2011 Highlights [events]

i have been going thru my photos from 2011 and was really struggling.

i had a group of photos that i wanted to post as highlights - photos that captured an event that was a high-point in the year. 

but then i had a group of photos that i shot that stood out as my favorites from the year - no particular special meaning - i just loved how they turned out.

so i decided to split my highlight post this year into 2 parts:

high-point events

and favorite photos

and without further ado - 10+1 of 2011's high-points [in the order that they occurred, not necessarily in order of favorites :P]

1. abby 

on january 7, 2011, we met and brought home our baby girl. you don't have to follow my blog for too long to know that we love her to death and she's frequently my photo-idea-victim :) she may have chewed up my pillows and ripped our couch and munched on our socks, but we wouldn't trade her for any other puppy in the world and we love her soo much.

2. valentine's dinner

actually, it's much more than just the valentine's dinner we put together as a fundraiser for our youth group in february- it's the youth group in general. we did SO much this year with our youth - fundraisers, game nights, challenges, camp, a retreat, a girls sleepover night, caroling - yeah alot and we had a blast :) oh and shameless plug: we will be doing a valentine's dinner again - and it's going to be this awesome AGAIN .. promise :)

3. one year anniversary

yes, april 24, 2011, marked the day that D & i had survived one whole year of being married and living together - a whole year without killing each other! WOOT - we both should get gold stars :) kidding! really, the first year wasn't that bad - hey if we could survive living in a 35 foot camper for the first 6 months of our married life, i think we can do anything :)

anyways, we celebrated our anniversary with a trip to Watkins Glen, NY - we stayed in this amazing hotel and simply relaxed. did some hiking and site-seeing too, promised to go back up sometime in the summer when it was warmer and more was open and, well, maybe this summer :)

4. the house

we did some awesome updates this year - the most noticeable being that we painted! it looks SO nice now - no more haunted house! we painted inside too, most recently the guest bedroom and stairwell and we tore all the carpet out of the office & guest bedroom.

OH - we closed on our house too :) that should count as like MAJOR news - we now OWN this place! well i guess not yet, the bank still does, but our name is on it! WAHOO :D

5. the garden

okay and while we're talking about the house, let's talk about the garden - i'm a fabulous gardener let me tell you! [never mind that my eggplants never ever came up, i never got a pepper from my beautiful pepper plants, and i harvested my lettuce way to late and had to throw most of it away] other than that i was a fabulous gardener - haha :) it was definitely a cool experience that i learned a lot from and all i can say is: wait for this year! my garden is going to be amazing!

6. camp bethel

even though this could go under the youth group stuff - i wanted to list it separate. simply because i spent 3 solid days with the youth kids, slept in a tent for 2 nights with them, and used the port-a-potties with them. yes, this gets it's own highlight event title :) it was a super exciting and awesome time though of learning and getting closer to God. i was so blessed to spend the time with the kids and i'm looking forward to this year - except for the port-a-potties part!

7. the lake house

i miss going to the lake every weekend with my family - which makes me even more super-duper thankful for the handful of weekends D & i get to go down to see everyone and spend some time on the water :) this year, not only did D ski, but he perfected his kneeboarding skills, learned to wake-board, and attempted skiing with only one ski - let's just say, that's a skill he'll have to work on this summer :)

the lake house is and always will be one of my very favorite retreats - it's completely relaxing, no internet, no cell service, nothing except card games with cousins, reading, sunshine, water, marshmallows, and campfires :)

8. the flood

okay, so it's not a highlight as in a good thing - but it definitely changed our area forever. i think for a long long time, people are going to look at our area in terms of before the flood and after. people are still trying to recover from the major flooding that hit our area september 11th weekend. let's just say, it definitely damped the 10th anniversary memorials, no one was very interested in remembering september 11th, they were more worried about where they were going to sleep that night. it was a tragic tragic even that has changed so many people's lives forever.

9. sisters

i was finally able to convince my mom to let my sisters drive up to spend a weekend with me! we had SUCH a fabulous time, and it went wayy too fast [as usual]. next time girls, you are going to have to stay longer so we can do more and laugh more and take more pictures :)

10. tim hawkins

um who's highlight list would be complete without mentioning going to see this man in "concert"?! ahh, this guy is so funny and as funny as it is to watch his DVD's? he's just as funny in person and definitely just as awesome! if tim hawkins could somehow bottle his comedy in a pocket sized portion, i would pay a lot of money to get me some so i could keep it with me at work and pull it out when people are being mean to me :) if you don't know who this guy is - look him up on youtube, he's hysterical!

11. [the bonus] family photos

it's been 2 years since we got a family photo and you could say we were a little overdue. so, many thanks to ellen's tripod and the piano bench and the timer mode on her camera - we now have an updated family photo :) we look amazing - and wayy too grown up - everyone needs to stop this growing up thing RIGHT NOW - i like ya'll the way you are!

okay so there you have it - just a few of my favorite things from the year :) keep your eyes peeled for my favorite photos from the year! i promise there won't be so many words with that post - but definitely more pictures!!