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 :)