2013 in review

I know I've been a horrible blogger this year… but it's not because this was a bad year, in fact this was quite possibly the best year of my life. I graduated college, studied abroad in Paris, got a great job in marketing, watched my husband go back to school, moved to a city that we have grown to love, played with our growing puppy, celebrated 3 wonderful and challenging years as a married couple.. and so much more! I am so grateful for all the opportunities we've had this year and I am so excited to see what the future holds. I am optimistic for 2014 and I can't wait to see what happens next!  

Infographic of our year: click to enlarge ☟

Picture highlights of this year: 

Anniversary³

Today is our 3rd wedding anniversary, I can't believe how much the two of us have grown in three short years.

• we have moved four times
• we have changed jobs
• we've worked hard to put each other through school
• we've had disagreements
• we've learned from each other
• we've danced
• we've raised a pug puppy
• we've cried
• we've laughed
• we've watched countless hours of Netflix
• we've biked
• we've camped
• we've become pro grocery shoppers
• we've become a part of each other's families
• we've celebrated holidays
• we've grown older
• most of all we've loved each other and grown together as our own little family

I am so lucky to be married to my best friend. We aren't a perfect couple (I don't think those exist) but we love each other and we are always willing to be better for each other. These have been both the best and hardest 3 years of my life and I can honestly say that Marty Abbott is the only person that I would want to experience this crazy journey called marriage with. I love you Marty. I am grateful for anniversaries and the opportunity to reflect each year on our triumphs as Mr. & Mrs. When this year began we said that year three was going to be the best year yet, and I am happy to report that it has been a wonderful year, and I am excited to make year four even better!

The other day I was digging through the archives of my computer, and I found some mockups of wedding invitations that I had made when we were trying to decide on a design, so I thought I would share them in honor of our anniversary:

We're celebrating by spending some time in Logan - the city where we met and fell in love. Hopefully I'll have more to post on that soon. 

You can read about our first anniversary HERE. 

& our second anniversary HERE. 

Christmas Season 2013

Merry Christmas from the Abbott family! This Christmas season was full of lights, chocolate, and time with family. 

We got excited about Christmas decorating this year, we decorated our apartment the week after Halloween! We've enjoyed the cheery atmosphere during the holiday season. 

We had many cozy fires in our "fireplace" during the cold wintery days. We also hung our stockings on the "mantel" with care. 

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We added to our little village collection this year, we tried to recreate the whisper dome scene from last Christmas Eve. You can find it HERE. 

We trimmed the tree and hung up both the ornaments from our wedding and the ornaments that we have collected each Christmas. This was our 5th Christmas together and our 3rd Christmas as a married couple. 

We attended our first holiday party this year at the Marriott at Gallivan Center for my work Christmas party. It was fun to get dressed up, have a fancy dinner, and get to know my coworkers better. 

Christmas Eve we met my family at the movies and saw Frozen. It was a cute movie about true love. We especially liked Olaf the goofy snowman who likes warm hugs.

After dinner we opened our Christmas Eve PJs, snapped a few pictures and went out for a drive to look at lights. 

This year we drove around Draper to see lights at Draper Park, the whisper dome, the Draper Temple, and lights around the neighborhood. 

Christmas morning was spent with our spoiled pug, he was pretty excited about his new toys. Later we drove back to the Boswell home to open gifts, spend time together, and eat more good food. 

The day after Christmas was spent with the Abbott family. We talked, opened gifts, and went out to dinner at Red Robin. I'm so glad that both Marty and I were blessed with such awesome families that we can spend the holidays with. 

We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas season! ❄

Summer, Saratoga, and SolarWinds...

After I returned home from Paris we went on camping trips, Bear Lake trips, road trips, and my post-grad job hunt began. Several interviews later I got a marketing job in July at an IT software company called SolarWinds. My company is based in Austin, TX but they opened an office in Lehi, UT. I couldn't commute every day from Ogden to Lehi so Marty and I packed up our lives and moved down to Saratoga Springs. We absolutely love it here in our new apartment and Pongo is loving it too. Marty started school through BYU-I online and he got a job at Home Depot in American Fork. We can't believe how much our lives have changed in the last few months but we couldn't be happier with our new life adventures! With being so busy and dealing with so many changes.. the blog has been a little neglected, so I will try to do a better job of posting updates here and there. But just know friends, that we are well and hope you are too :)

I've been posting updates on my Instagram... but here are some of the pics in case you missed them:

Family photo on the 4th of July

4th of July weekend at the family cabin @ Bear Lake

Pongo had his 1st B-day on July 8th! 

Moving from Ogden to Saratoga! 

First day at my new job- July 29th!

Preview of our new pretty apartment -the pics hanging on the wall are some that I bought in Paris :) 

One of our many beautiful nightly walks in Saratoga Springs

Labor Day Weekend @ Swiss Days in Midway

My first business trip! I flew down to Austin, TX to meet with the team at SolarWinds HQ (9/8-9/13)

Beautiful Austin Capital 

Paris Highlights: Food

I've been back from Paris for a month now and it seems like the most common question I get is, "What was the food like?" So this post is dedicated to the EAT, pray, love portion of my month in Paris. Bon Appétit!

Macaroons at Ladurée

This was my first experience with food in Paris.. French Macaroons from the Ladurée on the Champs Élysées. I would definitely put this at the top of musts for food/desserts in Paris. The middle picture on the right is the box of macaroons that we bought to try. Dark pink=Raspberry, Yellow=Lemon, Brown=*Chocolate, Green= *Pistachio, Blue=Marie Antoinette (tasted like fruit loops), Light pink= Rose (tasted like soap), & White= *Vanilla. *= Favorites.

Burgers at Hippopotamus

Sadly this was my first and by far the worst meal I had in Paris. We went here right after Ladurée so maybe my expectations were set too high... but I think we should leave burgers to Americans, let's leave it at that. 

Pizza & Dessert from Les Pains Campaillou

We found this delicious little boulangerie (bakery) really close to school and we ate lunch there after my first french lesson so of course we ordered our lunch in french- I was so proud even though I probably sounded really slow... 

Dinner Cruise on La Seine 

Starters: Coeur de beuf, jambon de Bayonne, parmesan (Tomatoes salad, Bayonne ham and parmesan cheese- Top left pic). Main dish: Suprême de volaille, en croûte d'herbe, risotto vert (Chicken supreme with green risotto- Bottom left pic). Dessert: Pot de crème chocolat viennois (Chocolate cream with whipped cream- HEAVENLY, but not pictured). 

Lunch in the Latin Quarter

The latin quarter is full of delicious little restaurants. We wandered into this little place while on a quest for lunch as the toothless restaurant owner ushered us in. I had a pureed veggie soup for my appetizer, poulet rôti (roast chicken) as my entrée, and mousse au chocolat for dessert ( I only took pictures of our desserts.. whoops). 

Sorbet pêche à Berthillon 

I ordered a peach sorbet at the world famous Berthillon in the latin quarter and it was incredible! TRAVELTIP: The real Berthillon is in the alley way behind the one that has the same name- the one out in the open is a copy cat. 

Crêpes au Nutella ♥

French crêpes with Nutella... is there really anything better? The best one I had is in the left picture and I got it at a little place in front of the Eiffel right after I climbed to the top. 

Lunch at Paul 

These Paul bakeries are everywhere so we finally caved and got some sandwiches after the catacombs. I got a very traditional parisian sandwich with jambon, fromage, and brie (ham, cheese, and brie).  

Club Sandwich au Poulet

Chicken club sandwich at a cafe after Musée d'Orsay. The sandwich was good, but I mostly just really liked the little french flags :) 

Fauchon & Hediard Marketing Field Trip

We went on a marketing field trip to compare two direct competitors: Fachon & Hediard. Personally, I liked Fachon better, but they had a better selection of desserts.. so it wasn't really a fair competition. I bought two macaroons at Fachon (top row, center picture) Chocolate Praline and Almond- the chocolate one had a metallic sheen to it, very pretty. 

Other regular sources of nourishment 

The Carrefour near school provided many lunches- it was the closest thing the Parisians have to Wal-Mart. The Monoprix was a great source of other grocery needs since it was within walking distance to our hotel- the closest thing to it in America is Target. Finally, Vapiano became a favorite spot for dinner in La Défense. I could not get enough of their pizza and pasta! 

Thank heavens I spent my entire time in Paris walking to burn the delicious calories I was shamelessly inhaling... My favorite meal of the trip (not pictured) was at a restaraunt called Niagara, I had the Lasagna Poulet (chicken lasagna) très délicieux! I did not eat any escargot and I only ate at Mcdonald's twice... So there you have it, my foodie adventures in Paris!