Astoria from Astoria Column:

Beach in Oregon:

North Head Lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington:

Sort of.

It might be the lamest excuse for one ever.  I used my iphone for more photos than I would like to admit.  And I messed up the dates and skipped at least 4 days, since it ended several days after the date I originally started on.  (Perhaps a bit of that could be blamed on the confusion of going abroad for a while.)  All of the pictures aren’t great.  Maybe only a few are good.

But I did it.

Project 365 is getting crossed off the life list and my camera is going back to being a special use item.  The pressure, not that there was any, is off.

For me it’s less about the pictures and more about all the wonderful things that happened while I was trying to document my life over a year. Sure, a lot of boring “oh no i forgot” pictures are in there. But there are also pictures from trips to Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. and New Zealand and more. There are pictures of friends getting married, blogging conferences, living in Vermont, vacationing with my mom and meeting the love of my life. It’s been an interesting and unpredictable year for me and this project reminds me of that fact.

So here are the 365 photos that managed to make it into the final slideshow of Project 365 greatness.

In New Zealand, Lake Taupo offered the almost perfect kayaking opportunity. I say almost perfect because the weather didn’t cooperate with us. We set off in our kayaks in mid afternoon after having clear skies all morning. There were a few clouds in the sky but nothing to indicate what was coming. We were so blissfully unaware.

We kayaked a while, maybe around a mile down the coast. And then we saw the clouds darken and the rain begin to fall across the lake. We had not gone as far as I wanted, so I didn’t want to turn back yet. I thought the rain might stay where it was and we could continue. As we kept paddling the rain crept closer and closer. Soon it was raining on us and we started paddling toward shore as the rain fell harder.

Sitting on shore we waited until the rain let up… or at least that was the plan. Once it seemed like there was a break we got back in the kayaks and started to head back to the hotel. But then we saw the lightning and heard the thunder and decided that wasn’t the best plan of action. As we searched the shore for a place to hang out until the storm passed we realized we were out of luck and had nowhere to hide.

Then the woman who had been swimming with her family and got out of the water when the lightning started like we did came down to ask us if we wanted to wait out the storm with her family. We put the kayaks in her shed and then went up and had coffee and tea with the family while their four year old son entertained us. We tried to wait out the storm but it never got much better and after an hour we decided to try to get back before the sun went down and made the situation worse.

We made it back without incident and ended the Lake Taupo Kayaking Adventure that had started out as an easy paddle down to the city center. Was the first time I’ve ever gone kayaking in the rain or had any kind of storm show up. It turned out to be really nice meeting and spending some time with a family from Auckland vacationing at Taupo. But next time we will check the weather before we head out.

At least the day ended well with a beautiful sunset, even with the clouds. Every sunset I’ve seen since being in New Zealand has been gorgeous.

I LOVE it here.

What’s not to love?

It’s a really great city.  Clean and green, that’s the New Zealand slogan, right?  Totally fits.  Even in the city there is so much green space it’s amazing.  And you are just minutes from water and beaches in every direction.  In my book that constitutes a beautiful place.

I’m enjoying visiting a place with a built in tour guide.  Traveling for the sake of seeing new places and having new experiences is fun and all, but I think I enjoy the experience of having friends show me the city from their perspective.  I like seeing someone else’s favorite spots and seeing what makes them appreciate the city they live in.  And since I’m staying here a month it’s much more like I’m living here than just visiting.

Next week I’ll be going to Taupo and Rotorua, so there will be a little touristy goodness during my stay here.  And on Saturday I’m hosting a health/fitness blogger meetup in Auckland.  That’s the niche of my other blog and I’m quite excited to meet some other bloggers and discuss things.   Meeting other bloggers is one of my favorite things to do because I enjoy blogging yet have few friends who do it, or at least do it consistently.  So this weekend’s meetup should be fun.

Alright, I’m off to enjoy another beautiful day in New Zealand. ;)

On an outing:

Right in front of Green Mountain:

Vermont is GORGEOUS, right?

It is so easy to be here in a beautiful land. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be here. I’m having the best time of my life for so many reasons lately. Not only am I in a pretty place, but I am here with wonderful people.

As if I wasn’t lucky enough to be having awesomefun times in Vermont, another area of my life is going really, really well.

So many things are going well for me these days. All I can say is that I am a very, very lucky girl.

For more pics you can check out my flickr photostream.

“You may kiss the bride.” Lauren and Josh Mabry.

With the bride and groom. :) Cuteness

Yes, Ms. Kincaid, my 12th grade AP English teacher was at the wedding. Woah. Flashbacks to…. interesting times.

And then there were pics with friends from high school:

Photos by Christina and Rhonda Burns.

This is one of my favorite’s from Ashley and Nathan’s engagement photo session I did last month. Check out the rest of the photos on my flickr page.