Thoughts on 2011

Its been about a year since we have started this blog and I really enjoy writing about our lives and also following our friend's blogs as well. I asked Brendan what his thoughts on 2011 are and in one word he said. "Awesome". Awesome, indeed. What a great year it has been I think we have broken some kind of new record for us by not just taking on one new hobby this year but many hobbies. The two biggest ones have been mountain biking and rock climbing. I never thought I would enjoy these two sports as much as I do. There is nothing like screaming down a hill or climbing a rock like a little kid again to remind you that you are capable of anything. I did knit my sweater this year and bake some bread as well but none of those hobbies compared to everything else we did. The best part was always having my best friend by my side to do all those things!
Besides my best friend and husband this past year has also included some great, life long friendships. I am so grateful for our friends Andy and Lexi and Sara and Zane. Through almost all of these fun hobbies we always have company, which makes everything so much more fun. We have also been blessed to have more family here in Utah in 2011 with Brandy and Tommy only three miles away and Charlie down in Salt Lake. As much as I miss people in Minnesota, I have not been homesick here.
We are looking forward to spending Christmas with our MN families and friends but ringing in the New Year here! I believe 2012 will be another incredible year with big plans!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

December

Time just continues to move on faster and faster! Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We continued a fun tradition with friends and ran a turkey day 5k in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Afterwards we all went over to our friends house and had an awesome day. Literally the entire day was devoted to eating, drinking, crafting, games, hot tubing and being merry! We are so lucky that we have friends here in Utah who love to do this as much as we do.
The next day Brendan and I also continued a new tradition for us from last year where we popped champagne and put up the tree and all of the decorations. I have a Ballerina tree that Brendan has slowly tried to integrate into a non ballerina tree. I have been collecting ballet ornaments since I was a very little girl and putting up the tree every year always brings back so many good memories. Somewhere down the road I hope we have a little girl, a white tree, hot pink lights and we can have a very specific Alyssa Ballerina tree and maybe a White regular green Christmas tree elsewhere! I love the advent season just something about December always makes me happy!
In a really good news, Brendan got a full time job! It is as a sales analyst for a company here in Utah called InContact. He does not graduate until this fall but this spring semester he only has one and a half credits really left. So he decided to get a jump on his classmates and get a job. He interviewed with a few companies but really enjoyed the culture and connected with the people at InContact. I am so proud and happy for him and us, hopefully this will lead to some exciting things ahead in 2012!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan!

Pictures from my parents trip!

Updates!

Not much is new, I have been pretty sick lately. We had a great vacation when my parents where in town a few weeks back. Every year my parents come down during Minnesota's MEA weekend. This year they spent one day up in Park City then we headed down to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. They loved it. We stayed at the Desert Pearl Inn Hotel and enjoyed some gorgeous weather and great meals. We also did a lot of hiking taking them on Emerald Pools, Grotto hike along the river and the river walk. It was great our hotel had a nice hot tub to enjoy after all the hiking. I will try to post some pictures up here when I get some from my Dad. Work has been good, just getting ready to swing things into high gear with our busy time of the year. Brendan is starting to interview for jobs in hopes of getting a job that starts soon. Maybe this spring we can start house shopping and see where our next adventure take us! Looking forward to Thanksgiving with friends, running the Turkey Day 5k and the mountain opening up for ski season. Hard to believe this will be our second season here!
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

Rock Climbing

New hobbies are awesome, the latest one being rock climbing. I have always wanted to rock climb and we got a groupon a few weeks back for an introductory class not far from where we live. I was hooked, it is like being a little kid climbing trees again. Lucky for us, our awesome friends Andy and Lexi also rock climb. They are really experienced and know exactly how to do everything. We had the great opportunity to go outside twice with them in the last month. Once in corner canyon in Draper and the second time in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was incredible and very addicting. I'm hoping for one more climb before the snow comes but we will have to see! We did manage to get a good mountain bike ride in a few weeks back at Crest, we also did a short ride at Glenwild near our house today. It has been a good month, busy, stressful at times but good. I am very excited my parents are coming to town this next week and we are taking them down to Zion for the first time, it should be pretty incredible.
Love
Alyssa and Brendan

What we have been up to

This post has been overdue for a few weekends now. Currently I am sitting in bed with Brendan next to me, drinking our coffee and just enjoying our Saturday morning. In a few hours we are going to our first rock climbing class which we are so excited about. Another fun, adventurous hobby. Then we might go camping tonight, with our friends Andy and Lexi. It is getting colder here and camping will not always be an option in a few weeks.
Labor day vacation to Michigan was so much fun. We started our trip with a wonderful meal at an Italian restaurant with Brendan's Aunt and Uncle Mike and Laura. They were kind enough to lend us a car to drive up north to Canada Creek. We are so lucky we have such awesome family both in Minnesota and Michigan. I could hardly believe when we arrived up at Canada Creek at midnight that Brendan's grandparents had waited up for us. What a wonderful welcome and how special did we feel! The next morning we just enjoyed everything Canada Creek, swimming in the lake, a hike, driving out to Little Joe and just enjoying it all. We had a great dinner, popped some champagne and just enjoyed. Afterwards we went out with Papa to spot some elk which we found like always.
The next day the weather rained, but sleeping in on a cozy bed and hearing the rain outside was wonderful. After finally getting moving we started our day of eating. It was Papa's idea to go to Mackinac City and enjoy some good meals. We ate lunch at the Rusty Anchor then headed to Mackinac City for some shopping and ice cream. For dinner we went to the Hakmatac, this is the same restaurant we went after we got engaged. Funny enough the picture above is almost the same picture we took three years ago! It was a wonderful trip, Brendan's grandparents and Aunt and Uncle made it so awesome for us both. We are looking forward to some fall activities now and some Utes football!
Love
Brendan and Alyssa

We love Canada Creek, it is a special place to Brendan and I for so many wonderful reasons. We had a great weekend up there over labor day that was just exactly what we wanted and needed. I wanted to post these pictures because they remind me of certain Canada Creek rituals we have. One of those is breakfast at the ranch house, I don't have this pictured but every time we go there Bren orders the same skillet. We enjoy breakfast with coffee with a fantastic view of the lake and delicious food. The walk there and back always is nice as well.
Another tradition that Grandma Barb always seems to do at some point through the weekend is invite her best friend Marilyn over for either tea or wine usually around 3 to 5pm. I love this, I hope someday I have a best friend who lives near me that we can do this together. Barb always invites me to be apart of this and it always makes me feel so special. Marilyn has become a great friend of mine as well, she even attended our wedding in Minnesota.
I love the picture of Bren and Papa, this is what they do on a comfortable afternoon! I love it!