Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014: My Year in Review

2014 has been incredible. So many things happened this year - I got to play with lion cubs, Dan found out he's going to pilot training at ENJJPT, we spent 100's Weekend in Estes Park, I trained for and ran my first full marathon, had a bridal shower and bachelorette party, attended Dan's graduation parade, commissioning, and graduation, got married, spent a month in Europe for our honeymoon, said goodbye to Colorado and moved to Ohio, road lots of roller coasters at Cedar Point, watched the Kansas City Royals go to the World Series for the first time in my life, started volunteering with 7th and 8th graders at our new church's youth group, expanded my Etsy shop and sold many items at a craft fair, hosted Thanksgiving for the first time, and traveled back to Kansas City for the holidays.


2014 is definitely a year that I will remember forever! So many memories were made... and I absolutely cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store! 

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Honeymoon Series: Munich, Germany

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our ninth (and final) stop: Munich, Germany.

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

Ah, Germany. This was probably my least favorite place and one of Dan's most favorite. It's funny how that works. I still had fun in Munich, but the nearly constant rain put a damper on things. I think Dan enjoyed it so much because he studied German for a fews years, and his dad spent part of his childhood there, so he had heard stories about it his entire life.

We stayed in the Munich area. On the first night, we ended up at a university's cookout somehow, and that ended up being pretty interesting. We also ventured to the world famous Hofbrauhaus for dinner, which was quite the experience! I can't believe how crowded, busy, and loud it was in there - but the food was pretty good! I recently found out that there is one in Columbus, OH, so I'm excited to take Dan to that since he loved it so much!

We were also able to tour the BMW plant (which is HUGE), check out the Olympic Park, watch the show at the Glockenspiel, walk around the Nymphenburg Palace, and see several old churches. Overall, Munich was really cool - the weather just slowed us down for sure. We spent one day inside at a science museum to avoid the rain, which is something we both enjoy.

We did get the call to head back to the USA during this stop on our trip - Dan's mom wasn't doing well, and we needed to make it back to her. We booked a next day flight, took a train from Munich to Frankfurt, and flew through Alaska to Portland, where we were able to see her before she passed away. It was a difficult, emotional time for Dan, but we are glad we made it back in time!














Even though our honeymoon didn't end on the best note, we had an amazing time. All of the cities and countries we were able to see were gorgeous, and we had the best month together exploring new places. We hope to make it back to Europe in 2015 to continue our honeymoon while Dan is on break in between one of his graduate school quarters. We didn't make it to Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, or London, and we hope to hit a couple of those this year on Honeymoon V 2.0 - can't wait! 
  • Have you been to Munich?
  • What is your favorite city to visit in Europe?

Monday, December 29, 2014

AFIT Holiday Ball

The weekend before finals at AFIT (the Air Force Institute of Technology where Dan is getting his Master's degree in physics) was the holiday ball. We had looked forward to it for a couple months, and I was excited when the evening finally rolled around!

This was our first REAL Air Force ball (outside of the Air Force Academy, where Dan did his undergrad) and our first one as a married couple (though Ring Dance at the Academy will ALWAYS take the cake as the most awesome ball ever for us).

I re-wore my dress from Ring Dance because I loved it so much AND didn't want to spend money on a new one (and hey, it still fits a year and a half later, so why not, right?), and we enjoyed some great company and food. We didn't dance because Dan's back had been hurting him pretty badly, but we are glad we went anyway!

We met some new couples that we hadn't talked to before, and that's always nice. The food and decorations were splendid, and it was definitely a great night!





Overall, we had a great night and enjoyed meeting some new people!

  • Do you like going to balls?
  • What was your favorite military ball?

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas (and Christmases Past)

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope everyone who reads this has the best holiday with their loved ones or is at least able to talk to them if they can't be with them!

I was doing some reminiscing after scanning all of my old photos and decided to share all of my Christmas photos from long ago. You can definitely tell these pictures were taken in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's!
















Have a wonderful day, everyone! 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Honeymoon Series: Normandy, France

Over the summer, my husband and I went on our honeymoon shortly after our wedding. We visited many cool places, and you can read about all of that in this post. I'm going to be chronicling each stop on our amazing trip. Today's post will feature our favorite photos from our eighth stop: Normandy Region, France

(I will update the links below once all posts have been written and published.)

STOP 1 | STOP 2 | STOP 3 | STOP 4 | STOP 5 | STOP 6 | STOP 7 | STOP 8 | STOP 9

What an amazing decision it was that we decided to go to Normandy. Dan and I are both really into history, and I am especially into World War II. Our good friends Lizzie and Michael went to Normandy for their honeymoon and told us we HAD to go, and I am SO glad we did!

Normandy was seriously our favorite stop on the entire trip! It was more laidback and relaxed than all of the big cities we visited (duh), and that was a nice change of pace. We were exhausted by this point of our trip.

I got to cross something off of my bucket list on this trip: running on Omaha Beach. I don't know why I wanted to do that so badly, but it was just as spectacular as I thought it would be. That's where all of the famous scenes from D-Day took place - it's where the Americans (and British and Canadians) invaded, and it was a major turning point in the war. American flags are hung up ALL OVER the little cities over there, and the people we met were so nice to us. It was amazing to see that part of history, and we even stayed at a couple's home from AirBnB.com - they were the cutest and made us typical French breakfasts each day. I could have gotten used to that.

We just had the best time in Normandy - the food was amazing, the scenery was gorgeous, and the history was rich. We visited the American Cemetery of Normandy, and it was surreal walking through there. It was immaculate, and we both felt pretty strongly about seeing that area.

We also got to tour all kinds of old German batteries - where they would try to shoot the Allied Forces from. They're falling apart, but some awesome French people keep them in tact so that history can live on and generations to come will be able to see what the Axis powers did during WWII. It was such a unique experience to be able to crawl through the batteries and see the old cannons. We had a blast being up close and personal to all of those.

We drove back to Paris after leaving Normandy (the only part of our trip we had a car), and on the way, we were able to stop at William the Conqueror's castle - talk about neat as well! This place is just amazing, and I HIGHLY recommend taking a trip to the Normandy region!




















Whew! Looking through these pictures sure takes me back... and we'd head back to the Normandy region in a heartbeat! It was seriously the best. 
  • Have you ever been to Normandy?
  • What was your favorite thing to do there?