{"id":7155,"date":"2012-01-01T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T22:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=7155"},"modified":"2011-12-22T17:17:41","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T23:17:41","slug":"the-year-that-was-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=7155","title":{"rendered":"The Year that Was&#8230; 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>We started off the year a little rough when <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5476\" >we got stranded in Las Vegas on the very first day of the year<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5637\" >Brian and I celebrated Valentines in Lawrence<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I experienced my very first Zumbathon when we did the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5699\" >Party Hearty<\/a>&#8221; benefit for the American Heart Association.  I had a blast attending both the East Central and West Central events.  Later in the year, I got to participate in the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6873\" >Party in Pink<\/a>&#8221; Zumbathon for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.<\/li>\n<li>I was thinking that I would pick up <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5731\" >disc golf<\/a> this year.  I bought the necessary gear and everything, but the summer came and went and Brian and I never did find the time to go to the frisbee golf park.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5805\" >I kicked butt raising money for Big Brothers Big Sisters<\/a>.  I surpassed my $500 goal and raised over $800 this year.  For the first time ever, <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5834\" >I was the top fund raiser for our area<\/a>.  Although, I think that was only because Amy decided not to participate this year.  =P<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5951\" >Jenni returned to Catholicism<\/a>.  Surprisingly, hell didn&#8217;t freeze over.<\/li>\n<li>Grandpa&#8217;s health started failing this year so we decided to bring <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5966\" >our annual Easter celebration<\/a> to Cherry Creek.  Grandpa passed away on December 13.  Brian took his passing surprisingly well.  I think it was because he had been coping with the idea of losing his grandfather for months.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6061\" >Hai moved to Denver<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6037\" >I hired a personal trainer<\/a> and started getting really serious about my health and weight-loss goals.  John helped me go from wearing size 6 pants to where I am now &#8212; in size 2 pants and even some 0s. Switching gyms really helped.  We dropped our YMCA membership and joined Genesis instead.  I&#8217;m finally back to being myself again.  Brian made me get rid of all of my old one-piece bathing suits because I look decent in bikinis again.<\/li>\n<li>We saw <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=5988\" >James Taylor<\/a> perform twice.  The first time was at the Intrust Bank arena in May and then the second time with the Boston Pops at <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6236\" >Tanglewood in Massachusetts<\/a>. <\/li>\n<li>We attended the<a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6157\" > Symphony in the Flint Hills<\/a> for the first time.  It was really cool.  We discovered <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6166\" >Wamego, Kansas<\/a> and a couple of wineries on the way home the next day.<\/li>\n<li>We spent 4th of July in Boston and the East Coast area.  We had a lot of firsts that week.  It was our <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6208\" >first time in Connecticut<\/a>, where <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6215\" >we discovered a new vineyard<\/a> with our pals Jay and Becca.   (That&#8217;s Connecticut with a &#8220;C&#8221; not with a &#8220;K&#8221; &#8211; mind you.)  We got to see the sights and casinos and go <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6222\" >river tubing in Farmington<\/a>. We got to<a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6256\" > ride Segways<\/a> for the first time. <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6277\" >Tour the Sam Adams brewery<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6280\" >Watch a baseball game at Fenway Park ON 4th of July<\/a>. Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6299\" >Martha&#8217;s Vineyard<\/a> for the first time.<\/li>\n<li>I got to Slip &#8216;N Slide for the very first time at <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6359\" >Carolyn&#8217;s 2nd birthday party<\/a>.  It was quite comical. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll ever live that down.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6346\" >I started the Invisalign process<\/a>. I&#8217;ve never had braces before so this is a whole new experience for me.<\/li>\n<li>I had my first ambulance ride and trip to the ER during what was <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6441\" >the most exciting anniversary celebration ever<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6528\" >We returned to Healing Waters for the first time<\/a> after boycotting them for several years.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6563\" >We met Cousin Tracy&#8217;s fiancee Jeff<\/a> for the first time.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6650\" >I learned that I have nodules in my thyroid<\/a>.  They&#8217;re not cancerous, but Brian is still lobbying for the removal of my thyroid.<\/li>\n<li>We celebrated <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6603\" >the first anniversary of Brian&#8217;s UN-sobriety at Zoobilee<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>I got to experience <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6683\" >Holiday Galleria<\/a> for the first time, thanks to Gina Ann.  We got to hob nob with some really sexy firefighters.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6694\" >I got to play paintball for the first time<\/a>.  I didn&#8217;t play the year before.  I only took pictures.<\/li>\n<li>I got to visit <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6800\" >Nashville<\/a> for the first time through a business conference. It was my first time at the <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6793\" >Grand Ole Opry<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=6841\" >Kevin and Kasey got married<\/a>.  It was also this year that Kevin returned to the family.<\/li>\n<li>We made our annual Black Friday shopping trip, <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=7029\" >but with more people this time<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=7057\" >I got to undergo my very first biopsy<\/a>, which wasn&#8217;t really scary until right before the procedure.<\/li>\n<li>Brian and I got to watch a production at <a href=\"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=7133\" >Mosley Street Melodrama<\/a> for the first time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s tons more stuff that happened that I&#8217;m missing from this list.  2011 was quite a year.  I look forward to many more fun years just like it, minus some of the &#8220;excitement&#8221; that happened that we could all do without.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We started off the year a little rough when we got stranded in Las Vegas on the very first day of the year. Brian and I celebrated Valentines in Lawrence. I experienced my very first Zumbathon when we did the &#8220;Party Hearty&#8221; benefit for the American Heart Association. I had a blast attending both the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[1327,1337,1290],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7160,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7155\/revisions\/7160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}