Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Big Farewell to 2008 and Hello to 2009

We wish everyone a very happy ending to 2008 and start of 2009. We hope it is your very best year yet and we look forward to hearing about all the new things that happen in your life!

Monday, December 29, 2008

Mexico Trip and Christmas

Things have been crazy at the Hill house over the last month. Here are a few of our big activities:

Wedding in Playa Del Carmen

We were asked to do photography at a destination wedding in Playa Del Carmen on December 13th. We left the DFW Airport on Thursday December 11th and got back on Sunday December 14th. It was a fun and tiring trip. We flew into Cancun and rode on a tour bus for 45 minutes to get to Playa Del Carmen. The driver got very close to obstacles and structures in the road but somehow managed not to hit anything. We arrived at the resort in one piece.

We stayed at the Gran Porto Real Resort which was right on the beach and was very nice. They gave us our room keys and we headed up to our room. Rebecca inserted the key into the door, swung the door open and found an older man in boxer shorts standing in the room. After slamming the door shut, and the little man sticking his head out asking if we needed something, we headed back down to get an unoccupied room. The rooms were nice and we had an ocean view if you looked past the swimming pool. We ate at a very tasty Italian restaurant that night and walked around the shopping area. The resort was all inclusive so our food and drinks at three restaurants were included in the price.

On Saturday morning (December 13th) we went on a snorkeling tour of their coral reef. It was pretty cold that day but the water was warmer than the air so it was tolerable. We did see some pretty sea fans and acropora as well as pretty fish and a sting ray. One of the guides caught a sea turtle and we got to take pictures with it. Saturday evening was the wedding out on the beach. During the ceremony while running for the best shot, Darrin broke his middle toe. He finished the wedding and even did family portraits afterwards on the broken toe. We joined the family for dinner and then went to find a bandage to wrap the toe. By that time it was a real nice purple. Darrin has broken a toe at two weddings and in both cases he wasn’t wearing shoes so it may be a new rule that Darrin wears shoes at weddings.


Christmas with Family

We celebrated Christmas a little early with Darrin's family. We all gatered at Duane's house on December 23rd for pizza and gift exchanging. It was a fun time and we enjoyed watching Casie and Ryan's excitement over the gifts they received.

I had to work Christmas Eve and then on Christmas morning we drove to San Antonio to see my family. We all gathered at my parent's house. It was a small group of my parents, grandpa, aunt and Darrin and I. We ate and played some 42 before my grandpa had to get home. Then we went out to the movies and saw Bolt---very funny....the hamster is really cute.

We jumped into the day after Christmas shopping frenzy at the outlet mall in San Marcos for a little while. It was fun and we found some great deals. We headed over to Kerrville that afternoon to see my grandpa and enjoyed Thai food for supper that night.

Saturday, we (My parents, Darrin and I) drove up to Abilene to see my brother Jonathan and his wife Lauren. It was nice to see them--we took them out to lunch and went shopping together. Jonathan just started a new job as an Assistant Manager at Walmart. He is in the middle of training and is enjoying it. I think he is going to do great.

Sunday we went to church with my parents and ate a quick lunch together. Darrin and I spent several hours driving around San Antonio picking up his Christmas Presents. They included, many coral frags, two clams and two sea urchins as well as some corals from an aquarium store. He was of course very happy. We ate dinner with my parents and headed back. We got all of Darrin's new purchases into the tank and headed home. We are both tired but enjoyed our weekend in San Antonio. It was nice to have a full 4 days with my parents and family.

Avalon

Avalon is doing great! We have 11 weddings booked for next year and we got two calls just today about coming out to see Avalon. We purchased 53 more strands of lights to decorate the trees and deck as needed during weddings at Lowes this weekend. They were 99 cents each and quite the bargain. We also bought a whole lot of bulbs.....I wish we would have counted how many bulbs we have already planted but it would probably be safe to say it is over 300 and we bought another 200 or so. So we will have lots of flowers in February and March (hopefully) for our wedding in March.

We hope that you are doing great and had a wonderful Christmas!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Very Happy Thanksgiving

Darrin and I had a great Thanksgiving. We spent Thursday with Darrin's family at his brother Duane's house. It was a fun time of feasting and talking. We had enough food for a week it seemed. We split up to get caught up on our sleep or clean our house (which is what I worked on). Then a few of us met back at Darrin's parent's house for ham sandwiches, green bean casserole and whatever else we could fit in.

Friday we slept in and ate a late breakfast and went to Lowes and Produces Coop to buy a few things we needed for the birds and Avalon. We went out to Avalon at 4:00 to shoot pictures of Nancy's family. Nancy is our office manager at the Studio. We had fun with her crazy family and joined them for dinner at Wings N more afterwards.

Saturday we got up early and headed down to San Antonio to spend some time with my parents. We stopped at a few pet stores to look at their saltwater fish and corals and a few garden centers to look at their bulbs. We were a little depressed to realize that Lowes had a much better selection than any of them had.

We had two fun days with my parents eating and catching up. They were getting ready to go to Big Bend for 5 days so we were jealous but hope they have a great time.

We are headed to Mexico in 10 days so I guess we get our break pretty soon. We have a wedding at a resort in Playa Del Carmen on December 13th. They are flying us down there and paying for all our expenses. They are not paying anything for the wedding photography but I think a paid for vacation is a pretty good price.

I hope each of you had a very Happy Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a very Merry Christmas. I know I am. I need to get our decorations down this week.

Be safe and blessed!