Every new year it seems as though all the radio stations, magazines, and more all put together a “Best Of” mix. Well…it rubbed off on me. I’ve put together a “Best of 2009″ page, a collection of unforgettable memories and events of 2009.
Enjoy!
New Year’s Day at Estes Park
On January 1, 2009 we woke up at about 7:30am in Denver, CO and drove up to Estes Park for breakfast. We went up to the Stanley Hotel (inspired Stephen King’s The Shining and where they filmed the movie The Shining starring Jack Nicholson) and toured around before we went and ate breakfast at a great little diner. WONDERFUL way to start the new year.
The night we found out Katie & Heath were pregnant
2009 started out with a big bang! In January, Katie and Heath found out that they were having a baby. The day that they told us was a night that we came into town to see Heath’s band play in Rock Island, IL. We were so very excited for them and knew it was the start to a brand new chapter in our friendship.
Valentine’s Day with Sean & Courtney
Sean and Courtney, our friends from Milwaukee that moved to Minneapolis about 2 years ago, came down to Madison for a 3-night Umphrey’s McGee run at the Barrymore Theatre. They stayed with us while they were in town. We had tickets for the Valentine’s Day show and the four of us went together and had SO MUCH FUN! It was the best VDay ever!
Exploring Southern Wisconsin for Garlic Mustard
In Spring 2009 Lia was enrolled in a digital photography for the web course at UW-Madison. Her end-of-semester assignment was a digital story that was directly relevant to environmentalism in Wisconsin. She chose to do a story about one of Wisconsin’s worst invasive species, Garlic Mustard.
This led to excursion every weekend to random spots in Southern Wisconsin where she had read garlic mustard was rapidly sprouting out of control. Mark, Lia, and Big Sky would pile into our Mitsubishi Eclipse and venture out in search of garlic mustard. It turned out to be a lot of fun and we really got to see a lot of beautiful things around Wisconsin on our garlic mustard ventures.
BBQ-ing
This past year we barbecued more than we ever had before. It became a ritual every weekend. We’d put either brats, burgers, steak, shish-ka-bobs, chicken, and an assortment of veggies on our grill. Then we’d get our margaritas or whiskey sours and sit out on our patio with Big Sky and Guacamole while our food cooked. It was some of the best, relaxing, simple, fun times we had in 2009.
Getting Married
Of course, we got married in May 2009 and it was DEFINITELY one of the bests of 2009. Check out our Madison Wedding album.
Lia finishing her thesis and completing her Master’s degree
WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!! What more needs to be said?
Visiting Colorado in June
We always enjoy our time out in Colorado and this time was no different. We drove out to Colorado and spent some time there before our honeymoon and it was absolutely gorgeous. Another reason that made this Colorado trip really special was that we stopped in Cairo, Nebraska on our way there and Lilia got to meet Aunt Cheryl and Grandpa Neville for the first time.
Honeymoon & Family Reunion in Samoa
oooooh…..this was so wonderful. Not only a “Best of” for 2009, but a “Best of” an entire lifetime. Mark got to meet Lilia’s family in Samoa, New Zealand, and Australia and Lilia got to satisfy her childhood dream of a Samoan wedding. We recited our vows on the beach of Lalomanu, Samoa and it was everything she could ever have hoped and dreamed for. Check out our Samoa Wedding album.
Visiting Susan & Derek
One of the best times of 2009 was the weekend we drove to Casey, IL and visited one of Lia’s college roommates Susan and her fiance Derek. We spent the weekend with them and their sexy brown chocolate lab Lila. Big Sky was in HEAVEN 
Buying our SUV
Directly after completing the degree requirements for Lia’s Master’s degree, she started working full-time at the University. This was a major income bump for us. Until then she’d just been working student position and we had been surviving on Mark’s income from his job at Captel. So we decided the best thing for us to do with our new disposable income would be to invest in our Wisconsin winter survival tactics and get an SUV. The first year we moved to Madison we got over 100 inches of snow and we barely…BARELY…survived in our little Mitsubishi Eclipse. The little one got stuck on our street higher than we can count. We loved Little Red and it was extremely hard to let go of him, but we had our eye on the future and we traded the little guy in for Sexy Sage, our 2008 Ford Escape.
Lilia’s Birthday celebration in Chicago
She started out the weekend with a pedicure, which was WONDERFUL. Then, Mike & Jane invited us to come with them for a night out in Chicago. It was a birthday bash for Mike and all of their friends with August birthdays. It was by far Lia’s BEST birthday ever. You can check out the post here.
Nick Salerno returns from South Korea!!!!
Best friend Nick Salerno had been in South Korea since May 2008 teaching English to Korean children. We MISSED him so much! He made a grand return to Wisconsin on Labor Day and stayed for 4 days. It was SOO much fun! You can check out the post I wrote when he came up for Labor Day.
Grease Halloween
This year we got dressed up as a Pink Lady and a Greaser for Halloween. Oh, we had a blast! We took the bus up to the Barrymore Theater and saw 3 bands and it ROCKED! It took 3 trips to Walgreen’s and about 2 hours for Lia to get on her fake eyelashes, but it was SO worth it. She glued them on so good that they wouldn’t come off and she had to wear them out on errands the next day. Check our Halloween post.
Knoxville Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving in Tennessee this year is at the top of our “Best of” list. It was SOOO nice to go down South and get some of the southern hospitality and some real B&G (biscuits and gravy). Of course, the highlight of the trip was getting to spend 4 days with best friend Austin, whom we hadn’t seen since September 2007. Ooooh, it was wonderful and we can’t wait to make another trip back down! You can check out our full Tennessee Thanksgiving photo album and our post.
Our first married Holiday season
This year was our first married Christmas. It was also the first Christmas that we exchanged store-bought gifts. The first Christmas we decorated a gingerbread house. The first Christmas that we went out and cut down our own Christmas tree. There were many firsts this Christmas and all of them were extremely special. This past holiday season was absolutely one of the bests of 2009.
