Year 2010 in Pictures

Over the month of December I've been trying to pull together all the pictures I could (my own folders plus facebook) of the best times of 2010.  I somehow managed to get distracted, so hopefully I have enough here to cover the year.

One of the biggest highlights of 2010 was the man that I got to share all of my life with; celebrating one year of being officially committed, going to many Twins games together, having fancy date nights, going on a road trip - my best friend, Steve:

Another highlight of my year was becoming an auntie again; Cayden Taylor was born April 30th:

Then of course the other niece, Jordan - who turned 3 this year.. and acts... about 13.  I've never felt the kind of love I feel from her - it melts my heart:

My cousins, Shannon and Michelle, became 2 people who I can truly count on and I've loved becoming real friends with them more than just family.  We have out annual summer weekend going up North getting drunk, we do photo shoots every time we are together and this year we've been together every Tuesday to watch the new Glee episode - I adore these girls!

I went to about 700 Twins games this year, which was completely awesome:

I went to (and planned) my 10 year High School reunion:

Going to Madeline Island for the second year for a long weekend of camping:

Having girls dinners, almost monthly:

Annual Spring weekend with my mom, aunts and cousins (we call it Mother/Daughter/Aunt/Niece/Cousin weekend):

Meeting some bloggers in real life!!

Going to see the play of The Wizard of Oz with these folks and ending up spending a classy night downtown Minneapolis:

There was one bad thing, one bad memory of 2010, but its the kind of memory I don't want to forget; my friend Davina passed away.  It amazes me how often I think of her now that she is gone - RIP Davina, I hope you're having as much fun up there as we had down here!

Here's to a very happy 2011 - to all of you.  

For me, I have Hawaii coming in about a month, I'll be moving in with a boy, and hopefully some other great memories will come this year!

If you want to check out my other year in picture posts, click on these years: 2008, 2009

Happy New Year

Steve and I went back and forth for about ... well, it was like a 2 minute conversation about what we wanted to do for NYE.  I was happy and content staying home, but we had 2 parties we were contemplating.  One small gathering and one larger; Steve told me staying home wasn't an option. :(  I don't like when boyfriend tells me "No", but he does it so rarely that I figured I'd let it slide this time ;)
Going out meant drinking and drinking meant not driving and not driving meant not staying at home - which I hated the thought of.  The older I get, the less I like staying away from home.  So we decided that we'd cab it back to my house regardless of where we ended up.  So anyhow, we ended up going over to Jeff and Linnea's house - who we've spent the last few NYE's with.  Jeff and Steve have been BFF since they were little kids as they grew up next door to each other - Linnea is Jeff's fiancée.  There was going to be about 7 of us total; the plan was to fondue.

So we decided to take the train up to his house for an easy $3.25 per ticket, then we planned to take a cab home.  Somewhere Steve has a picture of us at the train station, waiting alone in the cold.
Once at Jeff's we pour drinks and socialize.  Then the fondue is ready, so we all dig in and have a good time standing around filling our bellies.  We had 2 oil pots (with steak, meatballs, cut up hot dogs to dip in batter, potatoes) and one cheese pot (with green and red apples, bread, etc.) - after fondue we played games and waited for midnight.  It proved to be a great time - here are the pictures I've swiped off Facebook:

We played pictionary man and this is my drawing of Mr. T

The boys were losing bigtime - and the girls were loving it!

Then we tried to take some group shots before midnight:

I don't remember this one:

this is Jess and I - (I with purple teeth, guess what I was drinking):

me and boyfriend - with Brady getting in the mix:

I think I'm trying to be cute here:

Love these peeps!

Steve and I ended up getting a cab about 1am and headed back to my house.  We got home and sat crossed legged on the couch facing each other and had one of the best conversations we've ever had.  Sure we were drunk and bits of it are blurry - but it was amazing.
I suppose now is as good a time as any to share the news with my blog friends... I've been waiting to share the news on my blog until everyone I love knows (mostly I was waiting to tell my mom, but she knows now) - back in September I was having a hard time (most likely my time of the month as a get pretty emo) and Steve and I had a big talk - that talk ended with Steve making a decision to buy a house and asking me if I want to live with him once that happens.  I, of course, said YES.  Steve and I are ready for it and I'm excited for it.  I've never lived with a boy, besides my brother, so I'm pretty nervous too.  Anyhow - a lot of our talk on Friday night/Saturday morning was about that and our future.... it was just the perfect way to end one year and start another.  I love Steve and I'm so in love with my life!

I'm really glad we went out on Friday night - it was a great time!

Happy New Year to all my blogger peeps- I hope 2011 is the most amazing year you've had yet!

It's finally Christmas

Yep, I know its late, but better late than never, right?  Honestly, I've just been waiting for some pictures to be posted on facebook so that I could share them with you (specifically my footed jammies)

Hopefully this'll be mostly pictures -
Christmas morning, Steve and I got up and went over to my brother and SIL's house for Christmas Brunch and gifts with the whole gang (which is their family, Steve and myself, and my mom and her bf).  Steve and I had exchanged gifts on Christmas eve night, and one of the things he bought me was an awesome hoodie that I just had to wear over to my brothers house (because I wanted to make him jealous):

Jealous he was!  This is the result of me saying: Jason, let's take a picture and make a sad face because you're jealous of my hoodie:

A few others of the morning:

 Auntie, Jordan, and her pillow pet:

 She LOVES walking, but she can't do it on her own yet:

 Little precious loves her thumb!

 I love this one!

 Cayden Taylor, 8 mos.

 Little miss sassy pants kept putting her hand on her hips:

So the gifts aren't important.. plus I don't remember what everyone got... so we'll just keep going.
Just kidding!  One gift that is awesome and completely worth mentioning: my bro and SIL got Steve and I a very generous gift certificate to Mama's Fish House, which is a very expensive restaurant in Maui.  We had already planned to go there for lunch one day, but now with this gift card, we'll be going one night for dinner as well, we've already made the reservation for the last night we are there.  I just thought that was so awesome!

Moving on:
Steve and I went back to my house and got changed and stopped over at his parents house to visit for a bit, then we made our way over to my aunts house.  In the days leading up to Christmas I had been prepping for the appetizer I was bringing - we didn't have a formal sit down dinner because the family is huge-ish, so everyone brought little foods and people could snack all day or make a big plate to eat or whatever they wanted.  I brought little mini open faced meatloaf sandwiches, so I had meatloaf and a sauce made in advance and read to put together upon our arrival; here is what they looked like once they were put together (I hope to get the recipe posted soon-ish):

I Santa also bought a clown nose for my cousin Shannon - because she's so funny and because she gets clown lips:

And then I opened my gift from my dad and Raquel last, like I always do (because it's always the best!) - part of that gift was my sweet new footed jammies (which I throughly tested out on New Years day, with a hangover); everyone wanted me to try them on, so duh!, I did!

And then Jordan, my niece, had to go put on her jammies too.. so we had to get a picture of that:

So... that about sums up the day!  Sorry it's so late - I should have a few pics from New Years up later today... they'll all be stolen from Facebook as I took like ... 3 pictures.