My 2011 in review.

Since I'm not sure how much more I'll be hanging around the Interwebs in the next few days (what with Christmas and New Year's and everything in between) I felt like I should do a review of 2011, as I do with every year. And by every year, I mean I just really started it last December to sort of keep my thoughts in line.

But I will also show you some pictures... just so it isn't completely and utterly boring. As I'm sure it will be anyways.

Here we go!

First momentous event of the year: FOCUS Conference in Baltimore.

Really, the first time I met the majority of my good friends at college. Between the concert and seeing Martin Sheen about 500 feet away from me and the midnight games of Mafia in the hotel, I wonder why I even considered not going. It was truly a blessing for many, many reasons.

Second big thing: Mine and Heather's joint birthday party.



Since Heather had never been to Eat n' Park, we decided to get a huge group together and go. Dinners and desserts were bought for us but Heather didn't think she would want to go back any time soon. And yes, we are wearing tiaras.



An ENTIRE SUMMER with the best friends anyone could have.

Since this summer was so fantastic in so many ways, I'm just going to have it broken down into several parts.

So remember the best friends anyone could have? Well, these are some of them. We like to visit playgrounds because it's the cool thing to do. I think Marcus and Alex had a little too much sugar that night. Can't really figure out why I think that, but...

Graduation. My two best friends graduated high school. And the very top picture? Well, Nick's pretty cool too.

Then there was the camping/flea market trip I take yearly with one of my best friends and her family. There's usually a couple other folks we take along as well. So we took two of our guy friends. We spent the evening playing with glo-sticks in a giant field beside our camping spot and laid out under the stars and just talked. The next morning my best friend's mom made pancakes and my friend insisted on having one with Skittles. How it was, I don't remember.



A few of us had a cupcake baking party in my kitchen. We made two boxes worth. And the only sprinkles available in our kitchen were... Easter sprinkles. With rabbits, ducks, and Easter eggs. We are just the coolest kids around.

Yeah, I went to see Big Time Rush. Don't judge me.

Then the second year of my school life at The University of Pittsburgh. But not long before the absolutely amazing weekend of Labor Day:

We found a few things in Phil's basement... and the guys had a little too much fun. Nah, who am I kidding, I did too. That weekend was the weekend that we all got closer as a group of friends. And who knows, maybe there will be another weekend in the future that we'll be running around with toys shouting: "SHUT UP WE'RE RECORDING."

The barn dance!!! My second attempt at square dancing (my first attempt being at Gobbler's Knob, because there was nothing else to do but support Julia in her little square dance band thing... and let's be honest. It was a huge fail.) But this night was awesome. I got hay in places I didn't know I could get hay in and danced the night away.



Halloween. I was Rapunzel from Tangled this year. After I got all my hair chopped off over the summer I thought it would be a good idea. And it was. I even had a frying pan. Though, I was called a housewife. To which I responded with this...

Then there was Light Up Night downtown. Max and Erma, the Santas from around the world, the gingerbread houses, the lights, the CHRISTMASness of it all. It was wonderful.

My cousin got married over Thanksgiving break! It was the first time I had been out to their house in years and the whole family was together again. Being the Pitt family that we are, we sang "Sweet Caroline" at the top of our lungs and danced the night away.

The girls in my bible study went to Phipps conservatory as a way to have one final group outing with our leader, Emma, before she left for a semester abroad. That girl on the end with the pink coat? Her and I are leading the bible study in her place next semester. It's a bit nerve-racking, but I think two heads are better than one. Plus with girls like these in our study, there really isn't anything to worry about.

Finally, there was the day I left Pittsburgh to come home for the first time in two months. A foreign exchange student from high school came home with us, so we met up with her friend for breakfast at the best breakfast place in Oakland - Pamela's Diner. Pancakes and old friends - of course, it's an awesome combination.

And now here I am - sitting at home on a Monday evening thinking back on this whole year. It seems as though every year I say there will never be one better than it, and then the next year I find myself saying the same thing about the present year. So this year, I'm not going to. Yeah, this year was fantastic - it had its ups and downs, the extreme highs and the extreme lows, the times with great friends where everything seemed perfect and the times where I wondered if anything could be worse. And who knows - something even more exciting could happen in the next few days. I mean, I've been home for two days and I've seen people I haven't seen in months already. Who knows what can happen? So until then, I'm off to do... well, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing right now. But I'm probably procrastinating from it. Soooooo.