family

it was wonderful to be able to spend a couple days with the whole family at christmas this year. i'm so glad it worked out!

from left to right: back row: me, matt, sarah, luke, daddy, mom, kevin, kelly

front row: jake, bailey, prima, tella

more christmas photos later!

all is bright

an early morning christmas stroll...

holly jolly

December weekends have been super fun so far.

We went to Vail for the first time this winter, with our good friends Henry & Mary Jackson and sweet baby Jane. It was a relaxing weekend and I loved hanging out with Mary Jackson and Jane. :) I didn't take many photos because MJ was teaching me to use her fancy shmancy camera and I kinda forgot to use mine!

Matt surprised me with a date to see the lights at the Botanic Gardens and dinner at Cucina Calore!

I took the 13ish-year-old girls from church to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie. The movie was great and it was fun to hang with these girls. :)

Then we had a (first annual) Christmas Vacation party. The only photos I have are of Henry and Matt (both as Cousin Eddie) and Jane as Uncle Lewis. so fun!

yikes!

sometimes I have trouble sleeping. my new hobby when i can't sleep is to look at real estate on my handy-dandy Zillow app on my iPhone. I enjoy looking around the Highland Park area because we used to go for walks and runs there. Sometimes you can find a real steal for less than a million. I was quite surprised when I saw the house below... we used to play frisbee with Jake on a daily basis across the street from this house!

why would anyone ever need ten bathrooms?

thanksgiving 2010

Our Thanksgiving mostly consisted of work (Matt on thursday, saturday, and sunday of thanksgiving weekend, and me on friday...)... but we did manage to squeeze in some family time and a lovely turkey dinner. We had both sets of parents and Matt's brother, Andy, here.

Jake enjoyed the extra attention for a few days. :)

on friday night after our thanksgiving meal, Matt's cousin Sarah Jane came over and we played a fun game of Apples to Apples.


and there you have it! I actually blogged about a real life event, not just a dog photo. :)

first snow!

I'm thankful that our first snow this year wasn't until November 9th. Last year it came waaaaay too early. This year we had a long summer/fall and got to enjoy the leaves changing over a period of weeks instead of days. :)

Jake is in heaven when it snows. He loves it more than anything else... even more than swimming, which says a lot. I was trying to work at home yesterday but he did talk me into taking him out to play a couple times.

happy halloween!

In two days...

...we'll be headed out for a much-needed 8 day vacation.

I am sooo excited.

We're going here:

and here:

Matt will get to show me all around London, where he lived during months 4-16 of the five years we dated. We've had this on our list of places we want to travel to together ever since then!

can't wait :)

diez y seis de septiembre

My daddy's birthday is september 16th. It is important to note that in Mexico, his birth is celebrated nation-wide. :) This year we had my parents over for a fun birthday dinner! I made lasagna and we had oh-so-yummy strawberry pie for dessert. We all had a really great time. :)

Kevin and Kelly visit!

My brother, Kevin, and his wife, Kelly, came to visit us over Labor Day Weekend! This was such a treat because we don't get to see them very often and Matt happened to get all three days off!!! We really enjoyed our time with them - had lots of great food, hung out at the pool, and spent some time in the mountains. We hiked a 14er one of the days they were here - Mt. Quandary.

mountain goat friend that jake attempted to chase off the mountain...

at the top! I don't really know why matt decided to pick jake up for the photo...

me, matt, kevin, and kelly at the top
kelly and kevin

fun in the sun

One of our favorite things about our neighborhood in Denver is that there are some GREAT swimming pools. Matt and I were able to spend quite a bit of time lounging at the pool this summer. It's a great spot for some summer reading and I love to watch the kids play. :)

At the end of the summer, one of the pools hosts a doggie swim day. If you know anything about us and our dog, you know that we were looking forward to this all summer! We all had a blast!

engagement hike

It's summertime, which means the Whinery's are hiking! We try to get as much in as we can since it's one of our favorite things to do and summer is so short here. :) One of our favorite hikes in colorado is the one we got engaged on three years ago. It's just outside of Vail and it's called Booth Lake. It's really pretty and we try to go up at least one or two times a year. This was one of the first hikes we did this season.

Here's the famous spot!

dinner afterwards in vail

just wanted to share this photo of a pretty sunset at a rockies game we went to recently. we're enjoying our colorado summer :)

the help

I just finished reading the book, The Help, and I loved it. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a good summer read. :) I laughed, cried, and had a very hard time putting it down....

catching up!

hmmm... so we've been quite delinquent in the blogging world. If anyone was wondering, we're still alive, and here is my attempt to catch up on the last 6 months of our lives!

JANUARY was a difficult month as we lost two grandparents within a couple of days.

My Grandmother, Jessie Mae Hill, was 91, and we miss her a ton. She brought a gentle, gracious presence to our family, and she was always making us laugh. I remember her being at just about every holiday and family event that I can remember. I'm so thankful that I can look forward to seeing her again one day.

Matt's grandfather, John Graham Whinery, was 88 and was a man of integrity, faith, and had a great since of humor. He was a classy man who was well-respected in his community. He was passionate about the Lord, his family, hunting, and the outdoors. We're thankful that Matt has so many great memories of sweet time with him. The photo below was taken the week before he passed away, when we were in Amarillo for their 60th wedding anniversary.

FEBRUARY

We tried to get as many ski days in as we could, which was fun! We celebrated Matt's birthday in Vail with two of his close friends from medical school, Andrew and Ryan.

We also bought a new car in Feb! A 2010 Subaru Outback (the state car of Colorado). I was incredibly resistant to buying an outback at first, but matt talked me into it because we really needed a reliable 4 wheel drive for the winter conditions here. After driving it in a couple snowstorms, I decided I love it! It handles wonderfully! here's a tiny photo of one (our's is black.)

(Now I know what you're wondering, and the answer is YES! this IS the car that Jim and Pam have...on The Office. !!)

MARCH

We recieved sad news in March that Travis, the Whinery's 16 year old golden retriever, had passed away. He was a precious puppy who never did a single thing wrong. Here he is with Jake and Bailey (my parent's dog). He is definitely missed... such a good boy.

Matt had a week off in March and we spent it in the WARMTH!! We went to Palm Springs, California for a few days, and then took a road trip from there to Sedona, Arizona (& the Grand Canyon). We absolutely loved this trip - lots of great hiking and the weather was perfect for poolside relaxing. :)

here we are at the Grand Canyon

this was where we stayed in Palm Springs

ok, I think that's all I can handle right now. stay tuned, more to come!....