Goodbye 2011

Easily, 2009 could have been called "the year of the concert" - for whatever reason I went to a LOT of concerts that year ("a lot" compared to the none that I usually go to!).  2010 was "the year of the fire departments".  Between visits, activities, open houses, etc., we spent a lot of time in and around fire trucks, fire houses, and with fire men and women.

This past year, 2011, will definitely go down as The Year of the Travel.  I took so many trips this year, I can't even remember where all of them took us!

The boys and I traveled to Long Island for a week in January and to Albany in May to visit Tiffany and Brielle while they were there on a work detail.  The whole family drove down to Pennsylvania in May for a fireman's convention and the boys and I made the trip again in August for a friend's wedding.  We took several trips up North to see family and stay at Grandma and Grandpa's "camp".  We went camping in various locations with numerous friends and frequented many festivals, carnivals, parades, and County/State Fairs.

 NYC, January 2011

 Pennsylvania Fire Expo, May 2011

Alex with Pink Eye in Albany

Albany, May 2011

Pennsylvania, August 2011

The highlight of our year, of course, was our cross-country train trip from NY to Portland, OR.  The boys and I traveled a total of nearly 140 hours on the train trip of a lifetime!!!  It was definitely a trip that will live in my my top 5 experiences of all time!

We had a lot of firsts this year, too...first ice skating trip, first family bowling excursion, first demolition derby, first controlled burn with the Fire Department, first day of school (Kindergarten for Nate and Nursery School for Alex), first swimming lesson, first tee ball game, first tractor pull....We got our first baby chicks who grew up to give us our first fresh eggs.  We found our first baby turtle that we made a friend until he grew up to outgrow his cage.  

I did my first photo shoots for people outside my immediate family, got my first kayak for my birthday, lost a couple classmates from high school, welcomed my new niece, Coraleigh Shae, met some photography goals I had set for myself, and had a stellar year at work with my grant success rate!  This year was also the first year (since getting married 6 years ago!) that Dave and I actually got to spend our anniversary together!!  He got Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, too...finally his work rotation paid off!!  We'll take it every 6-7 years :)

This coming year I hope to meet more goals, purge more clutter from my life, be more positive, and spend as much time as physically possible with my family and friends.  I hope you all have a great 2012!