2011 - A Year in Review

Grant and I had another great year! I won't go through every single month. Just the highlights! :)

February 

Crazy snow storms in Tulsa

and an awesome new job as a travel agent for Maren!

March

I got to go visit my sisters in Chicago! Mom and Emily met me there and we had a mini girls reunion. This is a picture of us downtown after the St. Patrick's Day parade. They turn the Chicago river green! Grant had surgery on his ACL and I was called as the Riverside Ward Primary President. Scary!

April

Even though Grant was laid up we still managed to make it to Troy and Brooke's wedding in the DC area. We were only there for a couple of days, but we went to Gettysburg, some of the Smithsonian museums and I even got to see my old roommate and long lost friend Lauren Cozzens while we toured the national mall. The wedding was super fun and so classy!

June and July 

Went to Utah and Idaho to visit family. It was maybe the prettiest I've ever seen Utah. We had a great time! We went boating, hiking and made it to Justin and Sunny's wedding up in Nampa, ID. We even got to see the famous Melba 4th of July fireworks! Totally worth the trip alone! ;)

August

Grant took me on a surprise trip to Branson for my birthday! Although Branson itself is pretty cheesy, we had a great time! We went paddle boarding at Table Lake, we saw an awesome Chinese Acrobatic show, ate at some really fun places, and (my favorite) went antiquing!

September

By far my favorite month of this year! We started by going to Austin to visit my dear friend Lindsey (who was just about to have her baby) and her husband Blakely. Oh, and BYU just happened to be playing Texas that weekend too. :) 

On the way home from Austin Grant and Mark surprised me and Sam by pulling into the Dallas/ Fort Worth airport where they announced that we were flying to Costa Rica!! The second surprise of the night was when Dallas and Audrey met us at the airport! Costa Rica was incredible. It was lush and green and full of great hikes and incredible waterfalls. We ate the most delicious local food at roadside shacks. Then we topped the trip off by going bungee jumping! 

September (continued)

I told you it was a great month! The week after we got home from Costa Rica I flew to Cancun to spend five days at a luxury resort (El Dorado Royale) in the Riviera Maya for work. Although I had to do some site inspections and training meetings, I had all morning  and early afternoon to myself to do yoga on the beach, try out all the fancy restaurants and yes, get a tan!

October

Over conference weekend Grant and I and Mark and Samantha set a new tradition! We decided that every October conference weekend we are going to go camping! We camped at Greenleaf State Park where we went fishing and then we cooked Samantha's delicious campfire dinners. And we roasted s'mores of course!

November

In November our little gang met our friends Dustin and Emily in Las Vegas. Troy and Brooke live in Vegas too, so we got to hang out with them, too! We went to see the Elvis Circque du Soleil and also Ka Cirque du Soleil. We ate at an amazing Spanish restaurant at the Aria, and even went dancing! :)

Grant's parents were called to serve in the Greece, Athens mission, and left later that month for Cyprus. We are so proud of them! November is the month that we found out that we were having a baby. What an exciting time! We can't wait to meet you, little one. xox

December

Christmas at the Cranes! Pictures still to come. 

Grant and I have been so blessed this year. We are grateful for our health and for our wonderful marriage! Next year will be full of a very different set of adventures. We can't wait! Bring on 2012!



A Look Back.

It has sadly taken me so long to finish this post! I figured it was better late than never, though. What can I say?? 2010 was a great year!

By January of 2010 Grant and I were already officially Okies! We decided to stay with Grant's parents during January in Piedmont, Oklahoma while we looked for an apartment in Tulsa. They were so wonderful to let us live with them. We had a great time!

February brought our much anticipated trip to Brazil. We were there for almost three weeks. We spent time in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Manaus, Porto de Galinhas, and Iguassu Falls. Needless to say it was incredible.

By March we had moved into our cute apartment by the river in Tulsa and got callings in our ward (Me: First counselor in the Primary presidency, and Grant: Financial Clerk) I also got a job working at the front desk at the Holiday Inn.

April brought my first half marathon with Carin! So fun, and so hard!

In May I went to Orlando where I met my two oldest and dearest friends Christyn and Lindsey. Christyn spent six months working as Aurora at Disneyworld! Talk about a dream job!

In June we went to Utah and Idaho because Grant's cute sister, Michelle, got married in the Boise temple! Yay!

The summer was a busy busy time for Midwest Pest Control, so we were in Tulsa most of the time, but we took a weekend and went down to Hackett, Arkansas where Grant and Mark grew up. We even went cliff jumping at Jack Creek. That place is redneck central, and hilarious! We of course had to eat at the Catfish Barn as well.

During the summer Samantha came out from Utah to visit Mark and while she was here we went to Tahlequah and floated the Illinois river. It was sweet! Such a fun day! Sadly, this is the last photo of Grant's wedding ring (he lost it in the river) and my glasses (they got badly broken)!

In August we went to Utah for a Crane family reunion. The three families all rented condos for the week up at Moose Hollow in Eden. We also spent time at the cabin in Payson while we were in Utah. It is one of my favorite places in the world.

While we were in Utah my dear friend Amy Jo took some photos of us for her website. It ended up being quite an adventure!

We also explored Eureka Springs, Arkansas in August for our second anniversary.

October was by far our busiest month of the year! We started it off by going to Utah for Mark and Sam's wedding! They got married in the Draper temple and then had a beautiful reception up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville where Samantha is from. We are so excited that Mark married such an awesome girl! Those two now live in the same apartment complex as us in Tulsa.

I took advantage of our time in Utah by hiking Ben Lomond Peak with one of my best friends, Tessa. It was an adventure for sure! We even had a close encounter with a bunch of mountain goats! I love hiking with Tessa.

The weekend after Sam and Mark got married we all (Grant, Me, Sam and Mark) all flew to San Francisco to our best buddy Dustin's wedding. We had two days in San Fran and we definitely made the most of our time!

At the end of October Grant and I went on a cruise with my mom, dad and Emily. It left out of Puerto Rico and we went to the Southern Caribbean and West Indies. The stops were: The British Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Barbados, Grenada, Aruba and Curacao.

The night before we went on the cruise we also squeezed in a Vampire Weekend show at the Brady with Grant's brother Bryan and his daughter Shantelle. It was seriously one of the best concerts I've ever been to. A non-stop dance party!

November brought Thanksgiving in Oklahoma City and in December we drove to Utah for Christmas with my family.

In summary, we're healthy, we're happy and we can't wait to see what 2011 brings!