2012 really has been a great year!
Here are some of my favorite highlights!
In August ERAC started recognizing managers and employees who have hit certain goals by celebrating at a monthly dinner with their spouse. Since August Chris has hit EVERY GOAL set before him. He has attended the very nice dinners each month and receives an award and acknowledgement from the management staff. He's the only Branch Manager to hit the TRIPLE CROWN each month.
There have been a few moments that weren't quite the highlight of his career, a few missed promotions (who really wants to live in Idaho Falls anyhow?? LOL). But overall Chris is doing GREAT at his job. He's the top of his game and we're looking forward to whatever changes may come for us in 2013.
In April we headed down to Moab for the annual Jeep Safari. And of course no safari would be complete without bringing my niece Autumn along. She loves Jeeping as much as we do! We did have trouble on our 2nd trail, our first busted part EVER, but overall we had a great trip.
In August we took a weeklong trip to Yellowstone. Again we invited Autumn to tag along with us. She does so much babysitting for us during the year that we kind of repay her by taking her on our vacations with us. It was such a nice vacation. Great weather, and not too many crowds.
One of my favorite parts was when we got to go out on Yellowstone Lake and fish. Chris hired a guide for a few hours and she knew exactly where to take us. Autumn caught her FIRST fish (a nice 21" cutthroat) and I caught one just slightly bigger. The girls loved it, although it wasn't really the kind of fishing Anna was used it. It was a great adventure still!
Anna started 1st grade. She LOVES being in the Spanish Immersion program and comes home teaching me new words and phrases almost every day. She LOVES to read and at her last parent-teacher conference she was leading the class in total minutes read for the quarter. In fact she had more than twice the minutes of the next highest reader. WAY TO GO ANNA!! We do her regular homework reading each night, an extra book somewhere throughout the evening and then she goes to bed by reading a book (or two) to herself in bed. I can always tell when she's ready for bed because I see her little Ikea wall lamp on and can hear her sweet little voice. She's an excellent reader!
In October I traveled with my Mom and Aunt Judy to Vancouver, Ontario. It was a great "girls trip" filled with LOTS of food, shopping and site seeing. I told Chris that if he ever wanted to move to Vancouver I'd totally be okay with that. I fell in love with the city and the culture.
This year my girlfriend Virginia welcomed her first baby. Little Emma was born in September and I have loved watching Virginia post pictures of her cute little family.
This Thanksgiving brought my sisters and I together after quite a long time apart. Family is family no matter how flawed or stubborn we all may be.
December also gave Anna a chance to see her oldest friends. Again, no matter how flawed or stubborn the parents of the kids are (LOL), they still love playing together no matter how long its been since the last time they hung out.
My sweet friend (and ex-coworker) Denise took our family pictures in May. She is such a great photographer and worked so well with Abby. I'm a little ashamed to say that is our first professional family picture since Abby's been born. I've been wanting to do nice family pictures for quite a while and I think they turned out great!
My niece Jodi got engaged to Larry, her boyfriend since high school. These two are so darn cute together and remind me a lot of me and Chris when we were that young. They are so in love and you can just see how happy they make each other. Larry is such a great guy (my girls just love playing with him) and I cannot wait to see them exchange vows next June!!
Chris worked a lot on his Jeep and is just one Dana 44 away from having it the exact way he wants it. Well I don't think you are ever finished when it comes to owning a Jeep. But he's pretty happy with it, which makes me happy. And I must say, I think his Jeep is looking pretty bad-ass!
In addition to FINALLY getting the basement finish underway, we also did some work on the main floors. Chris put hardwood in both the family and front rooms. LOVE IT! The carpet was here before us and was so stained (from us!) that it just constantly looked dirty. We also finally got the couch we've always wanted. A leather sectional that fits the WHOLE family!! Love it! It was kind of our big Christmas gift to the family.
This year I have loved watching Abby grow into a sweet little girl. The 2's were terrible to say the least. She's stubborn and hard headed and loves her mama and isn't afraid to let you know. But she also loves to play with Anna, making you laugh and of course, horses!
This year has been great for me and Perk. We're as close as ever and have worked really hard on reaching goals and setting new ones. We still make each other laugh like crazy and always have each others backs. We definitely balance each other out.
2012 was a great year. We accomplished a lot, had a lot of fun and are looking forward to see what 2013 brings for our family!
