Canoe purchase a highlight of 2011

So that was 2011.

As another year draws to a close we've spent the last few weeks here at the Daily trying to condense 12 months' worth of news, stories and pictures.

We have to choose the year's top stories and most memorable photos both for a section we publish here in the paper and for the annual Virginia Press Association newspaper contest.
Looking back through a year's worth of work, I've re-read stories I forgot I'd written, and in some cases, news I wish had never happened.

Soon enough, in our minds 2011 will be just another year gone by, with a brief list of its biggest moments to cling to -- and even it will most likely fade with time.
 
In our personal lives, it's the same. Thinking back on 2011, I'll remember it as the year of the canoe. My husband had always wanted one, and I finally relented when he found one at an L.L. Bean going-out-of-business sale. I'd sworn we'd never get our money's worth out of it, but, as usual, he proved me wrong.

We strapped the canoe atop my Ford Explorer and took it along with us in May on my son's first big camping adventure along the Greenbrier River in West Virginia.

Testing the waters by our campsite we discovered that both our son and our mutt handled canoe rides pretty well, and we leisurely enjoyed a trip just the two of us while our son waited with his grandparents downstream.

Foolishly, we tried to crowd in my dad and son for a second trip and tipped the boat over on the rocky bank. I believe it was my first bonafide heart attack (of many to come, I'm sure) since becoming a parent.

Throughout the rest of the summer, we spent many warm weekends paddling up and down the Potomac River to a favorite swimming hole we found. We'd bring along crackers and Gatorades for a snack while we were there. A time or two we made it back and loaded up the car just in time to miss a late-afternoon summer thunderstorm.
 
We took our second night ever away from our son on an overnight canoe trip, pitching a tent along the shoreline and fishing our way down the river the next morning to spots where the water was so shallow I thought I'd strangle my husband if we managed to ever make it to our destination.

My husband, a woodworker whose talent only increases with more practice, hand-crafted himself a paddle to take on the trip, and sure enough it broke clean in two about halfway through our ride.
 
We paddled in circles for what seemed like ages trying to retrieve the pieces.

He also made a little mini paddle for our son, who proudly toted it along on our canoe outings and used it as a shovel in his backyard sandbox.

My car has suffered more than one scrape -- and so has my dad -- as a result of getting the canoe on and off the top of it.

Maybe I should be making resolutions about now, or putting away my Christmas tree. There's something about knowing that Christmas is over and we have the whole winter to go with nothing more to celebrate that has me remembering warmer days, and already looking forward to summer 2012.

• Contact Jessica Wiant at jwiant@nvdaily.com