Twenty-Thirteen

Is it just me or are the years going by faster and faster? I know I know, its just because I'm getting old and so time goes by quicker because a year is a smaller portion of my lifespan... blah blah blah.

The point is, its time for the YEAR REVIEW!!!

Lists of memories from this year:

BIG Things:
Angel and Mike tying the knot!
Newest nephew & Nevin-ite born - Koen Hale Nevin!
Parker baptized at age 8!

Trips:
Portland - for Ari's very special Wildwood birthday party!!!
Texas - just because I miss all my dear friends and family who live far away & I had to meet all their new babies I already love and adore!
California - where we rocked six flags and sunburns (okay it was just Julie on the sun burn thing)
Cedar City - Utah Shakespeare Festival for my first time! We saw 12 Angry Men and Peter & the Starcatcher. Both were amazing.

Shows worked on:
Rapunzel - first time I was back ON stage, probably since High School, for reals.
Harlem Shake - does this count as a show? haha In case you missed it:

The Box - a wonderful new piece by Christian Swenson, that I was dramaturg for (kinda.)
Hello Dolly - SM for the Jerry Elison
The Scarlet Pimpernel - SCERA Shell Summer show, again alongside Mr. E!
The Jerry Elison Scholarship Night - I was the emcee - which was scary. But I'd do anything for that man!
A Christmas Carol - 3rd year! It gets better every time! And of course, with Jerry!

Other Shining Moments:
Our beautiful new juicer!!
Being Cinderella for a day in the 4th of July parade!
Seeing Wicked for my 25th birthday
#uglypicturefacecontest
Andrew finished wheel of time series - an end of an era
Hiking up around Strawberry Lake & seeing wild beavers only a few feet in front of us
Attending the Beautiful Singing vocal camp at BYU with my Mommy!
Lincoln riding on 2 wheels
Halloween - biker duo
Anvil, thermos, axe collection grew and grew
Little camping trip
Witches Tea Convention
Andrew's axe from the Ukraine
And of course just stopping at every estate sale and antique shop we can! seriously.

Not-so shining moments:
Spraining my ankle jumping in puddles
Scout's eye infection and having to wear the miserable cone
My awful sunburn from Cali
Cracking my iPhone
My fantasy football team
.....wait why are these mostly about me?
Wasting too much time of our lives watching the Netflix original series Hemlock Grove.

Memorable Movies of 2013 (in no particular order):
Catching Fire, Ender's Game, Gravity, Monster University, Iron man 3, Life of Pi, Bridesmaids, Warm Bodies, OZ: Great and Powerful, The Great Gatsby, Silver Linings Playbook, Django, Les Mis
Burt Wonderstone, Saving Mr. Banks, Bernie, and The host.... just kidding about the last one. :)

Firsts that happened this year:
Pyrex! And so began my obsession.
Dirty Dr. Pepper (at Swig)
Men in Black
Acting performance on Utah stage
Bachelor and Bachelorette viewing
Andrew's Handmade knife
Utah Shakespeare Festival

What I wish I could say we did this year.... and is *maybe* going on our goal list for 2014:
Buy a house
Start my online vintage shop
See a Broadway show in NYC
Take lots of pictures on our amazing camera. (I mean I took some this year, just not enough!)
Camping camping camping (again we did go, just not as much as we'd like to have)
More swimming and hot tubbing!!!! (notice the amount of exclamation points - this is serious)
Grow a garden

More of 2014 goals to come. But for now....

here's a little photo flip review of twenty-thirteen! 

Winter in Odessa?!

While in Odessa I was so happy to see so many of my dear old friends! No matter how long I spend though, it never seems to be long enough... 

I finally got to meet Callie's sweet baby, Reece. She is just about the happiest little girl! And look at those blue eyes! 

So, we had lots of good Mexican food (of course), visited all the local thrift shops, and enjoyed the snow!

That is right, snow. It was pretty amazing (for Odessa, Texas that is). 

These first two pictures were taken on Sunday. 

And these last two were taken on Monday!  

Anyway, it was a really great trip! 

Ben's Wedding

Andrew and I took some time off work and flew down to Odessa for my friend's wedding. 

It was a beautiful ceremony. 

Ben and JoVanna are very cute together and I wish them best! 

This was Ben's groom's cake. Pretty sweet, right?!

And of course we had fun at the photo booth!

I can't believe that red-headed benny-bear is married! :)

Texas!

Just a few things I did while visiting Texas:

1. Ate a LOT of Mexican food! (it was much needed) 

2. Visited friends at their work places

3. Stayed up late talking with friends about not life, love, religion, and texting while driving. 

(more on that some other time.)

4. Went to the Young Women's dessert auction at church!

5. Worked out at Curves with my Mommy! 

6. Learned more about my late Granny & Papa, and more about my family's genealogy, in general, from my Daddy. 

7. Lived with Holly in her cute grown-up apartment! 

8. Went Frisbee Golfing with Holly's friend, Logan while she was at work.

9. Hot-tubbed & learned that cold hands are a result of stress, and the need for relaxation. Thank you, Holly.

10. Ate the best cupcake in the nation (according to Ellen Degeneres, whom I fully trust) at Society Bakery.

11. Went to school with my aunt. She teaches theater at an Arts Magnet High School in Dallas, Texas, so I got to sit in on her beginning playwrighting class! 

12. Visited with Randy, Elly, David & Elana. We should really see them more often...

13. Watched a sailboat race (kinda)

14. Hugged & spent not nearly enough time with most all of my best friends!

 {Andrea, Travis, and me}

{Candace!}

 {Nikki & Matt}

 

 {Holly!}

*and there were many more friends visited that are not pictured.

this trip was a lame picture-taking trip for me.*

Marcy & Derrick Bush!

I went home a couple weeks ago for my friend, Marcy's wedding! She was absolutely gorgeous and so was the wedding. I've known Marcy since high school and she is such a beautiful, talented, funny, and awesome person! I'm so glad I was able to be there for the most important day of her life.

I'm just so happy for her and wish her & Derrick lots of love!   

 

{husband & wife}

{Marcy & me}

{I got to spend the night with 7 of my most favorite girls} 

 

Visit Courtney Ryburn's photography blog to see the awesome professional shots!

Welcome 2009!

First of all, on New Year's Eve I searched high and low for some party favors, noise makers, and hats for midnight. Perhaps it was because I was looking on the New Year's Eve, but I could not find any party favors ANYWHERE!! It was so frustrating. It seems that nobody celebrates the New Year anymore!

So anyway, for New Year's Eve, we first had dinner and played Skip-Bo with the Syners! Andrew and I then partied at Callie's house with Marcy, Rachael, Holly, Taylor, Tiffany, Olivia (kinda). We played a few hilarious rounds of Catchphrase and Callie's creative New Year's resolution game! After midnight, we hopped to another party to see Andrea, Nikki, and Travis.

Odessa Adventure

On our way back to Utah we spent a couple days in Odessa with friends and family. Betsy had never been to Odessa before, so of course we took her and Andrew to all the essential historical sights Odessa has to offer. These included Ratliff Stadium, Stonehenge, Permian High School and of course, Rosas!

Downtown Corpus Christi

The siblings went on an adventure around downtown Corpus. Of course we had to show Andrew and Betsy the famous Selina statue, the Nina (Christopher Columbus' favorite of the three ships), and ate fresh seafood at Joe's.
This was all good and fun, but the most eventful instance happened on our way to the restaurant. Tom was driving through a flock of seagulls and ran over a bird! *Worthy to note that the birds were flocked in one big group because there were people feeding them bread on the sidewalk* So we went inside to eat and came back out to find all of the seagulls swarming around the car. Turns out one of the angry bird feeders had placed a piece of bread on the back windshield of the car. The birds were attacking anyone who tried to enter the car! These are pictures of us running away from the angry seagulls!

The Beach!

One of the perks of spending Christmas in Texas, is that the average temperature while we were there was about 70 degrees. So of course we went to the beach! We collected shells, played with a free skim board, and built creations in the sand!

Christmas Morning

Because Allison, Ari and Tom did not arrive in Corpus until Christmas, we celebrated Christmas morning on the 26th. We set our stockings out on the porch waiting for Santa to come. Then we opened our Christmas presents inside. This year I had my mom for secret Santa and she had me! I made her an apron and bought her a Dr. Oz book she wanted. She gave me money for my iPod fund. The babies had so many presents to open and probably played with every gift before the break was over.