Behind the Scenes: Goodbye 2011

2011 was a CRAZY year!

We started off in Marquette, Michigan..drove 11 hours to an apartment in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Five months later we packed up our belongings and moved in with Ben's parents in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Two months later we moved to our current apartment in Grand Rapids.

Here is a look at our year.. in pictures!

I have very few pictures from our time in Sioux Falls.. I lost most of the photos that were taken....

January

We rang in the new year in our new city!

Ben looked for jobs and I started student teaching.

February

I became famous! I was in a teacher in-service on a new literacy program and we were recorded. That person in the grey sweatshirt.. yeah that's me!

Ben got two jobs, one at a Boy's Ranch for troubled youth and another at a Science Kid's Museum.

March

I gave a grand tour of our Sioux Falls apartment, we celebrated Grandma Margaret's birthday from far away, and I was offered a job at the zoo working Admissions. I worked that for a little under two months. Was given a promotion but had to turn it down.

April

This photo was taken one of the many trips I took to the Kirby Science & Discovery Center. We took our friend Rich there and my parents!

We also decided to move back to Michigan.

May

We moved back to Grand Rapids, I graduated, Ben got an internship working at an organic farm, and moved in with Ben's parents.

June (more pictures now!)

Ben took this chair and made it into something wonderful (see August...)

We celebrated our first anniversary!

Visited Meijer Gardens

Discovered our favorite new restaurant, The Flat River Grill

Spent our "real" first anniversary at Aubree's and with a trip to IKEA

Visited the farm a lot to see the piggies!

July

I babysat these cuties!

We celebrated our first fourth of July downstate.

Being silly waiting for the fireworks to start.

We took advantage of being so close to family and went to our cousin's baseball games.

Took these beautiful girls for a day at the park with Be-en and Ca.

Raena and I got our first pair of Toms.

And learned how to ride a RipStik

I stood outside the funeral of Betty Ford and said my goodbyes.

We moved into our current apartment.

Tia and Justin visited (and ate our popsicles!)

And we did touristy things together

Babysat some more..

and enjoyed all the time I had with them after being away for most of their lives!

Made a fun sponge toy for my cousin's birthday!

August

Ben made this chair for Addison!

Addison turned 2

We saw Harry Potter, the final movie

My parents visited and we made pizza!

And ribs!

We hiked up the Sand Dunes with cousin Lindsey from California.

Visited the cottage for a number of days.

Had many candle lit dinners next to hand picked bouquets of flowers that Ben grew.

We started canning, freezing and preserving the food we grew and started drinking healthier milk!

We went on a fancy date night with a seven course meal!

September

I started my job teaching a kindergarten extended learning program and managing a before and after school program.

My friend's foot friend!

October

Ben, Rich and I visited Marquette.

This is the tree where we took some wedding pictures next to it.

Visiting Lil Presque, my favorite spot in the whole wide world!

We carved little pumpkins, that we grew!

November

Came and went too quickly with no pictures to show for it! I was offered a new position, we visited my family for Thanksgiving and spent our free time really organizing and settling into our apartment.

December