Bringing in the New Year!---2016

2016!  Finally.  Though 2015 wasn't necessarily a bad year, I'm glad it's over.  It was a below average year that was quite uneventful.   I did learn quite a few lessons that were a pain in the butt to experience.  I cut my hair unbelievably short...still growing it out...  I also colored my hair from a box for the first time.  Before that, I had just got a few highlights so it was a big step.  Gratefully it wasn't a total disaster, but as I've been coloring it over the past few month, I've never stuck with one color I really liked so now my hair has turned quite red which is definitely not my favorite thing.  My next goal is to go to a salon and get it taken care of and go blonde...like Julianne Hough blonde.  I'm really excited and ready for a change/to fix this hot mess.

I finished my first year of college and started the second.  I have loved it so far and feel very fulfilled even though I am completely exhausted all the time.  I went to a music festival for 3 weeks during the summer in Madeline Island which is in Wisconsin.  It was such an incredible experience that I grew from so much.  It was so beautiful and being in walking distance of Lake Superior was a dream.  I am hoping to go back this summer as well.

This fall, I learned a lot about friendships.  I learned that I can't live my life for other people.  I went through a lot of hard weeks and months when I felt very lonely and completely unhappy with myself.  I felt the pressure to be this certain type of person that was just not me.  I was miserable.  I am just now coming out of it...finding the value of who I am as a person.  I have also learned to keep my true friends and support close and put my energy into the relationships that are everything to me and make me a better person.  This is my quote of the year:

On a more positive note, New Year's Eve was a magical night.  My fiance and I had dinner at the classiest restaurant possible...IHOP!  Then we went ice skating at the rink at Forest Park.  It was absolutely beautiful and was the perfect way to end one year and start the next.  This picture pretty much sums up the entire night. 

Everything was so beautiful.  I know I keep saying that.  We got there around 9:30pm and had to stand in line for awhile to pay and get our skates.  Then we skated for awhile until we were completely exhausted.  So we went inside to their little Snowflake Cafe and got hot chocolate and funnel cake to snack on while we wrote down our New Year's Resolutions and Goals for us individually, as well as for us as a couple.  Then we played an arcade game which I had never done before.  Needless to say, I was terrible.  Then around 11:45, we were like "we should probably go out on the rink again."  We skated around until they started the countdown to midnight over the loud speaker.  We shared a beautiful kiss in the middle of the rink...fairy tale stuff, I know.  Here are a few pictures I took to capture the night.

A Kiss at Midnight

Now to start the New Year...  I have so many goals that I am hoping to achieve this year.  Here are some of the big ones:

• Stay positive 
• Live a healthy lifestyle
• Drink 56 oz. of water a day
• Spend more time outdoors
• Read more 
• Be more friendly/make friends who are good influences 
• Blog consistently

I am beside myself with excitement and hope for this coming year.  A lot of things are going to change, and a year from now, life will be completely different in the best way possible.  I am ready to tackle this year.  I won't let it freak me out and paralyze me...I'm going to go charging forward conquer everything that comes my way.  Let me know in the comments what some of your resolutions for the New Year are!