2010 Highlights

2010.

It was a great year.

I still can't believe it's over.

I haven't been the best at blogging

(definitely a resolution for 2011)

but here are my

2010 Highlights.

Enjoy! I know I did!

Ringing in 2010 with my ladies in AZ.

I miss them more with every passing year.
My 36 hour trip to LA for Amanda's Wedding.
Worth every minute.

Celebrating my 28th in Utah with some of my favorite people.

Jen's Wedding in Utah.

I couldn't be happier for her marriage!

(Gives me hope!)

Post Birthday Bash and Dancing the night away once everyone else left.

I haven't dance that hard in a long time.

So much fun!

Snow Days.

A Week without work and 20+ inches of snow.

Here's hoping Snowmaggedown comes again!

Weekend in Florida, moving Melissa and the boys.

Hanging with the brothers and my babies.

Why don't I live in Florida again?!

Las Vegas and John Mayer.

Cherry Blossoms in DC.

There's a reason there's a whole Festival for them.

Beautiful!

Baseball Games.

Summertime in the City.

Quick trip up to NYC with Julie.

Saw my sister and the Musical

"In the Heights".

Awesome!

Vince's 4th Birthday Party!

Playing in the Sun and hanging out with my family.

Perfection.

A week in Arizona for work?

Yes, Please!

Hawaii.

Taking my own private LOST Tour.

Opening the door to Heaven.

This was probably THE highlight of 2010.

Seriously. Amazing.

Guam.

Beaches.

Oh, why do I live in DC?!

Roommates.

K Weed.

We threw a heckuva party when she left.

I wish she'd come back :(

10 Year High School Reunion.

Spending the weekend with Tiffany.

Oh this was the best vacation.

Hanging with Melissa and the boys.

I can't get enough of them.

Melissa in DC for the 4th of July.

It was a perfect weekend.

Quick work trip to Southern Utah.

Best Friends heading down for a few hours.

Hanging on the side of the Interstate.

Such love.

Sharing my love of Cafe Rio with my Cousins.

Spreading that Mexican Joy.

Dinners with Deana.

This girl can grill!

Awww...Normandy.

Check that off the bucketlist.

A definite 2010 Highlight.

Spending a week in France with these two.

Heaven.

Lunch on the Eiffel Tower.

Best meal of 2010.

Hands down.

Enjoying my city with my people.

Such good friends.

Work trips to see Friends.

Charla in Minnesota.

Jenny in Iowa.

Jenny in Chicago.

This girl melts my heart.

Makes time for me even when she has a million other things going on.

Love her. Weekends down to Florida.

Can't even count the trips I made.

Wasn't enough that's for sure. Layover in Phoenix and dinner with my girls!

Thursdays with the Nicelys.

All in all 2010 was a keeper.

Here's hoping 2011 is even better.

Happy New Year!

Utah Christmas

Ever since my Freshman year at BYU (2000)

my family has done Christmas in Utah.

I love it.

Now that we're all a bit older, and still single,

we can really do Christmas anywhere.

So we continue the tradition and

meet up at Grandma's in Parowan.

This year before we headed South,

we got all the Shurtleff Girls together in SLC.

My Mom booked us a cooking class.

We had such a good time!!

These pictures are just a taste of the deliciousness we created

and the laughter that ensued.

Good, good times!

Cousins. How I love them.
My cousin Annie's face is so priceless here!
Our Chef was hilarious, but he was intense!
Made us all a bit nervous!
Hahaha.
Sitting down to our Feast!

Once we got to Grandma's, all the usual traditions kicked in.

Christmas Eve we had our Christmas Pageant.

Vince was the "Law Enforcement Shepard".

He was not happy with the Shepard idea.
He wanted to be a Policeman.

Here is our compromise.

The younger cousins acted out the Nativity.

Barely escaped this year...Joe was the cut off it seems! Haha.

Baby Clyde was supposed to be the Baby Jesus.

You can see he was more interested in the rocking horse.

Such a cutie!

Christmas Morning!

We were so excited for the babies to open their gifts.
We actually had to wake up Vince!

Lounging around Grandma's house.

No matter how big we all get, we still seem to fit.

It's a Christmas Miracle :)

It's Snowing!

The trip was way too quick, as always.

But we had such a good time.

I love Christmas in Parowan.

Hanging with the family is just so much fun.

Can't wait till next year!

Thanksgiving in Florida

My parents live in Paris.

In case you didn't know.

Haha.

They were headed to the States in early December

and so they wouldn't be able to come out for Thanksgiving.

So my siblings and I decided it was time that we tackle Turkey Day on our own...

Yup, we cooked all the fixings and somehow managed to feed ourselves and not kill each other.

Guess we are growing up.

We met up at Melissa's in Florida and honestly, had a blast.

The food was delicious and the weather was perfect.
Oh and we got to play with this guy all weekend long.

Melissa decided to give the boys a job while they were in town.

Task: Build a Sand Box.

You'd think that would be rather easy.

Not with these guys.

After two trips with the Truck, we had about 45 bags of Sand.

Apparently, Melissa is now ready for any potential flooding in Tallahassee.

Had to snap a shot of the brothers sitting three across en route to Home Depot.

Aren't they precious?

While everyone was outside laboring away on the Sand Box,

I was able to snap some shots of my favorite babies.

This may just be my favorite picture of them. EVER.

I love how it looks like Baby Clyde is wiping Vince's chin.

They are seriously too cute for words.

I adore them.

Me and my boys. I'm a proud Aunt, what can I say?

The Sand Box aka Mini Beach in Melissa's backyard.

Vince was so ecstatic about the Sand Box.

Once it was complete, he didn't leave it for hours.

The weekend was a huge hit.

It really was great to be able to get together as siblings

and just enjoy each other's company.

I am so grateful for my brothers and sister.

I genuinely like each of them and just love them for the people they are.

Capitol Tour

I've lived in DC over two years now.

And I've done a lot of touristy things,

but I had never gotten to do a Capitol Tour.

Until now!

It was AWESOME!

Our entire Relief Society (non-mormon friends: that's all the women in our congregation) went.

Which means there were a done of ladies!

My roommate Savanna and I went together.

We were able to get a bit of the VIP treatment,

since the niece of Senator Bennett goes to church with us.

Here's Savanna with Sen. Bennett.

Capitol Dome.

Gorgeous!
Our Tour Guide.

Pres. Reagan.

Smiling.

There are statues of all the Presidents within the Capitol.

He's the only one Grinning.

Love it.

Brigham Young.

Every state gets to have two statues within the Capitol.

You know Utah had to go with this guy.

He's the man :).

It really was an impressive tour.

I love being able to take advantage of the city like this.

It's such a great place.

If you're reading this and you haven't been here yet...

Get your butt out here and visit me! :)

A week in Utah thanks to Work!

Work sent me to Utah again.

Oh the glory of it all.

I arrived on Halloween.

I got to see these two sweethearts

(I can't believe how big they are?!)

Makenzi & Brooklyn.
Michelle, once again, let me stay with her.
She's so good to me :)
I got to hang out with this little stud quite a bit.
Mr. Graham Oakeson.
He is so stinking cute.
And again, growing way too fast!
Michelle was on a domestic kick.
I just stood back in amazement.
She seriously was Martha Stewart.
So glad she's my BFF :)
Well the stars aligned and I was in Utah the same time as Melanie's Baby Shower!
Love it when things like that work out.

The whole gang came up to my hotel in Layton and we played in the pool.

Such a good time.

Lounging at the Hampton Inn.

So nice to be able to share my space with someone.

Just getting into trouble.

Lucky they are so stinking cute.

I was able to see lots of other friends too while I was in Utah,

but I wasn't very good at taking pictures.

Though I did manage to snap a shot of my favorite thing in Utah.

Hahaha. That's not true. I'd love Utah even without Cafe Rio.

(I know you're wondering...I ate there 5 times in a week! Haha)

Just grabbing lunch with my Best Friend before flying home.

I love being able to go to Utah for work and see all my family and friends.

My Christmas trip felt really quick,

so I was really grateful that I had a whole week in November to see everyone as well.

Such a blessing.

Thursdays

I'm a bit behind in blogging. Oh well.

I've been meaning to post about Thursdays for a while.

I love them.

They involve these people...

The Nicelys. Aka...Rachel Robertson from Hawaii.

That's right, Rachel and I have known each other since we were about 12 in Hawaii.

We've kept in touch all these years and now that we live within 20 minutes of each other, we have a standing date.

Every Thursday I'm in town, I head over to her house where we make dinner and watch our favorite show, "The Office."

Her husband Steve is a riot and I just love him.

This summer we added another man to our crew...

Sweet Baby James.

He is a sweetheart and I adore him.

He wasn't too fond of me at first,

but I wore on him and I think we have a mutual affection now.

What can I say?

I tend to grow on people :)

I really do love Thursdays.

It's just so nice to be able to have some consistency in my hectic life.

Kick back with old friends and just feel at home.

Thank you Nicelys, I love you guys!