A New Year Anyone?

2011 in Recap...

Liz in school.

Alan at work.

One blast of a New Year Party!

We went to Utah for the week after Christmas and had so much fun hanging out with the Lamb clan! We had a little Christmas celebration and spent a lot of time playing games, getting pedicures (the boys Loved it!), going snowmobiling, and visiting friends. I was able to reunite with old mission companions and roommates from college, and Alan got to see a few of his. The Lambs took us to dinner at The Roof, which was delicious, and we were also able to experience a traditional English prime rib dinner at their home. We had a great time and are so grateful for all the time we spent with family away from family...

at the lodge where we snowmobiled...

So... funny story. Alan is a little dare devil and I was reaaaally nervous about him doing something crazy and wrecking the snow machine. Well, turns out that my obsession with safety turned out to be the death of me. There were a lot of tracks in the snow, and not much by way of fresh powder on the mountain. I found out a little late that the slower you go... the less control you have.

Yep. Me and the tree. Don't worry, I'm fine. My pride is all that was hurt.

New Year's Eve delights!

Did you know that if you leave the avocado pit in the guacamole--it keeps it from turning brown?! IT's true.

I have a turtle neck on under my jammies because we got them really into The Big Bang Theory and I wanted to be Howard... It was funnier in person maybe:)

Happy 2012.

Our Theme for 2012 is: "It's all about Me." More to come....

Christmas Flashback

We had a blast with Christmas this last year. Alan's brother and his wife, Chris and Becca, came to visit for the week, and we basically did all the fun things we could think to cram into our time together:) We went to Gino's East for Chicago style pizza, had Chicago style hot dogs, went to the Lincoln Zoo in the city, walked Michigan Ave, visited the German Christkindlmarket and ate sausage, visited the Museum of Science and Industry, saw Dr Seuss' exhibit, played games, and thought really, really hard about going to see "A Christmas Carol"- but we're too poor:) We got to spend lots of good time together and I am so glad we have such good friends as family.

ice sculpting at the Zoo

The Bean...

This kind of really cracked us up! The museum had Christmas trees from around the world and we found this one from Guatemala. Apparently the best they could come up with to describe Guatemala are burlap sacks. Because everyone walks around with their belongings in a bag on their backs:) right.... too funny.

The Phillipines, where Chris served his mission

Isn't she a lamb?! (her maiden name, if you didn't know...)

Puerto Rico! yay for missions.

Christmas morning stockings. Prepared ever so carefully by Santa through the night. I made cream cheese Danishes just like momma's, and we spent the morning opening gifts, listening to Christmas music, and relaxing together before Church.

We started a fun tradition where we found ornaments to describe each others' years. Chris was really into sand castles this year and Becca is an extraordinary crochet-er...

Alan bought me an ornament with books, and I bought him a metal that says "American Hero". It's a joke between us because throughout the year, when he would play war games on his X box at night, I would beg him to come home safe to me. Then he would get busy saving the world. I don't know about America, but he sure is MY hero.

The true spirit of Christmas...

It was really nice to have a chance to establish some of our own traditions and to celebrate Christmas in our own ways this year, but we definitely missed seeing our other loved ones. Good thing Christmas comes every year and we get the joy of Christmas all year round! (our tree perhaps has or has not been taken down yet...oops!)

And it Keeps Getting Better

Don't worry.... I will back up soon and get some pics up from Christmas and so on... But while I have a minute, I thought I would quickly make note of our Valentine Weekend Getaway and remind you all why you are jealous of our marriage:) Ha...kidding, of course. I do hope everyone feels about their husbands the way I do about mine, and I feel so blessed and grateful for all the great memories we are able to make together. He is The Best!

On Friday I finished with Pediatrics, spent like 10 hours on campus with testing and lectures, etc., then babysat for some friends. On Saturday morning, I woke up to Alan's sweet serenade of some made up song, and a smile as he told me we needed to get up and get ready for a trip. He told me to pack my slippers, my swimming suit, flip flops, and something nice to wear for dinner. We got all packed and ready to go. We drove into the city and caught a cab from our hook up of a parking spot-- and off we went... to a very lovely hotel.

We stayed at The Drake, one of Chicago's most historic hotels. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! We had a lakeside view, a massive King size bed, and for the entire weekend we Lived in those amazing long white robes... It was heaven. We went to dinner at the very first (as in the Original) Morton's Steakhouse, and then we walked around downtown. We spent the rest of the evening in our white robes playing games and watching a cute movie. When I woke up this morning, I couldn't believe it... I was completely sprawled out with plenty of room to spare:) We got some breakfast and checked out Legoland as well as the American Girl Place store... Did anyone else have one growing up? They have the most incredible store with all sorts of new things. I had no idea the world of dolls had become so advanced.

Anyhow, we walked down Michigan Ave and made our way back to the car as we ended our magical weekend trip. We arrived home in time to celebrate our good friend's 30th birthday... "Dessert night" provided by his sweet/awesome Wife, Amy.

Overall, I would have to say we made some great memories this weekend and I hope you all get to make some of your own too. Happy Valentine's Day!