the gagnons.: we're baaaaack!

I'm ashamed to admit it's been nine months since my last post! In all fairness, this past year was hectic with me finishing my graduate degree and Justin changing jobs, so I'm going to give myself a hall pass on this one. :)

Anyway, to those of you who still check this thing, thank you for being a loyal follower! I'll recap these past nine months from latest to most recent in a quick and dirty fashion....

November-December 2011:

Busy time during the holiday season! We spent Thanksgiving with both our families and split time on Christmas and Christmas Eve with our parents. Something different we did this year with Justin's family was a "Christmas Morning's Eve" at the cabin -- we all went up to Lake Cushman and stayed the night of the 23rd, only to wake up and celebrate a "Christmas morning" on the 24th as a fam. With all of us having our families in town, we always spend Christmas Day apart, so this was a fun tradition that I'm sure we'll keep going!

We also did a snowboard/ski trip with my family on Christmas, which was a blast!

Just, me, my younger brother Layton & my older brother Casey

January, February, March 2011:

We didn't do much during the winter this year. We didn't buy snowboarding season passes because of the workload with my grad program, so we spent a lot of time with family, home watching movies, and doing home projects.

April, May 2011:

In April I went with my mom to Mom's Weekend at WSU to visit my baby brother Layton. He was a freshman this past year and is living it up being in the "Pike" fraternity. It was fun to visit him, but it was definitely surreal to see my "baby" brother as a college student!

Mom & Layton

A new interest for me this year was a profound urge to plant flowers and garden, which is strange because I've never considered myself to have a greenthumb (I've killed every indoor plant I've ever owned). Justin is in the process of putting in a sprinkler system, and I over-committed to a lot of watering and planted pots, beds, borders. It's been fun and I'm aspiring to have it one day look like this...

...but I have a long way to go!

We also had the annual Gagnon Family Olympics and Lake Cushman this year -- Justin and I took first place! It was a lot of fun and everything really stepped up the costume competition....

Old School Seattle Fans

The Alphas...the ones who started it all

Super Tight Spandex Crew

Vollmer Crew

June 2011:

We celebrated our second anniversay on June 28th, my 26th birthday on June 12th, and Justin played in Hoopfest with buds from college. Really fun month!

Birthday Dinner

Anniversary Dinner @ Melting Pot

Spokane Falls during Hoopfest

Just & Brandon (college buddy)

Hoopin' it up

The Ballers - Brandon, Justin, Rocky, Bryan (from left)

Loyal Fans AKA The Wives (we missed you Ash!)

All of us at the end of the tourny

July 2011:
At the beginning of the month, Just ran in a 1oK Dirty Dash marathon with some of the guys from our small group. He had a blast and did awesome for never running in a race before (the boys finished first in their heat)! What is a Dirty Dash? Well I think the pictures speak for themselves...

Before...

During....

After!

And then...

I graduated from my graduate program at Grand Canyon University with a Masters in Reading Curriculum and Instruction (yay! no more papers) on July 13th, so that was a BIG sigh of relief! It was a long 16 months, but well worth it!

To celebrate that accomplishment and our anniversary, we traveled to Cabo San Lucas with our close friends, Bryan and Tamara Jarrett. We stayed at the gorgeous Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort on the Pacific side and had the BEST time! I've been to other parts of Mexico but never to Cabo and I really loved the desert-y landscape. Here are just a few of the highlight photos...

Tamara and I at the Sky Pool (aka Happy Hour party place)

Sky Pool

Justin & Bryan

On the balcony of our hotel room

Lover's Beach

Beach Day

Group Shot at Ole Ole

ATV Riding

Did I mention that my bike ran over me? I guess I've got a little daredevil in me...

Sunset on the water

Snorkeling/Booze Cruise in front of Lover's Beach

Dinner & The Office -- everyone told us to go there, and it really is THAT good and fun!

And then four days after arriving home from Cabo, we went on my annual family trip to Lake Chelan. Definitely a highlight of the summer and the year! We've gone for about 10 years with our psuedo-family, the Lorans, and we always have a hilarious time. Traditions include lots of wakeboarding, winetasting, and eating! Here are a shots on the water -- more of the fam and friends coming soon...