Late, Late, Late New Years Post

This may be my first post in a year without pictures... sorry for the boring facade. My camera is broken, and I can't get the pictures off of it from our last trip.

I just wanted to recap on this year and share some of our adventures with you.

This last year was my last year working. Zack has been asking me to stay home with Nick for some time, which I can appreciate. I am just a bit of a work-a-holic. I'm not sure why. I just love to work. I have always worked. All through high school, four years, and summers, at the Duty Free. Through college, all one year (hee hee) at the Malt Shoppe and BYU Catering and then, when we starting building our house I starting working at Mentoring of America selling Real Estate Coaching, and teaching at seminars, working on the website. Four years ago I starting working there. Met some amazing people, and learned a LOT!!! And In November of this year they moved their office to CA, and I was unemployed. It was a convenient time to become a stay-at-home Mom, so here I am.

So- In this post I would like to highlight the last years activities, a large part with that job, and other adventures with my family. :) A lot of firsts, and a lot of fun.

This last year, I was able to travel to 6 Buying Trip seminars to speak as a Tax Foreclosure expert. In the beginning part of the year, it was in CA twice. Then we went to Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York State twice. I have never traveled so much in one year. As a family, we were also able to travel to Washington to visit the family twice. Once in the summer, and once for Christmas. Through the summer, I went with Nick and Stephanie and Chelsea and Carson. We drove through Idaho to pick up Chelsea and Carson (my sister in law and nephew) and had a blast on the way there. Also- on the way home, we got to stop off in Spokane at Zack's Dad's ski resort, and he got us a room, and we played in the water park. It was an excellent week! At my folks place, we were able to go to the lake, visit a lot, go to arts an action... all the things I love to do when I am home in PA. Makes me really miss that place.

On our Christmas trip, my folks took Nick for a day, and Zack and I got to go to Victoria, thanks Mom! We also spend a week with Zack's Dad, and I learned to SKI!!! I love it, and can't wait for Nick to learn next year, and we can all go as a family.

In April last year, Zack and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Stephanie took Nick for the weekend, and Zack and I headed south. We camped at a water fall the first night, went shopping and golfing and headed to Vegas! My first time!!! We stayed at the castle hotel (forgot the name) and had the best time!!! We watched a piano duo that was hilarious, and had an all you can eat sea food buffet, and went on the roller coaster. It was the best anniversary trip! So... on the count, we have been to Nevada, California, Idaho, through Montana, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, and Canada. We were really lucky this year to see so many places!

Moving on from the spring, we had a really hot exciting summer. We went camping several times at our favorite place, Burriston pond. We did a lot of swimming and fishing. It was Nick's first time camping, and he did great! This last summer, Nick also turned 2! We had a big party at the Hill's house. Lots of family came, and even my fav girl friends from high school, which really meant a lot to me. Thanks Steph, Katherine and Christy! Zack also turned 26, I think, hahaha, and for his birthday he got to go flying over Utah Lake strapped to Dell Schanze! (Google Utah State, and his name, he is famous here.) I really surprised him with this gift, and he absolutely loved it! :) I did good on that one.

After the summer, I had my birthday, and Zack got me a sewing machine. Much needed, I used my other one into the ground. And, that is what I have been up to all year with my spare time, sewing! I have made a lot of things this year. It's hard to always take pictures of it all before I give it away, especially with my camera broken... My largest project this year was by far my Mom's 60th birthday quilt. My sister, and sister in laws and I made it for her for her birthday/ christmas. We all did a corner, and then I took a large part of the year assembling it, and making it cohesive. It has pictures all over it. I'm not too modest about it, it is pretty amazing. I'll try to post some pictures, or you can go to her house and see it. :) It was a huge accomplishment for this year. Another sewing milestone for me, was having a booth at a craft fair and selling my little dresses, and other things I have made. We ended up getting rained out, but it was a great experience with my neighbor Jessica, and we are planning to attend again this year.

Zack has also had an excellent year with work and life, and all of his many talents. He is still playing music, and still boxing, and writing, and still skiing (as we speak actually). He had his best year at work, he has now been there for three years. He was top sales man last year, and by a large margin. He loves his job, and loves what he does. Since we shared so much of the parenting last year, and he watched Nick for five days while I would travel every time, he didn't travel as much with his job. This year, he will be traveling more, and working more. And we appreciate his sacrifice. To be fair, he is incredibly good at what he does, so hopefully he wont have to work too hard. :) He takes really good care of us. :)

Nick has also had one of the funnest years of his life. We took him along with us to a lot of new places, and he is so adaptable, and easy going. We have a lot of friends come over a lot, and he loves it!!! He is talking a lot, and has the most hilarious personality. He just seems to make everything more fun and life more enjoyable. We can never get enough of him, and end up letting him stay up so late, because we don't want him to go to bed yet. We enjoy his company so much. He is definitively spoiled. Oh well. hahaha

We are looking forward to an exciting 2010. We will celebrate our fifth anniversary. Nick will turn 3! Zack will be 27! I will be 25! (OMGosh I'm getting old.) Zack will have a great year at work. I will get used to being a stay-at-home Mom, and find some way to contribute. Our goal this year as a family is to finish the basement. We have already started, and have two rooms and the bathroom framed. Thank goodness for Zack's Grandpa - he is our mentor with everything we don't know how to do, and is pretty much amazing! When we are finished we will have a six bedroom house... and then we will start on the back yard. So much work to do!!!

This is by far my most lengthy and wordy post ever. Sorry no pictures. If you made it to the end, you don't mind my rambling.

Thank you all for even reading, and caring. :) We appreciate all our family and friends, and couldn't be nearly as happy as we are without you.