Throwback: 2015

January

 

January we finally booked our trip to New York, which meant we were officially going, no one could stop us.

 

 

It was a really busy month, work wise, for both of us so we didn't do a whole lot besides cleaning out the house.

 

February

 

In February I got a nice surprise when I was taken to my company's fancy suite to see a Jazz game. It was such a cool experience and I'm always looking for ways to score tickets to go there again. You really can't go back to the regular seats after being in the suite...not to mention regular food doesn't taste NEARLY as good.

 

 

There was another treat that month when I crashed got invited to a dinner with Larry's co-workers at one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever been to. I want to go again, but I'm scared it's really expensive. It was a fun night still.

 

March

 

In March Larry and I celebrated a special anniversary. It was a lovely night and I'm glad we got a chance to celebrate it together since it'll likely never happen again in our lifetime. I also got to have a mini shopping spree and changed my look for a bit (unfortunately it didn't stay as long as I had hoped).

 

 



April

 

April we spent getting ready for our trip some more. I had a fun work party (any excuse to brag about how great my job is I'll take it). I also took a walk down memory lane with Larry and our years pre-military and post-military.

 



May

 

In May Larry and I went to our first Bees game together ("first" meaning our first together, we both have been to a baseball game before). It was a really fun night, even if we lost (but just barely).

 

 

We took my brother to a couple new places for his birthday. I kind of love this new tradition. I also got to give my mom the best Mother's Day gifts this year (aside from all of us just showing up at her door step that is). I would say this was one of my favorite months now that I look back at it.

 

June

 

June was our biggest month. We finally got to board a big plane that would take us to New York. I can't say enough about how amazing this trip was. We started in Niagara Falls, Drove down (through Scranton PA) to NYC, and then ended at Six Flags in NJ. I've never taken a 2 week vacation before and while I'm sure my work hated that I took so much time off at once, it was so worth it! I remember after coming home I said I'd never want to go back, but I think I spoke too soon. The city definitely had some wonderful parts and I'd definitely go do Niagara Falls and Six Flags again haha.

 

 

July

 

July brought my first successful month of having no added sugars. I'm such a candy fiend so this was a hard challenge, but it changed my perspective on candy and sweets a lot. We also had a rough Independence Day, even though it ended with a fun concert.

 

We also did our first (and unfortunately only) hike of the summer. I LOVED doing Donut Falls, it was amazing to see the falls.

 

 

In addition to all that fun, we got together with some friends to do our first "Escape the Room" night. By far one of my favorite things we've done this year. I hear they have a couple new rooms now so I recommend going...and invite us if you want haha.

 



August

 

August brought us one of our newest adventures: Larry got to fly a plane on his own. I almost want to do this one again with how exciting it was. I also recommend trying that out if you've ever been curious. We also used up a bunch of our movie gifts cards and got to have some fun date nights. May sound lame or just like nothing to report on to you, but it made for a fun summer! We also finally got our trip to the Zoo (courtesy of my work, again).

 

 

 



September

 

September brought my trip to Mississippi. It was one of the best, only I was missing Larry because he had school work to focus on. While I love going out to visit my parents (having girly days with my mom, watching movies as a family, and trying a new meat my step-dad has experimented with on his smoker are always nice), but I think the Go-Ape was my absolute favorite part.

 

We also decided to squeeze in a last minute mini vacation to Disneyland. Also a favorite of mine this year. It was nice going back when we both hadn't been in SO long.

 

 



October



 

Our biggest thing in October was celebrating Halloween. I got to try my first Paint Night, we went to our first Halloween Party, and the leaves were just oh so pretty. We also celebrated our anniversary this month - 11  years now!

 

 

November

 

November brought mom and Will back to Utah. It's nice seeing both of them, whether it's us going to them or them coming to us. Luckily I've been able to do both each year since they moved. We also celebrated a mini Thanksgiving at our house with Andy. It was a nice tester year for possible future year Thanksgivings at our home.

 

 

 

December

 

December brought us Christmas time. Unfortunately I didn't get as into it this year. I did decorate, and we got gifts for people (and I was just as excited to get people gifts as usual), but I didn't make sure we went out and did holiday stuff. We even got tons of snow this year, maybe that's why (it was REALLY cold). I did watch all my Christmas movies though. I think the biggest thing this month brought was signing in our new home! Or rather, picking out the lot and the type of home we're building. I'm so excited for that part!

 

So 2015 was a great year, we got lots of vacations, tried new things, and celebrated in new ways. The ending was a bit rough, but it just makes me look forward to the new year we get to celebrate tonight. Here's hoping 2016 is even better!

Christmas 2015

This Christmas, as usual, we had more than one celebration, but it was a bit more than prior years. I apologize for the lack of pictures, I wasn't in a huge picture mood this year.

• We got to celebrate with the Cameron side of the family on the 19th. We did our usual dinner and bingo. I think the bingo is my favorite part, we got lots of goodies, including my newest obsession: knee high socks! They are the best things for the winter!
• Christmas morning we woke up and opened up our gifts from each other. We both got lots of movies, shirts, games, and books. It was a good year. I got a couple fun vinyl's I get to hang up in our new home...which makes me more excited to move now haha.
• After we opened our gifts we went up to Marie's for breakfast (as always it was really yummy). We opened gifts up there and talked for a while. It was a nice visit.
• After Thanksgiving we decided it would be nice to have Andy over for holidays since he doesn't see much family usually. So once we got back home Andy came over and we opened up gifts from mom and Will (who got especially creative and fun this year). Andy and I got on a Skype call with my mom while Larry cooked dinner (we went with steaks this year).
• On Saturday we went up to Cindy's and opened gifts from her and grandma. I got a very comfy robe from Victoria's Secret from my grandma as well as a calendar and a planner. Cindy got me an amazing brown jacket I forgot I had my eye on. Larry got some Steam gift cards and more funny shirts (perfect for him!). We also had a nice lunch while up there, yummy ham!
• Today we went to Becky's house to meet up with Ariel and Nathan and exchange gifts with them. We were invited to go up to Idaho for the 1st to exchange gifts, but unforeseen circumstances made that a bit difficult this year so we gave her the Wilson/Neil gifts (wow, I have another sister with a new last name!) to take back up with her. She's going to have her baby in March so we got her some fun baby gifts, a comfy blanket, and then a date night gift card since I figured they'd like that.

I didn't get as in to Christmas this year as I normally do, I think I'm just ready to be in a new home and start the new year. I love fresh starts and this year had so much going on I'm excited to see what next year will bring us. Anyways, I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year!

Moving on up in the world

So Larry and I have some fun news: We're building a new home!


We officially signed the papers and put our lot deposit down tonight and we are so excited. It's a HUGE new step to make for us, but it'll be great. It's much more room than we have now and will have plenty of room for us to grow into and have a family in.




What our home will look like - only a regular garage in the front.
I don't like side entrance garage's so we don't have those windows there.

It's kind of a funny story because I wanted to move into a house earlier this year. I was going so stir crazy with how cramped our condo had become. We talked about this home being where we'd have a couple kids, but we had barely enough room for us and the kitties let alone adding a kid or two to the mix. Larry convinced me we should wait until he's done with school (which should be at the end of February next year) so I figured I'd stop looking at homes and just get over it. We talked about possible re-locating to another state once he's done with school so I had my hopes set on that (assuming we could get my job to work with me on that, I'd rather not leave HQY if I can avoid it). Fast forward to September, the week we left for Disneyland, Larry tells me he might have found the perfect home for us. I was so surprised because we hadn't talked about it in months! Well the home he found was through Fieldstone Homes and it was REALLY close to my work.


Unfortunately we drove by it and it wasn't what we wanted. I really like the idea of having a backyard and this place was packed so tight we'd barely have a cement slab as a "porch". Plus it wasn't closed to a grocery store or shopping or anything. If we couldn't get what we wanted from it I didn't want to pay as much as it would've cost for it. We decided against it and then we started noticing builders around where we live currently, and the more we paid attention the more we noticed. We finally started visiting all of them and getting price quotes and talking about all the options. Candlelight was one of the first ones we visited and we both loved the features they had.

They really do build beautiful!

After MUCH talking we finally settled on them and had to work on getting approval for a VA loan (the only one we can both really qualify for) which took a lot of jumping through hoops and research, but once we finally got the OK we went in and signed for our home. So now we get to wait until we can make our appointment for the design center and go from there.


I know a few people who have built homes and work with a lady who built in our neighborhood so I'm getting lots of tips and tricks and information that's extremely helpful. Hopefully this ends up being a pretty smooth process. I'm planning on documenting it all on here as we go, hopefully I get some good pictures!


We're so happy to finally be adults in our soon-to-be own, adult home. Hopefully we'll actually get the courage to invite people over and actually host some sort of shin dig :)

Mom's Visit and some Thanksgiving grub

We got to spend some time with my mom and step dad this past week. They flew in Thursday and left Monday and I made sure to visit with them every day they were here. We went to dinners, walked the mall, hung out in the sketchiest part of town (where their hotel was), and went to breakfast before they left. It was a short visit, but still good to have.

Their visit being earlier than normal meant that Thanksgiving was a little different this year. Cindy was having a mini one at her place, grandma was having dinner with Tanny, so that meant Larry and I decided to do our own this year. Luckily Andy had no plans and asked if he could crash ours so we did get to have some family over for it. It was a small one, but I loved it. Once we're in our own home (post about that to come) I'm hoping to maybe, possibly host Thanksgiving for everyone (but I'm still a little nervous about that).

I decided to stick with the tradition of watching the parade in the morning, getting the turkey ready and started after that, cleaning the house a bit, and then we went to the store so I could get the cute little flowers as our centerpiece (for some reason I'm always wanting flowers on our table lately) and then we got to wait for everything to be done so we could eat :)  I think our dinner turned out pretty great, although I did mess up the stuffing this year (but the potatoes were MUCH better so I'm learning!). Hopefully we get it perfect next year. Here's hoping!

Happy Halloween 2015 (Number 4)



Halloween has come and gone this year and I feel I took full advantage of it. Going back to my last post about Fall I recently took this picture of our street and have to say I'm loving it still:

 

Can you just smell it and hear the crunch?

We also got our pumpkins done last Saturday. I think they turned out cute, can you guess who did which?

I actually did the boogie man
Larry's is the kitty

My manager, Erin, found Halloween Bingo and so on Wednesday we had a Custom Funding Pot Luck while we played (it was mostly chips and dips but it was beyond delicious and filling!

I also went to my first Paint Nite with Erin and Bash Thursday night. I think the paintings turned out pretty well considering it was my first time:

I'll admit my cat looks a bit zombie-fied, but I still had a lot of fun with it. I definitely want to do more of them.

On Friday we got to celebrate Halloween at work and get all dressed up. There was clearly a theme with most of us this year:



I have NEVER been more comfy at work!

They did the costume contest at work, which was so much fun to watch (I wish I had a group picture of what my whole team did). We also had kids come in to play games. I thought we'd get to pass out candy, but when I went down to do that they were just playing the games and it felt awkward. Needless to say I have quite a bit of candy leftover.

 

Saturday Cass had her party. During the day I watched the "fun" Halloween movies like It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, Hocus Pocus, and Ghostbusters. I decided since Larry was going to be the Reno 911 cop I should recycle my cop costume to kind of match him, so I got to dress up a couple times this year (woo-hoo!)



 

 Lucky for us Daylight Savings time hit on Sunday, but we didn't even leave her house until about 1 am after the time change so we really didn't get to use it for sleep. Larry woke me up at 7 to ask how it ended (he was a bit intoxicated the last couple hours) and then he fell back asleep while I started on my usual Sunday chores (laundry and the grocery list). Lucky for him the cats decided to join him in the great nap coma of 2015 (as I'm affectionately calling it):

I'm sad that Halloween is over with, but I'm even more happy about the fact that it's time to be excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mom and Will are coming out on the 19th and I'm so excited to see them. We're going to be doing our own Thanksgiving at our house this year so I'm really glad we practiced last year. You better believe I'll be listening to Christmas music off and on until Thanksgiving (and then it will be full time!).

Happy Holidays everyone!!

The Beginning of Fall and Eleven Years

Oh boy am I excited to say it's starting to look more and more like Fall around here. I've been looking forward to the holiday time (which I'm counting as starting in September because that's when I start watching my scary movies) since around February!

So far this season I went to go see Thriller with Stace and some of her friends/family members for her birthday and then we went to pick our Pumpkins and do a corn maze with Marie and Jim. It was a great Saturday!

At work we've decided to decorate our cabinets the way people do their front doors

Aren't they the cutest?

Larry and I have already ordered our costumes. He's going to be a cop from Reno 911 and I've decided to go the comfy route and wear a cat onesie (not like a child onesie, like those footie pajamas). I'm so excited to show them off. Cassie is having a Halloween party this year and since we hardly get any kids in our neighborhood I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate - especially with it being a Saturday this year.

Last night Larry and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long already, but it hasn't really felt that long either.

I have to say if it's a competition, Larry wins the anniversary gift giving! He got me a "punk" outfit and a "princess" outfit. It was so sweet. I told him we're going to have to go to a ballet or something this year so that I can wear the dress

You can't tell in the picture but the "punk" one on the left is the tank top, jeans, a bracelet, a necklace, and some black ankle boots (the necklace is just like one I used to wear when we were first dating that was his). The "princess" one on the right is a dress (with a decorated neck line), a four leaf clover lucky charm necklace, a pretty silver bracelet, and some white shiny flats (he said the necklace is because I'm his lucky charm). If you don't just love that then you have problems! Haha

He also took me out to the Spaghetti Factory because I couldn't stop talking about how yummy their tortellini is and I didn't get to finish it the last time we went. I definitely got spoiled this year. I did end up surprising him by putting his gifts in his car (a game, a book, a movie, and a shirt he wanted). I tried to act like I didn't get him anything, but he didn't even notice until we got to his car to go to dinner...go figure.

Happy Fall everyone...only 15 more days until Halloween now. Hope you're having as much fun with it as I am!

Disneyland 2015

I'm officially a believer that Disneyland really is one of the happiest places and most magical! I can't believe how much I did remember and how much I forgot from when I was a kid. Granted a lot of it is really similar to Disney World, which we got to do a couple years ago, but still. The only thing I went in remembering is loving the Roger Rabbit and Star Tours ride. I hadn't even been there when California Adventures was a thing, but I still had fun. So going this year was beyond awesome, eating the treats was one of the best things, and having a hotel within walking distance was the best ever.

Flying to California was different for us, but I'm just glad we weren't one of the flights that got seriously delayed



Tired, but so ready to be there.

Can I just rave about how awesomely close to Disneyland our hotel was? We could see Tower of Terror and the fireworks from our window.

The plan was to hit Disneyland first, then California Adventures, and then do any second rides on the third day (or any that we missed). We hit a bunch of rides at Disneyland (we were really able to squeeze in more than I thought was possible) and then did a few over in California Adventures (including Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania)

 

I loved how it looked like it was sparkling

It was almost as great as I remember it :)

 

Day two in California Adventures was crazy! I mean I was told to hurry and get a fast pass for the Cars ride because the line is always insane. Well the line for the fast pass in the morning was insane so we decided to just go wait in line to ride the ride. I had figured out at this point that we should be able to hit up Universal Studios on Monday, but I wanted to ride all my favorite rides at least twice.  Even in the extreme heat and with our daily break in the afternoon we were still able to get all of the California Adventures in twice and a couple of the Disneyland ones again (I think I can confidently say at this point Tower of Terror is the best ride, but Haunted Mansion is the best at Disneyland)

Every time we rode this ride Larry looked extremely
Happy in the pictures. I loved it haha

 

 

From the big Ferris wheel

I'm such a fan of Little Mermaid

So glad she found happiness :)

I said extreme heat right?

 

California Screamin pic

Ending the day with ice cream
And root beer float is the best

The last day was, apart from the awful California Traffic, awesome and busy! We had ridden all the rides we liked in  Disneyland at least twice (three times on Tower of Terror at this point) and so we decided a trip to Universal  Studios is a must! Unfortunately they replaced the Backdraft "ride" that Larry loved and I wanted to see with the Transformers Ride, but it was still fun. In fact I think I liked the U.S. rides a bit better than the D.L. rides because I like the motion simulator type rides. We got done with those in time to get back to the hotel and Larry could get some school work done (yay for the font of the line pass we got!). I gave him an hour and then decided to hit up Disneyland for just a couple more rides. He joined me later, and we rode a few together, just depending on the line. It was a great last day packed with tons of fun!

I just had to get some ears

The start of Hogwarts
Coming 2016!!

Because we needed ice cream wherever we went

 

So overall it was an amazing trip. I felt at the time that I got enough from it, but now I'm kind of wanting to go back haha. Maybe next year. Although look at the awesome souvenir I got this time:

Best ever right?

And all the treats (in addition to the ice cream):

It was the best, I can't wait till we have kids and can go though....maybe ;)