day 299: It’s been rough being in and out of the house so much in the last week… plus coming home after the holidays to a house without Rita… but I feel like Ben and I are finally getting back into the swing of things. We finally got out to the store to pick up food so we could go back to our old habit of making tasty dinners at home. It’s nice to feel settled again.

day 298 : what better way to end a weekend of playing excessive amount of wii than… well… playing more wii. We’ve become obsessed with the rayman game… dancing rabbits. What more could you ask?

day 297 : We rang in the new year in style (in party hats of course) by throwing confetti and toasting with champagne. Here’s one of my favorite shots of the night. Yay for the new year. I hope that 2008 brings you joy and happiness. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

day 296 : On Sunday everyone showed up for the big Palm Springs weekend. We played far too much wii, pool, and games … but we all had a blast. The biggest game of the evening was apples to apples, which I think Shiva got a bit annoyed with since she never won. But all was well when everyone got a prize at the end 🙂

day 295 : Yesterday afternoon Ben and I drove out to Palm Springs where we’re going to spend the next few days relaxing up until new years. The sunsets here are pretty spectacular so it’s the perfect chance to try my off camera flash with the sunset… I was a little too late trying to set it up and we only caught the tail end of the sunset… so beware there may be another of these shots in a few days 🙂

day 294: Before settling down to watch a movie this evening, we decided to test out one of our other awesome presents, a popcorn maker from Allison and Mark. I was hoping to catch some popping in action, but we had some technical difficulties (I think I failed to follow directions properly) and I was attempting to catch flying kernels so I missed the photo op. The popcorn was still delicious… and I’m sure we’ll do better next time 🙂

day 293: Last night while we were out getting frozen yogurt, I decided to try out a couple of my favorite Christmas presents, a new flash from my parents, and some wireless flash triggers from Ben (could I get any nerdier?) Yay for off camera flash. On the way home I got even nerdier playing with long exposures and trying to draw hearts. Yes… I’m that ridiculous.

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last couple of days. Ben and I have been having a rough week. On Saturday evening we lost our beloved Rita in a freak accident and I haven’t really had the motivation to blog. We are going to miss her dearly and she was definitely an irreplaceable friend. I’m just so grateful that we had as much time with her as we did, and that she’ll stay forever in our hearts and minds (and all of the photos will certainly help us remember her!) Here a couple of the most recent photos taken before she passed away. We’ll miss you Rita!

Even with everything that’s been going on, I’ve still managed to take at least my one picture a day. I figured I’d better start putting them up before I lose my audience… so I’m doing something a little bit different to get caught up… one post for all the photos for the last week or so.

Day 287:

Day 288: On Saturday we went to dinner to celebrate Allison passing her teaching credential tests. Congratulations Allison!

Day 289:

Day 290:

Day 291: Merry Christmas!

Day 292:

day 286: This evening we got together with Meredith (who we haven’t seen in forever!) to go to dinner, which is nice because we’ve been so busy I feel like we never get to see friends anymore. She brought us some amazingly tasty holiday treats. Thanks Meredith!!

day 285 : After finishing up the model on Wednesday afternoon it was time for some vegging out and movie watching. I plan to get as much rest as possible for the next two days 🙂 I also got to work on some of our Christmas cards (don’t worry if you haven’t gotten one yet, they’re on the way, promise!) in front of the tree. Oh how festive.