The Year of Awesome: Part II

Now for the second half of my 2014 recaps!  While the second half of the year held fewer milestone moments, I still packed a whole lot in...  

In July I got to spend the 4th of July with my family and saw a lot of my extended family.

I also made a lot of great memories with Phil.  One of my favorite date nights was a group date to Minnehaha Falls with some of his college friends.

Another highlight of this month was attending Amber's wedding in Iowa.  It was my first road trip with Phil and we had a really fun time.  I also learned at this wedding that Phil LOVES to dance at weddings.

Lastly, in July I achieved a major accomplishment of paying off my grad school student loans!  The balance was so high when I graduated but I worked my butt off and made other sacrifices in my life to pay them off as fast as possible.

In August I got to introduce Phil to my entire family, minus one brother-in-law and he got the thumbs up from everyone.  My sister and her husband were home and while my time with them went way too fast, it was great to see them.

We closed out the month by attending another wedding, this time it was a college friend of Phil's.

The highlight of September was most certainly my trip to San Francisco for our running rendezvous.  I fell even more in love with San Francisco and was happy with the strong trail race I ran.  I especially appreciated the fact that Amber and I ran every step of the race together.

October was the month for visitors!  To start off the month, my friend from Austin came up for a college girls weekend which was so much fun.

The following weekend, Iowa Amber came to visit and we went to a book fair (plus 2 other bookstores) together. 

Lori came to visit at the end of the month and I got to play tour guide and show off some of the reasons I love Minneapolis so much.  We packed a lot in but also spent a lot of time relaxing and catching up.  I miss seeing her on a regular basis!

During the last week of the month, Phil and I also hosted a pumpkin carving party.  Thanks to a stencil and Phil's steady hand (he did the carving), we had the nicest pumpkin design I've ever had.

November featured our 6th annual Julia Child night.  The apron photo grows and grows each year!

I ended the month by celebrating Thanksgiving with my family at the lake.  I got to spend a lot of time with my grandma and we played a lot of games.  This picture shows 3 generations playing cards together!

Of course the highlight of December was our trip to Jamaica.  This was my first vacation with Phil and we had the best time. 

We came back to the holiday season and celebrated the season by attending a couple of parties, exchanging gifts, baking cookies, and looking at lights.

I spent Christmas at my parents' lake home.  With the exception of the stomach flu that hit several family members (including me), it was a great holiday!

My nephew Matthew dictating his letter to Santa to my sister Abby

The boys and their gadgets

Evie is one happy baby

There's no limit to the amount of whipped cream that goes on a hot cocoa at Grandma's house!

Anna with her cap with an Anna braid (my brother also tried it on but it was cuter on her!)

After writing these two posts out, it's no wonder that 2014 flew by as fast as it did...  What can I say - I lived the hell out of 2014.  While 2014 was an awesome year, I'm ready to close it out and start a new year.  There was a lot of awesomeness in 2014, but there was also a lot of change so I am looking forward to 2015 as I am hoping it will be a bit more peaceful and quiet. 

Our New Years plans are fairly quiet as we'll ring in the New Year by hanging out and playing games with some friends, which is the ideal way to celebrate New Years in my opinion!

What are your plans for New Years?  I hope that everyone has a safe and happy celebrations and that 2015 holds many great things for all of us!