Thursday, January 1, 2015

An Awesome Year!

This last year was one of the best years of my life!  It was filled with so many blessings, adventures and fun!  It's one of those years that we'll always say...."2014...what a great year!"  We should get some 2014 wine and store it away just because of that!

Here are some of the highlights...

My husband's grandfather surprised us all at the beginning of the year when he pulled through a seriously scary stay at the hospital.  We didn't think he'd make it.  He'll be 95 this month!


My daughter and I organized a Marine care package project.  The response was amazing and inspiring!  And, it was a lot of fun!  Click HERE if you'd like to read more about that.


My daughter performed her junior recital at her college in February.  She did a wonderful job and was extra beautiful that day in her gorgeous gown and hairdo.  We're so proud!


In March, we headed to Zion during my daughter's spring break.  We had a great time, as always.  We're so in love with this part of the country!  There's so much beauty to see and adventure and fun to be had.  HERE's a link to posts about that trip.  This is a picture from the top of Observation Point.


In June, my daughter and I headed out on a three week road trip to 10 different states.  We had SO much fun and made memories to last a lifetime.  HERE's a link to blog posts about our adventure (they go from the end and scroll down to through the earlier parts of the trip to the beginning).


We got back in early July from our trip and the rest of the summer went by super fast.  That's probably because we filled it with lots more fun and together time.  This is a picture of a toast at a special dinner in the mountains just before our daughter headed back to college for her senior year.


In September, hubby and I headed out with our RV for a two week adventure in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.  It was an early celebration for our upcoming 25th anniversary.  We visited Grand Canyon's North Rim, Capitol Reef National Park, Escalante (Utah), Grand Canyon National Park's South Rim and Sedona, Arizona.  The weather was perfect, the scenery spectacular, and the wildflowers were blooming like crazy!

This is a picture I took as we traveled 26 bumpy miles on "Hole in the Rock Road" to explore slot canyons.  We saw hundreds of miles of yellow flowers during the two weeks of that trip.


All those bumpy miles were worth it.  The slot canyons were amazing!


Grand Canyon and the glorious scenery and sunsets were the perfect way to end the trip.  HERE's a link to posts from that trip...going back from the end to the beginning.


I had another endometrial biopsy this Fall and found out that the endometrial hyperplasia is gone!  Woot!  What a huge relief!  And, I went for a mammogram and that was good too!  Yay!

In November, hubby was given tickets for box seats to a Laker's basketball game in LA.  We made a date of it and went early to explore downtown LA a bit and have dinner before the game.  Across from Staples Center is a place called "LA Live".  There were Laker cheerleaders there, sports radio was broadcasting live, music, and lots of other things in the center of restaurants, bars, and more.  This guy had the fun job of watching bubbles come up through a stencil with the numbers of the radio station and slicing them off to float away.  The bubbles were filled with helium.  It was fascinating!  We had so much fun that night...even though the Lakers lost.


December 9th was our 25th wedding Anniversary!  Happier together than ever and looking forward to 25 and 25 and 25 more...at least!


A few weeks before Christmas, we went to see our daughter perform in her university Wassail.  It was amazing, she did a spectacular job and we got to see it all on TV on Christmas Eve.


I did better at not being such a Scrooge this Christmas.  In fact, I can actually say that I enjoyed Christmas a little more this year.  We did things a bit differently and that was nice.  On Christmas afternoon, my parents and my brother and his wife and boys came over for dinner, fun, and gifts.  We always love seeing them all!  I made it a little extra fun for the boys with some games and prizes.  I'd think of something in our house that might be a little challenging to find and the first one to find it would get a prize.  We did that a bunch of times throughout the afternoon.   They loved it and so did I.  It was also a great trick to keep them entertained.  lol  What a bunch of cuties!


And, now, it's a new year!  I'm amazed at how fast this year seems to have flown!  But, my!...what an amazing year it was!  I hope 2015 can be just as awesome!

All of you who follow my blog and take the time to leave comments were a special part of my year too.  Every time I hear from one of you, it brightens my day.  Thank you!  I always try to write back to your comments.  If you never hear from me, it means your comment doesn't have an email address, just a "no-reply" on it.  But, know that I appreciate your comments too!

Wishing you all a wonderful, healthy, happy, blessed 2015!

8 comments:

mamasmercantile said...

Happy new year to you too and thank you for all your wonderful comments throughout 2014.

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

Happy almost birthday to your grandfather-in-law -- 95 is certainly something to celebrate! Certainly looks like you had a joy-filled year. Best wishes for 2015! Tammy

Quinn said...

Wow, what a YEAR! I hope 2015 is just as special :)
BTW, you asked about my Hay Hauler Helmet...I blogged about it, but here is the rav link to the project page if you'd like the shorter version ;)

Mereknits said...

What a fabulous year you have had. Here is to a wonderful 2015!
Hugs,
Meredith

Michelle said...

Looks like such a great year! Best wishes for another one in 2015!

Amy at love made my home said...

It looks like an incredible year! I am so glad about your grandfather in law, these things are very scary aren't they, I know how that feels, but I am so pleased that he is doing well. The photo of your daughter in her beautiful dress with the harp is so lovely isn't it, you must be so proud of her and treasure that picture so much. I hope that 2015 will be a great year for you! xx

Teresa Kasner said...

What a wonderful year you had! You are so lucky to have such a talented daughter who is obviously devoted to you. I so miss my daughter who moved to Ohio. wah.

*H*A*P*P*Y* * *A*N*N*I*V*E*R*S*A*R*Y*!*!*

And thanks for all the New Orleans suggestions.. I can't wait to get there!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

Susan said...

I have to say that I truly enjoyed it right along with you! Thank you for sharing your wonderful year - and the years to come... :)