Favorite Pictures of 2008

In honor of 2008, a year chocked full of the new--new moves, new relationships, new family members, and new adventures--I stole a little idea. (Thanks, Emily!) I am posting my top 10 favorite pictures of the year. Let me preface this by saying this was extremely hard for me to do. Those of you who know me are used to seeing me with a camera in my hand. I took thousands of pictures in '08 and to narrow it down to 10 literally made me sad. There are just too many

on my little computer that hold huge memories for me. They pull at my heart-strings every time I look at them and they make me so grateful for a life chocked full of laughter, fierce and undying love, silliness, and joy. May you all be so blessed when you look back at your 2008...

December-Erin's Bachelorette Bash '08. I love this picture of Erin's favorite girls toasting to her adventures that await her as a new bride. Throwing Erin's bachelorette party was definitely one of the highlights of my 2008.

December-Grant's Christmas party for his company at the Hilton in downtown Austin. Marriage may not always be the easiest thing in the world, but this picture shows that the little moments remind you of it's great worth.

November-Tex & Maggie at Lake Travis. This picture sums up the sweet life the dogs now have, thanks to our move to Austin. Every day is a new little adventure for them. Nothing makes me happier than watching our "family" play and love life.

October-I love this picture, despite its bad quality. It totally captures the Melson family. Totally ridiculous and happy. (And full of dogs.) We were taking an OU picture (OU/TX Weekend) and instead of doing the traditional OU "horns down", Mom was doing "horns up", synonomous with UT. Ryan tried correcting her, which lead to Mom banging her hand on the stove and cutting it. Those Melsons...

September-Austin City Limits! This picture is an obvious favorite because of the beautiful Austin skyline in the background. Kind of our theme picture of 2008.

September-Large Marge the Party Barge. I laugh every time I see this picture. Grant had a blast repeatedly jumping off the party barge at Lake Travis. Because his hands are blurry, it almost looks like he's trying to fly.

June-Olivia's Bachelorette party. I dare you to tell me that this dancing picture of Emily & I is not a classic. Two dancing queens in a face-off. Life doesn't get better than this.

May-Emily's Homecoming! Emily arrived home from Southeast Asia after living there for three years. Grant & I drove to Houston as a surprise to welcome Em back to the Lonestar State. I just love how ecstatic Lindsey & I look to be able to hug our girl.

May-My birthday. Maggie spent Cinco de Mayo night cleaning up the apartment. She was determined to get rid of all my pink balloons. Thank you?
March-Master's Oklahoma City Swim Meet. This was one of the best things I could've done for myself this year. Although it was a small meet, it was just what I needed to boast my confidence in swim and remind myself that doing things outside of my comfort zone is very necessary.

Erin's Bachelorette Bash '08

I have a lot of reasons to back up the opinion that every girl needs a sister. Sharing clothes, knowing someone well enough that they can be painfully honest with you (whether you ask for it or not), and having a personal built-in secret-keeper in the family are all reasons to love having that crazy girl who looks like you by your side. But I've discovered another reason I am thankful to have a sister. Getting to throw the bachelorette party! A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of throwing my bride-to-be sister, Erin, a bachelorette party that I'm sure she'll never forget. Of course I can't divulge too much information about the crazy night, but it was one that we both agreed we'd love to re-live over and over again.

I rented a room at the Embassy Suites in downtown Austin. (When I asked Erin where she'd like her big night held, she requested that we do it up big in Austin. I, of course, was beyond happy with that request!) In all, we had seven girls at Erin's party. We did games, cake (of the erotic variety, what else?), and a lingerie shower in the hotel room.

We ate dinner at Hula Hut, on Lake Austin. I picked Hula Hut because it is authentically "Austin" and the view on the lake is gorgeous. I wanted to make sure that all the girls felt they'd come to Austin and soaked in as much as possible.

As the hours of celebration wore on, we took our party of 7 out to 6th Street in Austin, a street famous (or infamous, however you see it) for knowing how to "do it up big". Again, as the matron of honor, I'm sworn to keep the juicier parts of that night to myself. But please believe there was plenty of dancing, "wahooing", and memories were made. Congrats to a sister who I couldn't wait to throw this party for! I love you!

Thanksgiving Part III-The Melson Family

After driving back down I35 from Oklahoma, we decided to stay a few days at the Melson house. This post is dedicated to my very strange family. Only at the Melson house will you find dogs in boots and family members leaping across the living room.



Mom decided her "grand-dogs" needed boots to keep from tracking mud into her house. Tex looks rather handsome, don't you think?



Later that night, a few of us decided to do some leaps and jumps around the living room. This is the result. (Note: Ryan, Grant, & Chris were all absent for our shananigans. But make no mistake about it, those guys can leap with the best of them!)


As previously stated...I have an extremely weird family. And I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Thanksgiving Part II-Uncle Bob & Aunt Judy's

Thankfully, Thanksgiving Day was free of go-cart disasters. We spent the day at Uncle Bob & Aunt Judy's house in Edmond, OK. They definitely took one for the team with over 40 people celebrating Turkey Day in their home!

We all got to spend time with family who we've known for a little while now...

(Claire & I)

(Crystal, Caitlin, and Nathan-who looked pretty good after his big go-cart spill)

and got to introduce new members of the family. :)

(Duke and his girlfriend Katy)

We played our annual Gobbler Grab Bag...

(Mamma Q explaining the rules of the game.)

and everyone came out a winner!

(Grant with his Touch-down Headband)

(Angela and her sassy boa)

(Uncle Marion in his fancy new hat)

All in all...a great day for families to be together. :)

Thanksgiving Part I-The Farm Continued...

So as you can see from the previous videos, the go-cart is always a big hit on the Ryan Farm. No matter if you're four or fifty-four, everyone loves the go-cart. But maybe a little too much...

This is Uncle Dudley, using the tractor to pull the go-cart out of the twenty-foot drop into the creek.

As Caitlin likes to say, "Here's where I was when it all happened...". I was standing around with Caitlin and the "grown-ups", sipping my Snapple Iced Tea, when Uncle Dudley said, "I think they just went into the creek". They, being Cousin Stephen and his four-year old son. They'd been driving down the bridge that goes over the creek and then there was silence. Everyone scoffed a little at first but Uncle Dudley was convinced they'd gone over the edge.

Caitlin, Mom & Dad Q, and Angela (Stephen's sister) hopped into Uncle Dudley's pick-up truck and raced down to the dirt road, just before the bridge. I stayed up by the farmhouse with Stephen's other two daughters, just in case things were bad. I could see everything since we were up on a hill and I was terrified that I was going to get the signal to call 911. Everyone jumped out of the truck and I could hear Angela yelling Stephen's name. Other family members had been in the cow pasture shooting targets. They joined the rescue party and several dissapeared over the edge of the drop.

Finally, Angela came up with Stephen's son (who I'm still shocked was not crying), followed by a walking (maybe not too steadily) Stephen. They were loaded into the back of the pick-up and brought back up to the farmhouse. Everyone unloaded and Nurse Qualley hurried our accident victimes into the house to look at any cuts or brusises. Amazingly enough, she reported that Nathan only had a tiny bruise on his forehead and Stephen had a scratch on his head.

After the dust settled, Stephen explained that he forgot that the go-cart doesn't have brakes. (I, myself, forgot that during my first ride of the day with Caitlin. Thankfully, we were in a cow pasture where there was plenty of time to "remember" the no-brake rule.) Stephen was making a pretty fast u-turn on the bridge over the creek. As he turned around, he realized he was going too fast and the go-cart slid down the embankment and into the creek. I followed the crowd down to watch Uncle Dudley pulled rescue the go-cart. It was literally sitting in the middle of the water, with one seat cushion slowing floating away. (We still can't believe the go-cart didn't flip over!)

After the go-cart was pulled out, I really shouldn't have been shocked to see Uncle Marion come flying up the dirt road in the "death machine", as Caitlin and I so lovingly called it. But I'm sure stranger things have happened on that farm.

Thanksgiving Part I-The Farm

Last Wednesday morning, as is quickly becoming tradition for Grant & I, we drove up to Cushing, Oklahoma to spend time at the Ryan Farm for Thanksgiving. The idea is to spend fun-time together with Grant's side of the family, doing outdoor activities like fishing, shooting the guns, riding the go-cart, etc. And it definitely IS fun. It is a tradition I am glad has been passed on to me--now as part of Grant's family.

The day started out the way last year did. Maggie, our wonder dog, hopped right into the cow pasture and started herding cattle. Who knows where they were going, but when Maggie barked and ran, those cows did what they were told.

This is the end-result of some hardwork on Maggie's part.

After Uncle Dudley told us that Maggie was no longer welcome in the cow pasture (he was afraid of her running the cows into the fences), Grant, Caitlin, & I took the dogs down to the fishing hole to enjoy some late-November swimming.

It was SO great to see my favorite sister-in-law after several months. Just the year before Caitlin & I had been neighbors in Norman so it was nice to spend the whole day playing with her and being silly.

Speaking of, Caitlin & I enjoyed one of our favorite farm activities together. G0-carting in the cow pastures!

Stay tuned for a continued blog on this year's adventures at the farm. There was actually a go-cart accident and Caitlin & I actually had nothing to do with it!

Our Camping Trip...

Grant & I both LOVE the outdoors. We've been in Austin for six months now and have somehow managed to go without camping that entire time. In AUSTIN...where everyone seems to be outdoors. So last weekend, we decided enough was enough. Time to rough it at Pacebend Park, a camping site on Lake Travis with Grant's brother and girlfriend.

Being an Eagle Scout, only tent-camping will do for Grant. We got his two-person tent, a couple of sleeping bags, and called it heaven. (For the most part...)

The lake area was BEAUTIFUL and the dogs both loved being able to swim and play to their little heart's delight.

There was a burn-ban so we were only allowed to use a charcoal grill. Of course I made good use of that for 'smores. You just CAN'T camp and not eat 'smores to the point of feeling slightly sick and very fat. It's tradition.

The downside to camping during the fall is that the sun goes down around 6:00pm. By that time, we had eaten dinner, were finishing up our 'smores, and trying to rise above the temptation to crawl into our sleeping bags at 6:05pm. We played cards on the picnic table until 8:15pm. All the while, having a fox visit our campsite and hearing coyotes howl in the not-too-far distance. We finally gave up at 8:15 and crawled into our tents for the longest night of non-sleep ever.

Grant told me that, scientifically, your body stays warmer in a sleeping bag if you wear a minimal amount of clothes. I told him I wasn't interested in his theory and that I'd be staying in my three shirts, sweatpants, and slippers. He assured me that this was not a theory--but SCIENCE. Well, science was not on his side when he dreamily rolled out of his sleeping bag in the middle of the night and his bare chest met with the 40-degree floor. My sweatshirt and one little dog sleeping inside the bottom of my sleeping bag trumped science that night.