Happy New Year 2012!!!

I've been MIA for the last week or so. Christmas and New Years and everything in between has been amazing and busy and relaxing. I would blame my lack of posts on the endless parties and gatherings and food and games over the past week, but probably the biggest reason has been me catching up on sleep...I have been loving sleeping in, but it makes for rather short days.

Anyway, in the spirit of the New Year, I'm going to write down my top 10 highlights of 2011, and also some goals for 2012 (goals are always more serious when they're in writing!). When brainstorming the highlights, I realize what an exciting year it was!

Top Ten of 2011 (In order of preference)

10. Getting back into Cross-Country Skiing: Joe and I were out quite a bit last winter, and discovered Schneider's Bush...inquire if you are interested and don't know about it!

9. Spending time with the family at Rick's Cottage: At the end of the summer, Michael and Micaela made a stop in Ontario between living in Vancouver and heading to Taiwan for the year. This gave our family an opportunity to head to my mom's partner, Rick's amazing cottage up on Lake Shewinagog. Good times!

8. Staying at an Argentinian Estancia: Joe and I spent about 4 days horseback riding and enjoying life on an Argentinian cattle ranch. It was beautiful and relaxing after weeks of roughing it through Peru and Bolivia!

7. Becoming a French Immersion teacher: This year is my first year with my very own class. While some days are challenging and it has been a huge learning curve, I adore my students! It is extremely rewarding working with them. Sorry, no photo!

6. Huacachina, Peru: This is a desert area where we went dune-buggying and sand-boarding. We then spend the night under the stars in the desert. One of the coolest things I have ever done!

5. Getting Beau: The newest addition to our family, our sweet cat, Beau!

4. March Break in Vancouver! Joe and I spent a whirlwind week in the Vancouver area visiting our brothers, Mike and Bob. We spent a lot of time enjoying the beautiful outdoors, and climbed the Stawamus Chief!

3: Climbing Machu Picchu: This has been a long-time dream of mine. This was definitely the most challenging hike I have ever (and possibly WILL ever) done! The scenery was beautiful and the altitude added to the challenge, the the grand finale of Machu Picchu itself made it all worth it.

2. I became on auntie! On February 12th, my sister, Kate, and her husband, Phil, gave birth to Braden Alexander Bauman. My family will never be the same in the best way possible :) He is the cutest little man ever!

1. Getting Married! On June 23rd, I married Joe. This will probably take the cake for the best day of my life! I love him so much and can't wait for many more years with him.

And there are MORE exciting things that happened in my family this year: Dad retired and sold the Lanc (Wow!), Mum bought a new house with Rick, Erin got a contract job, Mike and Mic went to Taiwan, Catherine and Ryan got engaged, Bob met a lucky lady, Jim started training a service dog pup...exciting year!

Goals for 2012:

• Stay fit: I would love to get to the gym at least 3 times per week. 
• Find a new home with Joe...hopefully this year!
• Post a photo a day! This is a new project I'll be taking on, which will be posted here on my blog. I give full credit for this idea to Annica Napier.
• Become an even better teacher.
• Travel: The plan right now is to go to Europe with Joe...this one may depend on the housing situation :) Alternatively we may do a few smaller trips.