JULY: Busy month, but I went to Boston to finally meet some of my best internet friends- Shada and Esmat (from Dubai) and Nikki (from NYC). Everyone thought it would be dangerous for me to go alone, but I defied all warning and had a BLAST! Although, I did feel so sick the entire time I wished I were dead. We look like a bad joke don't we? Two Arabs, a black girl, and a Mormon walk into a bar...
After Boston, we went to Colorado for Pioneer Days and my birthday. I don't want to talk about it.
AUGUST: Josh and I took our annual family vacation to Oregon. Joe and Mary Jane met us there and little Emily is ADORABLE! She sure loves her Aunt Sara and Uncle Joshy!It pretty much solidified my goal to one day live on the Oregon coast. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory and bought enough cheese to last a lifetime. We also went to an air museum that was pretty amazing. We played at the beach, hiked to see waterfalls, shopped our tails off, toured a lighthouse, and I saw my first WHALE from our condo balcony!!! They came up to shore around 5:00 every evening that we were there. All in all, a great trip!
View from our condo:
And us with Em:
School also started in August, and even though I only had 3 classes, I had more on my plate than I was ready to handle this semester.
SEPTEMBER: no news...
OCTOBER: Our 1 year anniversary was great! We wanted to take a trip but didn't have the money, so we stayed at Hotel Monoco downtown and pretended to be tourists. :) We ate great food and saw "Forever Dead" at the off-broadway theater. Of course I also have to write about Halloween because it is our favorite holiday! We decorated our apartment like an apothecary shop again, with all the old bottles and candles and test tubes we could find. After seeing that play on our anniversary, Josh decided that we should be Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein.
After countless hours of wig hunting, I finally found this little gem!
We had a Halloween party, and I'm happy to say that it was probably our most successful party ever! Our apartment was packed, almost everyone came in costume, and our food was AWESOME! Great night!
NOVEMBER: The only exciting thing about November was Thanksgiving, which really wasn't very exciting. We had two meals, which was a bit overwhelming. But what's our favorite thing about Thanksgiving? SALES!!! The morning after, Josh and I hit the stores. We didn't have any big items to buy, so we spent nearly all of our budgeted $100 on movies. Harry Potter on blu-ray for $10? It doesn't get any better than that. :)
DECEMBER: The end of the semester!!! Josh's teachers thought it would be a great idea to have about 50 pages worth of papers due this week, so he has been busy busy busy! The best part of my semester was finishing Chinese and I GOT A B-!!! Normally I would be pretty upset with that grade, but I actually left Chinese crying a few times because it was so hard. I'm ecstatic about a B-!!! Josh is hoping to boost his GPA this semester and I hope all his hard work pays off! We'll know his grades in a couple of weeks.
After working both of my jobs and going to school, I'm REALLY excited for the next two weeks because I don't have to teach piano. I can actually go home while the sun is still up!
That pretty much sums up our year. Lots of traveling and school work! I'll try to be more organized and post our family Christmas pictures soon. Until that time, here's a little sneak peek of the pup:
Yeah... she really hates the hat! But we bribed her with treats to keep it on for pictures.
Oh, you, it's great to know that you're updating your blog a few times a year. And that you're still alive after your trip to Boston. ;)
Merry Christmas!
YAY ! FINALLY. And i love your comment about your halloween party--how "almost" everyone was in costume. lol. WE were the slackers. oops.