2011 faves

2011 has been a simply wonderful year for us in the Nate Berrett family. My top 10 events of 2011 are:

1.  Buying our first home. On November 8th we were given the key to our first home. After what seemed like a painstakingly long wait for our loan to go through we got it. And we got a wonderful house too, with a perfect yard for us and the pup to play in.

2. Trip to Montana. Near the end of July we were able to get a few days of work and head to Montana for a vacation. I learned how to fly fish, and Nate finally got to fish the famous rivers of Montana. We enjoyed spending time with some of my extended family, the Larsons. We got to go to the famous Glacier National Park which had absolutely breath taking views. We went to the famous Missoula farmer's market and much more. We can't wait to see what trips we'll get to go on in 2012.

3. Trip to Virginia. In August we were able to go to Virginia to spend a few days with Nate's family, and we even got to sneak in seeing my brother's family as well. We spent the first couple days in Virginia Beach enjoying the sand and the surf. Followed by a couple relaxed days at the Berrett residence, and a quick trip to Baltimore too.

4. Hiking. We went on a lot of different hikes this year. Though a few of them weren't on actual trails, we saw lots of beautiful sites. We especially enjoyed hiking to Stewart Falls in autumn with some of our friends and enjoying the beautiful changing leaves.

5. Garrett Family Reunion. My dad's side of the family tries to have a family reunion every couple of years. With the growing family size it is getting more and more difficult to find a place to hold us all, but we really enjoyed going to Duck Creek this July. We got to spend time hiking, fishing, playing games, and more.

6. Camping camping and more camping. I'm sure I didn't blog about each time we went camping, but as you know it is one of our favorite hobbies and this year did not disappoint. We especially enjoyed Scofield and Tabiona camping this year, and even got in a quick Labor Day camping trip with my parents.

7. One year anniversary.  Nate and I had the best first year married because we were able to do so many fun things. To celebrate our grand one year of marriage we headed to Salt Lake for a fancy night out to dinner and staying at a hotel and went camping a second night. The best of both worlds for us.

8. New jobs. With my graduation at the end of last year I needed to find something to do with myself, and I figured I should make some money while I'm at it ;). In January I started teaching ESL at Nomen Global, in August I moved from teaching just morning to teaching nights too. And my second job is working at Heritage Schools. I started at Heritage in February and I recently got a small promotion too.

9. Cooking. I made a goal for myself to cook one new recipe every week. Though I can't guarantee I have been perfect with this goal, I think I have done pretty good and I have gotten more and more into sharing recipes on my cooking blog. For Christmas Nate bought my the domain for our blog and I am so excited to transition to the new space.

10. Graduation. Although I actually graduated in December, come April I was able to walk and make it official with the cap and gown. I was so spoiled to have my parents, my inlaws, and both sets of grandparents come to my graduation and support me there.

Two thousand eleven was an absolutely wonderful year for us. And I can't wait to see what adventures 2012 has in store for us.

What were your 2011 highlights?