First Attempt

Hello and thank you for joining us. This is my/our first attempt at a blog. We are in the middle of a Winter storm, filled with snow, sleet, and hail. So, I decided today would be a good day to start a blog.

Some history of the Ancona's....

2002 - Matt and I met through a friend of Matt's mom, who I worked with.

2003 - Matt graduated from DePaul University and started his career. I also started a new job. Matt's job would have him traveling a lot and over the years we have taken advantage of that, with a lot of weekend trips. We went to Las Vegas in June this year.

2004 - Matt did his first marathon - the Chicago Marathon, and became hooked. We also traveled to Los Angeles, CA.

2005 - We went to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, San Diego, CA, Boston, MA, Las Vegas, NV and Washington DC. Matt did his first 2 triathlons - Harbor Lights in Waukegan, IL and the Accenture Chicago Triathlon. After the 2 triathlons and the marathon the year before, Matt became hooked.

2006 - I ran my first race - the Shamrock Shuffle, which is an 8k. Matt did his first half Ironman, in Racine, WI. Matt also did the Chicago Marathon again this year. In September, we closed on our first house, a town-house in Roselle. The day after we closed on the house, Matt surprised me with his proposal. We went to Seattle, WA. And to what turns out to be one of our favorite places - Hawaii. We went to the Big Island and Maui on this trip.

2007 - was a big year for us. The year was busy with wedding plans, and training for an Ironman. I'm sure you can guess who was busy with each. We did get to Tampa, FL early in the year. In September, Matt did the Wisconsin Ironman in Madison. I was there to cheer him on. Ironman starts at 7am. Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mike bike, and ends with a 26.2 mile run. Matt was on cloud 9 when he finished, he says there is nothing like hearing "Matt Ancona, You are an Ironman" and every hour of training put into it, is worth it.

On October 5th, we got married. We thought that the beginning of October would be perfect for an outdoor wedding. The leaves would be changing, it would be nice fall weather. We were wrong, very wrong. We had record breaking heat, at 88 degrees. The day was still perfect. We honeymooned in Hawaii, on Maui and Kaua'i. After this trip, I have determined that Maui is my favorite island. However, one day I will be back to the Big Island. Kona, more specifically. As I said, Matt is hooked on Ironman, and his ultimate goal is do the Hawaiian Ironman, which is the World Championship.

2008 - We went to Disney World for 5 days, and also took an afternoon to go to Tampa to see Aunt Helen. We volunteered at Ironman Wisconsin, and Matt signed up for the 2009 Ironman. Matt did the Chicago Marathon, and qualified for the Boston Marathon. Prior to that, we both did the Shamrock Shuffle again. I did a 5k and Matt did a half marathon - on a weekend with record breaking rain, but we had fun. Matt also qualified for the NYC Marathon. We took 2 international vacations - the first one was to the Atlantis, in the Bahamas. This trip was from my work, for my 5 year anniversary. The second was to Ireland and London, England. We spent 6 days in Ireland - we flew into Dublin, spent a day there and then drove along the coast to the Cork area. We did the Ring of Kerry drive, went to the Waterford Crystal Factory, Jameson Whiskey Factory, Blarney Castle - yes, I kissed the stone. We enjoyed our time in Ireland. We then flew to London and spent 2 days there. We did a double decker bus tour, so we got to see all the main sights - House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben. We also went to the Prime Meridian, and to Abbey Road.

This brings us to now. Thanks for reading, and learning about us. I plan to update at least once a week with. We plan on having many more adventures.

- Theresa