Tomorrow marks one week since we welcomed 2026. Looking back at 2025, I realized now that it’s been a great year, even though, the year was full of ups and downs. For the most part, the year was good and filled with memorable highlights.

Travel

Let’s take a look at the travel highlights of 2025.

Taiwan/Japan – March 2025

I enjoyed the trip very much, although I could do without my mom ordering me around, “Take a shower,” “Go to sleep,” and “eat now.” I don’t think I’ll go to Asia again anytime soon, those long plane ride caused a lot of pain in my knees.

Four Corners – June 2025

That was my second time to the Four Corners and I’ll have to admit that it’s not as fun as the first time in 2023. I think it’s because we tend to lose that feeling of surprise when we visit a place multiple times, like we already know what to expect. Have you ever experienced this phenomenon?

What I enjoyed on that trip were the places I’ve never been and the driving experience. There’s nothing like maneuvering those twisty winding mountain roads.

Crater of the Moon National Monument and Nature Preserve – August 2025

Between the garden babysitting and garden harvesting, two road trips were squeezed in August – one at the beginning and one at the end. Both were to the same location – Crater of the Moon National Monument and Nature Preserve in Idaho. It’s not a big place. The reason we had to go again was because my mom wanted to take her sisters and when we went there the first time, I wore the wrong shoes for hiking.

This was a volcano from over 2000 years ago and when you first see it, it’s really quite surreal.

Scenic Backways of Northern Utah – September 2025

I’ve always wanted to take my birthday off from work and do something special for myself. In 2025, I finally got the chance and went to see autumn colors. Honestly, I needed the time away as no one in the family would let me have alone time and it felt nice having the day to myself.

Grand Canyon/Kanab, Utah – November 2025

If I have to rate my road trips, this trip would probably be in the top 5. It was just me and my aunt. She was more like a silent travel companion than an annoying family member that decided to tag along. She let me listen to my music and podcast in the car, unlike my mom who would try to talk over whatever that’s playing. She was open-minded and willing to try local restaurants.

For the trip, we took a plane tour over the Grand Canyon before taking an ATV tour in Kanab, Utah. Both have been on my bucket list for a long time but always thought it was too expensive and had no one to do the activity with. Honestly, if I have a chance, I would do it again.

Garden

Of course, I can’t forget about the garden. It’s the biggest highlight of 2025 and it’s still going. Here’s a list of gardening highlights of 2025:

Front yard transformation from early February to late November, 2025. I love how full it is in 2025 and hope it will be fuller in 2026.

The harvest in 2025 was insane. I was pulling 10-15 cucumbers per week in 2025 and when it was time to harvest the sweet potatoes, I was digging up humongous sweet potatoes. The only disappointing yields in 2025 are probably the beans, tomatoes, and potatoes. I will try again in 2026.

I can never forget the flowers that kept the bees coming.

Honorable Mention

I will close with an honorable-mention. I upgraded my 3-year-old laptop in 2025 on my own. The only professional advice I sought was from my work’s IT department, to make sure I used the right cloning program. Basically, I removed the old-style 1 TB hard disk as well replaced the battery with a larger battery, which would occupy the space of the hard disk. Then I cloned the 256 GB Solid-State Drive (SSD) that came with the laptop onto a 2 TB SSD and installed that 2 TB SSD into the laptop.

It’s now been about 3 months and I haven’t encountered any problems. The laptop’s running just as it was before with a much bigger storage space.

For SundayStills