The Way I See It...

It was late December of 2015, we had been having an unusually warm month, and I found myself on the beach, in December, picking up shells. It's not a typical winter activity, but it was warm, I like the sound of the ocean and feel of the sand on my feet, so ... why not? Because I can. That became my outlook on a some things. Not in an entitled, snobbish, privileged sort of way, just a I work hard for the little I have and have been given an opportunity so ... I will, kind of way. So, that's sort of the way I went into the year. Did I always keep that in mind? No. Did I try? Of course.
So, here's a look back at some of this year's adventures . . .

Just A Girl And Her Camera

At the end of last year I was fortunate enough to be able to upgrade my DSLR camera, something I had been saving for, for more years then I care to count. It has tagged along with me on most of my adventures, or one of my trusty cameras was usually at hand anyway. As I was going through my photos from the year I thought it was funny how many selfies I had with my camera. Well selfies were really the only photos of me from the year anyway, and, like I said, my camera is always there. It always makes me smile, it makes me happy when I get to go out shooting, and it's always up for an adventure, even a spur of the moment one ... which tends to be how I operate.

So, thanks to my camera I have hundreds of memories that make me smile and hopefully put a smile of other people's faces too...

Family

The last couple years my family has grown a little each year. This year we didn't add anyone to the family, but it has grown. I am Auntie to 3 adorable, wonderful little girls, and it is such a blessing to watch them grow and learn and become their own person. I could easily make this post a mile long with pictures of them, but I'll keep it short and sweet.

This year my cousin also graduated high school and has headed off to college. It's been surreal. I felt like I was entering the Twilight Zone when he started driving and it was just crazy to see him graduating when I remember holding him the day after he was born. So proud of him!

Gym

Anyone who knows me knows I spend a large amount of my time at the gym. Usually I'm coaching, sometimes I'm cleaning or fixing things or building things or just trying to make sure everyone who walks in the door has a good experience ... I try. I have said it many times in the past, and I continue to be grateful for the people I get to work with who have become like a second family to me. I am so blessed to have these people in my life. As exhausting and crazy as it can all be sometimes we have our own fun and our own adventures. Like getting snowed in at the hotel in Pennsylvania ... as crazy as it was, I just look back and laugh. (Yeah, I was really shoveling 32" of snow with a tiny emergency shovel. Hey, you do what you've got to do)

We hosted meets at the gym keeping us all busy. Traveled all over the country for various meets, Regional, and National competitions... there's never a dull moment that's for sure...

Being an Olympic year also made things exciting. Men's National Championships were hosted in Hartford, along with women's competition.

After the Olympic games concluded the athletes went on tour, which came to Hartford as well.

It's fun and inspiring for all the young athletes to have these opportunities to get so close to these athletes they usually only see on TV and aspire to be like.

Aquatic Friends

I love the aquarium! I've had a membership to Mystic for a couple years now and it's one of the best things I've done. Between going with the girls and getting to see their eyes light up and going for my own enjoyment to see what animals will be out and about doing different things this time, it's wonderful. Early in the year I discovered the Beluga encounter programs the aquarium has and made plans to participate in them when they opened in the summer. There were 2 I had the opportunity to try. One was the actual encounter where I got in the water with Juno, got to interact with him and learn about whales as well.

Yup even got spit on by a whale :)
The second experience was the Paint With The Whales encounter. Didn't get in the water this time, but got to work with the aquarium's second whale Kela this time, and watch her make a really cool piece of art that I got to keep!

Definitely a cool experience!! I've had another mission at the aquarium... to capture the octopus!! With my old camera it was so hard to get anything decent, but with my new one ... The first couple times I had gone with my new camera Noel was hiding in the dark enclosure, but luckily I've made a few trips and gotten some fun results.

Star Wars
Anyone who knows me, knows I love Star Wars!! Rogue One came out this year (which is awesome!), I decided to be Rey for Halloween this year, even got to meet Chewbacca!! (Most amazing bear hugs ever!!!)

How did I meet Chewie? Well ...

Travels

I've been blessed with opportunities to go to Disney World a couple times over the last couple of years, but I thought it would be fun to one day get to check out Disney Land. Well, I had the chance this year! It was my first time to California and got to check out a couple of the sights. We went to Griffiths Park to see the Hollywood sign, walked around the Griffith Observatory, tried to get a ride on the carousel (apparently Walt Disney had ridden on it and the Ghost Adventures Crew had investigated it because it was supposed to be haunted) but it was sadly closed when we were there ... Then it was 2 days at Disney Land!! They were still in the midst of their 60th Diamond Anniversary celebration. Aurora's castle looked beautiful covered in gems! Em and I were like little kids, we could hardly contain our excitement...

I figured we were going to Disney, why not meet a few characters ... so we had breakfast with Minnie and friends. I love how Disney Parks are truly for everyone. All the characters were so good about getting around to all the tables to visit everyone, and as much as they are adorable with little kids, they are fabulous and hilarious with adults too. Every character came over to us and they were so much fun. I totally messed up the fancy handshake with Max and the guy was so funny about it. Rafiki was picking bugs out of Em's hair and marked my head like Simba. They were fabulous!
Having been to Disney World a couple times recently it was fun to compare the parks and rides. Like Haunted Mansion is the same, while Pirates Of The Caribbean is a lot longer out west (and has 2 drops instead of 1 ... and the first one is a lot bigger). The Indiana Jones ride was cool, and I like Disney Land's Hyperspace Mountain better.

Got to check out the Star Wars Launch Bay, which Disney World now has, but at they time they didn't. Got to see so many cool replica props and costumes. They even included Wedge Antilles' helmet from the original series (I loved finding this because he's one of my favorite character, though most people don't know who he is). And I got to be a little kid and meet Chewie ... I think I was bouncing around inside, it was so cool!!!
California Adventure Park is the second park. Lots of new rides and shows that Florida doesn't have. The week we were out there they had just opened a new Frozen stage show. Fast Passes were gone about 10 minutes after the park opened, but we decided to wait in the standby line. I believe we waited over an hour, but we got to see it. Very cool show for sure! Even though there was a long wait for the show there was never much of a wait for anything else. I did the single rider line for the roller coasters and got on fast, and even other popular attractions that said 45 minute wait were never anywhere near that (except for the Cars ride but we got Fast Passes, such a helpful invention, thank you Disney).

I could talk Disney all day, but there was more to this trip. We took the drive down to the San Diego Zoo on our last day. Just like shooting the animals at the aquarium, I love getting to shoot animals at the zoo too (African Safari, it's on my bucket list). The zoo is huge and there's so much to see! I think I took about 500 pictures ... before lunch ...

Running

I am really truly not a runner ... really. I started running a little almost 3 years ago to get ready for a Spartan race and just kept going. I've now done 2 obstacle races, ran my second 5k this year and got it in my head it would be a good idea to run a half marathon ... why? I really don't know ... But I am signed up to run the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon at Disney World in the spring. Most days I think I'm crazy, but I have managed to run 13 miles twice now, so maybe there's hope.