a contest, a tradition, and a rainstorm

when jackson was just a baby, we realized that new years morning no longer consisted of sleeping until the crack of noon and laying around watching movies the rest of the day. (a great start to the year, i might add). instead, you are up when it is still dark (regardless of what time you went to bed the night before), while the majority of the world is closed for the holiday. we wanted to do something fun, so we put our 9-month-old baby jackson in the car and headed for the zoo. too tired to make breakfast, we stopped for some pancakes at the only place open, McDonalds. new years day is pretty cold, so after the zoo we stopped to warm up at starbucks

while enjoying our last red cup of the season. little did we know this was soon to become an

annual tradition we would look forward to.

awhile back, we asked for you to vote for us in a contest a local photographer was holding. everyone was amazing and we won! thanks guys :) the photographer, mariano friginal, offered to come along on our annual new years day tradition. we thought it might be awkward, but it was actually super easy (we would be great on a reality show... got accustomed to the cameras right away!) and fun. the weather was dark, grey, and stormy. but a little rainstorm couldn't keep us away!

mariano just posted pics on his blog. check them out... we think they're pretty great. thanks mariano, and thanks to all of you for voting.

see you next year at the zoo- you know it's already on your calendar.