Year in Review...Photo Journal Style!

Here is my annual New Year's post that is way too long with way too many pictures! One of the things I love doing at the beginning of a New Year is reflecting on the past year.  I like to think about the lessons I learned, the relationships that were created or strengthened, the successes and setbacks, the moments of strength and inspiration and all the ways my family and I were blessed. This year reflecting on those blessings was overwhelming...we were so blessed in 2011 and have so much to be thankful for.

It is especially fun for me to go through my pictures and remember some of my favorite moments.
Here are some of our favorite 2011 memories:

January -- Harrison started a new school and a new Pee Wee sports class with his best friend Thomas! Also, one of my favorite days of January was spent at La Jolla Cove watching Harrison ride around on his new scooter! It was one of those perfect San Diego Days. Ryan also started his MBA program this month!!

February --  We  celebrated Harrison's 4th birthday with a rally race at the park! He was thrilled with his new "Ken Block" clothes. Also, Ryan traveled with all of his classmates to be on Price is Right, it was so fun to watch them on T.V.! I also spent time in the hospital this month and was on home I.V.'s for several weeks. Ryan, as always was my rock... just look at how good he is at changing my PICC dressing!

 

 

March -- Harrison finished his Pee Wee sports class and got his first trophy...it was kinda a big deal : )

April -- What a fun month! Harrison and I went to visited Palm Springs with my mom. It was a perfect week of playing in the pool and relaxing! Ryan also surprised me with Brandon Flowers tickets and we saw him at the House of Blues in San Diego. We saw him in L.A. too but the House of Blues is such a cool, intimate venue and it was an awesome show! At the end of April my mom and I road tripped it to Utah for my cousin's wedding. It was so special to be there!

 

 

 

May -- Another super fun month. Harrison and I spent another week with Grandma Coco in Las Vegas and she treated us to the BEATLES LOVE show! Harrison loves the Beatles and he was absolutely mesmerized! I finished the month off with the funnest girls night out ever... it was a SLEEPOVER! Several of my high school girl friends met up in L.A. and spent the night at Suedy's new home. Just like in high school, we stayed up pretty much all night talking and laughing!

June -- June was a tough month. I was in the hospital most of the month. Chelsea flew out to be with me and I will never forget how wonderful it was to have her there with me. She was a huge support to me and a huge help with Harrison. Linda was also amazing and was pretty much Harrison's second mom for the month! Here we are cuddled on my hospital bed, I love these boys so much!!

July -- July was recovery month and my darling cousins came to help me with Harrison! They were so fun to have in our home and such a gigantic help! It was definitely hard to let them go! We were also able to squeeze in swimming lessons for Harrison and travel to L.A. to see Ken Block and his new rally car!!! Harrison was in heaven!

 

August -- August was kind of a roller coaster month that started with my Double Lung transplant evaluation at Stanford. My mom was with me through the whole thing and I could never have done it without her.  We came home to meet Cam and Chels and their family and they filled August with joy and laughter!! We made some amazing family memories, including Drexel's blessing!

September -- After being accepted by Stanford for a Heart and Double Lung transplant, our family made the move to Los Altos. We needed to be near Stanford hospital to become active on the list. My mom put her life on hold and made the move with us. We are so blessed to have her! This picture was taken right outside our rental home. It is so beautiful here. A few of Ryan's wonderful classmates came to visit and Suedy also made her first trip here in September!

October -- I spent a few days in the hospital in October and was pretty weak for most of the month but we had a blast taking Harrison trick or treating on our cute street! We also got a special visit from Zak, it was so good to spend a few days with him and have his spirit in our home.

 

November -- November was a special month. I felt strong and was able to see almost all the family. Chels came and spent several days with us and we had some great mother-daughter time and then the rest of the family was here for Thanksgiving and it was so fun to have them all here. I could not have been more grateful for their presence on that special holiday! The Air Supply Event also took place in November and it is a day I will never forget. Even thought I was not able to travel to San Diego for it, I felt the love and support so powerfully. Ryan flew down to be there and filled me in on all the amazing details. Here is a beautiful highlight video put together by Benny Ek from the event.

Air Supply - "Filling Lungs with Love" Event Highlights from Benny Ek on Vimeo.

December --December was such a fun month, celebrating the holidays in a new place was fresh and fun. We really tried to get out and explore this area and take advantage of all the fun holiday activities. The best gifts we got were our loved ones! Ric spent a lot of time here and Grammy and Grandpa were here in the beginning of December and then back at Christmas! Two times in one month was such a treat! It was also so much fun to have Suedy and Alfonso here!! The pictures are from December are on my last post but I'll put one of my favorites here of me and my sweet boy that didn't get included in the last post:

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this post! Looking back on 2011 and seeing these pictures makes me so happy. I truly love my life and am so grateful for the experiences I'm having. I feel like even though we faced some tough challenges this year, we didn't let those challenges prevent us from really living and enjoying our lives. Actually, the challenges we faced this year made the precious moments even more precious and brought our families and our friends together in such a special way. Here's to 2011 and looking forward with hope and faith for an amazing 2012! Blessings!