Bright Spots in the Busy Season

Happy summer everyone! It is looking a little bit different for me this year because I am still in school! I just started up my summer semester on Monday, but fortunately it is beautiful outside so I can enjoy lunch in the beautiful weather and on the weekends too. So that makes the 15 credit load a little more bearable.

Now let’s rewind to the past couple months! Jeremiah and I were SO busy with work and school. This past semester kicked my butt. I’m talking hardest semester of school ever (at least that’s what it felt like). I felt like I was just a little behind all semester, basically right when I was about to catch up and be on top of things, more things piled up. Meanwhile at work Jeremiah’s test lab was getting way more work than they could handle and everyone was expected to work extra hours to stay on top of all of it. For the month of April he worked about 50 hours per week. No fun. In many ways though, we feel like it’s kind of nice to be in busy seasons together because then one of us isn’t just bored without the other person’s company.

Anyway, I don’t like to talk about only the busy/stressful things because that is no fun, and we both try to have a good balance despite the busyness. So we definitely managed to have some fun occasions.  

I had Good Friday off, a benefit of attending a Catholic school, so late Thursday night before Good Friday Jeremiah and I hit the road for Salina, Kansas. Jeremiah’s grandparents live there half the year, so we were visiting them! They were both in a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion on Good Friday in the nearby small town of Lindsborg. It was a great performance in a beautiful, old church. The performance was unlike anything I’d been to before, because it was treated like worship, with a lot of singing/narrated parts depicting the events of the crucifixion, and the audience sang along in certain choruses. The orchestra was also split into two with half performing in front of us and half on a balcony behind us for a cool surround sound experience. Before the performance we also got to meet up with our friends Stephanie and Kyle, along with Stephanie’s parents and sister, for dinner in Lindsborg! They had all gotten tickets to see the performance which we were very excited about because we had not seen them in awhile and we always love spending time with them! The rest of our time in Kansas we spent just hanging out at his grandparents’ house enjoying our time together! We drove home Saturday night, so it was a quick turn around. I was supposed to have an exam the following Monday but it was postponed pretty last minute though we headed home anyway. We went to Easter Service at our church, Red Rocks. It was a great service. We both always look forward to Easter service, so it was really great. We debated for awhile whether to do Easter Brunch or Easter dinner. My family traditionally did a nice dinner, while his did brunch. I ended up winning out, but maybe we’ll switch off year to year. We made a ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, green beans, and had homemade bread courtesy of my sister, Emily! Everything was delicious! But we ate that meal for way too many nights after that… Maybe by next Easter I’ll want that meal again, but right now I’m set! We have had fun with the few holidays that we have gotten to celebrate on our own, making some new traditions for ourselves.

In mid-April our friend Ryan came and visited us for a really quick trip! He was in our small group back in AZ and we hadn’t seen him in a long time, so it was great to have him even though it was basically only 24 hours. He had never been here so we took him on a little “Tour of Denver,” visiting some of the most well-known spots like the Red Rocks Amphitheater, Platte River, Union Station, and Cherry Creek. It was a lot of driving, but it was really fun! We ended the night with dinner at Beaujo’s Pizza which was delicious and even better was the ice cream we had at a place called Cream. You make your own ice cream sandwich by choosing either two cookies, two brownies, two “cronuts,” or two Belgian waffles, then the ice cream flavor, and a topping. So yummy! I think this is going to rival our other favorite, Little Man Ice Cream, when we are wanting to go somewhere for dessert!

Jeremiah and I have this list of restaurants that we want to try here and it is getting so long and I feel like we are checking things off at a very slow rate. Good for our bellies and wallets, but we are anxious to try all of them! It’s fun to keep a list so that we don’t forget a place when we are looking to go out to eat.

Speaking of food, Jeremiah and I had a date night at the Melting Pot a couple of weeks ago! It was awesome. If you have not been there, it is a fondue restaurant, and we went for this early bird special (4:15 pm reservation) where we got four courses and a bottle of wine! Cheese fondue, a salad, the entrée portion, and of course the chocolate fondue. It’s not a place to go often because it is expensive, but the early bird special was a really good deal. But the reason we decided to go there was to celebrate my winning the Masters Draft! Every year my family does a draft of the players in the Masters, so we all end up with about four players, and we put in $5 to participate. This year, for the first time ever, I had the players who landed in both first and second place! Jeremiah and I were pretty excited so we decided to treat ourselves to that date night.

Also in April we went to another Symphony concert, this time for Copland’s Rodeo. It was excellent and it is really fun music. If you listen to it, you will likely recognize it. I also randomly saw this ad on Facebook that the Noodles and Co. headquarters near us wanted participants to taste some of their new dishes that they are considering putting on the menu. I thought it was a long shot that I would get selected but I did and I told Jeremiah to sign up too, which he did. So we went to the tasting together which made for a nice free date night! They were testing out vegetable “noodles” which I actually hope they do put on the menu because they were a great healthier - and delicious - alternative! Bonus, for participating we each got two additional free meals to use in the future!

Finally, just last week, the day after my finals were finished we headed to AZ! We were both very excited for this vacation and to get away from school/work for a little bit. The trip was a surprise to both of our moms sort of just for fun but also to celebrate the fact that they are both retiring this month! We arrived really early on Saturday and Jeremiah’s dad picked us up at the airport and drove us back to their house. His mom was on a phone call so we just sat down in the kitchen and when she walked out of the office into the kitchen, there we were! She was very shocked to see us just sitting there! We stayed and chatted with them for a little while until it was time to meet up at my brother’s house to surprise my mom. My sister, Heather, flew in from Philadelphia and my other sister, Emily, had picked her up from the airport so we all met up at their house. I already loved spending time with both of our families before we moved, but now that it is more rare I just am so happy any time everyone is together. We have the best families. Anyway we were planning to surprise my mom just at home as well but she was taking a really long time with her grocery shopping and we were getting a little impatient! Fortunately my dad has the “find your phone” capability so we decided to surprise her at Fry’s (her third grocery store of the morning by the way). Nine of us met up at the front of Fry’s and started scouting the store for my mom. We probably looked really strange and suspicious but it was really fun. We caught up to her right as she was getting milk and she was so shocked when she turned around. If you know my mom you know that of course she cried when she saw all of us; she was very excited. We all went back to my parents’ house, had Raising Cane’s for lunch and swam in the pool. It was 106 degrees already, so it definitely qualified as pool weather! After spending the afternoon with my family we went back over to the Dwights’ and we all headed out to dinner for Nathan’s 21^st birthday! Since it was his 21^st we went to a brewery in Scottsdale and his mom had made a Brownie Caramel Cheesecake that was insane. Four layers, alternating brownie and caramel cheesecake and topped with a caramel frosting. You should have seen the piece Nathan managed to eat. I had as thin as she could get a slice, which was tricky with how tall the cake was! We finished the night with board games and Nathan and Jeremiah playing video games together, a favorite tradition of theirs. Sunday we went to church back at RMCC and saw a few friends there, then headed to Crackers and Company with my whole family to celebrate my mom! It is one of her favorite places. Then we then went back over to the Dwights’ because they had just picked up their new puppy! Her name is Syl and she is an adorable yellow lab. So literally we spent the whole afternoon watching the puppy and playing around with her since next time we see her she will probably be just about fully grown! Sunday night we had hung out at my parents’ house and stayed the night there. Monday Jeremiah got his suit fitted for a wedding we are both in in October, we had lunch at Nando’s with my mom, Heather, and Nathan, hung around at my parents’ house, had Barro’s Pizza for dinner (yes we ate out way too much), and went to Tommy and Emily’s for a game night! Tuesday morning both Heather and Jeremiah left, but I had one more day. I dropped by my mom’s classroom in the morning, which was actually a little sad. It was the last time I would be in her room and likely the last time I will swing by Mountain View! I loved being a Toro with my mom! After that I stopped in at Parker’s preschool during his lunch time and brought him a treat (Gushers), and then picked up Chipotle for Paisley and brought that to her school! It was so fun visiting them both at lunch! I got to meet some of their friends and even went to recess with Paisley. It reminded me of how fun and exciting elementary school was most of the time. After lunch with Paisley I stopped by my old roommate Kim’s apartment to see her and her new baby, Caleb! He is so cute and it is always so fun to hold such a little baby. It was also great to catch up with Kim! Finally I had a nice time hanging out with my parents and grandma Monday night, cherishing my last little bit of AZ for awhile.

The rest of my one week of summer I had our small group, which we go to every Wednesday night, I observed in a Pelvic PT office to learn more about that setting, went on a hike with my friend Stacey, went on the Celestial Seasonings Tea tour in Boulder, and just relaxed! Now like I said I am back at it and Jeremiah is a little less busy at work. We are looking forward to our first full summer in Colorado. We have so many things we would love to do, so I think it will be a great season for us! 

Our First Snowy Winter

Well, I think it's safe to say we're out of the woods with our first snowy winter! We're told it's been a mild one, by Colorado standards, but it didn't take much to give us a snowier few months than we've ever experienced. No crashed cars, no trapped-in-our-apartment situations, and only one 2+ hour commute! I'd call that successful. Hopefully we're only a few more occasional snowy days away from a beautiful Colorado summer.

So how did we spend our winter? Camping out in full-body camo, with nothing but the heat of a lantern fueled by fat of the bear we killed to sustain us!

Yeah, not really. This was a fun time, though. We visited my cousins in Colorado Springs, who are some of the most outdoorsy people I've ever known. They took us ice fishing and equipped us with all the gear we needed to keep us warm! It was cool to sit in the windowless tent, where the only light comes through the ice beneath your feet, giving it an iridescent glow. And we caught plenty of fish!

We've done a bit of traveling apart from that, too. In February, Hannah made a trip to Rochester for her late uncle's funeral. Though the reason for her visit was sad, I know it was great for all her family to get together for a couple days to celebrate his life and appreciate one another's company.

Immediately after Hannah's trip, I flew out to Minneapolis for work - my first work trip! As long as it remains infrequent, I have to say I love traveling for work. Cushy hotel with a free happy hour, meals on the company's dime, and a bit of time to see a new city. Who wouldn't enjoy that in place of the typical office grind? My coworker and I ate well while we were there. Hannah scoured Instagram and Yelp to provide us with an itinerary of delicious restaurants, so we dined according to her plan and loved every meal. ... Oh yeah, and the purpose of our trip was successful, too. We trained on a new software used to control our lab's test equipment, and hopefully the proliferation of our learning will enable our lab to handle a greater volume and complexity of work!

We've been fortunate to host some visitors recently, too. My family flew out at the beginning of March, and we spent a lot of time with our Denver and Colorado Springs cousins. We also tried Denver Biscuit Company, which was an awesome brunch! Highly recommended, especially on weekdays, since you avoid the 1-2 hour wait times common to weekend mornings.

Later that same week, Hannah's sister flew out for a ski weekend with two of her friends. We joined them for one of their ski days at Copper Mountain, along with Hannah's dad, who was in town for work. It was also Hannah's spring break and my off-Friday, so it all lined up perfectly! The weather was great and the slopes were even greater!

"Lean in!" Classic.

Hannah and I had our own ski day, too - this one at Ski Cooper (not to be confused with Copper).

Apart from all the traveling/visitors, we've had a lot of fun on our own, too. To kick off my birthday weekend in January, Hannah set up an at-home movie night that included BBQ takeout, an array of candy that rivals a true movie theater's, and a blanket fort to lounge in while we watched. She's so creative! Then, on my actual birthday, we did the Coors Brewery "short tour" by walking straight to the end for our three free beers. We followed that up with an incredible dinner at Linger, and went to the actual movies to see The Greatest Showman.

For Valentine's Day we went to dinner at a French restaurant called Bistro Vendome, where I tried venison for the first time and really enjoyed it! And their baguettes were glorious. Perfectly crisp shell with a warm, fluffy inside... man, I love bread. After dinner we went to the Colorado Symphony to see Rite of Spring. On top of being an incredible piece, it was also the basis for our marching band show the year Hannah and I met. How's that for full-circle romance on Valentine's Day?

Just a week later we went back to the symphony for their "Red Carpet Rewind," a celebration of the music of the Academy Awards from throughout the years. We heard pieces from Wizard of Oz, American in Paris, West Side Story, Star Wars, The Red Violin, plenty of Disney classics, and more. That show accompanied a trip to D Bar for Denver Restaurant Week, which was an awesome three-course meal that concluded with their popular "cake and shake" - literally a giant slice of chocolate cake with a shake of your choice on the side. Yeah, that's our kind of place!

We also visited the Denver Zoo one chilly afternoon. It was a great time, and I wish I had photos, because we saw lots of cool animals! My favorite might have been the sea lion show, but runner-ups included a polar bear, a snow leopard, particularly playful elephants, and a grizzly bear.

We've been on a few more brewery tours, too - and not just for the free beer! We both went on the Anheuser-Busch tour in Fort Collins, which we timed perfectly, as the Budweiser Clydesdales had just arrived back from an out-of-state trip. Those things are huge!! Hannah also did a New Belgium tour during her spring break, and just a couple weeks ago we visited Avery Brewery in Boulder, which was cool because it's a much smaller brewery, so it's all craft beer. All these brewery tours have really inspired Hannah. No joke, she wants to brew her own beer some day. If there was one place in the world that could turn Hannah into not just a beer-drinker, but a beer-brewer, it would be Colorado!

Better keep up with our biking so we don't get our beer bellies, though. Fortunately for us, Colorado is the perfect place for that, too. Previously we'd only done a single path that follows Highway 36 to Boulder, but last weekend we tried a new one that took us through Downtown Denver along the Platte River. Can't wait to keep trying more!

In other news, our church small group has been a particularly happy development over the last couple months. One of my favorite parts of every week in Arizona was our small group evenings, and when we moved here, I didn't expect to find another group we loved so much. But the one we've become a part of here is a fun and rejuvenating experience each week, which is such a blessing amidst the stress of work and school! In addition to that, Hannah's classmates have organized a Regis University community group, which we meet for roughly once a month. We've been reading through Tim Keller's book, Every Good Endeavor, which has really helped me grow as a Christian in the workplace. I think it's been great for Hannah, too.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of photos this time. My phone just died on me earlier today - like, charging-it-doesn't-turn-it-back-on died - and I hadn't uploaded the last couple months' photos to my laptop yet. Hopefully it starts working again soon, or I might unexpectedly be getting a new phone this weekend!

Happy spring, everybody :-)

A Virtual Christmas Card

2018 already?! I think pretty much everyone says this every year, but 2017 flew by! It was a year filled with so many incredible memories so Jeremiah and I wanted to do a wrap up of 2017 and a look forward to 2018! We decided to just make this a virtual Christmas card of sorts as well.

Best memories of 2017:

-Wedding day!! Need I say more?

-7 months of marriage! So so wonderful.

-Honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico! 

-Graduation from ASU with my BS in Kinesiology

-Jeremiah's graduation from ASU with a MS in Mechanical Engineering

-Moving to Westminster, CO
-Getting to decorate and make our apartment our own! 

-Jeremiah getting a job at Lockheed Martin

-Jeremiah starting his job at Lockheed!

-Starting and successfully finishing my first semester at Regis University

-Celebrating marriages of family & friends: Kim & Sam, Sarah & DJ, Adam & Andrea, Nick & Payton

-Visiting: Sedona, Cancun, Rochester/Syracuse/Buffalo, Philadelphia, NYC, Disneyland, Rocky Mtn National Park, Beaver Creek, Salina/Lindsborg, KS... I think that is everything! 

Things we are looking forward to in 2018:

-Marriage! Looking forward to new experiences to come every single day!

-Hopefully visiting Yellowstone and exploring more locations in Colorado!

-Completing my first rotation (Aug-Oct 2018)... TBD where that will be located at. 

-Tommy and Emily's wedding in Oct 2018

It seems like this is the first year in a while that we don't have some big life event like a graduation, engagement, wedding, etc. So we are thinking it will be a more quiet year, but we are looking forward to it just as much. 

To end 2017 we had such a great visit to AZ!! Family, friends, food, fun! We decided to road trip down there rather than fly, which was about 12.5 hours, so it was long, but a smooth drive. We actually spent a large part of the car ride reading my Harry Potter book to each other. This was actually my longest stretch of not being in AZ, so the ride there was full of fun anticipation! We stayed with Jeremiah's parents for the first half and my parents for the second half so we were able to evenly split our time. Christmas Eve we went to RMCC for a Christmas Eve service and it was great to be there again! We had dinner on Christmas Eve at Jeremiah's grandparents house with a delicious traditional Swedish meal of Swedish meatballs and potato sausage- yum! Then we went to another Christmas Eve service with his whole family, back to Jeremiah's parents' house for delicious desserts and opening presents! We love traditions, so it was especially great to be back in AZ for Christmas and do the traditional activities that we love and feel like nothing has changed! Though it was a little bit different because I have never not woken up at my parents' house on Christmas day. But no need to worry, we still got there nice and early! Once everyone else arrived we had a delicious breakfast before opening presents, which is always quite a long process with as many people as we have there! After presents we played games, prepped dinner, and enjoyed each others' company! I love just hanging around the house with everyone together literally all day on Christmas. We missed the Lucas Family though!!

The rest of our trip to AZ included: Games with Jeremiah's family, seeing the new Star Wars with Nathan, Breakfast at Crackers&Co with Kyle and Stephanie, Pedicure and Lunch with my mom, Grandma, and cousin (lunch included the Mosers!), J had lunch with his friends Eric and Kevin, Oregano's & Game Night with Tommy and Emily, The Fellas (a group of our friends) Secret Santa party, Bridesmaid Dress shopping with my friend Emily, J played racquetball and got Barro's with Tommy and Greg, Hike & Lunch with Sarah, DJ, Morgan, Stephen, Angela, and Marsie, another game night with Sarah, DJ, Morgan, Stephen, Brian, and Terrisa, Hockey with my family, Preston's 1st birthday party, Nick and Payton's NYE wedding, and hanging around with our families in between!... So I guess you could say we kept busy?

There was so much that we wanted to do and see while we were in AZ! We have a friend who often doesn't tell people when exactly he is in town because he knows there are just so many people he wants to see and who want to see him that it can almost be overwhelming. We didn't really understand why he would do that until this trip! But despite being on the go most of the time, we loved every minute of it! The drive home was definitely less exciting, but a smooth drive nonetheless and always nice to be back in your own space. Jeremiah was back to work the next day where he hit the ground running and things have been going well for him there! Meanwhile I have been cherishing every moment of my last week off!

A quick get-together with high school friends! 

At Nick and Payton's wedding.

Rocking the plaid/flannel for Preston's 1st Lumberjack-themed birthday! I love this smily boy so much!!

30 mile ride out toward Superstition Mountain with my dad!

Breakfast with Kyle and Stephanie! She is so good about remembering to take a picture!

Usery Hike with friends and family! 

The Fellas Secret Santa Party

A little late to say Happy New Year, but I hope everyone's 2018 is off to a great start! 

One Down, Seven to Go!

I’m done! I’m done! Last week I wrapped up my first semester of PT school, and what a whirlwind it was. I am so happy to be finished, because this semester was SO much hard work! But I loved it! I learned so much! Now for the next 4 weeks I have time to do whatever I want, and that includes… AZ for Christmas!! We are so excited to make the drive down on Saturday (the 23^rd). We will be there until January 2^nd, so a nice long time, but we already know it is going to be completely full of family and friend time, which we are not complaining about! But I will plan to make a post about that trip once we’re back, so for now I need to backtrack to what we’ve been up to the past couple of months.

After our couple of weekend trips that Jeremiah described in October, our visitors and travel slowed down for awhile. For Halloween we started a couple of fun little traditions for ourselves, including carving a pumpkin, watching Nightmare Before Christmas, and getting food delivered to our door (which I was way too excited about). We had a bowl of candy ready in advance (because I was also way too optimistic) and only had two trick-or-treaters who were pretty old and barely dressed up. Oh well, I got to see cute pictures of my nieces and nephews dressed up, so that was good!

In early November, Jeremiah made a quick trip to AZ for our friends Adam and Andrea’s wedding! Andrea was my former roommate and we were in a small group with both Adam and Andrea. I was really sad to not be able to be there, but luckily Jeremiah was actually able to FaceTime me and put his phone in a tree at the back so that I was able to see (sort of) and hear the entire ceremony! The sun was blocking most of my view, but the words are the most important, and it was so beautiful. He also FaceTimed me a couple of other times during the reception, so it was nice to be a part of the wedding in some way, but Jeremiah had a blast celebrating them and spending time with a few of our other friends who were also there! While he was there he went to Oregano’s with his family, went to Paisley’s soccer game, and had a game night with our friends Tommy, Emily, and Kevin! Some of our absolute favorite things to do, so it was once again bittersweet for me, but I am so glad he was able to make the short trip!

Back here in CO, Jeremiah experienced his first hockey game with me! My school was selling really cheap tickets to the CO Avalanche game for grad students so we took advantage of the opportunity! The tickets also came with a voucher to the concessions so we got some delicious food and had an awesome time watching the game! The Avalanche beat the Washington Capitals pretty badly too.

The end of November came really quickly and that meant Thanksgiving! It was a different Thanksgiving for everyone in both of our families this year. My parents were in NYC with Heather and George, Brian and Terrisa were in San Diego with Terrisa’s brother, and Emily had Thanksgiving with our grandma and cousins. We were of course here in CO so we were all spread out! Luckily we didn’t miss out on family time because Jeremiah’s family was able to fly up to see us! They flew in bright and early in the morning on Thanksgiving, so we picked them up at the airport and Jeremiah’s mom started right in on making her carrot cake! We had already picked up all of the ingredients she needed and we also made a Pumpkin Cheesecake the night before so that it was already ready to go. It was a little bit crowded in our little kitchen, but we made it work! Mostly it was just really nice to have them in town and just get to hang out all morning catching up with them! Around 12:30 we drove to Downtown Denver where J’s mom’s cousins live- the Swenson crew! There were about 10 of them over there and we had an awesome time getting the rest of dinner ready, talking, eating a delicious meal, and playing games after dinner! I will admit I was a little bit sad about not having the Thanksgiving meal that I am used to, but this one did not disappoint! Especially the sweet potatoes and stuffing! So there was no need to worry. I was able to FaceTime and talk to most of my family too, so that was really nice and completed an awesome Thanksgiving. The next day, before everyone got going Jeremiah and I did a little Black Friday shopping which mostly consisted of buying Christmas decorations. We got some great deals, and were back home nice and early! Then we took Jeremiah’s family on a hike a little west of Boulder to a really pretty reservoir and little waterfall, and showed them around Pearl Street in Boulder. That night we had a delicious dinner at Sloan’s Lake Tap House and Burgers. If there is one thing we have discovered about Denver it is that beer is huge here! There are endless breweries! We ended the night playing games again! The next morning we met some of the Swenson crew for breakfast before taking his family back to the airport. Even though it was a quick trip, it was so great to have them in town!

Not even a week after the Dwights had left, my family arrived in town for our annual Beaver Creek trip! Most of them came into town on Wednesday, but Jeremiah had to work on Thursday and I had class, so it was torture knowing they were so close but we couldn’t see them for 24 hours! Once Jeremiah was home from work Thursday we pretty much immediately turned around and headed up to Beaver Creek. It is only about 2 hours from our apartment, so it couldn’t have been much more convenient. Once we got to the hotel I was basically skipping down the hall (just ask Jeremiah) to their room because I was so excited to see everyone. That night we all just sat around talking, and the next day was a day for skiing! Unfortunately the snow here in Colorado so far has basically been nonexistent, so there was literally only one run open. But it wasn’t too busy, so Jeremiah and I managed to do that run I believe 9 times! In addition to a couple of the halfway-up runs with Paisley! Paisley rocked the skiing this year. She was so confident and kept wanting to go again and again. It was awesome! On Thursday before we got up there Parker and Madeline also got on the skis! They didn’t last too long, but they did a great job! Friday night most of us went down to “The Grotto,” which is the spa area in the hotel, and it is always one of the most looked-forward-to things about the trip. It is so nice! After we were all relaxed from that (well, those of us who don’t have kids were fully relaxed!) we joined in on the final prep for the Pasta dinner that we have with all of my dad’s former coworkers and my brother’s current coworkers. My brother now works at the company my dad used to for those of you reading this who don’t already know that, and the people whose time share we use for this trip all work for that company. Anyway, we have a pasta dinner with everyone on Friday night every year, so my mom always works very hard to put it together and it never disappoints! Saturday we did a few more runs, then walked around Beaver Creek village, many of us went ice skating, and just had a nice, relaxing day! Saturday night we celebrated my birthday/Christmas with the Lucas’ in the game room of the hotel. We ordered pizza, played games, and exchanged gifts! For me there is no better birthday celebration than being with my whole family! Sunday was our last day, so we packed up and took family pictures like usual! We all headed out a little bit earlier so that everyone could see our apartment! We stopped for lunch and then had ice cream back at our apartment. Then just like that, it was back to just Jeremiah and me at our apartment! And unfortunately I had a final the next day so I spent the last few hours of my birthday studying… Boo! The next two weeks I actually had 6 finals! Two lab finals and four written finals. It was an insane amount of studying, but it all paid off! The finals were hard, but I made it through as well as I could have hoped! I said this before the semester started, but now I really believe that this is the program I am meant to be in! For one, my class is incredible and all so supportive of each other, and the professors challenge us but want us all to succeed, and we have already been taught so much! Bonus- I have an amazing husband who helped me every single day push my way through the semester! Quizzing me, doing extra household things when I had to study, and just encouraging me! All the while he has been crazy busy with work! He works incredibly hard, and definitely faces challenges with the work, but he is always learning and pushing harder every day!

Volunteering at a local health fair with some of my classmates (and professor in the middle).

My lab group!

A few other things that we’ve done are decorate our house for Christmas, go to a candelight Christmas service, Lockheed Martin holiday party, game night with my lab group, trivia night at a local brewery with a family friend, and many other miscellaneous things! With Christmas decorations I have been trying my hand at more creativity (and cost effectiveness) this year, so I sewed our own stockings! I was pretty excited about it! The candlelight service we went to was with the Swenson crew in this tiny Lutheran Church called Rissby Church in Longmont, up north. We had dinner with everyone before the service and it was a really beautiful service!

It is snowing today and it makes me so happy!! However, I have nowhere to go today, and I am planning to curl up on the couch and read my book, so that is the perfect snow day, right? Ask me how I feel by the end of winter though!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!