Saturday, January 2, 2010

A look back at 2009

2009 was a busy year for Frank and I, so I thought a walk down memory lane would be fun...

JANUARY
Well January definitely gave me a painful look into what the year would hold. I quit Bally's after a week of working in the new year.. oh that's a story in it's self ha. Frank and I took our first vacation alone since being married, all our other trips had been with people so it was nice finally going somewhere just the two of us. We headed over to SnowShoe in West Virginia so Frank could snowboard, and his hopes of teaching me. Within a half hour of being there, and within 5 minutes of "learning" to snowboard I fell and slightly fractured my tailbone. Needless to say I came to hate snowboarding and spent most of our vacation in bed. Along with the rest of January and most of February. Can you see the pain in my face? I needed one good picture from our trip.


FEBRUARY
Following the fall from January I spent most my time laying around trying to get comfortable.
We had a nice Valentines Day dinner at The Melting Pot. Man oh man was it good! We had a special menu for the night so we didn't have to worry about deciding what to get, but it wasn't cheap that's for sure. It was worth every penny.


{Sorry for the poor quality it was taken with my phone}
Around this time is when I somewhat starting cooking and baking. I made a heaping amount of sugar cookies and then took them over to our friends house and had there kids decorate them. Leiian had a bast with this, Julyssa slept through most of it.


MARCH
Nicole made her way out to Virginia and what a trip we had in store : ] We headed up to DC for a few days to see Britney Spears in concert {AMAZING!!} and to sight-see around our Nations Capitol. This was Nicole's first time there so I acted as tour guide as best as possible.


I can't get enough of DC! I absolutely love it there. I can't wait to go back with a nice professional type camera that I hope to own one day.. and maybe I'll make it there in the spring rather than the winter, which we managed to do twice. After DC we went up north.. ohh we couldn't wait... NEW YORK HERE WE COME!! This is something both Nicole and I have always wanted to do, so the fact that it was happening was a little surreal to us.



We got a good laugh from this, the captain of the boat was going around having people take pictures like this.

The only thing that we a bummer about our NY trip was that it was overcast about the whole time. I've been planning a week long trip since we left.. now when will we take it? Who knows ha. Before Nicole left we took her down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, we wanted to show her why we love it so much.


APRIL
 After almost 3 months my tailbone was starting to feel better, enough so I could get back into the gym a handful of times. It felt SOOO GOOD to be back! It came at perfect timing. Frank was going to Panama City Beach for 2 1/2 weeks for a yearly mini DET his squadron does. Since it was going to be right before my birthday I headed down a few day's after he left. I spent 2 weeks just relaxing and soaking up the sun :] This trip was a first for both Frank and I and we both came to love Florida. It's somewhere we'd love to be stationed in the future. I have to say for the both of us, our favorite part was when we went para sailing! It was unbelievable. I wish I had a water proof disposable camera so I could have gotten some pictures.




MAY
 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! We also added a new member to our family, Ellie, Molly's sister. Our friends Erik and Haysel who had her weren't able to keep her anymore with all the problems she was starting to have {which by the way she has not stopped, she's only added more!} They were moving to Texas while we were in Florida so she spent a few nights with some other friends. Then became a part of the Longley household. Molly and Ellie are inseparable.. and both have been a pain for us, but we love them just as much! May was mostly spent at the beach with the pups. We could easily go everyday.. and we tried. I also started going through all our stuff getting ready for our big move to come. May was also the month I passed out and damaged my sciatic nerve. Unfortunately this is going to be a long long road to recovery. Many more months of pain to come. YAY!




JUNE
Being the beach bums we are we spent as much of June at the beach as we could. We were also full swing into organizing, donating, and packing. With the pain in my leg and back it made packing much more difficult, Frank being the amazing husband he is helped me with quite a bit. We donated at least 3 car loads of stuff to the Salvation Army, it's amazing how much we got rid of considering how much of an anti-pack rat that I am. Since we were moving ourselves I wanted to move as little as possible.



Sisterly love after a long day

JULY
Moving time! My mom came out at the end of June to help us drive across country. We were towing the truck behind the U Haul so we needed another driver for the car. The pain from my sciatica was pure torture so I was grumpy the whole way. I did try driving for a short time to give my mom a break, but after trying to hide the pain for so long I couldn't take it anymore and stayed as a passenger the whole way.



Our new home.. for the next 3 years. We spent a total of 3 days in California before we packed the car back up {the dogs were NOT happy about this!} and drove up to Washington for our yearly visit. Nick threw us a BBQ. This was also the first time we saw Nick since he started losing weight, I had him not put any pictures online so it would be a surprise for us. He looked great at that point I believe he had lost 70 something pounds!

Then the trip we were waiting for.. HAWAII! We were going with Franks parent's, his brother CJ and his girlfriend Kimmie. Cliff and Rocky {the in-laws}have time share so they invited us to join as long as we pay for our flights. We jumped at the chance as soon as possible. We had a great time while there, we were on Oahu so I got to visit with Carlee a friend from high school. One thing I was looking forward to the most was Dole Pineapple farm! We also went to The Polynesian Cultural Center, Hanauma Bay, Pearl Harbor {though we didn't get to go out to the memorial}, the beach! And lots of walking around soaking in our surroundings.


I swear we're not that out of shape, we just had to stand really weird with our guts out so we wouldn't fall over!


AUGUST
HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANK! Starting August we were exploring San Diego and seeing what our new home had and what it had to offer. Like normal we spent lots of time at the beach, getting used to the Pacific Ocean again. Thankfully we had friends {Ashley and Tony} from back home who have lived here for a few years to show us around and let us know what to do. I went searching online to find places to go and found out about Sunset Cliffs, it's a must see if visiting the area. August is also the month I started this BLOG!




SEPTEMBER
We spent A LOT of time at the dog park this month! Frank started at his new command, and we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! Since we didn't have money I made us a nice meal and we relaxed at home.



OCTOBER
My favorite memory of October was paying off our personal loan! That was something we really enjoyed. October was also the month of my worlds famous PUMPKIN PIE. We also started going for hikes, I started going for daily morning walks with Molly, Ellie and my friend Mikey and her puppy Willow. I was getting better and better with cooking and baking. You can check out the food HERE.




NOVEMBER
My mom made her second actual visit to San Diego. The first time she has been here on vacation was 30 years early! Our neighbor had told us about Mission Trails so we spent a lot of time checking out the different trails to go on. My mom was visiting during Thanksgiving so we had to cram lots in before places closed for the holiday weekend. We took her too Balboa, The zoo, Hotel Del Coronado, Mission Trails, and Cowles MT.






DECEMBER
While my mom was visiting and we went to Cowles MT. Frank wasn't able to join us since he was working. I knew he'd love it so it was a must see for him! We also went to December Night's at Balboa Park for the holiday festivities, and we decorated our teeny tiny apartment for Christmas.




To check out all the other stuff we've done in the last few months browse through the blog.

2010 should be another fun, busy, exciting year for us. To start our year off we'll be going to Vegas for a few days! Make sure to check back to the blog to keep up with us.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Emily! Great post! Way better than mine haha. You had a crazy busy year! Doesn't it seem like the year flew by? I don't even remember everything that happened! Some of the stuff in your blog I thought happened in 08, cause this year just whizzed right on by! I'm pretty stoked to be a part of the blog, and even more stoked to be part of it next year with some sexy beach pictures! I actually almost bought some shorts today just to have them cause of course right after Christmas Target puts them out haha.

Emily said...

YES this year flew by so fast with everything we had going on! I'm glad you like it, it took me about 6 hours to write all together ha. I was having a hard time remembering what we did each month.

La Familia Workman said...

WOw, great blog!! This was an interesting one. I really learned a lot..I didn't know you actually had an accident that caused your back pain this past year. I thought it was something you'd had for a while now. That's so sad. Sciatic nerve damage...ahhh! You definitely had a busy year. I don't think I had that much go on. Hopefully you get some fun out of 2010 too! Who knows, maybe a trip to San Diego is in the future for Troy and I or maybe just me. We definitely need to catch up somewhere.

Emily said...

Oh mt gosh I could have easily wrote more about our year, but I was trying to cram so much into the post along with pictures ha.
Yea it was NO FUN when I passed out. I smacked my chin on the counter and the lady behind it caught me before I hit the ground. So my back went all weird causing my know pain :] Of course this is what they told me when I came too. {This happened right after I gave plasma}

Miss Hell said...

I hike Cowles Mountain and Mission Trails (a personal favorite) all the time, I've probably walked right past you guys before...if you ever want another hiking buddy, let me know. There are a lot of great places to explore. Check out Daley Ranch in Escondido. It's a 30 minute drive north, but well worth it. It's so pretty there. And also, El Capitan is another great place if you are looking for an all day hike. Another pretty place, but be careful, as it's more for the hardcore hikers. Unlike me and my prissy dog that would probably make me carry him 1/2 way.