip.

While the weather was gloomy in AK and we missed the glacier arm, the trip was still amazing and we hope to make it back to Alaska at some point to explore more!

Thankful to my team and our new colleagues who came aboard with us for this adventure. We are planning to do another CE Cruise in 2026. Where should we go?

Alaskan Cruise 2024, Seattle

Detroit to Seattle

This trip was by far one of my favorite adventures to date. I have been to 49/50 states, so Alaska has been on the bucket list for a while. Our business has a website where we teach continuing education FunctionalMedicineCE.com and I learned we could have a conference at sea!

So the idea to go on an Alaskan cruise with our business was born!

Grandma and Grandpa Hartzler also joined us for the whole trip and I think they loved it just as much. If you know us, you know we are travel hackers so we used a mixture of Delta miles and companion passes to get the six of us to the west coast. I think we ended up paying for 2 tickets (getting 2 free with companion passes) and used points for 2 so all in all saved lots of money! DTW was the best direct schedule and lowest cost/points.

We began our journey by meeting friends from college in Findlay at Chipotle. We used to get together every year on New Year’s Day, but after COVID that sort of fizzled out unfortunately. Both Abe and Justin were in our wedding. It was great to catch up on a brief lunch, then we met Dustin’s parents at Justin’s house to leave their car there for the two weeks so we didn’t have to pay parking for two cars near the airport.

Part of the plans included the boys going to the Guardians vs. Tigers game in Detroit that night. The weather was rainy so we didn’t buy tickets until right at the last minute.

First, we dropped our bags off at the hotel by the airport, we love the convenience of the Westin in DTW but for 2 rooms much better points deal at another Marriott nearby. We found a Sweetgreen to eat a little bit north of town but worth the drive! And then we headed downtown. We parked, the boys got tickets and headed into the baseball game. The girls found some ice cream at Milk and Froth (we always find the best ice cream in a new city!) and walked around. Detroit has some fun things downtown!

The next day we boarded our flight and headed to Seattle! We arrived around 11 am and took the light rail downtown. This is a super cheap option compared to Uber or Taxis. It’s $3 per adult and kids are free.

Our hotel wasn’t super close to the light rail, so our options when were to wait for a bus which may have been the smarter option, or to walk the 0.7 miles to the hotel. It was a beautiful day so we opted for walking but the sidewalks and our luggage weren’t a good match, so one suitcase lost a wheel.

We stayed at Fairfield Inn and Suites Seattle Downtown, it was a good location near the Space Needle (just a couple blocks away. We ate lunch at a fancy steakhouse and had burgers called The Butcher’s Table. That was near Whole Foods so we got some snacks and ice cream was 30% off so we had some ice cream bars! We walked over to the Space Needle and the gift shop. We also walked to the glass museum, but our energy was draining so we didn’t do either. I’ve been in the glass museum before on a previous trip and it was really cool. 

Day two was our day to explore Seattle. Our first stop was a coffee shop called Fulcrum next door to Doce Donuts which was a fun doughnut shop that was Hispanic. The ladies in there smiled when the kids ordered and spoke to them in Spanish.

We finished our journey to Pikes Place Market to find the gum wall, Rachel the Pig, and the fish throwers. On one of my previous work trips to Seattle, I had picked up one of the Lindie Lou books in the gift shop at the Space Needle, and the kids enjoyed the series and it’s fun to learn about places the dog explores. One of her adventures was through Seattle.

It was such a beautiful day to explore and we got to explore the market before it got too crowded (one advantage of not being adjusted to the time zone yet is getting up early!). There are so many fresh flowers, fresh veggies, and fruits to eat and explore. The kids had some fresh apple cider that may have been way too pricey but yummy.

We went into Target for a few snacks, then headed to find some lunch. The family had pizza 🍕 and I grabbed a gluten-free take-out option from a Mediterranean place nearby that was amazing. I seriously could eat hummus, Greek chicken, and rice every day! 

We walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park and then continued up the coast on the trail. Then we wanted to find a Molly Moons (bc hey we like to find the best ice cream in town) and we took an Uber that seemed like straight up the hill. Bro and I ordered, then the rest were undecided and they told us about a flight of all the flavors that was only $15 for a Chipotle-sized bowl (see picture below), it was crazy how much ice cream was in there for that price. We could have all eaten from that.

Then a local told us about a park called Kerry Park that had the best view of Seattle. Man are we thankful we struck up a conversation with that couple because we totally would have missed the incredible view!

We walked back down (good calf workout! ) and stopped at the park behind the space needle and bro ran in the fountain it was hot! 🥵 And then he played on the playground 🛝 near the pop culture museum which was really fun. 

We ended the day with Sweetgreen again… so yummy! Such a fun and beautiful day in Seattle.

Family Life

Christmas Letter 2023

2023 what a year! Lots of amazing things and some not-so-fun things too. It was the year of the virus for me COVID, shingles, and a whole house outbreak of Hand, Foot, and Mouth. Shingles was the worst but thankfully using integrative medicine and cool technology was able to recover from that in about a month. It just made the month of July seem to disappear quick!  But onto the fun stuff! 

January started out with a performance by Sis in the Best Christmas Pageant Ever (postponed from December). And both kids participated in Upward Basketball. Dustin was an assistant coach for Lil Bro’s team. We had surprised the kids for Christmas with a Disney Cruise for January.

There was a “sale” and they had so much fun on the Disney Wish we won in 2022, that we thought they were at the perfect age, so we decided to do it again. We boarded the Disney Dream for their Marvel-themed cruise and it was perfect. It was sailing out of Miami and that was a blast. We stayed the night before the cruise and after the cruise in South Beach.

We loved the Miami vibe and almost felt transported to Barcelona in a way. The kids loved practicing their Spanish with the cab/Uber drivers. We stopped at Disney’s private island in the Bahamas and in Cozumel Mexico. I should probably dedicate a whole post to that trip soon! I probably got COVID on the trip home, but it was mild compared to the first time and we were all good to go for our next trip in early Feb to visit Dustin’s parents in Venice, FL. 

Bro lost his first teeth the first and second night we got to Florida. We enjoyed the warm weather and got some professional pictures on the beach as a family since when I take them it’s hard for me to be in them very much. And I did a fun sunrise photo shoot with the kids in downtown Venice one morning.

We ended the trip heading to Orlando. We spent an afternoon at Blizzard Beach, one of the water parks. It was in the 80’s and we had a waterpark ticket included with our pass! It was a first trip there for the kids. One of our neighbors and friends was going to Magic Kingdom the same day as us which was so fun to hang out with them here, and we also spent a day at Hollywood Studios with the Muir Family. It was so nice.

The kids had a blast and we got on all the rides we wanted. My sister Ashley, a Disney expert, also flew in to spend the two days with us there. We missed a Muir-Hartzler family vacation during the COVID shutdown so this was a sweet time together.. someday we’ll make it a bigger trip! 

March birthdays came and we celebrated the whole month like normal! And Princess K was also the lamb in Charlotte’s web at her school! She has some girls over for her bday, they have such a sweet friendship, and lil bro had a sports party at the rec center with all his friends.

Spring brought soccer for Bro and jump rope team for Sis. I made 2 trips to Orlando in May for the Institute of Functional Medicine and the A4M Spring Congress.  I also made a quick trip in May to visit my friend/colleague Lara in NYC. I hadn’t been since high school which was pre 9-11. I enjoyed visiting the city and getting the full New Yorker experience. We even saw New York, New York on Broadway which was fabulous! Someday I’ll make it back to be in the studio audience for Live with Kelly and Mark. Before we knew it it was the end of the school year, dance recital weekend, and our Puerto Rico Trip! You can read about it here in Part 1 and Part 2. 

We got back from Puerto Rico and were home for 3 days before we headed to Myrtle Beach with the Hall side of the family. It was fun to have everyone together and enjoy the warm weather! We did putt putt, bowling, and Sis even went to a show with Nana. I worked a bit virtually as I could! Self-employment doesn’t allow for a whole month off. 

The Duerr family actually came to Myrtle Beach on our last day to start their family vacation with their parents and we had ice cream with them the last night. We may have had ice cream a few too many nights at a place called Melt in North Myrtle. Highly recommend wipes, they aren’t kidding about the melt part!

We stopped on the way home to visit our friend Adam and our friends Todd and Katie in North Carolina. Adam is a friend of Dustin’s that he talks to daily! They connected years ago at a WordPress event. Todd is a friend from college, they have beautiful twins. 

July came, and we celebrated the 4th of July with Sis walking in the parade with her dance class and fireworks, we had a little dinner at our house too with sparklers! Sis modeled a new romper for a small clothing brand that was perfect for the holiday!

And then Sis started rehearsing for her first musical. She was in Moana at a local theatre. It required her to not miss practices since it was only 8 rehearsals to prepare!

Lil Bro and I made a quick trip to Green River Lake in Kentucky, where my brother-in-law Ryan’s parents have a houseboat.  Bro loved his first tubing experience with his cousins. The Moana performance was outstanding, we were thankful so many friends and family could join! 

Amidst the July fun is when shingles came on, maybe too much travel, maybe stress, maybe COVID triggered or all of the above, but it wasn’t fun. We did still spend a week later in July at the Muirs who live in the same neighborhood we rented a condo in when we lived in Columbus for a little over a year, and so the church we went to during our time there, so the kids joined her crew for VBS at Genoa. We had missed the VBS we normally attend while we were in PR, so it was perfect, the kids enjoyed hanging out together at the house too.

After that, I took the kids to the Hartzlers for a week, and I came home for a little stay-cation for a few days with Dustin. I also got to attend the Global Leadership Summit in the Chicago area with colleagues in the natural products industry. And even saw the Reds play the Cubs from across the way at the Wrigley Rooftops.

The rest of August was pool time, lemonade stands, and back to school, we also took the kids to their first MLB game with the Duerrs to see the Reds vs. the Guardians. Our little guy has become a sports fanatic so he may have been rooting for the away time. (Aka Dad’s team).

The boys also went to Cleveland later in the season for another game with Brian and Ashley. We can’t believe we have a 4th grader and a 1st grader. Sis is spending her time split between two schools again and bro is fully in the Spanish immersion school. Both schools are wonderful and they have wonderful friends. Dustin also traveled to WordCamp US, this year in Washington DC and we visited the Newport Aquarium while he was gone.

September I had a team retreat and conference in Nashville, so that was a blast! Soccer and dance were in full swing as well. This year there weren’t the traditional soccer games but Bro is still enjoying the training and scrimmages that they did have. He’s getting a lot better and scoring goals all the time. We also celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with their school by walking in the Hispanic Heritage Parade downtown. 

In October we surprised them with a quick trip to Mexico! Thank you Marriott Bonvoy points and Delta miles! This may have been an impulse booking when I was dealing with my summer virus aka it was my reward ha! We had a blast, we all practiced our Spanish (kids better than us) and checked out a new resort that had amazing food, a water park, and perfect weather. The kids said the kids club was better even than a Disney cruise. Sunshine, pool, beach, and guac and chips, and I’m happy. 🙂 We even got to see the solar eclipse.

When we returned to Ohio, we dressed up as an OSU football theme for trunk or treat! We also had a baby shower for my sister Ashley to celebrate her first baby!

November and December blew by… November highlights = work, hand foot and mouth, thanksgiving, hands peeling off, and a NEW NEPHEW! My little sister Ashley had her first little one on the 27th. 

In December Lil bro won tickets to his first NFL game! He and Dustin got to see the Bengals take on the Colts at Paycor Stadium. Basketball started again and this year Dustin is coaching the 1st grade boys, who are doing pretty well! Bro has good hustle and really enjoys it!  Sis is finishing up tumbling classes and still dancing.  She also is playing basketball on a team of girls from her school.

I took a quick trip to Las Vegas for an integrative and functional medicine meeting and they surprised me with shiplap and new mirrors in our master bath! Something we thought we’d do 5 years ago when we moved in! 

So all in all 2023 was a great year with a few hiccups related to the immune system ha, but good thing I know a thing or two about supporting that! We went to Mexico twice! (It was a cruise stop too), Bahamas (on the cruise), Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Carolinas as a family. Dustin even made it to Spain and Costa Rica on work trips! He is still working for Automattic and I am self-employed, I own PharmToTable, LLC which runs PharmToTable.Life and FxMedCE.com, and launching a new clinic/business next year with my mentor and business partner at ProferoTeam.

Stay tuned for a new website at IntegrativeMetabolicCenter.com, we are starting an integrative endocrine practice right here in Centerville. We will manage diabetes both type 1 and type 2 as well as help with weight loss, hormone imbalances, and thyroid conditions all from a food-first and root cause approach. We do this currently on our virtual team, but bringing an in-person option and adding in the diabetes technology is going to be fun! 

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are so thankful for our friends, family, and community we have across the country and thankful that God has put each of you on our journey! I marvel at the Lord’s handiwork in our community and the people we get to do life with. May the Lord’s peace be in your hearts this Christmas as we celebrate our Savior’s birth! 

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Part 2

After spending 3 nights in San Juan we packed up to head to the east side of the island.  We wanted to try out some local coffee so we first stopped at 787 coffee , it was so good and the vibe was fun! Their iced coffee came in a bag. We were heading to Palmas Del Mar and decided to do a Walmart pick up order in Humacao. This was maybe the best decision of the whole trip because it was MADNESS! Our friends that live in Palmas said that Walmart there is always crazy but we had no idea. Just think your Costco or Walmart at home when a snow storm is coming or the Saturday before Thanksgiving.. apparently that’s the norm! I did go in for some apples because they substituted Gala apples and who eats those LOL. I risked it for some Fuiji and survived ha!

 

We got to our condo in Palmas, it was very nice, we had a view of the golf course from the master/balcony and the upstairs rooms could see the ocean from across the street. It had a master bedroom downstairs, and then 2 bedroom upstairs. The only issue was the air conditioning was broken in the kids room but it was running a bit and they did ok. Thankfully they did compensate us a bit on the rate for the inconvenience. It had everything we needed, laundry, beach chairs, pool tools, etc. The only thing was that the pool had very specific rules and when we got there an attendant read us our rights! Apparently if there got to be a certain number of people we were only allowed 2 chairs and so many people in the pool, it was sort of comical because hardly anyone was there. Beach is nice but has lots of Sargassm covering it so not really useable. The kids enjoyed the pool even though the water was very very warm and almost wasn’t refreshing but again it was a heat wave. We made a pasta dinner in the condo and the kids enjoyed planning video games. 

The next day (Day 5 if you are keeping track) we explored Las Palmas a bit! Glen tried to get coffee walking to a restaurant and shopping area, but the restaurant changed names and was confusing but we found lattes at the hotel. If you are an AirBNB/VRBO host, the best thing you should do this year is get a Nespresso and milk frother instead of a Keurig ha! Your guests will appreciate you. 🙂

Dustin went back to Walmart and had go in for exchanges but it wasn’t as crazy. After he got back we checked out the little trail through the Pterocarpus Forest area. Then we went to a farrmers market they were having, it didn’t have a lot of produce but more craft vendors.  The girls got some homemade jewelry. Dustin and I got some Guava Sangria (it was super yummy!). The kids had been watching some different kids YouTube videos, so they spent some time inside making their own “YouTube videos” One of the twins is so excited for Dustin to make a video with our footage and make her a YouTube star! 

We enjoyed some outdoor time at the beach across the street but since the beach had lots of Sargassm, we didn’t expect to stay long but the kids lasted longer than expected digging a tunnel through it. Of course a few days later I saw in some places people were getting sick from it in other places.. whoops parenting fail! 

We went to the pool again, this time the guy with the rules wasn’t there, ha! After swimming we made tacos for dinner in the condo. Overall Las Palmas was very nice, but tennis and other things in the resort community were very expensive especially with 9 people. 🙂

After dinner, maybe the highlight of the trip for the kids was we got to visit with a friend of Dustin’s named John who runs is an entrepreneur and podcaster that Dustin connected with in his Podcast Movement days.  Their home was stunning and the backyard was a dream.  Jon and Kate’s dog Gus was even very excited to hang with the kids! Later we asked the kids their favorite thing so far and they all said John’s house! We finished the day with ice cream in the room with chocolate chips. Glad our friends love ice cream as much as us! #vacationmode  (and yes I coordinated their swim suits #photogmomlife) The sunset was also on fire!

On day 6, we set out for a tour of the coffee plantation at at Hacienda Munez but I took the address from their website, which was not their physical address and it took us up a BIG BIG hill and we had to turn around and come back down. It was basically like the trek from Black River to Ginger Hill in Jamaica but maybe some more houses. (IYKYK) We did find the coffee plantation but missed the tour but had some yummy coffee and treats. 

Then we tried to go to Seven Seas Beach near Farjardo, but there was a traffic jam and a million people at the beach so we grabbed our peanut butter sandwiches from the trunk and passed them to the car in the back and headed back to Luquillo which still had some parking. But as mentioned in Part 1, it was drastically different than the vibe from Thursday. There had to have been over 1,000 people there, there were two charter buses when we got there plus a full parking lot. We made the best of it and still enjoyed some sun, calm waters and found some shade under a palm tree. 

We found El coqui for Kellen, at the row of stores, one store was called Coqui Souvenirs. This is a frog native to Puerto Rico. The term “coqui” refers to the sound of the call produced by males to attract females and repel other males during mating season. After grabbing a few souvenirs, we headed back to our place at Palmas Del Mar. The crew raced against the clock to take some photos before sunset. We had pizza and put some really tired kiddos to bed. 

The next day, we headed back to San Juan so we were closer to the airport for our flights home. We spent our last night at the Residence Inn San Juan Isla Verde, which was relatively new and cute. It had a splash park in the pool area, games, and a nice pool. We could tell the kids were tired, they may have had some disagreements, but all in all they all did so well and we were so thankful all of us stayed healthy! Our last dinner we met our friends from college Kyle and Lori to catch up. Kyle teaches at the pharmacy school in San Juan. It was so great to see them, it’s amazing how when you spend 5 years with people in a community like college, you just pick up conversations like that was yesterday and not 14 years ago! 

This trip was a blast, we are all dreaming up the 2025 double family trip! Next summer we each have some fun plans, we are taking an Alaskan Cruise with my business and exploring the state of Washington a bit! And they are heading to England!

This trip would not have been possible this year without travel hacking.Here is the travel hacking breakdown for those that are interested! 

Marriott Points transferred to Frontier 195,000 Points + $88 in cash for taxes. (Total for 4 round trip tickets). This probably alone saved $1,000 based on the airfare prices we were seeing. Which is in line with the value of Marriott points. The schedules for Frontier are suboptimal and we did need to spend a night on the way there at MCO but one of our friends had an expiring free nights certificate we were able to use! Otherwise that would have been ~25K more Marriott points.

Embassy Suits by Hilton San Juan, 3 nights for 175,790 Hilton points

VRBO we shared cost $713 per family (I know not popular in the Chase rewards community, but we redeemed cash back to cover our portion, we had already taken a big trip in January so we needed this to be as much covered with points as possible) 

Residence Inn San Juan – Used 1 free night certificate for 1 room and the other room was 34K Marriott points. 

We did use some chase points that we had left to bring down the price of the rental car.  

So all in all our main out of pocket was the rest of the rental car/gas ~200 and food, and 2 checked bags on frontier. So I think we did it all for less than $1,000! 

If you need a referral to one of these great travel cards, you know where to find me. 🙂 

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico Part 1

We had the opportunity to travel with friends this summer to Puerto Rico!  Dustin and I had been to San Juan for a few days prior to a cruise with our friends Matt and Melissa back in 2012, which seems like forever ago! As you know we love exploring Hispanic culture and our kids are learning Spanish through Spanish immersion. We do our best to keep up by learning with Duolingo. I, Melody am definitely the worst since I took French in high school, yes Mom, I do regret it. 🙂 

This time we are exploring with our friends Glen and Rebecca and their 3 beautiful kiddos. It’s a funny story in our friendship, that they were friends with another couple we were friends with at ONU that went to church with them in the Akron area, and then when Glen came to work at Cedarville in 2011, we found them at new faculty orientation and the rest is history! The kids have not known life without them! 

We arrived in San Juan during a heat wave. San Juan is hot, but it was so hot the hotels were warning of the heat and it was basically like walking outside into a sauna, 98+ degrees. We got the shuttle to our rental car, which we ended up booking on Chase points (yay traveling hacking!). Then we headed to our hotel at the Embassy Suites San Juan Hotel and Casino. We were able to book all 3 nights on Hilton points.  It was a nice hotel that had a full breakfast included (even omelets), the pool area was super fun for the kids, but just a little hard for parents to keep a close eye on because of all the plants, waterfalls, etc. But we spent many nights following them around. These kids love to swim!

When we visited in 2012 we ate at a place called Metropol San Juan, so we headed there for an authentic Puerto Rican lunch. This was our first introduction to Mofongo Rellenos. Basically, mashed plantains stuffed with different types of meat. A little reminiscent of a Thanksgiving leftover mash ha! But very yummy for the tired travelers. We walked back to the hotel and swam at the pool the rest of the evening, and since we had a big lunch, we all enjoyed some ice cream bars  & protein bars from CVS in place of dinner.

Day 2 was our day to explore Old San Juan. I started with a coffee and while I grabbed a latte (despite the 98-degree temps), Dustin found a place to park, then the rest of the crew met Pedro who was insistent on taking us on a tour.

Pedro (and others) were impressed with our little guy’s Puerto Rican accent from his kindergarten teacher who is from PR. He told us stories about how he was related to all of these important people in PR, so we aren’t sure how true the tour was but it was entertaining. We stopped at a frozen ice place, where they basically sold juice (sugar water) frozen in cups but it didn’t take long for that to be a slushy. We saw El Capitolio de Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and some beautiful churches. 

We made it to the  Castillo San Felipe del Morro and we were all very hot, we decided not to go in but took some pictures on the outside. I had a presentation to do virtually back at the hotel, so we split up for a bit, and our crew headed back to the hotel and some AC for a bit and they grabbed a tapas lunch. 

On our way back to the parking garage, we grabbed a snack and fresh juice from  Pilao Bakery Cafe. After my presentation, we had lunch in the hotel restaurant which was actually very good. Our waiter told us about some beaches and restaurants we needed to check out. After lunch we all walked to the beach on Isla Verde (a couple blocks away) and the kids enjoyed jumping in the water. We ended the day with pizza and more pool time. 

On Day 3 we set out to explore some of the surrounding area. The Duerrs picked up their rental car, and we headed to El Yunge National Forest. We weren’t able to secure a reservation on the park reservation system that has been in place since COVID, but some of the trails are available without going past the main entrance.

We headed to a local favorite the Angelito Trail. It was a perfect spot. This short trail descends through Tabonuco trees in the lower montane forest to the federally designated “Wild and Scenic River,” the Río Mameyes. As you get closer, the river pulls you to Las Damas Pool and other favorite swimming spots. The kids and adults had a blast swimming in the water. There was a little bit of “fool’s gold” dusting in the soil and it was sparkly too. They played for a while and then we headed to the Luquillo beach area, starting with lunch at La Parilla Restaurant. This was a restaurant recommended to us by the waiter at the hotel restaurant. And it did not disappoint. I think this might have been the whole crew’s favorite meal of the trip. (my entree is pictured below)

After lunch, we spent the afternoon at Luqillio Beach which was beautiful. It was midweek and not crowded at all. (Note we did come back here on a Sunday and it was so crowded and loud it was an MTV party scene!) but the beauty of the quiet beach during the week should not be missed. It reminded me a bit of Kauai, with the crystal clear waters and El Yunge in the background.

Since we had a big lunch, we ended this part of our trip with ice cream for dinner again (you might see a theme here) but this was seriously the best gelato any of us have had in our lives at La Creme Heladeria. We tried to go back another day but it was closed on Monday and boy were we sad!

Uncategorized

Christmas Letter 2022

January 2022 was uneventful other than the fact it’s the month COVID finally got us! (Well me.. the rest of the crew was fine thankfully!) We did enjoy the Bengals run to the Super Bowl! Even Dustin our Brown’s fan rooted for them. The day my quarantine ended we headed right on schedule to Florida to visit Dustin’s parents in Venice. This year Dustin’s sister Ashley and her husband Brian overlapped with us a few days. It was fun, the kids haven’t been on any trips with them before and enjoyed being at the beach together. 

One day when the weather, wasn’t quite beach weather, ie it was 60-70 degrees, we headed over to Orlando for a day at Disney! We took them right before the pandemic started when Lil bro was still free, and this week was the first week that Disney removed masks, of course it was still required indoors the day we were there. We did a hopper pass and went to Magic Kingdom and Epcot and back to Magic Kingdom for the fireworks over the 50th anniversary castle! It was fun to be there for the anniversary, I had been there with my family for the 25th anniversary when I was little. On the way home I was “ad targeted” to a promotion for a Disney Cruise Giveaway on the Disney Wish. You just had to post a photo of who you would would ride the Aqua Duck with.. so of course I posted a photo of the 4 of us in front of the castle that day.. And at the end of February we got a message that we were potential winners! At first I was thinking, what does potential mean.. did we win or not! But they have to verify who you are and fill out forms. So we did win! We didn’t tell the kids right away until we knew more details. 

After getting home and a few days of work, I headed to Nashville for an integrative medicine conference with one of my colleagues. It’s funny she is a pharmacist in Montana that works with me and also has kids the same ages! Someday we’ll make it out there to visit her! We enjoyed some Live Nashville music along with our learning.

March came and it was my first year not employed by Cedarville, just serving as an Adjunct. Which was a nice change of pace to be able to lecture a few days alongside my practice, but also enjoy the Hartzler birthday month a little bit more! Sis had some girls over for her birthday and we celebrated them both with family later in the month. And celebrated Dad’s birthday with a date night (tacos of course). 

April is the month of conferences I feel like! I went to Ohio Pharmacist Association meeting for a day, spent a weekend in Dallas for a training, and got to go to Florida to speak. While in Dallas, I got to see 2 of my PharmToTable pharmacists, enjoyed spending time with them and eating yummy food, homemade curry and a Venezuelan restaurant! Then it was Easter and celebrating our nephew Jackson’s birthday! Lil bro also started soccer as a trial with one of the local clubs, they do a pre-academy just 1 hour of training per week to intro. Of course he loved it and ended up joining the team in the Fall. Spring keeps Sis dancing and preparing for her recital early June. 

Dustin and I were able to travel end of April to a functional/integrative medicine conference while his parents came to take care of the kids over a long weekend. The kids enjoy every minute with grandma and grandpa and hardly miss us. I enjoyed seeing some of my team at the conference and it was in Florida, so that’s always a great option when Spring in Ohio is still chilly. 

That brings us to May, best purchase ever.. we got a hot tub! It’s the mother’s day gift to myself for the next 10 years ha! (Dustin did the electrical and digging the trench to put it underground himself.. it was a lot of work!) But seriously I love it so much and spent a lot of evenings out there relaxing. It helps me feel like summer lasts forever too. Sis had her dance recital to kick off the summer. She did tap, ballet, and jazz during that school year. She enjoys it so much. This fall she added tumbling which means she’s constantly doing cartwheels and handstands around the house. 

Summer is my favorite season for sure! We enjoy trips to Kings Island, afternoons at the pool, swim team meets, strawberry picking, days at Grandma and Grandpa’s pool, vacation bible school, back yard smores, and cookouts with friends.

And this year we got to spend 3 nights on the Brand New Disney Wish! Sis wrote a bit about the trip

There was a kids club. When your dad or mom dropped you off at the top and you went down a slide 🛝. In the kids club bathrooms, each bathroom stall had a different Disney characters. They did not have Regular sinks they had fancy hand washers when you put your hands in the water swirled around. Each dinner 🍽️ had a theme there was and Arendalle Frozen experience, Marvel , and a 1923 dinner. Each dinner had a special Sundae I enjoyed. The food was so good we could not make it to dessert 🧁. We enjoyed the beach stop at the Disney private island, and enjoyed the Incredibles Inflatable obstacle course. Our room was on the stern (back of the ship) and we had a nice balcony. We also enjoyed the evening shows.

This summer was also bittersweet. I decided to transition out of the practice I had been in for the last 6 years. I was so grateful to my time there to grow as a provider and especially being able to serve patients with functional medicine in a collaborative practice model.  But as my business was growing, I really needed more flexibility. Dustin hadn’t traveled at all from Fall 2019 to this point for work, and had 3 trips lined up for fall. With our kids needing school transport, I needed to be able to do what I love, teaching other pharmacist and patients about functional medicine and serving patients while also being Mom.  So I transitioned to fully working for myself! I own PharmToTable, LLC and we also have a website called https://functionalmedicinece.com.  I also work closely with other business partners at Profero Team to build out other clinical pharmacy services.  I currently oversee our clinical practices and we do insulin pump trainings for two of the pump companies. In August I also started practicing one day a week at Elite Medicine with a physician I had worked with previously. While doing a lot of different things may seem sort of crazy, it works for us because it’s flexible. I still get to do what I love and have always done, and I get to take kids to school and pick them up throughout the week. Trying to savor these years when they are little as best I can while also still growing professionally and helping others grow their practices too. 

Soon after my last day, Dustin and headed to Hawaii, I put that in a quick separate post here!

We flew home and Lil Bro had learned to ride a bike with Aunt Ashley Gasser! The next day we attended Dustin’s 20 year high school reunion. We headed back to Dayton to enjoy our last month of summer! We enjoyed time with friends, and I got to attend the global leadership summit in Chicago with colleagues. We fit in a few more trips to Kings Island and Dustin and I got to enjoy a Reds Game with the Profero Team. Then somehow it was back to school! And we had a kindergartener and a 3rd grader. How did that happen? Lil Bro is in Spanish immersion 5 days a week, with an English class once a week. And Sis is going to the Spanish immersion for homeschool/3rd grade 2 days a week and a home school hybrid school 3 days a week. She has one day of electives there and is loving art and drama class! 

Bro started club soccer (I know we might be crazy) but we decided if he’s going to do it, let’s do something with structure and good foundational skills to start. He’s come such a long way in the 5 months he’s been playing it’s amazing to watch. I’m excited for spring season! Soccer Mom life is fun! I tend to yell a lot even though Dustin tells me they can’t hear me. 🙂 

In September I hosted a continuing education conference in Nashville, TN and held a retreat for my team there the 2 days prior which was a blast! It was so good to see them in person and hug them, laugh, enjoy good food together, and set goals! We ended the trip with a night at the Grand Ole Opry, which I just felt like Papa and Grandma were there with me enjoying it or at least smiling from Heaven. 

Dustin actually went on his first business trip in September since 2019 he was excited for a work trip and seeing all his WordPress people in person. This fall I also did some photography which is a bit of side gig/extension of the business and in the fall I do some outdoor family sessions and Christmas Mini sessions. Our schedule didn’t match up with our normal photographers, so one of my new neighbors does photography too, so we were able to swap sessions this year which was fun! 

In October we did all the fall things. Apple Picking, Harvest fests, Trunk or Treat, and a visit to Lexington to celebrate Aunt Ashley Hornback’s birthday. My dad also had a big birthday this year and we celebrated at his favorite restaurant in Cincinnati, Montgomery Inn. Dustin headed off to Denver for a meet-up with his team at the end of the month.

November we had our last FxMedCE Virtual conference of the year, celebrated Thanksgiving early with the Hartzler side, and then enjoyed a long weekend in Tennessee again on Thanksgiving thanks to my mom and her timeshare deals! We explored the Smokey Mountain National Park, saw bears, a waterfall, and a snake! I haven’t done anything with pictures from my big girl camera but here are some fun shots from my phone. The kids also loved the resort we stayed in, it had an indoor water park and ice skating outside. It was nice to be outside and enjoyed some time away for the holiday. 

And now we are here in December, it hasn’t been all rosy, some ups and downs with sickness in the house, and some scary events but all in all we enjoyed celebrating my birthday with the kids and friends at Table 33 and Dustin and I enjoyed Sueno on our first date night since Hawaii.  I’m pretty sure I could eat there every day for the rest of my life. It would get a tad expensive though! Sis wanted to add we ate a Chipotle on my actual birthday and they were out of everything ha! (You can see a theme here, we basically should move to Mexico). We also celebrated our nephew turning 6 the following weekend where the kids got their first chance to try rock climbing! 

We are slowing down a bit this week, the kids had 3 days of school this week, and our dancer had a Christmas Show on Wednesday. Most of our presents are wrapped or shipped, and we are counting our blessings. We are thankful for the year of growth and opportunities, and thankful for all the people that build into our kiddos. It’s truly a village that we couldn’t do this without. 

As we move forward into the new year, we pray that each of you would know the love of Jesus, and that your year would be full of lasting memories and your family would thrive!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14
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Maui, Hawaii 2022

We did some new adventures and also hit some spots we had gone to in 2011 on our last trip there. We stayed at the Westin Maui Resort & Spa Ka’anapali and we had the best Ocean view room! We had breakfast included every morning so we worked out (enjoyed having a peloton bike!) and ate an Acai bowl on the balcony each morning. We explored upcountry one of our first days, enjoyed the view from a lavender farm, stopped in Makewo and checked out the Komodo Store and bakery (it was good but not as good we remembered!) what was better was the Maui Cookie Lady which a local let us know about!   We also checked out the pineapple wine at Maui Wine.  We had dinner twice at a restaurant we could walk to called Monkey Pod Kitchen, it was so good!  

Another day we hiked a costal trail Nakalele Point, Blowhole & “Acid War Zone” which was beautiful! Another family got there at the same time as us so we enjoyed their company and told them about the Gazebo restaurant to hit up for macadamia nut pancakes on the way back. They also had an extra reservation for sunrise at Haleakala. We hadn’t planned to do that again partially because we weren’t planning ahead on reservations, but then we had one ,so we went and the sunrise was amazing! The last time we were there we biked down but the sunrise was super cloudy, this time it was perfect! Somewhat chilly but worth it! 

We did make it to Wailea area and went to Makena Beach. It’s such a beautiful beach but lots of rough waves! We thought about the road to Hana again but since I had been twice and Dustin had done it last time, we decided to spend our last day relaxing at the hotel. Maybe we’ll take the kids on it someday!