Happy New Years and Looking Back at 2014!!

Today is the first day of 2015, isn't it?? Wow, I can't believe that 2014 has already come and gone. I seem to clearly recall this day last year. Well a lot has happened last year so perhaps that accounts for the speed at which it has passed. I would like to share some highlights and my favorite pictures from each month.

January: This is the one month where I honestly don't remember anything happening. I also don't have any pictures on my laptop from that month. I probably filled my time with school and violin lessons. We had recently switched to taking lessons from Mr. Nixon which I have loved!! It was a very dry winter so there was no snow, rain or skiing.

February: This was a very exciting month. Hannah, Sean, Tobin and I joined the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra. It has been a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun. Dad took Han and I on a three day trip to Disneyland. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! It is definitely at the top of my list of highlights from the year.

March: At the beginning of March. Han and I traveled down to Southern California because Dad was going to the Shepherds conference and Han and I were going to visit Lacy. We had an awesome time together full of Dutch Blitz, photo shoots, baseball games, malls and talking. The next week Han and I traveled down to Southern California again to visit my aunt and uncle and their family. We celebrated Clay's and my birthdays at the beach. While we were gone we received a call from dad saying that our house had flooded. I don't think we realized how much that would effect our next three months. We spent the rest of march and half of April adjusting to hotel life. It was a blessing to have place to stay while we were displaced but hotel life has a good amount of challenges. Having the same cheesy breakfast every morning was one of them. But Han and I had fun living in town and being able to walk to Starbucks and the library.

April: We started off the month still living in the hotel. We drove daily back and forth to our house as we worked on restoring it. Our first orchestra concert was also at the beginning of the month. We performed in the Awahnee hotel which was really cool. In the middle of the month we moved into a beautiful vacation home in Bass Lake. It was so nice to be in a real house again. During this time I was also desperately trying to finish school between house projects. Towards the end of the month we were blessed to meet Peter Hammond and Dr. Jay Grimstead. Peter Hammond is a missionary in South Africa. He shared some incredible stories with our church.

May: This was definitely the craziest month of the year for me. I had three different music practices each week, we finished fixing our house and moved in, I did my first senior photo shoot
and I was cramming school in all my spare time cracks. I also finished my year long 313 photo project. Dad took me to the Glacier High School dance which was lots of fun. I finished school the very last day of May and oh wow, I am sooooo glad to be done!!!

June: I graduated the first week of the month. A lot of my extended family came and it was so much fun to have everyone together. I was able to shadow a photographer at a wedding. I learned a lot doing that. We spent most of the month unpacking. Lacy and her mom visited us while the rest of their family was hiking. Our entire church came down with the flu during the last week of June.

July: We kicked off July with an old fashioned 4th of July celebration with our church and Lacy and her family. We had a watermelon eating contest, a history quiz, water games, ice cream and fireworks. The next day was the MSO's 4th of July spectacular concert.  Mom, Han and I traveled down to Southern California again to visit our aunt and uncle. We babysat our little cousins while our Aunt had her baby. We were very happy to welcome baby Nora into the family.

August: Sean and Scott celebrated their 15th birthday. The first school year in which I did not have school started :):) We traveled as a family to Colorado for a family reunion. It was awesome to have all of our extended family in one place. At the end of the month we went to Magic Mountain to celebrate two of our friends birthday. We had a blast there!! August was a month of fires as well and one fire burned through our town though only three buildings and a few outbuildings were destroyed.

September: In September another large fire burned by our town. This time the fire destroyed 31 homes including some of our friends' home. Our annual church camp was fun as usual. At the end of the month I got my drivers license which was very exciting for me! :)

October: Some of our extended family on Dad's side came for a memorial service for my great uncle. We went to Yosemite alot with them. Hannah got her braces taken off after 2 years and 5 months. Our whole family prepared for our big October/November adventure.

November: We spent the majority of the month of November in North Carolina which was amazing. We had a wonderful time there. My favorite memories from that trip were going to a Celtic Thunder concert with mom and Hannah, spending extended periods of time with Aunt Alana, Uncle Spencer and their kids and touring the USS North Carolina with Grandpa. We came home just in time for Thanksgiving which we celebrated as a family.

December: I love December because it is such a festive month and we did lots of festive things in it. Hannah celebrated her 17th birthday. We went to Sugar Pine Christian camp for their open house. Our church's annual hymn sing is always something I look forward too. Christmas was a lovely day spent as a family and New Years Eve was celebrated with a very noisy celebration with church friends :):)

 

Now here we are back at 2015!! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY!!!!!! I pray that this coming year is filled with blessings, adventure and new experiences :):)

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