Reflecting

I was having a hard time coming to terms that I was turning the big 30! I was dreading the day. For me hearing the word 30 means "grown up". I don't like the thought of being a "grown up" I still wear my hair in pig tails, I still like sparkles, and hanging posters up in my room of my favorite band! I even wear Hannah Montana perfume every day. Looking at the other side of being 30 I reflected on what happened in the last 30 years. In the past 30 years, I have gone through my teenage years, went to prom, graduated, went to college, made friends that will not only last a life time but an eternity. I have had 6 roommates, and lived in Salt Lake City, Kentucky, and Florida. I have gone to hundreds probably close to a thousand concerts/ live bands. I have gotten to travel to all the big cities I have wanted to go to like Seattle, New York, Chicago. I met the love of my life and have been married for almost 8 years. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I have become an Aunt to 2 nephews and 3 nieces. And I kicked Cancers Butt! These are just a few things I have accomplished all before I was 30! I hope that the next 30 years are just as good and fun! 1st thing on my list was to travel out of the country and I did that! A few other things to cross off my list is to be able to have kids, buy a house, and see more of the world with my sweetie. I still don't plan on growing up anytime soon. I have too many youthful tendencies haha. I enjoyed reflecting on my life and my blessings. I have had a pretty good life, and I would do it all over just the same way if I had the chance. Cheers to another great 30!

Where did Summer go?

I can't believe how fast our summer flew by! We had a great summer, we stayed so busy this year! We have had a few visitors this summer. My aunt and Uncle came down for a visit for about a week and kept us well fed and spoiled. Ryan's parents came down a few times, we were excited to show them our little slice of paradise, also Ryan's brother Kyle and his new wife Victoria came down during their honeymoon. We loved having family come visit! Wish our visits could have been longer! We miss everyone from home. That is one of the hard parts about living in another state, not being able to just hang out or see someone when you want to.

A few happenings this summer was that I won concert tickets to see a band I loved back in Middle school/ high school. Called Toad The Wet Sprocket. Funny name I know but I guarantee you, you probably know a few of their songs. I also won us movie tickets to see Top Gun at one of the historic Theaters here in honor of the 25th year anniversary. We have been going to beach parties, concerts, lots of community events, we have been going to different towns to explore like Madeira Beach, downtown St Petersburg. We have found the Ultimate 80's cover band, and they are so nice to us! They are called The Radio Killers I have one of their shirts, and they give us stuff every time we go see them. They have become our friends, and have posted a picture of Ryan on their website and Facebook. They even sang a song just for Ryan to show how much they love their fans haha. We very much enjoy our Floridian adventure and our life here. We love the weather and we are out and about way more than we were back in KY. There is just so many free and fun things to do here. Feels great to live life!

We kick started October by going to The Oktoberfest put on by The German American Society. We had a blast doing the chicken dance and eating German food. We had pork, bratwurst, red cabbage and German potato salad! It was so yummy! Note* the food was great but not nearly as good as Ryan's mom's German cooking! No one can beat that! Everyone was dressed up authentically in Tradition. We had a great time!

Cozumel Mexico

We arrived in Mexico and I was just like a kid. I was so excited to go to Mexico! I have always wanted to go to Mexico. I love the culture and the people, and of course the food and music! When we first got there it really did not feel like we had just arrived in a different country. It was so pretty and beautiful it felt like we were at Disney Epcot. We don't know what it was exactly that made it feel that way, but it was really hard to wrap our minds around the fact that we really were in Mexico! We did book an excursion there. Our excursion was kind of like a sight seeing tour that included a Mayan Temple, shopping, a tour of how Tequila is made, and a museum. Our tour guide was named Cesar and he spoke really good English as did most of the natives there. We loaded up on the bus and off we went! After getting into the city we realized how poorly people lived and it broke our hearts. No air conditioning, the stores didn't really have doors, it was just out in the open. All the store signs were painted on the buildings. There were no Neon lights that said open like we have here. I don't even think homes had basic things, like TV, computers, washer/dryer. It really opened my eyes to how blessed we are.
They took us downtown as part of the shopping tour and left us there for about an hour. We were all excited to go explore but the moment we stepped off the bus people started flocking to all of us. They were all desperate for us to come shop in their stores. We were not used to all of the attention and it made us really uneasy and all we wanted to do was to get out of there. It was so sad, that they were so desperate for money they were begging and some of them harassing us to come inside. They negotiated everything so if you said one price and they said no, a few seconds later they would change their minds and give you the price you wanted. We were their only source of income and we were told it was low season so they don't get a lot of people coming through. It wasn't a horrible experience but we were just not used to feeling like that. It kind of felt like we were rock stars and everyone else was paparazzi or wanting autographs. Everyone wanted your attention. One guy begged us to come shop in his store and told us he would turn on the Mexican air conditioning for us. We came in and he plugged in a fan. It was really sweet, because it was sooooo incredibly hot there. I don't see how people can live without air. After going to a few shops we decided to get away from there and go wait for our bus. We had enough of being celebrities. But our time there was so much fun. I would love to go back there again, the people were amazing, and all the sights were just beautiful.

We decided that we can't come to Mexico and not eat Mexican Food. We ended up going to a place called The Three Amigos restaurant. It is named after the movie. It was right on the water so we sat outside and enjoyed the scenery. We had 3 Amigos come over to sing us a song. We had fresh Salsa that was so incredible! Our tour of the island was great. I really loved our excursion, we got to see the beautiful ocean, people on the side of the streets were cutting these HUGE coconuts and making them into drinks, we liked going to the Tequila farm/store. I have never seen blue and colorful tequila nor tequila that had a worm in it until i went there. Eww! But it was fun. We saw a few donkey's. one was near the Mayan temple we went to, just out and about. And the other was in someones front yard. I got a kick out of seeing that up close and personal. But the most thing I loved were the people there. They were just amazing, sweet, and humble. I didn't want to leave, but I hope to go back some day! If you ever get a chance to go, you should absolutely go! It was phenomenal and gorgeous. One of the first things Kim and I did after we got back to the states was go out for more Mexican food and talked about our trip! I ended up with a few little vases and trinkets all hand painted in those bright Mexican Colors. I love that!

Grand Cayman Island

The day of my 30th Birthday we arrived in The Grand Cayman Islands..We did not have an excursion booked so we had planned on roaming around the town for shopping and lunch. We only had a few hours to play in the town and we hadn't planned on going to the beach. But after we got there we shopped for a little bit and decided we should go to the beach or we would end up kicking our selves later for coming all the way to the Caribbean and not seeing the Ocean! We found the cabs that were going to the beach and we decided to go, even if it were going to be for a few minutes. We wanted to make sure we got back to town so we could celebrate my Birthday at The Hard Rock Cafe. The beach wasn't far from where we were, it cost us $4 a person each way to and from the beach. We stayed at The beach for about a half hour then decided to go Celebrate! The nice thing about cruises is that the ship pulls up, lets you off and you are in walking distance of things there are to do. And if you booked excursions they have people waiting at the port to pick you up. It really is the best way to see the world. And a few hours there is enough time to really see what you want to do, even if it is just going to lay out on the beach. Which is what a lot of people did. The other nice thing is that you don't have to worry about converting your money to their money. And everything was written in American dollars! We got back on the ship early and took a nap. I am getting older and I tend to need naps now haha. Later that night we ended up going dancing at The Disco. I ended up getting a Disco Ball Sippie Cup. My favorite thing ever!