A Fond Look Back at 2014

We are already 3 days into 2015 but before the first full week of the new year begins, let's take a final look back at 2014. 

~* January *~

2014 got off to a very cold start in Illinois, -39°F. The whole Polar Vortex thingy

~* February *~
Flew to Arizona to look for a place to live, and found a perfect place!

 ~* March *~
I have arrived! 

 ~* April *~

AZ Easy Rider Status, Achieved! 

~* May *~
Added a new member to the AZ Crew, Audrey!

 ~* June *~
Visitors from Illinois! OL, Page Turner and the siblings!
Grand Canyon Trip #1

~* July *~

Dust Storms fo realz

~* August *~

AZ Storms pack a punch!

~* September *~
Grand Canyon Trip #2

~* October *~
Halloween Party!

~* November *~

NiBo graduates from boot camp!

~* December*~
Ugly Sweater Party!

2014 was so much fun! I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store, if it was anything like last year you know it's going to be awesome! It was hard to find just one or two pictures to represent a whole month, I did so much this year! 

Stay tuned for 2015!

NiBo's Graduation

Holy moly has it been a long couple of weeks. I think I am finally caught up on my sleep and can function in the world enough to post this update for you all. I have so much to update you on! First things first... my trip home for NiBo's graduation from Army bootcamp! 

I flew home Monday the 17th and was home for 2 days in Illinois. It was actually fairly cold in AZ when I left (though not cold compared to IL) it was a chilly 39°F when I left the Mesa airport. I knew it was going to be suuuper cold when I landed so I made mom and dad bring me my winter coat (which I ended up finding $7 in, score!) The cold hurt my face.

Did I mention it snowed?!

Once I had my feet on the ground, we had some lunch and I visited my friends at my old office, it was so good to see them! Especially you P.Whitty! I got to spend a little bit of time with Gma and Gpa before we headed off for the graduation. Gpa just had BOTH of his knees replaced and is doing awesome! He said he's trying to get all tip top so he can come visit me in the Spring! I can't wait!! I picked up the rental car on Tuesday and went and got my haircut and got to have dinner with some of my friends, then it was back to Small Town for some sleep before he left first thing in the morning.

Wednesday the 19th mom, dad and myself (A.Drama had to make delicious treats for Thanksgiving at work and they couldn't let her take off to come with) DROVE from Central Illinois to Columbus, Georgia to Fort Benning where NiBo was stationed.  It's a 12 hour drive and we left about 9:30am which put us in Georgia (we actually stayed in Phenix City, Alabama which is right over the river from Columbus) about 10pm.

Thursday was NiBo's turning blue ceremony. This ceremony is where he received his Infantry Blue Cord. After the ceremony which lasted about an hour we got to hang with NiBo for the rest of the day! :) 

mom and dad taking it all in

Proud dad moment, pinning on NiBo's blue cord

Friday was the actual graduation ceremony. It took place at the National Infantry Museum. After graduation NiBo had to check in and we ended up getting him for a couple hours that evening to chill. 

He had to work on Saturday so mom, dad and myself checked out the Civil War Naval Museum in Columbus, that was really neat! Dad even took his first selfie with the Water Witch! Lots of history knowledge is held in this small museum. Very nice collection of artifacts prominently displayed as well.

mom and dad out front

The CSS Jackson

After the museum I used Urban Spoon to find us a place to eat that wasn't a chain restaurant and we stumbled upon The Black Cow their menu said they had award winning burgers, so we had to try! Delish! 

We got NiBo starting at 6am on Sunday until we had to leave. It rained almost all day and I'm pretty sure we drove through a tornado. It's been awhile since I've heard tornado sirens. I think I literally experienced all four seasons during my trip home. We also went and saw the movie Interstellar, which was great, I highly recommend if you likes movies that will make you think about it days after you have watched it.

The Army hasn't changed NiBo too much lol

We did get to see a double rainbow after the storms had passed!

We ended up leaving Georgia at about 6:30pm. Dad and I took turns driving and sleeping and we ended up getting back to Small Town at about 7am. We slept for about an hour then drove to Big Town to take the rental car back and then onto the next big town so I could catch my flight home. I got back to AZ about 3pm and ran a few errands and had breakfast/lunch/dinner then passed out about 5:30pm. I only meant to sleep for a couple hours, even set an alarm, but I didn't get up until 1 in the morning, shut off the lights and set my work alarms and then got up at 7am and headed back to work Wednesday morning. Dad has the luxury of taking the whole rest of the Thanksgiving week off! 

I have so much more to catch you up on, so check back and make sure you scroll up and down so you don't miss anything, there is lots to catch up on! 

Visit Home!

Good grief, I've had this post sitting ready to post for a few days. My appologies ;) 

For just a short weekend trip home (Friday-Monday) I sure got a lot accomplished! My Friday morning started with a beautiful departure from Arizona, just look at that morning sunshine (and no humidity)

Dad picked me up at the airport and our first stop was back at the office to say hello to all my coworkers that I miss very much! It was so nice to get to see everyone, I ended up staying way longer than I thought I would! Who knew people would want to hear all about AZ life and my new job.

After the office visit I had to make a stop at my favorite ice cream stop, the only place I know of that you can get eyes on your ice cream! My family has been going here since we were wee little ones, and anytime A.Drama or NiBo and I go, we still get eyes... dad sometimes even asks for them! 

After ice cream, dad and I had some time to kill so we just drove around until we got the call that the family was ready. The original plan was to surprise mom, gpa and gma.... so only A.Drama, a few friends and dad knew I was coming. For months and months the secret was safe. But A.Drama let it slip about 2 weeks before I was due to arrive, and to make sure she knew, my friend BWurm let it slip too. Oh well... it was good timing for mom since she was a little down that NiBo had shipped out for boot camp, so in the end I'm glad she knew and had something to look forward to. 

A.Drama sent us a text once they were all settled in their seats at one of our favorite pizza places (another haunt that we have been going to since we were all wee little ones) There was an empty seat next to gma so I sad down and said "Can I sit here?" The look on her face was priceless, she just looked at me with her mouth open and started to tear up! I didn't get to see Gpa's face but A.Dram said it was pretty much the same. They were so excited to see me, it was an awesome surprise! 

How I've missed these simple roads! 

Midwest sunsets are pretty awesome

I got my haircut, the bangs are back! 

A.Drama and I paid a visit to Roger Ebert and had to pose for a thumbs up! 

Cornfields as far as the eye can see! 

Had to made a stop at an Illinois pizza staple

Yay! Gma and Gpa! 

A.Drama and I also made a stop at the orchard, I picked up some apple butter and pumpkin butter! 

It was nice to visit back home, even if it was super humid. I was glad to get back to my dry heat Arizona though! The little kitties missed me!