Lol, so remember how I used to actually keep up on my blog? Well it has been over a year since I have posted anything.. and the last thing I posted was my 2016 year in review. haha fail! Although I may not be doing it often, I have to keep records somewhere, so bear with me. ;) I made videos for almost all of the big events we had this year, so I will link each of them below, if you want to see! If you don't want to read my entire post, you can watch this short 3 min video I put together recapping our 2017. 

2017 was a year of travel:

Our travel adventures began in March, when we visited Miami, Florida. The reason we flew out was to go to the World Baseball Classic! We got to go to two games in the classic - USA vs. Columbia and USA vs. Dominican Republic. It was such a fun experience to see a bunch of baseball players that we love play together, (and in the case of Manny Machado, against each other.) USA beat Columbia and in this game we almost got hit by Buster Posey's bat. Then USA ended up losing to Dominican Republic, where we ended up getting drenched in beer from all of the Dominicans throwing it around 😂 We also went to the beach and saw the graffiti walls, called The Wynwood Walls. 

In May, we loved our trip to Miami so much that we went back to Florida, but this time to Fort Lauderdale. Our purpose was actually to take a cruise out of Fort Lauderdale, but we were able to spend a couple days relaxing on the beach. We felt extra happy to be there when it snowed at home while we were lying out on the beach 😜

So following Fort Lauderdale, was our visit to the Bahamas! The beach there is the best beach that I have ever been on in my life. The sand was white and the water was turquoise, so clear, and to top it off, it was warm! Although we both left pretty sunburned, we had an absolutely incredible time there and loved it! 

Next, because we couldn't get enough of the sun, we took a trip with my family to Lake Powell. We boated, enjoyed each other, cliff jumped, saw the ruins and Rainbow Bridge, and of course put our diapers on. Just looking through the pictures makes me so excited for our next trip out there this Summer!!! Lake Powell is my happy place. 

In August, we took a trip out to San Diego with the Stuarts. We stayed on Coronado in an amazing AirBnB and we played on the beach a lot and went to San Diego Zoo! It was fun to have a family vacation with everyone there! 

Later in August, to top off the Summer, we went up to Bear Lake for a weekend. The water was definitely a lot colder there than it was in Lake Powell ;) haha but any boating trip is a good trip. 

In October, we took an evening trip down to Arizona with the Stuarts to see the Diamondbacks play in the post season Wild Card Game against the Rockies! I told my boss I would cheer for the Rockies if he would let me get off work early, but everyone else was cheering for the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks ended up winning and since I didn't care too much, I had a great time! 

The biggest trip of the year was visiting Ryan's mission in Argentina. I could write an entire blog post on our experiences there (...and maybe I will haha) but to sum it up, we had an incredible time meeting so many people that Ryan loves, being in the beautiful Patagonia region, hiking the Andes, and running out of gas in the middle of the Argentine desert was also a fun (?) experience. haha But let me just say, Argentina was an incredible experience.

The weekend following getting back from Argentina, we made a weekend getaway to one of my favorite places in the whole world.... New York City!!! We went to see Ramin Karimloo in one of his last shows in Anastasia but we also got to spend time with one of my best friends, Callie Klotz ice skating, seeing the Christmas lights and walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Although short, it was one of my favorite trips of the year! (Although I'm totally biased since NYC is one of my favorite cities ever)

To top of the year of travel, we went up to Yellowstone for a snowmobiling excursion with my family! We snowmobiled out to Old Faithful with some stops along the way to see animals and hot pools. It was one of the most beautiful experiences that I have had - being out in Yellowstone in areas only snowmobiles could reach... absolutely breathtaking. 

2017 was a year of firsts:

In our trip to Miami, we spent some time on the beach and it was my first time on an East Coast Beach... which let me tell you, are way better than west coach beaches!! White sand, warm water... highly recommended. 

Our cruise to the Bahamas was the first time I had been on a cruise and was also a bucket list item I had to check off! We had a lot of fun, but also learned that cruises are probably a lot more fun for people who drink, but we definitely enjoyed people watching! haha!

This year was our first year of having the boat so a lot of firsts came along with that. It was both Jonny and my first time on a wakeboard, on a solemn ski (I had double skied when I was little), and Jonny's first time on a knee board! With Jonny's natural sports abilities, he picked up on everything so fast! It took me a lot longer and I still haven't succeeded getting out of the wake on the wake board or ski 🙈 but that's my goal for this next year! 

In the Fall, I had a weird first... my first day of sending a family member off to school without having to go myself! My first time not going to a first day of school since I was four or whenever I started preschool... weird, but also nice haha Here's an adorable photo of Jonny heading off to his first day without me!

When we were in Argentina, we stayed up to look at the Southern Hemisphere constellations. A.ma.zing. One of my favorite parts of the trip. We saw the southern cross as well as the tail of Scorpio. I also had a blast figuring out how to take a long exposure photo on my GoPro! 

Our trip to New York City, brought a lot of firsts in just a two day trip, and all of them were bucket list items! First, we went ice skating in Central Park. It has been a dream of mine to go ice skating there during Christmas time for quite some time now, so I loved it!! 

Then just being in New York City during Christmas time was a first and bucket list item. We saw the Rockefeller tree, the light show on Saks 5th Avenue, went to Bryant Park, and saw all of the lights all around! New York City at Christmas time is absolutely magical.

Also in our New York trip, brought the first time I have seen an original broadway cast! It was such a cool experience to have listened to the soundtrack and watched all the YouTube teasers and then to see those same people! And to come home and continue listening to the soundtrack and them sounding exactly the same because they are exactly the same!! Such a cool experience especially for a musical nerd! 

Speaking of shows...

2017 was a year of shows:

As I went back through my photos from the year, I realized that we went to a lot of shows, which is just fine by such a musical nerd like me! Some of these shows were included in our Hale Center Theater season tickets... but most of them were in addition to. So we saw even more shows than what's listed here this year! 😳

Mama Mia at Eccles Theater was a blast. Also can we talk about how beautiful The Eccles Theater is?? I love it!  

We saw Danielle Ashby perform in the Contemporary Dance Theater at BYU, and she was beautiful per usual. 

Our lovely Sarah Watts as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins at Centerpoint Theater. She was practically perfect! 

Then a performance I never would have imagined myself going to... I gave Jonny tickets to the Pokemon symphony at Abravenal Hall for Valentine's Day. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would have. But Jonny definitely enjoyed it more than I did... especially when the encore was everyone singing the Pokemon theme song 😂

We last minute were given unused tickets to see Frank Wildhorn at BYU, and it was amazing! He has written so many musicals that I love so it was so cool to see him on the piano accompanying the amazing broadway voices that came along with him!

We saw so many amazing performances this year.. but LION KING. I mean come on. My favorite and we got to see it at Eccles Theater. Just as the first time I saw it, the minute the curtain opened with the Circle of Life, I started bawling 🙈 hahaha I just can't event begin to tell you how much I loved it and how grateful I am we got to see it!!

We then got to see Derek and Juliann Hough in there dance show, Move Beyond. It was incredible and really cool to see two siblings that grew up here in Utah and how they followed their dreams and how far they have come. Inspirational to know that someone form Utah can make it big too. 

We went to the Stadium of Fire for the Fourth of July! We went because we wanted to see Hunter Hayes and Brian Regan, although the main act was Little Big Town. It was a great show and made us feel so patriotic! 

To celebrate our anniversary early, we took a trip down to St. George and we saw Newsies at Tuachan. It was fun, but we were honestly a little disappointed in the performance. 

Then for Jonny's birthday, I gave him tickets to see Lady Antebellum with Kelsea Ballerini and Brett Young! It was a blast and such a good concert! I kinda gave him the tickets to make up for use missing the concert he really wanted to go to the night of our wedding dinner - Lady Antebellum, Sam Hunt and Hunter Hayes. We have now seen Lady Antebellum and Hunter Hayes in separate concerts, so now we just need to see Sam Hunt and I will have successfully made up for it! 

Probably the cutest performance of the year was Grandpa Hobbs up at Swiss Days at the Zermatt hotel playing his Alp Horn. It was so cute and definitely drew a crowd!

Then we saw Zach and Sarah Watts, Amy Whiting and Haley Christensen in A Tale of Two Cities at Centerpoint Theater. It was so good and so fun to see them all perform together! 

We also had the opportunity to see Travis Wall in his show Shaping Sound at The Eccles Theater. It was so cool to see someone we see on TV all the time and his creativity. I don't have to say this, but he is so talented and a creative genius. 

We also saw Aida at Hale Center Theater, twice. We saw it once to see Aitana Alapa in her cast (who killed it!) and then the next time to see Casey Elliott perform as Radames... SO good. I love that show so I wasn't complaining about seeing it twice! ;)

Then possibly the best show of the year.. Anastasia in New York City! (Honestly I love Lion King so much that I can't decide which one I loved more...) As mentioned earlier, we saw the original broadway cast which was amazing! But we mainly went to see Ramin Karimloo in it. His last performance was the day after we saw it, so we had to squeeze it in before he was done. It was awesome to meet him afterwards, get his autograph and picture as well!

Then we saw Newsies at Pioneer Theater. This production was much better than what we saw at Tuachan! We loved it!

But to top the year off, Jonny asked for tickets to the Zelda Symphony for Christmas. The music was actually very beautiful and I liked it even more than I liked the Pokemon one! I made him promise that he would take me to a Harry Potter symphony now in repayment. 

Wow this post is getting long... but I guess it is a year's worth of information and I'm probably the only one who will ever even get this far in the post. lol If you actually have made it far... hi mom. 

2017 was a year of experiences:

To start of the year, I had the opportunity to help BYU Women's Chorus in filming a music video for our song, "Tundra." It was freezing but a fun experience! You can see the final product here. 

An answer to one of my prayers came true when I had the opportunity to sing with the BYU Women's Chorus during the Women's Session of Conference in April. The spirit was incredible and I was just overwhelmed with the love of my Heavenly Father. An experience I will never forget, and hope I can have again someday in the Mo Tab ;)

In the Bahamas, we took a sailboat out into the ocean and went snorkeling! It was so beautiful and so fun. I loved it. Unfortunately Jonny got a little sick from a combination of the boat ride and swallowing a lot of salt water, but we enjoyed it other than that! I mean look at how clear the water is... this is not a joke, it was that clear. 

We made a goal of trying to get out more during the Summer and went on a few hikes, including Stewart Falls, Y Mount, we tried hiking Squaw Peak... but we got lost along the way. Definitely a goal I want to have again next summer. It's so fun to get out and hike. 

I had the opportunity to help record the backup vocals for Noteworthy's version of "When You Believe." So if you listen to that song, listen to the backup vocals and know I'm helping sing the soprano line ;) Although I'm not in the video, you can see the music video here and listen for me! 

When in San Diego, Jonny and I felt adventurous so we decided to sleep on the roof one night since the roof was open and there was a canopy bed thing. Definitely not the greatest sleep of my life, but still fun! 

Then of course the Solar Eclipse happened. We weren't in a totality zone, but pretty close to it. It was cool to see and a good excuse to take break from work for a bit ;)

For our anniversary, Jonny gave me tickets to go to a Real Salt Lake game. It was so fun and such a good game to go to! Real Salt Lake won and we saw a red card foul out. It was probably the best game in the season we could have gone to! 

This last experience was sitting second row in the student section for the BYU vs. U of U basketball game and we won!! It was such a fun game, so much heckling. #safetyfirst As far as BYU sports go, we also went to football games, soccer games, volleyball matches and basketball games. Jonny has been on the ROC board so we're definitely involved in BYU sports! And it's a blast. 

2017 was a year of goodbyes:

To start the year off, I said goodbye to my friend and co-star of our ninth grade production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Paul Evans. This is the only photo I took on that day. I wish I could share a different one to represent the day. It was a hard goodbye because it was unexpected and he was so young, but it's comforting to know that he has another calling in the next life that he was ready for. 

I said goodbye to Sister Applonie and the BYU Women's Chorus. Definitely the hardest part about graduating. I miss singing with those beautiful ladies all of the time... and I just miss having an excuse to sing more often all of the time. I had a lot of spiritual and testimony building experiences with that group which is part of why my heart was so sad to see that part of my life go. 

Follow up with that is I said goodbye to SCHOOL. What?! I graduated from BYU with a BA in Communications (Emphasis Advertising) and a Minor in Music. This was definitely the happiest goodbye of the year, because along with this goodbye came a hello to a new lifestyle that I haven't experienced since I was 3 years old. 

The hardest goodbye of the year was saying goodbye to one of our best friends, Peter Howey. He was killed in a motorcycle accident. We got the phone call of his passing while we were in San Diego. It was a very difficult time, and it still is. We miss him dearly and try to do what we can to help care for his sweet wife Jenny. The Squad just isn't the same without him, but it has been beautiful to see how these guys have supported each other and loved each other through these tough times. 

2017 was a year of hellos:

Being in the top 10% of my graduating class, I was invited to become a member of the honors society, Kappa Tau Alpha. 

We said hello to the newest member of the Kirkham family when Katie married Matthew Maddix! We love having our family completed and my dad loves having an even number of votes in the family now. I'm so happy he joined our family! Also isn't this sibling picture just adorable? One of my favorites in the wedding photos! 

We said hello again to Ryan as he got home from his two year mission to Argentina! It has been so fun to have the entire Stuart family home and one of my best friends home! 

We also said hello to our third year of marriage by celebrating our second anniversary! As the second anniversary is cotton, I got us "sole mate" socks. I sure love this man of mine! And the last two years with him were definitely the best two years of my life!

We also said hello to a new car! We got a Honda CR-V and love it. It is definitely an upgrade from the old Jeep that we were driving before! ;)

And we said hello James as he moved down to Provo!! We are so excited to have him living closer to us so that we can see him more often :) We celebrated by going out to dinner as a group to Midici.

And finally, we say hello to 2018. With all of the adventures, hellos and goodbyes, lessons we learned and memories we made in 2017, it's going to be a hard year to top. But I say that at the end of every year and each year gets better and better. I think it's gotten exponentially better the longer I have been married to Jonny. I loved the times we had last year and I can't wait to see how we grow as individuals and as a unit in the next year. I love you Jonny and thank Heavenly Father for an incredible 2017. I pray that we can make even more out of 2018. 

xoxo,

Angela