'Tis the Season....For Reflection

2008 has turned out to be a wonderful year.  As you can see recounted in my previous blogs we've been very busy and loving every minute.  This has been a year of getting use to married life, traveling and moving into a new house.  As wonderful as 2008 has been we are looking forward to what 2009 will bring.  

In January we already know that we will be adding a member to the little Reinke family!  A Golden Retriever puppy!!!!  I am so excited.  Nick...well he is up in the air about it.  He wasn't too crazy about the idea of a puppy but finally gave in since it has been a dream of mine for 3 years when my sweet Precious died.  The puppy will be a little girl and I know I'll update you on her name and more information once we get her home.  A lot of names have been flying around and one I see her hopefully I'll decide on something.

I want to take the time to thank our family and friends for a wonderful 2008 you are all truly a blessing in our lives and have helped shape 2008 to be one of the best years in both our lives. We love you each very  much.

One Year and Counting

On Monday; December 8, 2008; Nick and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary.  This has been the most wonderfully extraordinary year. It's been a year of learning about each other, traveling, moving (more than once for me), settling in to each others habits and as my mom would say enjoying having that "special someone all to ourselves."  Some people say that the first year of marriage is hard because you have to adjust to living with someone that you haven't grown up with but I don't think its been that bad at all.  Maybe its because Nick and I just fit together and bringing our lives together was easy.  In honor of one amazing year I shall share some of our memories of the past year.  

Here is a picture of us on our way to our honeymoon, we're in some airport probably the DC airport.  Here we are in Munich, Germany in front of the Isartor River.  Probably one of the best pictures of us ever.  We LOVED Germany!  We want to go back when the weather is warmer so we can experience what it is like in a different season.

Here we are in Charleston, SC.  We took a long weekend in February to go explore the city.  Neither of us had ever been and wondered what it was all about.  We had a wonderful time we rode the ferry to Ft. Sumter and just saw what the city had to offer.  

In April we went to Savannah, GA (sorry no pictures of that, we only spent one night and part of a day there, but now we can say we've been!) and then went up to Hilton Head Island, SC.  The Reinke's rented a house there for the week and everyone from Michigan came down.  I had a wonderful time getting to know Nick's extended family as well as enjoying the Island.  It was so pretty.  We climbed a lighthouse and took this picture at the top.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not any rain.  Every night we went out and got in the hot tub and just relaxed. 

In June I took Nick to Baltimore, MD for his birthday.  The trip wasn't so much about where we were going although that was fun it was more about what was there....Medieval Times!  He had never been and in my opinion everyone should go.  We had a blast, we loved watching the jousting and such.  

For the 4th of July we decided to go to the most American city on earth.  New York City.  I've been before but Nick hadn't.  It was HOT!  But we did have a good time being typical NYC tourists.  

This is us on the top of the Empire State Building.  How pretty!  I love seeing the city from above.  After NYC we took a break from traveling and moved into our new house.  We love it here, plenty of room for all of our stuff.  In September My dad and I went to the mountains to Lake Lure to visit my grandparents who were visiting there for the week.  What a beautiful place, it is simply amazing!  October took Nick and I along with his mom and Sean to the Bahamas.  Not my type of vacation since the sun hates me but it was wonderful to relax and do something different for a change.  It was pretty there.  Don't expect me to enjoy the sun and sand anytime soon though.  We had fun and came back well rested.  I also celebrated my 25th birthday in October, I know I know a quarter of a century.  That pretty much brings us to current.  We had a fabulous Thanksgiving.  Nick's mom and Sean had my parents over for Thanksgiving lunch and then Nick and I took off to Nick's dad's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  The first weekend in December we decorated for Christmas and now our house is so pretty and smells WONDERFUL with scents of our real Christmas tree.  Miss. Kitty is of course still the center of our world and she loves it!  Kitty loves Nick, I'm always complaining that she loves Nick more than me which is probably true.  Recently we took in my brother's cat, Audrey, due to a change in his living situation and he couldn't have indoor pets.  She squeaks when she meows and is so different from Kitty.  I still haven't decided if the cats like each other or hate each other.

Here we are a year later happy and in love.  We kept our 1 year anniversary simple, we just went out to dinner and spent time together.

And here is our cake a year later, it wasted space in our freezer for a whole year we took like 3 bites and threw it away but it was something to do a year later.  That's enough for now.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our 1st year of marriage.  We are looking forward to many many more!