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Top 10 of 2011

Over Christmas Break we decided to make a collection of our top 10 memories/major events of 2011.  I began to make a small book of them and plan to make one each year, so that we can reflect over the year and look back at it in the future :) 

However, this post was delayed quite a bit, after the first book I made got mistakenly thrown away as it was sitting in a paper bag at work overnight.  This is quite a long story and I was quite sad after the whole thing. After a couple of weeks of sulking over it (this book was almost done and I was not about to go start over) I picked myself up again and started the book over.  Needless to say, here, during Spring Break week, I have finally put the finishing touches on ;) :)

Here they are, our top 10 events of 2011... a very memorable year for us :) I will post pictures of the book in another post to come!

10. Tropical Sno
2011 Marked our second season with Tropical Sno.  Over the summer, we had a lot going on with Tropical Sno- moving the building to a new location, and opening up a second location in Waverly.  We look forward to seeing what another summer will bring. 

9.  Skiing
We both learned how to ski this year! In February, Mark and I both went on the Ski and Shop, a weekend trip for junior high students through church.  (We went as leaders).  This was Mark's first time skiing and he loved it.  I chose to tube for the day.  Over Christmas break this year, (a few days ago) we decided to take a day trip to Afton Alps, where I survived my first time skiing!  We had a lot of fun, skiiing with Kristin, Caleb and Aaron. 

8.  Mark's Graduation from UNI and new job
In May, Mark graduated from UNI with a bachelor's degree in Business Management.  Following graduation, he spent a lot of time gearing up Tropical Sno and getting things ready.  In June he had an interview with Visual Logic Group in Waterloo and a few days later was offered a job.  Over the summer Mark worked part-time at Visual Logic Group and following our honeymoon he went full-time.  He is the operations manager and has loved working with this company.

7.  Spending time with Friends
This is pretty self explanatory, but we have loved the time we have been able to spend with friends over the course of this year.  Furthermore, we have enjoyed having a place to invite and entertain our friends!

6. Our First Christmas
This year brought a lot of "lasts" and a lot of "firsts."  Although this was not our first Christmas together, it was our first Christmas married.  I never thought this would be that much of a change, but it was pretty special for us.  It was a great Christmas spent with both of our families.  We also LOVED  spending our days off together.  Mark had a few days off of work, as did I.  Let's just say relaxing brings new meaning when you are married :) 


5. Family 
Like many other years, we have done a lot of fun things with both of our families this year and we feel very blessed to live so close to both of our families and have those opportunities to get together so often.  We love our families :)


4.  Baptism
The day after our wedding, August 7th, Mark and I were both baptized at George Wyth Lake.  It was such a special day for both of us to be baptized together and a great way to start our marriage.  We look forward to the years of following Christ together.

3.  Honeymoon
We traveled to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon during the week following our wedding.  Mark and I have had the opportunity to go a lot of places together with family and on church trips, but it was a lot of fun for us to be on our own for the first time.  We had a very relaxing week by the beach, ate wayyyyy to much food and had ourselves a nice honeymoon :)


2.  Our Wedding Day!
August 6th was our wedding day!  This was a day we have both looked forward to for years.   There are not enough words to even describe the day, but it was such a joy-filled day for both us.  From the ceremony to the last dance, we had a blast, laughed way too much and have reminisced on the day many times over.

1.  Marriage
This may seem like the same thing as #2, but we can attest that it is not :)  We loved our wedding day, but even more, Mark and I have truly enjoyed the gift of marriage these last few months of the year.  We love doing life together, cooking meals, taking naps, laughing at each others jokes, learning new things about each other, getting to sleep together, and the list could go on.   Now that we are married, some days it feels like we hardly dated at all and some days we can't believe we actually are married!  We love it  :)

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