This last year

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought I would post it on mine. I'll try to get Ryan to do it too but we'll see how that goes!

1. What was my greatest accomplishment?
Completing my first year of teaching in May

2. What do I regret the most?
Not having an organized move cuz I'm still paying for it now

3. What was I most thankful for?
My husband and family

4. What will I change for next year?
I have a few things I need to work on: organization, exercise, try harder to have joy in the journey, basic resolutions

5. When did I feel the most loved?
Whenever Ryan and I got to see each other after being apart for weeks at a time

6. What was the most exciting thing that happened?
Sadly I don't think I can say anything "exciting" happened to me this year, I'm still waiting . . .

7. What am I most looking forward to?
Changes that will hopefully come soon like moving again, a new job, taking more advantage of summers in Cali, and hopefully starting a family (still waiting on that one)

Hawaii!!!!!!!

Its set, we're going at the end of June for our friends' wedding and our first vacation since our honeymoon! By that time we'll have been married for almost 6 years so we're long overdue.
I'm soooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!

Kitty Massage

Zoey giving Misha a massage

Ryan's ride in the snow

Here's a more interesting post for any guys that might look at our blog! Ryan went on a ride with the LA weekend riders, a group of guys he met online through a website. They get together and go on dual sport rides, which is a bike that can do street and dirt. Ryan's bike is a 2001 Suzuki DRZ 400 (did I get it right?) and looks just like a dirt bike. The trails that they took were up in the mountains and some of them were covered in snow and ice! Being that we were in Idaho for several years Ryan handled it pretty well but snow is foreign to people in SoCal so not all of the guys felt the same about riding in it.

We really do have a life!!! Pics from Hensel Phelps Christmas Party and San Diego

Hensel Phelps Christmas Party at the Hilton Bayfront in San Diego, built by Hensel Phelps but not a project that Ryan was on. We got all dressed up, ate a fancy dinner, and gambled without spending any money! We spend the time with our friends Dave and Natalie, and I think we were the only people there not taking advantage of all the free alcohol, but we still had a blast!

The swanky Hilton Bayfront

Me and Natalie

Ryan and Dave

Daytime view from our room at the Hilton Bayfront, San Diego

Daytime view

Night view from our room

Japanese Garden, Balboa Park for the next few pics

A Zen Garden in the Japanese Garden, Balboa Park

Balboa Park
Apparently the most photographed lily pond, but there were no lilies :(

Balboa Park

This tree was huge and prehistoric looking

An old building called the Johnson House! Old Town

Old Town

Attempting a self portrait at the San Diego temple

So beautiful, I wish we would have had more time to see all the lights come on

Favorite New Place

This is just a rendering but it's pretty much exactly what it looks like

My favorite new place is San Diego and I hope and pray that Ryan's next project will take us there! We spent the weekend there because Ryan's company, Hensel Phelps, had their company Christmas party at the new San Diego Bayfront Hilton built by Hensel Phelps and it just opened a week ago, right on time for our party! Its a very swanky, modern place and I promise I'll post pics once I find the cord to connect the camera to the computer. We still are in somewhat of a mess from moving, and most likely we'll just have to do it all over again in about 6 months.

The party was a blast, so fun to get dressed up and go to a grown up event. Then we spent some time just driving around and seeing some local attractions. Its such a great place, I really didn't want to come home.

Okay, pics are coming in the next couple of days!

Crap

I decided to try to get with it and change our blog background, but now I lost all my widgets with my friends list, counter and music player. Ooops!!!!!!

New Toy

I love Black Friday and have frequented many stores over the years in search of fun, cheap stuff. This year we just didn't want to get up!!! Plus it was our first time in California for Thanksgiving in 6 years and we weren't sure how manageable it was going to be. Black Friday is pretty low key in Idaho, still lots of people and lines, but not madness.

Well we just bought one thing and I'm so excited, an all in one super nice printer/scanner/copier! I've been wanting to get started with a new hobby lately, and now I have one. There are boxes of pictures that Ryan and I both have, and I'm looking forward to saving them all digitally and then I can start digital scrapbooking from old pics and new ones. I also acquired Photoshop Elements a few months ago and now I can use it to enhance old pics, remove red eye, rotate, crop and tons of other stuff that I'll learn how to do eventually.

So here is the first pic that we scanned, just to give it a test run. I could stay up all night doing this, and I totally would if I didn't have to work (bleh!). In this picture Ryan and I were going to Winter Ball in 1997, our junior year in high school. We had already been "going out" for a little over a year at this point. I can't get over how different we look, especially Ryan!