2011-Yearly Update

Another year has gone by! It's crazy how fast time flies, isn't it? Here's a recap of the year in photos:

Tyler Kayaking in Alaska

My cousins live up in Fairbanks, so I  visited them a couple of summers while I was growing up.  I convinced Tyler that he had to go up there, and we had a blast! This picture was taken as we floated down a slough in Fairbanks.  If you look closely, you can see the mama moose that we got just a few feet away from.

My fat face and my family! From left to right:  Scott (lives in Denmark), Jared, Ethan,  Mom Victoria, Jeremy, Zach, Me, and Dad Alex

This is Sophie Elise Tripp (notice the middle name??) getting photo bombed by my dog Loki.

I got a new car this year! No more Mazda3 for me.  I love this car.

Sophie absolutely adores Tyler.  Here they are hanging out during the summer at the Tripp house.

I cut my hair off after growing it out for 3 years.  Back to growing it out again!

Tyler went on a hiking trip with his brothers right after we got back from Alaska.  He was a bit of a mountain man for a couple weeks...

I painted Tyler's toes for him as he slept during the October General Conference. He didn't seem to think it was his shade, though.

Abby Tripp turned one this year!  She completely demolished her cake. 

As Tyler went to NYC with his brothers in October, I found another man to keep me company.  Meet Caesar..

I got really in to decorating our table this year.  This is the Thanksgiving arrangement.

Tyler and I were Zombies for Halloween.  Aren't we scary?

US Novelty bought a fun laser tag set.  This is Tyler's dad Randy, who was gracious enough to join us for a couple of games.  Yes, he's wearing a pimp hat.

Our Gingerbread Village

My favorite band, Anberlin, performed a free concert in SLC this December.  I was able to get pretty close before the mosh pits scared me away!

This was my dad's Christmas Tree this year.  I love it.

This was my Christmas tree!


It was a really fun year! Some other things that weren't pictured…

• I got a job at the South Salt Lake Chamber  of Commerce in September, and love it! There are so many fun things I get to do and fun people that I work with.   I love my job.
• My big brother Zach got married this August to a beautiful and sweet girl who fits in great with the family.  
• My 'little sister', Whitney Tripp graduated from Alta High and started going to BYU.   
• My big brother Jeremy moved back from New York (or was that last year?) Either way, I'm glad he's back home.  
• My niece, Ava, turned 5! 
• My mom released her book.  It's called 'A Piece of Time'.  I'm so proud of her! It's a great read. You can buy the book by clicking here.

I am probably forgetting a whole lot, so forgive me if I need to update this a few times (because that'll happen, right?).  

All in all, though, this year has been fabulous.  I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store.  

Happy Spring! I sat down to write this about what we've been up to and just realized how very boring our lives are.  I feel like I should be blogging about skydiving with midgets or something really crazy and radical, not working and painting the kitchen. 

But no news is good news right? 

So we've been painting a bit, decorating a bit, and cleaning out our storage room.  Yep, I think those are the 'big' changes lately.  

Tyler & I started watching Dr. Who recently.  If you haven't ever seen it, go watch it now please.  It airs on BBC America, but is available on Netflix as well (as if anyone reading this is really going to watch it, but you know…maybe).   It doesn't get really good until the 2nd season when David Tennant becomes the star, but the first is still good enough to watch.  If you don't know what Dr. Who is about, just google it because I'm not ambitious/don't care enough to try to explain it here.  Just go see the cute David Tennant as the Doctor.  That's all I'm saying. His personality is just adorable.  I also love that it's a total family show-- none of the garbage that usually comes with hit shows (Glee, I'm talking to you.)  is on Doctor Who, and that's incredibly unusual for a show this successful.  It's great. Go watch it. 

That's about it! Glad I was able to post this before another year went by.  

Guess who sucks at updating blogs?

Guess who sucks at updating blogs?


I do! But I suppose there could be worse things.

So it's been over a year since the last real post (I'm not counting the one where I apologized for not updating this for obvious reasons). Here is a rundown of what we have done since the last post:


March: We drove to Idaho to pick up my cute cousin Serenity. It was the first time I'd been up there since my grandpa's funeral 6 years ago, and although Idaho is still exactly how I remembered it (incredibly boring and empty), I enjoyed seeing my grandparent's graves and visiting with my aunt.

April: We watched conference and....I don't really remember what else happened in April to be honest. I'm sure it was a lovely month.

May: May was fun...we finished a lot around the house. I finally got a lot of decorating done and Ty finished putting his office together.

June: June was great! Ty & I visited Zion National Park & Bryce National Park. I had worked at a place called Zion Mountain Ranch just outside of Zion's east gate from April-August of 2008. I promised myself that I'd go back and visit when I got married, so we stayed there when we went down. I really enjoyed being able to go back and see some the people I had become good friends with during my time down there. We also visited Kanab, a teeny tiny town on the Utah-Arizona border, which is where I lived while I worked at the ranch.

Kanab is on Highway 89, and the drive there will take your breath away! I highly recommend going that way the next time you head south. It will take longer, but it's worth doing at least once.

We also got a dog in June. She has quickly become a part of the family, and even though I had to beg Ty to get her, it's pretty obvious that he's gotten attached to her. He loves playing with her and teaching her tricks.









I had a hilarious caption for the above picture, but I guess I'll edit myself because this is a family blog.










Isn't she cute?!


July:
In early July my brother Scott (formerly Eddie) visited from Denmark. I only get to see him once a year and it was really fun hanging out with him and his partner Soren. We hiked Snowbird and froze our butts off doing it, but it was beautiful...even though there was still snow. Welcome to Utah right? Anyway, it was great seeing them and doing that as a family. We really don't get together often enough!


July also brought the Fitts family to Pineview and we all had a really good time. We didn't end up camping like most everyone else, but it was really fun to drive up and hang out with Ty's fam.

Ty and the rest of the guys in his family did the Holladay firework show again for the 4th of July (or was it 24th? I don't remember). It was a little nerve wracking, but luckily everyone still had their body parts at the end.

August: I'm pretty sure we spent a lot of time up at the cabin in August and September. They are almost finished working up there and it was starting to look really good by then. It was very nice of Ty's family to let us bring the puppy up there. They are not dog people at all, but the kids sure love her!




This is the pup after a weekend with the kids at the cabin...so tired!


September: Ty turned the big 2-7 in September. I made him an awesome birthday cake, and in the words of Demetri Martin, "How can one group own refracted light? Not cool, gays. Not cool." So just enjoy the awesomeness of the cake, okay?





I have a better pic of it somewhere but this will have to do for now.



October:

In October we went to a Halloween party hosted by Jared & Brandee. Neither of us really get in to Halloween very much, but we still came up with pretty clever costumes. I dressed up as a lease and Tyler went as a tiler. I know, right? We are awesome. Good thing my name isn't Hooker or something awful...although that would have been funny too because it's a little more obvious than a lease is.

I almost forgot to mention that we got to go to New York in October with some of Tyler's family. A company flew Ty & his brother's out for a tour of their show room, so some of the wives and the parent's flew out the day after. It was the first time I had ever been, and I'm pretty sure I was annoying people with my "Oh my gosh!" 's as we drove from the airport to the hotel. . We saw the play 'Wicked' , got lost on the subway, Casey got hit by a Taxi (Ty & I missed this but luckily we were sent a picture of the reenactment), and did a lot of other things that involved walking and/or shopping. It was very fun, and I really liked getting to know some of Tyler's family a little better without the distraction of little kiddies running around (even though I do really enjoy the kiddies!).


November:
November brought lots of snow and our one year anniversary! We found a great deal on a cruise (buy one get one free!) and got to go to some very warm, very fun places. On our stop in the Bahamas, we actually got to hang out with Tessie & Lennie's fam because they were there on a cruise as well. It was cool to chill with them for a bit because we were gone for a long time (close to three weeks), and seeing some family was awesome. We missed Thanksgiving, but spent it in Grand Cayman with warm weather and the beach...so no complaints there!




This pic was taken in St. Thomas.



The last week of the trip we stayed in Coconut Groves (about 10 minutes away from Miami), and got to do some fun things. We drive the Overseas Highway to the Florida Keys, and although it was a very long drive, we had a convertible so we took the top down and had a good time. We visited the Everglades, and Tyler almost peed his pants when he was walking up to some water and then realized he was about 5 feet away from a massive, sleeping alligator. Probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen (I didn't know he could jump that high-or jump back that far!), but I'm definitely glad that the thing didn't wake up.

The gator that he almost met (not the best pic, sorry!) :






This one was just chillin near the sidewalk.



December:
December was cold, but brought lots of snow and we got to spend a lot of time with both mine and Tyler's family. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays and we both had a great one!


Yep, ninja turtle GB cookies. Can't have Christmas without em.




January:

In January I turned 21 and got to celebrate by getting smashed. Just kidding, we hung out at home and watched movies. I got some good presents and enjoyed hanging out with family in January.

February:
February brought another Valentine's day, except this time we celebrated it a few days later because Tyler was at a conference in Florida. We both got each other some cute gifts and enjoyed spending our own Valentine's Day together after being apart for a few days.




It was a great year. We enjoy spending time together, and we have been very fortunate to be able to do so.


I'm sure I've forgotten a ton of things, so I might add a little more to this later. Probably not though, so don't expect too much. But I will try to add photos as I find them.





Anyhow, this year will hopefully be just as awesome as the last! Hopefully I'll update this a little more regularly, but you know...I'm not much of a blogger.