New Year 2009

New Year's Eve 2008

So, I finally have time to write about New Year's. At least it's still January, right? We spent the week before just hanging out here in LA and painting another room in our apartment. (Our red accent wall in the 2nd bdrm.!) It looks great! It's a study area for Ryan and also a music area for me since my piano is in there. Anyway, New Year's Eve we went out to dinner at a great little Italian restaurant in Westwood Village, and then drove out to Pasadena to take a good look at the Rose Parade route. It was CRAZY! People were all camped out, some looked like they had been there for days. Kids were throwing marshmellows stuck together with shaving cream at cars, silly string, etc. I only had my window down about 3 inches so we could hear the street noise and everything, and we got a stack of marshmellows right through the my window and into the back seat. Luckily it didn't just hit me in the head. Actually, if it had, Ry and I both would have laughed pretty hard...provided that it didn't hurt. We got home just before midnight and had our own little Martinelli's toast at midnight with the NYC Ball drop on TV.

On the parade route w/ our thermos of hot chocolate.

On New Year's Day, we started the day off nice and early by getting up at 4:45 AM to get out to Pasadena to watch the parade. Some family friends of mine knew people who were saving a spot on the parade route, so we paid $20/chair to be able to just show up around 7:30 and have a seat right on the street about 3 blocks from the start of the parade. We had to get up so early because they close the freeways when it gets closer to parade time. But, it was worth it. We had our hot chocolate, snacks, blankets, and pillows to pad the chairs. The parade is just so much cooler in real life than on TV. The smell of the flowers, the sound of the bands, those band costumes up close and personal...basically everyone should do it at least once in their lifetime. If anyone wants to do it next year, let us know and we'll hook you up with a chair on the parade route.

Why? You couldn't pay me enough!

We then headed out to Malibu to see some good friends of my family who just recently finished building this incredible beach house. Literally, on the beach! One of those houses that you see movies filmed in with a view that makes you think no one actually has that...apparently people do! They are the most wonderful people though, and this has been their dream form many, many, years. So, its actually pretty inspiring to think that if you really want something in life, with hard work and discipline, it's possible.

The view when you walk in the front door!

THEN...we headed back home for some New Year's Day Bowl games and called it a day. So, if it's true that how you spend New Year's is how you'll spend the rest of the year, we're pretty happy. Fun, exciting, action packed, some great outside time at the beach, good sports on TV, and quality time together!

The "backyard" of their house!

We hope you all had a Happy New Year and that this year has a lot of great things in store. We're hoping for a little bit less action in 2009 than in 2008. A quick re-cap on some of our major events.

January 13- Ryan's B-day
February 2- My B-day
April- my Mom had a stroke
May28- our nephew, Spencer Ryan Hill Jr., was born
June 1- Ryan graduated dental school and started his Orthodontic residency
July 4- Ryan officially proposed
August- I started a new job at Westland School
September 10- my brother, Max, went into the MTC in Provo
September 11- our niece, Addy Alicia Anderson, was born
September 27- we got married
October 8- we moved into our new apartment
November 24- Max left for Korea
November 27- Thanksgiving in Salt Lake City, UT
December- Christmas in Walnut Creek, CA

Rose Parade 2009
(the quality is really bad because it had to be small to fit on here.)