My Top 10 Moments of 2025

Wow, the end of the year is here. I closed my eyes, and before I knew it, 2025 was over and it was off to the races for 2026! If you’ve been around for a while, you know that at the end of every year, I publish my top moments of the year, both for you all to read and also for myself to look back on one day. It’s one of my very favorite traditions, and I love putting this list together every year!

Life was truly WILD this year. I went on countless flights, traversed more miles of the world than I ever had before, spent moments with my loved ones, and had some incredible life-and-business-defining moments. It’s so easy to look at a list like this and think that everything might have felt magical this year. But, as usually happens, there is life between these moments…. while this year was wonderful, there was also stress and anxiety and tears!

I always like to be honest about both sides, and one thing I need to be honest about is how hard I am on myself! So, let’s talk about that, I’ll detail my top moments, and at the end I will tell you what word I am going to use to define my 2026.

How Did We Get Here?

There is inevitably a moment about halfway through every year that I panic. Life slows down a bit in May or June, and when I finally have that moment to breathe, I start to get inside my own head. Every year, I pull out my goal sheet and realize how many goals I’m not even CLOSE to hitting, and I think “the year is already halfway gone, and I feel like I haven’t achieved anything yet.”

I get stressed; I feel like I’m running out of time. Then, quickly and quietly, the end of the year arrives. And six months later when I sit down to look at that same yearly goal sheet again, the reality finally hits me. 

How much can change in a year.

How much we can accomplish and how many experiences we can squeeze in. 

How everything can feel like it’s staying the same, when it’s really been transforming before your eyes. 

This year exemplifies this phenomenon more than any other year has. Coming off of the worst year of my life in 2024, the year of business strife and a Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis, I had low expectations but high hopes for 2025. 

I knew that I wanted to live life as fully as possible this year, but what would actually BE possible? Would my legs start working well enough that I would be able to walk and hike and explore? Would my business allow me the financial means to see the world and chase my dreams? Would I finally understand the importance of rest – of my goal of being SOFT – or would I spend the year stressed and overwhelmed by everything I wanted to achieve? 

I was supremely intentional about how I wanted this year to go, but at the end of the day, a lot of it was outside of my control. As it turns out, even when things are outside of your control, they can still turn out amazing. 

In contrast to 2024 being the worst year of my life, 2025 was maybe one of the best. 

At the time, it just felt like living life. A cool opportunity here, a business win there, sweet moments at home sprinkled in the middle… But when I take a step back, zoom out, and look at what 2025 consisted of, I am AMAZED at how much life I was able to squeeze into a single year! And how I was able to do it with more rest and joy than I have had in a very long time. 

So, without further ado, here are my Top 10 Moments of 2025 in chronological order, along with some honorable mentions at the end 🙂 

10. Getting Feeling Back in My Legs!!

I had ended 2024 with a huge dose of steroids to try and stave off permanent damage from my MS symptoms, but while the medicine took effect instantly, I wasn’t completely back to normal. My legs weren’t numb anymore, but instead I was left with this strange vibrating sensation that ran through my feet, legs and pelvis. The only thing I can compare it to is exemplified by this story: 

Within the first few weeks of 2025, I was walking through the Charlotte Airport and grabbed my backpack off of the TSA conveyor belt. I put the backpack on and started walking, and instantly, a wave of panic rushed over me. Holy shit, my symptoms were progressing! That vibrating sensation that I felt in my legs and butt all the time? Yeah, now that exact same thing was happening in my back, too. It took me about a minute of overwhelming anxiety before I took off my backpack to assess the situation and…. Just like that, the phenomenon stopped! 

Confused, I reached down and opened up my backpack. The previous Christmas, my Aunt Jeanie had gotten Matt and I a vibrating neck pillow for airplanes, and I had it in my bag. 

During the TSA inspection, the button had gotten pressed, and the pillow had been vibrating inside my backpack! I turned it off, relief washing over me that my symptoms hadn’t progressed and that I had just been feeling the pillow’s vibrations through some layers of fabric. But after that, I made everyone I know carry that vibrating pillow in a backpack so that they could understand what I meant when I said I was “vibrating” all the time. 

As the year went on, the vibrations got weaker and weaker. By the middle of the year, they were only showing up when I was either 1. Super tired 2. Very hungry 3. Warm from either working out or hot weather. It was all very manageable, and I was feeling more and more grateful every day that I realized I wasn’t experiencing the vibrations as much as I had before. It just kept getting better! 

While writing this in January of 2026, my vibrations have continued to improve, and now all THREE of those elements have to be present before I notice my symptoms at all (which really only happens after power walking to an airport gate for a 6 am flight). I will never know if/when a new lesion is going to hit, which definitely still makes me nervous sometimes. But I feel so very grateful that at least in this first battle with MS, everything has turned out alright. 

9. Staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World

Our year started out with a bang as we headed off on a family vacation to Disney World. My parents have a Disney Vacation Club timeshare, and they have taken our family to Disney a lot as a big group with aunts/uncles/cousins/etc, but we haven’t ever gone with just the 5 of us! 

It was a more relaxed Disney Vacation than we have ever done, and it was so enjoyable. We stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which had safari animals roaming the grounds at all times, including HUGE giraffes! The lodge was gorgeous and the restaurants there were amazing! 

We did a mini golfing day, saw Moana 2 in theaters, visited two parks (Epcot and Hollywood Studios), and even went to Gatorland, which was an unexpectedly fun day. The best part about it was that we left the trip with so many new family inside jokes and memories. I will cherish them forever.

8. Rascal Flatts Concert with Karli and Alli 

I met two of my very best friends, Karli and Alli, through blogging, and we have been so lucky to see each other twice every year since! 2025 was the first year that we didn’t have a blogging event that we were all going to be at, so we decided to create our own meet up. We all traveled out to Savannah, Georgia for a weekend for the Rascal Flatts concert! 

I have seen Rascal Flatts in concert probably 5 or 6 times by now, and even had tickets to their farewell tour before it got cancelled by Covid. So, I was overjoyed to hear that they were going back on tour, and even more excited that the three of us were going together. 

We did a dessert tour (perfection), curled our hair into the tiniest little curls, and walked around and explored in the gorgeous Georgia sunshine. We also spent lots of time curled up in our Airbnb, chatting for hours and hours on end. We never run out of things to talk about! 

The best part of the weekend, by far, was when Rascal Flatts played God Bless the Broken Road, and we all hugged each other and screamed-sang it the whole time 🥹 Friendships like these are just so special.

7. Using my Spanish Skills to Make a New Friend in Guatemala! 

I got a minor in Spanish from Michigan State University in 2018, but if my travels were any indication over the last few years, you would have a really hard time knowing. I can read Spanish semi-easily, but hearing words and forming sentences on the fly were skills that I never developed. Every year I say that THIS is the year I get better at Spanish, but each year has passed me by without any improvement (and actually probably getting worse from lack of practice haha). 

On Christmas Eve of 2024, I decided 2025 would actually be the year. I signed up to attend Spanish Acquisition School at Lake Atitlan Spanish School in Guatemala! In March, I flew out to Guatemala City and then took a 4 hour cab ride to Lake Atitlan, where I stayed at a homestay for 3 weeks. Each day, I attended 5 hours of private classes, where my teacher Lola taught me grammar and then had conversational practice. 

I lived my life for 3 weeks entirely in Spanish, including exploring, dinner conversation, excursions, and more. While in Guatemala, I also visited Antigua, took some cooking classes, hiked a mountain or two, and went on a sunrise paddleboard on the lake. It was an incredibly beautiful time, and I felt more like myself than I had in YEARS. Immersing myself in culture, cooking, meeting new people, attending school and learning something new, seeing the beauty of the world? It felt magical, and I still can’t believe I got to experience it. 

One day, I went out on a little solo adventure to a nearby pueblo for the day, and had to sit in a boat on my way home. The boat wouldn’t leave the dock until it had enough people on board, and it was taking quite a while. In the waiting period, I started chatting with a local teacher who was about my age and on her way home from work! We talked in Spanish for almost an hour and got along so well. It was so fun to see how far my Spanish had come in just 3 weeks, considering that I didn’t speak English in that conversation once! 

She drove me home on her motor scooter and we made plans to hang out again a few days later. We met up and went swimming, got ice cream, and talked for hours. Then she drove me home again on her bike, stopping along the way in her village and on her favorite beach! 

When I think back on it, this experience is one of my very favorites of the year. I forced myself to do something I had been saying I always wanted to do (learn Spanish), and put myself in a situation to make it happen. I improved a noticeable amount, and then was able to use my new knowledge to connect with a new, kind, and interesting person in a different part of the world. I am very grateful to have met Greys and to have become her friend! 

6. First Group Trip…. To Morocco!! 

In May, I co-hosted a group trip to Africa with another blogger. To travel with readers of the blog has always been a massive dream of mine. So big, in fact, that I doubted it would ever come true. In 2024, we launched the idea of a group trip to Morocco, and ended up having a group of 15 travelers! This experience was beyond what I could have ever dreamed of for myself or the blog. 

We had friends, family members, longtime readers, and strangers all sign up, and together we journeyed to Morocco (my personal first time in Africa!). We had an amazing leader on our trip, Mustapha, who taught us so much about Moroccan culture and also made us laugh hysterically in the process. 

Some major highlights for me were: 

1. Learning about wedding customs in Morocco by visiting a local family who made us a traditional wedding meal and dressed our travelers up in their wedding outfits
2. Four wheeling through the Sahara Desert at sunset (one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life!) 
3. Enjoying tea and a snack in the tent of a local nomadic family.
4. Seeing how much our travelers LOVED the hotels that we stayed in, especially the castle on the side of the mountain 

It was the best feeling in the world to go on this trip with two of my best friends, my mom, my husband, and ALSO to have it as an opportunity to make new friends from people that have been reading the blog for ages. Seeing the joy on everyone’s faces and hearing them describe this as the best trip or even some of the best DAYS of their lives, brought me more joy than I thought possible. I already can’t wait for our group trip in 2026…. We’re going to PERU!! 

5. Catching Fish/Seeing Whales in Alaska

My brother moved to Alaska in 2022, and I went out to visit for a week in 2023. At the time, Matt didn’t come with me because it was the year we were getting married and budgets/his time-off schedule were tight. But this year, my brother got a job that would move him away from Alaska, and Matt and I knew it was now or never to visit him together! 

We were in Michigan for Cottage Summer, so we caught a plane from Detroit to Alaska for a 5 day vacation. My brother and his girlfriend had a backpacking trip that they wanted to go on, so they started collecting supplies from his friends, and set out to give Matt his very first backpacking experience! We hiked 7 miles into the beautiful Alaska mountains, set up camp at a gorgeous lake, and hiked out the 7 miles the next day. 

While at the lake, Brandon tried to teach me how to fly fish (it didn’t go well), and then we did some normal fishing. Matt caught a ton of fish and I caught one too!! Brandon and Alexis did a great job making sure that we had an incredible first backpacking experience. So good, in fact, that maybe together we will be able to convince Matt to do another one one day 😏

A few days later, Brandon was at work, so Matt and I headed out for a day at Kenai Fjords National Park (you might remember this from my 2023 Top Moments List). When my mom, Brandon and I visited Kenai Fjords a few years ago, I thought we had the best boat tour day known to man. While that day certainly was incredible, this day topped it by a mile!! 

We saw sea otters, seals, puffins, bald eagles, and some awesome glaciers. But the best part of the trip? THE WHALES!!!!! First, we came upon a group of humpback whales bubblenet feeding, which meant that every 3-4 minutes, we would see at least 10 whale noses jut out of the water. Every single time they came up, I would tear up (even after I had told myself I had gotten it out of my system!).

It never failed to surprise and delight me, and every time they made an appearance, I was again hit with the knowledge that I was experiencing something that very few people will ever see in their lifetime. After we moved on from the humpback whales, we then found a pod of orcas called the Kenai Killers!! Talk about luck. 

Our five days in Alaska were a whirlwind of hiking, working, packing Brandon to move, exploring, and laughing, and I am so grateful we got the chance to squeeze in this visit!! I will always cherish the memories of this trip. 

4. Meeting the Tiny Humans in Our Lives 

A few years ago, Matt and I entered our Year of Weddings. For a few years, we attended 8-9 weddings every year, watching our favorite people marry the loves of their lives. And now, a new era has begun…. The baby era! 

This year we got to watch some of our best friends become parents for the very first time!! Talk about a strange phenomenon, watching the people you were stupid teenagers with become responsible for entire human lives. Our friends have fit their roles perfectly, and Matt and I are so inspired by seeing how their lives have blossomed and their hearts have grown with the addition of these new perfect little people. 

It has shown us the beauty of that future chapter of life, and made us so excited for all of the joy we know is to come. Seeing our friends so happy has brought us so much joy. We were also honored to find out that Matt is a godfather and I am a Titi!! We love these little kids and can’t wait to watch them grow into the wonderful people we know they will be 🙂 

3. Exploring San Francisco with My Family 

We have a branch of the family that has always lived in California, so when one of my Cali cousins got married this year, we finally had the perfect excuse to go as a family to San Francisco! My aunts, uncles and cousins all jetted off to meet up for an awesome weekend. 

As the resident “traveler” of the family, I planned some group activities for us all to explore together. First we all went to Muir Woods together to see the gorgeous Redwood Trees, and then stopped at Sausalito! The next day, even more of us met up to go to Alcatraz. This was at least my fourth time in San Francisco, and I had always wanted to see Alcatraz, so I was very excited to finally have that opportunity! 

Geo and Bella’s wedding was gorgeous and they did such a good job giving us all the chance to enjoy it together. As is always the case with my family, we left with lots of funny new jokes and memories. Not many extended families get the opportunity to travel together as much as mine does, and I really feel like it brings us closer.

And, as always, my favorite part of the entire trip weren’t even the tourist stops, but instead the moments that we sat around in our hotel room, giggling until 1:00 in the morning. Life is good 🙂 

2. Hosting the Blogging Elevated Business Retreat 

For the last few years I have attended my friend Karli’s retreat in Utah, the Blogging Elevated Elite Business Retreat! Last year, she decided that 2024 would be the last year hosting, and I offered to take it over. 

I knew that Karli had worked hard on the retreat, but it wasn’t until I was in the thick of planning that I realized just how much work went into planning a 5 day event for 25 people!! Between pampering, food, swag bags, housing, educational opportunities, sponsors, and more, it sure did take a huge chunk of my time to plan this event. 

I was so nervous, but when the weekend finally happened, I felt so at peace. Everything went incredibly, and the attendees were so happy with the weekend! They all made me feel great about the work I had put into it, which made the whole thing worth it. 

Mostly though, the best part was how special they made me feel on my birthday, which is always celebrated on the retreat weekend! I emerged from my relaxing massage to the kitchen being fully decorated, confetti being thrown, gifts, and everyone singing happy birthday. I used to be bummed that my birthday would always be spent away from home, but knowing that I will be with friends that care so much makes me now look forward to it ❤️

1. Being Gifted a Homemade Cloth from a Woman in Vietnam 

As the year was coming to a close, I had an epiphany. In the last few years, Vietnam had been moving higher and higher up my bucket list, with the Ha Giang Loop being the main reason for the attraction. I had always heard about how beautiful Vietnam was, and in October of this year, I decided that doing the Ha Giang Loop couldn’t wait any longer!

I impulsively bought a plane ticket and signed up for a 4 day Ha Giang Loop Tour with Ha Giang Adventure, and it was one of the very best things I did all year. After a 33 hour travel day and then a day exploring in Hanoi, I got picked up for the loop. Eventually I was paired with my driver for the next 4 days, Chiến, who made sure to keep me safe and teach me so much about Vietnamese life and culture. 

Each day we would drive from about 8 am – 4 or 5:00 pm, with stops every 30 or so minutes to see gorgeous views, eat delicious meals, and have immersive experiences into Vietnamese culture. Each night we would stay at a homestay, where the local family would cook us a meal and we would spend the evening chatting, eating, and playing games with the 7 riders and 7 drivers in our group. 

One of my favorite moments of the entire experience was on the second day, when we stopped at a weaving commune to learn about how Vietnamese women weave the hemp plant into clothing. I had a special and private moment with the leader of the commune, which led to my favorite moment of the trip! 

For the entire second half of our time at the shop, she held my hand, gave me hugs, and pulled me around the shop trying to show me her creations or trying to gift me her products. She pulled out a huge board that showed a photo of her mother, who lived to be 105 years old and was awarded a UNESCO award for significant contributions to Vietnamese culture for bringing hemp weaving to northern Vietnam! She even unwrapped her crystal award from UNESCO, and talked and talked in Vietnamese about her mother, which my driver helped to translate for me. 

As I was leaving the store, she went to hand me another gift, but I tried to refuse as I didn’t want to take more of her creations! Instead, she rolled it up and tucked it in the pocket of my sweatshirt, patted me on the cheek, and gave me a huge hug. Chiến later explained to me that it was a cloth made by her mother before she died, and that she wanted to give it to me as a special gift. I spent the rest of the day with a smile on my face, amazed at how much connection can be shared between two people without even speaking the same language. It was such a beautiful example of why I love travel so much, and it is a moment I will cherish forever! 

Honorable Mentions

10 moments just isn’t enough to capture all of the love, adventure, and joy that this year held. Here are some of my other top moments of the year that need to be remembered, too!

1. Aruba with the Drzazgowski side of the family, especially riding horses in Arikok National Park.
2. Seeing Isla pet a giraffe, cooking dinner with Stella, and packing for Guatemala with Erin when three of my favorite people came to visit us in Charlotte. And all of the giggles while doing puzzles, visiting the drive through zoo, and hearing Stella’s funny quotes during Sleeping Beauty.
3. Buying a car I love (annoyed I had to, but proud that I could).
4. Watching Matt win his very first 5K after setting his mind to training! 
5. Our marriage weekend in Beaufort, NC, especially our beach day! 
6. Staying with Aunt Sonya in California, riding her horses, doing a cooking class with her friends, and hiking in Pinnacles National Park!! 
7. Seeing my little cousin Olivia get engaged in Ft Myers AND being asked to be in her wedding next year!! We are so excited for Brandon to become an official Bianchini 😉
8. A visit from Nick and Emily, including laughing as they experienced virtual reality for the first time on our Oculus. 
9. Helping Matt’s best friend, Eric, surprise him by flying to North Carolina so that they could run their first half marathons together!! 

Thoughts on the Year

As I mentioned before, I spent a lot of time this year wondering if I was doing enough. But looking back on this list, I am so proud of what I was able to accomplish this year. I had the very best year in my business EVER, but, even more importantly, I lived so much life. I saw new places, formed special connections with new friends around the world, and made memories I will never forget. 

This year, I really, really struggled with comparison. Despite the fact that I was living my actual dream life, I still found myself comparing my business/my success to everyone around me. 

I must have a friendship “type”, because all of the people I surround myself with are absolutely crushing it in their fields. I am the braggiest friend ever, constantly hyping up my friends for all of their successes and am SO PROUD of them always!! But two things can exist at once, and sometimes I find myself wondering if I am doing enough.

Despite my blog being successful, does it have less readers than everyone else? Despite knowing that I am loved and valued as a friend and family member, are my relationships as strong as other people’s that I see online? Despite feeling very comfortable with our finances, am I making as good an income as everyone else? 

These thoughts are constant, and exhausting. And the worst part is that I know that I am living the life I have always dreamed of, with a blog I’m proud of, relationships I’m obsessed with, finances that have blessed our lives, and travel that my younger self would cry happy tears at the thought of. They’re not warranted thoughts, and yet I still feel them constantly (although I’m working on it in therapy hahahaha). 

My Word for 2026

This is why I have decided that my word for the year is confidence, and I mean this in every sense. I want to work on my confidence in a day-to-day sense. I want to not overthink everything I’ve ever said to someone. I want greater confidence in my decisions, knowing that I made a choice that I stand by. I want to have confidence in my convictions, and not be worried I offended someone by standing up for what I believe in. 

I also want confidence in a larger sense. I want a sense of peace and confidence in my business, knowing that even if it’s not the most successful in the world, it is still something to be proud of. I want confidence in myself and my abilities, and the courage to know that I can achieve big things!!! I want confidence to know that I am living my very best life, the life I have always dreamed of, and that can be true despite everyone else living their best lives too. 

I already know these things to be true, but I just need to work on getting that mean voice in my head to stop so that my confidence can shine through a little more. I’ll be turning 30 this year, and a 30 year old deserves to feel confident with her beautiful, gorgeous, spectacular life. So that is what I will be channeling this year. 

I can sense that 2026 is going to be a big year of change….. And I can’t wait to see what is different when I sit down to write my 2026 article one year from now! Let’s go, 2026! I can already tell you’re going to be beautiful.