2014 in Review

2014 was a big year. So many fun things happened this year, and I loved getting to look back and re-live many of these moments. So here's to bringing 2014 to a close...

January

On the 19th, my mom and I ran the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon. This was my third half-marathon and by far my favorite one I've ever run. I loved sharing this experience with my mom.

February

 Our Family Fitness Challenge ended with a bang and a Brennan's Dinner Celebration. 

Matt and I enjoyed a mini Texas road trip and vacation. We went to my favorite resort, The Hill Country Hyatt and celebrated Valentine's Day there and then in Austin.

March

On the 14th, we celebrated Pi Day at school. Being a 7th Grade math teacher definitely has its fun days! And this was one of them.

 For Spring Break, we took our first trip to the East Coast. We visited Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello while we were there. 

March also brought Rodeo season! One of my closest friends joined our Mutton Bustin' committee this year which made it even more fun. 

April

We took a little weekend vacation to Boston to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. It was Matt's first time there, so we did all things Boston tourist- Freedom Trail, cannolis, Red Sox game, etc.

May

Bayhouse trips galore! I feel like we were in Galveston pretty much every weekend in May. Mom's birthday, Mother's Day, Memorial Day...

June

Summer Softball. Matt and my brother, Chase, have been playing in a summer league for at least three years. Avery loves watching her daddy play ball.

July

 We spent the Fourth of July at the bayhouse in Galveston. Matt and I took on a little project to help celebrate the 4th!

We participated in Mission 1:8 with our Sunday School class. We helped put on a small Vacation Bible School for some refugees, most of which had never heard about Jesus before.

My roommates from college and I had a reunion weekend. It is so rare that we are all together, so we took advantage of the time we had together. 

August

 On the 1st, we celebrated the wedding of our friends, the Debayles, and we got to spend time with some of our favorite people.

The weekend before school started, we visited Matt's family in Fort Worth.

On the 26th, I started my third year of teaching middle school.

September

On the 24th, many of our students gathered for See You at the Pole. I will never forget listening to their sweet voices singing songs of praise to our Heavenly Father at the flag pole of our public middle school.

October

 The fall brought Aggie football season, so we traveled to College Station for tailgates quite a bit throughout October and November.

Since I can't post pictures of my sweet athletes, here's a selfie of me before our big volleyball tournament, in which my team won 1st place!

November

 On the 4th, we made our voices heard by voting in the midterm election.

In the week before Thanksgiving, we took advantage of my time off of school, and we traveled to Washington D. C. for the first time. We loved it!

December

 On the 21st, my grandparents got baptized in the same church I grew up in.

We spent Christmas traveling around Texas and visiting all of our family :)

It was such a great year. I cannot believe it is now over. We learned so many things this year, especially me. I am constantly working on trying to be the best wife I can be to Matt. I have learned to be patient with God, that things are perfect in His time. I have been continually reminded of how abundantly blessed we are. God is so good! I know He has really big plans for 2015. I can just feel it. I pray that we continue to keep Him at the center of our marriage and trust Him in all things, and I pray that we cherish time we get to spend with family and friends.

Here's to 2015!

Second Anniversary

To celebrate, we had an entire day of dates on Saturday. We played 18 holes of golf. We went to lunch. We went to dinner. And, we went to a movie. Quality time is one of our love languages that we both share. So, that's exactly what we did--spent some quality time together. Yesterday, we went to church and then to lunch with our class. We picked up some things from my grandparents' house, which will hit the blog later, and then I cooked Matt his favorite meal. It is a recipe that his grandmother gave to me when we got married. All in all, it was the perfect anniversary weekend.

Two years ago today was the best day of my life. I'm not sure what could top it except for the days our future children are born, God willing, but no plans for that as of now. For now, the day Matthew Bormann and I vowed to be husband and wife in front of a church filled with our family and closest friends, surrounded by God's love, that was the best day of my life. That day was two years ago.

        

        

                  

Do you see those flowers? I will never forget them. I remember just staring at them when we were on the altar. I was in awe. 

Matt and I shared a first look in the same garden where he had proposed about seven months before. He proposed to me on my 22nd birthday. He took me to the church I had grown up in, the one my parents were married in 30 years prior, the one he knew we would one day get married in. He told me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. He had asked for my father's permission. Both my earthly father and my Heavenly Father. It was perfect. It was all God's doing. He's amazing like that. 

After we shared our first look, we were off to say our vows.

    

  

After being pronounced husband and wife, we danced the night away with all of our favorite people.

To quote the song we first danced to...

"and I thought I loved you then."  

Happy 2nd Anniversary to my best friend and soul mate. 

Thank you to Kelly Hornberger for capturing moments that I will never forget!

Anniversary Trip, Part II

The second part of our vacation was just that--VACATION. We drove from Santa Barbara to Sonoma.  The drive took us about 7 hours. We knew it was going to be a long drive, but we were so excited to be in Sonoma for four days. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped at In-N-Out Burger, and I had gotten us cupcakes earlier in the day for a road snack.

     

     






















We loved Sonoma! Our little cottage was perfect. We walked, we wined, we dined, we swam, we tanned, we enjoyed. Our first morning there, we walked from our cottage at the Marriott to downtown Sonoma. We picked out different places to eat, shops, etc. that we wanted to try or go to while we were there. The first wine tour we went on while there was Gloria Ferrer. I am a big fan of sparkling wine, so I really loved it. We went to a couple more that day, and then we enjoyed a great dinner at Hopmonk Tavern.

                        

        

       


















We did a bike tour through Napa Valley on one of our full days. It was definitely something that was out of my comfort zone. I had not ridden a bike since I was in middle school, but we did it! We visited three wineries on the bike tour and ended up riding about 17 miles. We had a fabulous tour guide who was very knowledgable about vineyards, wine, Napa, and Sonoma. He even stopped us to pick wild blackberries.

        

      

After a full and wonderfully relaxing four days in Sonoma, it was time to make the trek homeward. We drove from Sonoma to San Francisco for our last day and night. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. We ate at two delicious restaurants for lunch and dinner thanks to some recommendations, The Grove and Delarosa. We spent the afternoon at Pier 39, got to see sea-lions, a juggling show, and Alcatraz from afar. We rode on a cable car and made friends with the man who controls the breaks-a good friend to have if you ask me.

     

      

All in all, we were able to spend some quality time as husband and wife. I could not be more thankful for this wonderful man God put in my life. We had a blast on vacation, but nothing is better than living our life here at home as The Bormanns. 

Anniversary Trip, Part I

Summers are just as much for teachers as they are for students, but just like when I was a student, there comes a time in the summer when you think you are ready to go back to school. That is how I am feeling right about now, and I am thinking the Mr. is thinking the same thing. I have the shopping trips to prove it.

However, summers definitely have their perks. One of those perks is vacation. Anniversary-wine-country-Sonoma-California vacation. We got to enjoy nine days of that vacation at the end of June. The first part of our California vacation was actually what we like to call a "work-cation." Matt worked during the day, and I got to play! Here is a picture of all of our luggage--now picture the two of us walking through airports and hotels with all of it. Hopefully you got a good laugh, because we definitely did.



We flew into Los Angeles, but we were off as soon as we left the airport. First stop, Long Beach. After walking around for a while, Matt had a lunch meeting and needed our car, so being the math/science teacher that I am, I decided to spend a few hours at the Aquarium of the Pacific. In true teacher fashion, I asked if there was a teacher's discount (because hey, we are newlyweds) and there was! I loved this place. I would definitely go back, and I would suggest it to anyone in the area. I drained pretty much my entire phone battery taking pictures and videos.

We spent the next two days and nights in Bakersfield. If you have ever been there, you know there is not much to do in Bakersfield, but we enjoyed seeing two movies while we were there. However, by far the most exciting thing that happened to us was that we got a flat tire our first night there after coming out of Movie #1. Good news is that my hubby is extra manly and changed it within about 10 minutes of us even realizing it.

Our next stop was Santa Barbara, well Carpinteria. After unloading our luggage at our hotel, we went into Santa Barbara and shopped til we dropped, went to the wharf for dinner, and then walked on the beach.

On our last day of the "work" part of our vacation, I got to enjoy a coffee date in the morning with a great friend from college, Kaitlyn. It was so great to see her, and I loved getting to catch up! While Matt was at meetings that day, I walked around and found a cute little place called Crushcakes, and got lunch and cupcakes for our road trip to Sonoma that afternoon!

Anniversary Trip, Part II coming soon...