Memorable Moments of 2011

Here's to the new year! Out with the old, and in with the new. I wanted to take a moment to reflect upon this past year. I thought it would be fun to do a post with pictures from the past year, highlighting some memorable events.

The Spring was started off right with a trip to NYC to visit my favorite cousin. We went to the NYC tattoo convention, hung out in the city, shopped at H&M, ate lobster mac n' cheese and had a blast of a week together.

This summer Nick and I celebrated our 10 years of being together and 7 years of marriage. A relationship is somewhat like a roller coaster. There's ups and downs. There's periods of waiting. There's twists, dips and spirals. But you always reach the summit at the end. And you come back for more. It's worth it.  Because why wouldn't you want to ride the roller coaster of life with your best friend?

Ahh, Portlandia. We had an amazing week vacation in the City of Roses. We drove out to the coast and Hood River. We visited old friends and caught up on life. Of course, we had to make two trips to Voodoo Doughnuts. Really had a hard time leaving this beautiful place. Also, if you have not seen the TV series, go watch it here. It's awesomely funny.

The fall brought lots of wonderful changes. I tried henna for the first time to dye my hair. I am never going back to those burning chemicals again.  I also made the switch to natural deodorant. In November, we moved into a house!! It was such a relief to move out of our crappy apartment. We did well in eliminating any artificial and processed foods from our diet. I did a 15 day juice fast and was amazed by the results.

In October, my sister came for a visit. We celebrated my grandparent's 40th anniversary and our favorite holiday, Halloween, together.  We had a glorious girls weekend/sister reunion. It was great to reconnect with family. And while my sister was in town....

we got matching sister tattoos!!!!! We had been talking about it for a while, and we finally did it. We wanted the tattoo to mean something to us and represent our sisterhood. We have an inside joke that goes, "I love you more than my luggage." And the spiral is an Irish symbol representing sister goddesses. We had also found out this year that we have some Irish blood on our mother's side and so it seemed appropriate.

And the winter brought my finishing up the first semester of ultrasound school. It was hard but worth every minute of the pressure. I am learning a lot and really liking it. We had a housewarming party. The house is finally starting to feel like our space, our home. And we rang in the new year with friends and champagne. Life is good.

Happy New Year!