Yesterday, Eric and I celebrated our fifth year anniversary! CRAZY! Time flies!!
We went to the Anniversary Inn in Logan and stayed in the room: Arabian Nights. I can't say enough about how much I loved that room! It was so peaceful and calming! I loved the water fountain and the colors of the room. I think I might have to redecorate our own bedroom. LOL!
Last weekend, Eric and I joined Evan and Kirsten, Ryan and Dax, and Sarah and Brian in Midway for dinner at the Zermatt Resort. We then took a tour of the ice castles growing in the front of the resort.
It's worth the drive to see the ice castles. Kirsten knows I'm an amateur photographer and suggested this location. It was brilliant!
Here are my favorite captures of the day: I included this one with Eric because, I love that he's in it and it shows the size of the castles. I will go back in February to see how much it's grown. It was really cool.
(side note: don't eat at the restaurant: Schneitter’s Restaurant. It was $35 per person for a buffet style dinner. It wasn't horrible food, in fact it was good, but it wasn't $35 dollars good AND it was buffet! For $35!)
(side note: two drinks (Cokes) got spilled all down my back and they took off only 50% of my meal off the bill. The waitress said they wouldn't allow for more of a discount. If I'd been in a worse mood, I would have fought pretty fiercely for the meal to be free. But why should I have to? They also didn't offer to clean my clothes. And I wonder: what if I'd been clearly wealthy? or influential? Why do I need to ask you to clean my clothes?...for such an "upscale" resort, it seems to be logical to offer a cleaning service for you spilling on me WITHOUT me having to cause a scene. I have written a letter to them expressing my unhappiness. I don't expect to hear from them.)
2009 was a good year for me. It was mellow and had some really great memories; most of which were captured on my camera. I went back through my pictures to find my favorites from 2009.
1~ 1/17/09: I love sunrises and sunsets and have discovered that some of the best are captured in the winter months. The awful inversion found in SLC adds a really pretty orange color. This sunrise was caught in January in Sugarhouse Park when I was going home from working my graveyard shift. 2~ 1/27/09: I love how this picture of me and Eric turned out. I took it on our anniversary and love the lighting. Eric is the favorite part of my day and I love being married to him. He's definitely part of a really great year. 3~ 1/31/09: Not so much a great picture or an especially happy moment, but I put this in with my favorites, because it was a really funny moment LOOKING BACK. While living it, I can say I was FUMING! We had driven well on our way back to SLC when we discovered we had Sandy's car keys with us. We had to turn around to re-meet and give her the keys. Funny NOW. 4~ 2/22/09: Definitely a picture I love of the four of us. Considering how travel worn we all were, we look really nice in this picture. 5~ 4/9/09: I love the spring flowers. I love daffodils and tulips. On this day, we came home for work and I needed to capture the one and only remaining daffodil looking at the flourishing tulips. 6~ 4/12/09: My dad and I had taken a nice Sunday drive to the Great Salt Lake to see what we could find. It turned out to be that perfect Sunday! Peaceful and sunny and beautiful! This was one of the pictures I treasured from that day. 7~ 5/24/09: Memorial Day was rainy and seemed to fit the somberness of the holiday. I took flowers to my grandmother's grave and found several flower plants wet from the rain. I loved how this picture captured the flower and the raindrops. Really a favorite. 8~ 6/21/09: Father's Day was spent with Eric's family and a bar-b-que ducking from a sudden burst of rain. When the clouds moved on, the sun shone marvelously. Chance wasn't walking yet and was "trapped" on the grass. I was thrilled when he smiled at me despite his angst of being on the grass. 9~ 6/24/09: Definitely ranks among my favorites this year. It was a total accident and yet it captures perfectly the freedom of summer. The sunset, the lake, swinging from a rope on a tree. It's like a perfect memory of a childhood summer. I love it! 10~ 7/7/09: Another feeling of the wonders of childhood. We had all taken a walk to the dock at Echo. I wasn't sure there'd be enough light to capture what I saw: Collin enjoying the summer...the way I remember enjoying it. It makes me smile and tear up. 11~ 7/7/09: Marcus playing by himself in the dirt at The Lake. I really like how quiet this picture seems. 12~ 9/20/09: Another picture of Marcus in his solitude. The colors of autumn were so incredible. Truly a favorite capture of 2009. 13~ 9/23/09: It's not so much that it's a favorite picture as much as it's a favorite 2009 memory. I was honored to be asked to take pictures of U Hosp Employees in their everyday lives at work enjoying their work. Richard helped set me up with some of the best shots of the three day adventure and I am still most appreciative of that assistance. 14~ 11/8/09: I love this kid! And I love this picture of us smiling at each other. 15~ 11/27/09: Thanksgiving brought one of my favorite memories of 2009. Spending time with Eric and my sisters for the holiday! Everything about that trip makes me smile! We took at road trip for lunch to Morro Bay. It was cold and windy but the food and company were too perfect. I was fortunate enough to capture some really great images for the day and this is simply my favorite. 16~ 11/28/09: Living far away from Mason means he's skeptical of me. It takes some convincing to get him to smile at me but in this moment, Elida was hiding in the shadows while Eric chased Mason around the house. As Elida jumped out, Mason made a last minute decision to run to me for safety and I caught his laugh and run just before impact. He is such a sweet little boy. He couldn't be more perfect for Elida and Damon. 17~ 11/28/09: Sandy and I. I don't have many pictures (that I like) of the two of us. Usually one of us looks fabulous and the other needs a new angle. LOL! This shot was perfect of the two of us. 18~ 12/24/09: This year, Richard and Cynthia (and crew) joined us at Temple Square for Christmas Eve. It was bitter cold, so we lasted MAYBE 15 minutes. It meant we had to take pictures fast. We took a quick moment to take a family picture. 19~ 12/24/09: One of the Christmas Eve shots was right after the sun had set. I can't tell you how much I love this shot! The sky, the Temple lit up, the lights on the trees...I'm really happy that I was there to see it and capture it. 2009 had a lot of really great moments! Here's to 2010!
