Recap: NYE

Thankfully, yesterday was a "work" holiday, so I decided to take an extra long weekend from blogging as well, which is why i'm doing a very delayed NYE recap. So bear with me...  

We spent Dec. 31st skiing at Schweitzer, which apparently is the only mountain in the country fully operating, I guess there is a serious lack of snow everywhere else...we lucked out with ok snow and sun!

The drive up to Sandpoint (a little town at the base of the mountain)

 My chauffeur

 The view from the top

After the last day of skiing in 2011, we drove back home, did a 30 second turn-around into our "uptown clothes" (Brian's new getting dressed nicely phrase).

I pulled out a little DIY star crown in under 30 seconds, definitely a record!

The idea was courtesy of my friend Cassidy (inspired by A Cup of Jo), who made an adorable one last year.

DIY Star Crown

Need:

1 sheet of sparkly foam paper with a sticky back (you can find in the children sections of Michaels or Jo Anns)

Ribbon

Do:

Cut out stars

Cut out ribbon to fit as a head band

Peel the back of the stars and stick them to your ribbon (and in my case my hair, which hurt, so avoid that)

Seriously, that is all! I didn't have a star stencil so my crown was a little wonky, but it was still wearable...

Leaving Lilly for the night, she was none to happy...

We then rushed out the door to downtown Spokane and met up with friends (Cassidy, of said headband idea). It was a great New Years, which i've heard sets the tone for the rest of the year to come...

I hope you had a lovely evening, filled with champagne, friends, and a kiss at midnight! 

Here's to 2012

It's been a crazy busy year,

At the beginning of 2011 we left our jobs, friends, and Seattle for Southeast Asia...traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos, and Korea. 

We didn't expect to fall in love with Asia so much, but we still miss the taste of phad thai and laksa, we miss heading out of the door and being affronted by hot sticky air, we miss the smell of street cart food around every corner, we miss the craziness that is asia, the tuk-tuk's and the mopeds, we miss the grungy hostels, and the gaggle of children we befriended in Cambodia, we miss wandering from city to city with no plans, and most of all we miss the freedom of travel.

But life has to go on and with visas expiring and passports full, we had to return back to the states. We spent a few months flopping between Seattle and Spokane, restored a "vintage" motor-home, and eventually settled in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a little resort town we never imagined we'd live in and that we've grown to actually like (maybe love).  

In 2011, we've struggled to find jobs, to figure out plans, to figure out how to live in Idaho...2011 also brought us closer and an engagement...so here's to 2012, a year that will be full of wedding planning, hopefully more adventures, more clarity, and definitely another round of resolutions to break keep!