2010 Year End Wrap Up and Moving Forward

Yes, I do realize it's almost the end of February.  Whatever.  If 2009 was the year of us visiting everyone then 2010 was the year of everyone visiting us!

My friend Brandon came in April.  I can't put my fingers on any of those photos right now.  I think I've already packed the disc that has them... Brandon, email me a picture of the 2 of us from your visit please so I can update this post!!!

Then in July, my sister and her family came to visit.  Michael is not in this picture but he didn't like being in pictures anyway...

 And finally in December, we had Diego's mom and aunt come from Argentina!

With all that, we moved twice too.  The second time was cause we got smoked out of the first apartment.  We tried for a few weeks to beat that smoke smell from the previous or upstairs tenants but to no avail.  3 weeks later we moved.  Bother. 

Towards the end of the year I had surgery to remove a tumor from my uterus.  Not the cancerous kind but still bigger than a golf ball.  It wasn't really symptomatic but we are hopeful that it will change our chances of becoming and staying pregnant.

As far as moving forward in 2011, we are buying a house!!!  We should be in it within a month.  It has a HUGE walk-in pantry which is helpful because another one of our goals is to finish up our 1 year food storage.  72-hour kits - check.  3 month food storage - almost finished.  Non-perishables and toiletries - getting there.  1 year - I got nothing.  I wanna start a garden at the new house and I've been canning.  Here are some pictures of the chicken and breakfast sausage links I did.

Oh, and Diego is getting promoted! Hmm. What's next? *fingers crossed*

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Familia in EEUU

Diego's mother and his aunt came to visit us!!!  It was his mother's first trip to the United States (first time flying, for that matter).  They stayed almost a month with us and we tried to pack in as much as possible!  Among their favorite things was Wal-Mart but here are some other things we did.

Agua Fresca!!! Yum!

 

The lights at the Temple.

 

Their first snow.

 

The Grand Canyon.

Las Vegas.  The water ballet at the Bellagio, the ceilings at the Venitian, the chocolate factory, the sign, the flamingo, the Argentine restaurant, breakfast with the Johnsons, what else...  I can't remember.

 

 Tombstone.  We watched the show and went to Boothill Graveyard.

 

 The roller derby.  Once Diego explained a bit they liked it.

 

Diego and his mom.  Everyone thought he looked just like him mom.  Well, you should see his dad...  She doesn't like this picture cause she's not used to herself without her glasses.  I had to learn how to time my photos.  When you take a picture, you count uno...dos... tres.  And they repeat tres with you like we would say cheese except we don't actually say cheese every...single...time.

What I didn't include was the trip to the hospital when took them shooting and his aunt got hit in the face with the recoil of a gun she was shooting.  They were both doing very well but I guess her arms got progressively closer to her face and then, bam.  Yeah, she needed surgery in her eye. But she's okay!!!

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Thanksgiving and Christmas

Before the Thanksgiving festivities with our friends Damian and Launi and their family, we participated in the Turkey Trot.  Our attempt to rid our bodies of the extra food before it even gets there...

I had a spot of competition from this little one.  She asked for Diego to sit next to her and then she said, "I'm 5. How old are you?" When he said he was 40 she said, "Aww!"

 Isn't that the fun-est thing you have ever seen?!  Rainbow jell-o!  So impressed!

We had Christmas Eve dinner with our friends Candee and Facundo and some of their relatives.  I'm still trying to get a bigger version of this picture...Great evening though!

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Our Newest Citizen

Our newest naturalized citizen!

 Inside the courthouse with all the swearing in and the patriotic videos and the singing.  Singing?  Yes, they make everybody stand and sing "Proud to be an American".  Not even "The Star Spangled Banner"...  Weird.

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Diego's 40th Birthday

Does it make me a bad wife or a bad photographer that I didn't take a single picture at Diego's big birthday party?Doesn't matter.  I LOVE YOU BABYCAKES!!!  Happy Cumpleaños!

This candles? We smuggled those in from Argentina...

Thanks, everyone, for making the night so great!!!

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Snowflake

We've been wanting to go up to the Snowflake temple for a long time now so we went over Halloween weekend.  We drove up early in the morning and went straight to the temple. As you can see, it was WAY windy outside.

We stayed at a cute little bread and breakfast (Heritage Inn, I  highly recommend it) but as far as sightseeing goes the below picture is the only place we got to see.  It's a tiny little town is SOOO small and everything closes SOOO early. 

It was a very relaxing and low key trip. That night we went to a haunted corn maze. It was short but kinda cool. They only let 10 people in at a time and they pretty much guide you through it. But, at one point, they pile you in this covered truck and it's totally dark and they drive you to the next location sloshing you around as you go.  It was fun.

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Las Vegas

My parents made a rather spontaneous trip to Las Vegas (from Louisiana, I might add) to see Jimmy Buffet in concert and we drove up to see them. They saw the water ballet at the Bellagio before we got there.  That's BY FAR my most favorite thing in Vegas (that and the gelato place next door). We went the the Ethel M chocolate factory.  We had dinner at an Argentine place there and introduced them to empanadas.  The whole trip was short, but sweet.  Thanks, parentals,  for visiting so close!

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KISS, Gavin Degraw... oh, and a surgery

So we went to see KISS in concert. I've heard it's supposed to be the best contert ever but I wasn't impressed. They are too old to be putting on a show like they used to. And the main guy was definitely loosing his voice.  We took pictures but none of them turned out very good. On the flip side. I got to meet Gavin Degraw. He was playing at a charity concert with Train (who, by the way, is a tiny, scrawny little thing) and I was behind the scenes in the green room with the photographer. Super cool dude. So I took a picture with him!

Oh, I also had some laproscopic surgery to remove a uterine fibroid tumor.  Fun fun.  Laid up in bed for a week.  Boo.  Let's see if I can get pregnant again now...

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