Adventures in 2008

2008 was a year of domestic adventures- for the first time in a long time (maybe since 1996?)  Damon didn’t use his passport for a calendar year.  The majority of my travel was for work to Seattle every other month.

January-2008 started off with lots of  great skiing and the Sundance film festival here in UT with friends coming through town to ski and watch movies.  We had a weekend in SF with my family to attend my uncle’s installation as pastor of a church there. 

February and March- We stayed close to home to enjoy the skiing.  My sister, nephews, and parents came to celebrate Chinese New Year with us.

Damon had a long weekend in Vegas for a bachelor party- but as with all good Vegas trips, there was no documentation.

April and May- I had a long weekend doing some hiking and backpacking in southern Utah with two of my co-workers.  That served as a warm-up for our big non-wedding/family related trip this year which was one week exploring Utah’s national parks.

May kicked off our wedding season as we celebrated with Rebecca and Scott in Newport Memorial Day weekend.  We stayed on the east coast (oh the wonders of working remotely!) and attended my 10th college reunion the next weekend.

June- Damon made it up to Seattle for a concert.  During a work trip to Seattle I made a side trip up to Vancouver for my cousin Melissa’s Despedida de Soltera.

July- July was a big month for weddings and visitors with my college friend Tom and his wife Grace passing through SLC as part of a Utah trip, our friend Jon flying down from Seattle and our friends Madeline and Baron driving down from Seattle with their son Lucas. 

We made it to my college friend, Christl, and Steven’s wedding in Santa Cruz, CA on Sunday and then to Damon’s cousin Mike and Sibylle’s wedding the following Saturday in Sudbury, MA.  We hung out on the east coast and we hosted friends from our Singaporean teaching days in Providence.

August- After returning to SLC from Providence we turned around and went to Pasadena for our friend Gita’s wedding to Andy.  Another quick work trip for me to Seattle and then it was back to the east cost for Damon’s family’s annual trip to Maine.  My college friend Sasha and her family came to visit for Labor Day and the following weekend.

September and October- We finished up the weddings in 2008 with a fun trip to Nantucket for Colleen and Mike’s wedding in September. 

November- Work hit a crisis so I had two back to back weeks in Seattle but had enough time on the ground in Salt Lake to attend the USA Rugby versus Uruguay match.  Our grad school friend Jenkay came to visit when I got back from Seattle and then we hosted Thanksgiving.

December-  I flew out to Colorado for work at the same time the last of our Thanksgiving guests were leaving. Damon met me there for a fun weekend in Louisville and Denver before I headed to Seattle for one more visit.  We finished off the travel for the year by going to the Bay Area for Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2008

We hosted Thanksgiving last year which was really fun.  Both sets of our parents, my sister, and her family came out.  Damon’s parents made use of a bed and breakfast around the corner from our house- and probably got the best deal since there’s only one bathroom at our place. 

There were only two nights that everyone was in town- the first night we went out for Thai food at one of our new favorite restaurants.

Everyone out for Thai food at Bangkok Thai Talay

Despite the fact that we had a full house, we hosted a dance party in addition to Thanksgiving.

Catching up…

Despite the fact that there haven’t been many posts the last few months, we have been busy.  I’m hoping to catch up before January gets too far away from me.

In mid-November we were lucky that our friend Jen was passing through Salt Lake City for work.  She stayed for the weekend and we were able to sneak in a hike since it was still pretty warm down here in the valley.  We hiked for a couple of hours along the trail to Centerville Peak.  We had great views of the Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island.  Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to make it to the peak- but it was a great hike.  It was great to catch up with Jen- it was the first time we had seen her since Costa Rica!

Frozen ground

Lunch with a view

The Great Salt Lake with Antelope Island in the distance

13-0!

 

The Utah Utes have won the Sugar Bowl and gone 13-0!  We spent a lot of our time this fall cheering on the Utah football team.  We hosted some friends to watch a few of the away games at our place (including tonight’s game).  Last year we went to the Air Force game.  This year Damon made it to 3 games  TCU, Oregon State, and BYU.  Although I only made it to one game this year, it was the BYU game aka the Holy War.

Our grad student friends decided to sleep out for tickets.  Since they could each bring a guest, they bought tickets for us.  It was fun to visit them Friday night while they hung out in the line (unfortunately one of the colder nights of the fall) .  It was great to be at their last regular season game and witness their final win to be 12-0.

Here are some pics from the BYU game.

Happy New Year!

I find it hard to believe that 2008 is over- somehow I feel like it just started…  Wishing you and your families a safe, healthy, and happy 2009!