Boutilier's Blog: Looking back on 2009

New Year's Day 2010 - Hiking in New Hampshire:

New Year's is a good time to reflect, and we had another amazing year to reflect upon - 2009 was very good to us.

Toules & Twix are still healthy & happy:

Our year started off with a bang. Chris immediately had a business trip to England. He didn't have any time for fun though.

We made up for it in February - a winter mountain climbing expedition up Mt Washington (New Hampshire) It was 5 hours up and 2 hours down - over 6,000 feet. Not a super high mountain, but it's the highest in New England. We had an experienced guide; had to carry 25 lb packs, and had to wear serious climbing shoes with cramp-on's. Serious doubts settled in when we had to practice 'self arrest' - which is catching yourself with your ice ax (so you don't slide off the mountain). What??!?! Fortunately, we didn't have to 'self arrest' at all during our climb. It was an amazing experience - challenging & memorable. We're hoping to do it again in 2010

Steph relaxed the following weekend by meeting her college girlfriends in Ft Lauderdale, FL to celebrate their 40th birthdays!! Disposable camera was used for this fun filled weekend, so can't share any photos. We'll be doing another girl weekend in 5 years - stay tuned!

In April, we went to visit Chris' mom & her husband Tony for Easter. They also live in Florida - we were spoiled with all these winter getaways! We had a wonderful Easter dinner with family & friends. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to Disney!!

Also in April, I flew home to visit my family for a long weekend. Shopping with my mom; hanging out with my dad; and eating were the highlights of that trip!

In May, Chris was in Europe again, on a business trip. He called me on Wednesday to see if I wanted to fly over on Friday and spend the week. Of course! I flew into Zurich, Switzerland, and then we took a train to Luzern, Switzerland. We spent one night, and then took a train through the Swiss Alps to Venice Italy. We spent 4 wonderful days before getting on a train and heading back to Switzerland (with a one day stop over in Lugano, Switzerland). No camera - just a camera phone, so not too many photos of this wonderful trip!

Venice, Italy:

Gondola rides

Only place left in Venice, where they make Gondolas:

Chris relaxing with a beer after a day of sightseeing with the Venice aristocracy. Yes, Chris knows some very wealthy Venitians, and we were fortunate to go on an educational boat ride with them. During the boat ride, they discussed the new locks that they are building off the coastline of Venice - to keep the flooding at bay. We also were invited back to their 17th century home to view their priceless paintings and statues (that even the head of Austria came to view in the 18th century!) My favorite day for sure!!!

Chris in St Marks Square (view from the Doges Palace)

May was also the start of sailing season - woop woop! We became official members of the yacht club, and joined in their Memorial Day club sailing trip to Wickford, RI. It was an amazing weekend to sail, and it was fun relaxing with the other yacht club members.

We also joined in the Wednesday night club racing series. We didn't do well, but we had loads of fun! We'll be racing again in 2010! 12 races - wow!

We love sailing - a family that sails together, stays together! We had some great overnight sailing trips in 2009: to many ports in RI & MA

A toast to our great sailing summer with our favorite sailing drink - Bloody Mary's!

Mixed in with all these sailing days were many other fun filled events. Like the LA roadster show in June. Chris met up with some of his friends, and had a great time. Steph flew home to spend the weekend with her dad.

We also volunteered at Ironman Lake Placid in July - very inspirational! We took the late shift - handing out water at mile 22 from 8 pm to midnight. It was fun cheering in the last finishers, and made us super excited to race in 2010.

We had some fun on Saturday afternoon's too - Polo! Our favorite spectator sport (after baseball).

It's fun to hang with friends, drink wine, eat cheese, and listen to the English announcer make fun of the polo players!

We did make it to a couple baseball games too! We usually squeeze in some Cape Cod baseball league games, but no time in 2009.

In August, we had some good friends come for a visit. It was fun showing them the New England sights. It's always good to be a tourist in your own town every once in while!

My favorite pictures of 2009 - above of my friends, and below of me & my husband :)

Steph spent 2 days a week all year with Beauty Patooty. She was born in 2004, and is starting to get a little fresh (or what they call 'mareish') She's a quarter horse - palomino!

As always, we managed to sneak in some hot rod fun. The weekly cruise nights; weekend car shows; and the annual reliability run.

Had some great lunches with the girls from work!

Did a lot of fall hiking, once the sailing season was over (Toules favorite time of year)

We managed another trip to Europe! This time it was in December to Zurich, Switzerland.

And how can we forget our triathlon season! We're reminded of it every day, as we get out of bed at 5:00 am and head to the gym or the roads. We stayed small in 2009 - sprint races and one international distance. Great towns like Cohasset, Mattapoisett, Barrington, and Lakeville, and great race courses. We had fun! Steph even made it to the podium at Barrington - woop woop!2010 brings us a new program, new coaches, and new races!

We enjoyed our marathon too, so we might put another one into the schedule for 2010... most likely another fall race - but definitely a smaller venue.