Only 11 Days Late...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I'm so glad 2011 is finally over. A lot of great memories, but a lot of bad ones too. Let's see... In 2011, I moved four times, was a chef at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, got married at the most famous dog race in the world [Iditarod] to my best friend in the world, sent him off to the Army and didn't see him for a total of 7 months [except for a week in July], worked my second year on the train as a tour sales representative and chef, gave over 250 speeches in 5 months, became vegetarian for 4 months, flew over Denali State Park in a helicopter, flew around the tallest mountain in North America in a fixed-wing airplane, kayaked Prince William Sound, hiked Flat Top mountain, touched the North Pole, learned more about Alaska than I know about the state I'm originally from, pet a moose, saw hundreds of wild animals, fell down a set of stairs... twice, stood at the front of the locomotive going over Hurricane Gulch [highest bridge on the Alaska Railroad], saw the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) in Fairbanks, went halibut fishing on a charter in Seward, saw humpback whales breech, survived my first winter driving in the snow with no accidents, shook hands with a real biker gang, made perfect pancakes going 65 mph on a train, lost a majority of my friends due to the drama of living with 13 people, felt true hatred for the first time, turned 21 [which wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be], got my 5th tattoo, met the mayor of Ferry, became a brunette, went to 5 different zoos, drove the Alcan Highway for the second time, almost hit a wood bison, moved into my first apartment with no roommates except for my husband, got a management position at one of my favorite stores, got licked in the face by a giraffe, adopted a cat from the Humane Society and traveled over 41,000 miles [yeah, fourty-one thousand miles] between working on the train, camping/fishing trips, going to Kentucky for Adam's graduation and moving from Alaska to Colorado.

Now, it's time for the next chapter (and a new scrapbook)...