2010 in a Nutshell

Well, here we are at the end of 2010! I barely made it to midnight last year and I have no intention of even trying this year. I have become such an old woman.

What a year it has been! A lot, LOT, has happened this year. I am glad for the new year and new beginnings.

Here are a few of the biggest things that have happened in 2010...

January: My sweet niece Violet was born. She is so easy to love. She laughs and laughs about the littlest things. I love spending time with her and Bella. They are hilarious together!February: My family moved from Alpine to Lehi. This was the most stressful time! I had to move everything twice, while planning my wedding!

March: And of course, Bobby and I got MARRIED!! And now I have two wonderful, eternal families!!

April: Bobby and I bought a NEW (manual) car. I had to learn to drive a stick, which was completely horrifying!
May: Grandpa Bus passed away. We went to California for the funeral where I was able to show Bobby my old hometown.

June & July: Bobby went to school in the summer and I worked, but we definitely enjoyed our free time. Johnny and Joanna moved to NYC :(

August: We drove to Michigan. I went sailing for my first time and fell in love with Old Mission. And, we spent a few days in Chicago (I also fell in love with Chicago) on our way home. Bobby was a champ and drove about 80% of the drive home from Chicago.

September & October: School started again for Bobby and I kept working... We saw the Fall leaves and enjoyed Halloween with Bobby's family.

November: We spent our first Thanksgiving together with Bobby's family this year. It was a wonderful day with delicious food!

December: Nate visited Utah for Christmas and brought his friend Safina. She treated everyone to a traditional Indian dinner. A bunch of us went up to Temple Square a few days before Christmas and saw the lights and took a tour of the Conference Center. We spent Christmas eve with my family, I went to my sister's house Christmas morning for a delicious breakfast, and we went to Bobby's parents on Christmas night. It was so nice to be able to spend time with both of our families. AND Sarah Louise gave birth to the newest addition to the family, Ian Lewis Wright, on December 27th.

Halloween!

Fall is my favorite time year. I love the changing leaves and the bite in the air. I love wearing sweaters and cuddling in a blanket, reading a good book. And I love Halloween!! Unfortunately Bobby and I had to work all weekend, but we celebrated with his family on Friday night. My mother in-law put together several games for the kids to play--pin the nose on the pumpkin, a treasure hunt, eat the donut off the string w/o using your hands, and musical chairs. Here are a few pictures of my cute nieces and nephews.

Molly, the Fairy Princess

Owen, the Skeleton Army Man

Abram as Dracula, Molly, Lulu and Norah as the Brides of Dracula

Chicago!

On our way home from Michigan, (yes, we drove...) we stopped in Chicago for a few nights. It is an amazing city! It feels cleaner and safer than New York, but it's still a huge city. I loved every minute of it. We went on an architectural boat tour which was awesome. The buildings there are incredible. Hopefully we'll be able to go there again next year! Oh, and we stayed at the Hilton Chicago a 4 star hotel for 80 bucks a night thanks to priceline.com.

Buckingham Fountain

Cloud Gate
I LOVE this (thing?)! I could have stayed here all day to take pictures of it with different reflections. Unfortunately we only had a day to see Chicago.

On our boat tour we went right under the Sears Tower or I guess now known as the Willis Tower.

Michigan

Bobby and I just got back from a wonderful trip to Old Mission, Michigan.
I will warn you now that this blog will be filled with pictures...

A group of us at the Old Mission Lighthouse

For some reason I look disgusted that Bobby is kissing me. I swear I love him.

Sailing! Bobby's grandfather has a beautiful sailboat that we were able to go on one day. This is Bobby preparing to put of the main sail.

Bobby with our nieces Olivia and Maddie and our Nephew Owen.

Us in front of Lake Michigan, on our way to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.

The "warning" at the top of the dunes. It was SO steep. I stopped about a third of the way down. I honestly didn't think I could make it back up if I went to the bottom.

This is the view from where I stopped. Those little dots are the people in our group... Doesn't Lake Michigan look beautiful in this shot?

Happy Birthday Bobby!

It's my wonderful husband's birthday today! I feel so lucky to be married to him for eternity. Bobby turned 27 years old today. We spent the day celebrating. I woke him up at 10 with German pancakes and orange juice. We laid around for a few hours, then went to see The Last Airbender. Bobby used to watch the cartoon, so he wanted to see it and he did enjoy it. And, surprisingly, I enjoyed it too. The acting was horrendous, but the story kept my attention. When we got home, Bobby took a nap to prepare for his long night of work. While he napped, I made a 7 layer chocolate cake that Bobby loves. Sarah, our sister in law, used to make it so she passed the recipe on to me. We took the cake to my in-law's and had a delicious dinner to end our festivities.

I love you, Bobby!

Zoooo!

I had 3 days off last week, so Bobby and I were able to spend a lot of time together. It was wonderful! We went hiking, ate sushi, celebrated Bobby's mom's birthday, had our 3 MONTH anniversary and we went to the zoo with our friends Aubrey and Hunter!!

The zoo was a lot of fun!
This cute little sand cat was mine and Aubrey's favorite animal at the zoo. Unfortunately we can't have one as pet. Yes, we looked.
Here was Bobby's favorite part of the zoo. A wolf... He made us hike up a hill to see it.

A crocodile!

Check out this amazing peacock!

There's nothing quite like coming home from a long, hard day of work to a sweet husband and two dozen beautiful red roses. I love being married!

Cakes Galore!

I'm getting behind on my posting!
I found these on a blog today and would LOVE to make one of them!

Recipe

Recipe

Photogenic

My cute niece, Bella, got a hold of my camera last week while we were in California for my grandpa's funeral. She is actually a pretty good photographer. She took countless closeup pictures of me (which I will spare everyone from seeing), and tons of pictures of Sarah with Violet and Josh and also a few pictures of random people... I then asked her to take some pictures of herself. Here are a few...

I told you she's talented.

Grandpa Bus

1924-2010

My grandpa Robert "Buster" Galbraith passed away last week after an excruciating 12 hour heart surgery. He was an incredible man and the best example. I never heard him complain or say a negative thing about anyone. He was always more concerned about other people than himself. He had a wonderful sense of humor and was always joking around with us. His funeral was a sad yet peaceful event. The church was filled with people he loved and who loved him. I am so glad to know that I will see him again one day. I know he's in a better place and that he will be rewarded for the way he lived his life on this earth. I am proud to say he was my grandfather.

Beep Beep

Bobby and I just made our biggest purchase ever last week. I am still feeling a little anxious about it, but we did get a very good deal. We bought a new Toyota Yaris! It gets very good gas mileage, (40+ on the freeway!) and with the Toyota deals going on right now, the new car ended up being cheaper than the certified pre owned car we were looking at. It has ZERO PERCENT INTEREST for 5 years! The only problem is that the car is a manual and I don't know how to drive it yet! I've been practicing a little bit and I always stall when I'm starting out from a stop. It's really stressful. Hopefully I'll be able to learn quickly!

For Brittany A. Barnes

Brittany,

This will waste a few minutes of your time.

I made a second attempt at making cookies last night and boy are they better than the first time!
I found the recipe here and they are quite tasty. Bobby has eaten a few, which is more than I can say about the last batch.


It was Violet's (my adorable, sweet, cuddly niece) baby blessing on Sunday. It was a beautiful blessing! We had a little get together at my sister's house after and she made these darling pom poms. I will make them for some occasion in my life.
Here is an example from Martha Stewart:


Bobby and I went went bowling tonight. He won both games, but it was really fun.
This is him after his first win!

Two Weeks

We've had a lot of fun these first two weeks of marriage.
We went to dinner with friends we haven't seen in MONTHS!
We enjoyed Easter with Bobby's family.
We ate a delicious dinner that my wonderful new sister in law made on Tuesday.
We went on a date last night with two other couples. Because of Bobby's suggestion, the guys saw Clash of the Titans while us girls cried our eyes out in Last Song.
I came home from a long day of work yesterday to the most beautiful bouquet of TULIPS (my favorite flower) and a very cute husband! I'm really loving married life, all two weeks of it.


Bobby's sister Martha gave us her old washer and dryer and we finally picked them up today! Poor Bobby cut his toe and bled all over the floor while we were hooking them up, but we got them up and running. I've been doing our laundry all day and could not be happier.

p.s.

One more thing...
I bought this today with our many gift cards to Williams-Sonoma!

1 Week

We have been married for one blissful week.
I'm also proud to say that I have successfully made two dinners!
Last night I made a breaded chicken with parmesan cheese, basil, parsley and green onions. Tonight I made taco soup. I'm turning into quite the housewife.
We'll see how long this lasts...

We're Hitched!

After 20 months of dating we finally got married! It is the best decision I have ever made. I've never been happier and I picked the most wonderful man.

We just returned from our "honeymoon" in Salt Lake, where we stayed at the Little America. It was so nice being able to fall asleep together! We splurged a little on food and room service and have vowed to be frugal, from now on.

Our amazing wedding photographer, Michelle Sallay, posted some pictures on her blog from our big day. She made our day so painless. I would recommend her to anyone. She is extremely talented and affordable. Some of my favorites from her blog follow.