July 2018: The Move & Another Wedding

Oh, July.

A month I was both anxiously anticipating and dreading all at the same time. I HATE MOVING. Have I ever mentioned that? You would think after living in West Virginia, Florida, California, Utah, and back to Florida in the last five years (plus two separate moves in Utah and two in Florida) that I would be an expert and it would be a piece of cake by now, but it’s not and I’m not.

We got home from our Utah trip, enjoyed the Fourth of July, and set the dreaded dates for moving. To touch briefly on the 4^th, Brian had the day off and we spent it at the beach at Honeymoon Island with a picnic lunch and lots of swimming, then headed home to get cleaned up, eat some Buffalo Wild W

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ings, and catch fireworks at downtown Clearwater overlooking the ocean. It was pretty much the perfect, all-American day.

The next weekend, we started packing and moving. We enticed my grandma with Wimbledon to come over and be at the house while Tatum napped so we could start taking some stuff over to the house. It felt good to start getting stuff packed up and out of there, especially a lot of boxes that we never unpacked before in our apartment because we just didn’t have the room. I was doing a happy dance for our third bedroom and garage at the house!

The next week, we spent most of our time packing and prepping for the big move on the 14^th. I got everything packed up, we rented a moving truck for the day, and we had so much help from our friends and family! We had everything packed into the moving truck, driven to our house, and unloaded inside the house in an hour and a half flat. SUCH GREAT FRIENDS. It took some time to get the house in order and I’m still adjusting to a smaller kitchen, but we got unpacked in record time and all set up before I left for Maryland/West Virginia the next weekend.

Onto that trip… I have the best husband ever. My parents will tell you that they’re witness to the fact that Tatum and I both are grumpier before Brian arrives. He always encourages me to visit family a few days before he flies up so that I’m not bound to his PTO schedule, so Tatum and I flew up on Saturday the 21^st and came home on the 29^th. We’ve been saving all Brian’s PTO for the holidays this year, so he flew up on a Friday evening (the 27^th) and flew home with us on Sunday evening. Talk about a trooper! He was literally there for less than 48 hours and spent time with all my parents plus attended the wedding (the main reason for the trip) with me.

The start of the trip was rough. I specifically booked a flight that left at 8 PM on Saturday so that Tatum and I could spend the whole day with Brian and then hopefully she would fall asleep on the plane. We were supposed to arrive at 10:10 PM. Our flight wound up taking off 45 minutes late, Tatum didn’t sleep the whole flight, and as we were about to land in Baltimore 1000 ft off the ground, we were suddenly shooting back up to the sky. They tried to land 3 times but the winds and storm were so bad that they rerouted us to Philadelphia. Oh, joy. We wound up landing back in Baltimore at 1 AM, got our bags and were in the car with my dad at 1:45, and Tatum finally fell asleep once she was in her car seat. Talk about a long day.

Sunday, we were up by 9 am despite the previous late night. We had a huge breakfast with my dad and stepmom and hung out and played before heading to West Virginia. We stopped in the middle to have a dinner and girl’s night with my best friends from college. I love trips home because it’s an excuse for everyone to get together and we don’t get to very often! My friend Sam has a little girl who’s a year younger than Tatum and the two of them sat together and laughed and shared food and it was the cutest thing. Three hours later (the waitress probably hated us) and we were on the road again headed to my mom and stepdad’s house.

Growing up, I probably took for granted how much their house is a child’s paradise. They live in the middle of nowhere, on top of a mountain surrounded by woods, with a creek at the bottom of the hill, and a personal petting zoo. When I was growing up we had chickens and horses, but my parents have expanded that to include goats, sheep, ducks, and a million other things. When we were there this time, they had baby kittens, ducks, and goats and they were the cutest things ever. Tatum adores my mom’s house cat and calls him “ee-shee” for kitty. She spent every minute inside the house looking for or petting him and he was surprisingly tolerant of her.

Monday was a pretty laid back day of hanging out at their house and visiting my stepdad’s mom, now warmly referred to as “GG” for great-grandma. Tuesday, Tatum and I headed to see my two Brittany(ney) friends and have a playdate with their littles! One has a little boy that’s two weeks older than Tatum, and the other has a little girl two years older and a little boy three months younger, so it’s always fun to see them “play” together and have some girl time to catch up!

Wednesday was the best because I drove to Cumberland to see my Alysha! It’s always funny to us how we became friends and the circumstances that led us to be so close. This girl is such a rock to me and no matter how long we have to go between seeing each other, we always fall right back into place. It was perfect timing because the day before she had taken her licensing boards to finally become a physical therapist and she passed! We grabbed lunch with a friend and spent the day catching up and laughing my guts out, like usual. Everybody needs an Alysha in their lives, and I’m so grateful for mine.

On Thursdays, my mama leads a bible study group at the local nursing home where my grandma stayed for a while after she couldn’t live with us any longer. As if I needed any more reason to love and admire my amazing mother, she gave me another. I wasn’t planning on dropping by originally, but we wound up getting all packed up and ready early so I took Tatum in and caught the end of her class and got to meet a few of her favorite residents. Everyone loved seeing Tatum and I’m happy that I decided to drop in after all. We grabbed some lunch with her after and then headed back to my dad’s house in Columbia.

I usually plan my weeks out better since it’s a two-hour drive in between my mom’s and dad’s houses but with Brian flying in on Friday and the airport only being 20 minutes from my dad’s, it made more sense to stay there Thursday and Friday night. On Friday, my dad was able to work from home so Tatum got to spend more time with her Poppy and we took walks and played at all the playgrounds I used to go to when I was little. After I got her in bed, I picked Brian up from the airport. His plane was delayed an hour also so you know, that was great… -___-

Saturday was the day of one of my best friends since middle school, Ardath’s, wedding. We drove back up to West Virginia, hung out with my mom and stepdad for a bit then headed to the wedding. The ceremony was in Ardath’s dad’s church where he has been the pastor since we were little. My other three best friends from high school were there and it was kind of my favorite day of the entire month getting to watch our best friend marry the love of her life and celebrate all night. Her reception was held where we used to have prom together and it gave me all kinds of nostalgia. I think Brian caught a small glimpse of my life growing up as we sent Ardath and Kenneth off after a huge circle swaying to Country Roads, singing at the top of our lungs, with tears in people’s eyes. I’m so grateful for these incredible women that made me who I am today and the bonds we still share.

Sunday, we had to head back to Maryland and fly out that evening. We did breakfast with my mom and stepdad, said bye to GG, lunch with my dad and stepmom, and headed out. Thankfully, our flight home wasn’t delayed and we were home by 8 PM, got Tatum in bed, and we resumed life as usual. 

Trip 3 of 7 for 2018 done, with wedding 3 of 4 in the books.

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2016 Inspiration & Taking Action

Something I discovered about myself early on is my need to feel like a small fish in a very ginormous pond. Hence why I need the immensity of the ocean like a fish needs water (pun intended, I'm basically a mermaid). Every so often, I get extremely stir-crazy, to the point of real craziness. This usually happens during the winter when I spend 8 hours in an office cubicle without windows and the sun sets 15 minutes after I get home. 

I think my general unhappiness stems from getting caught up in day-to-day small life details, like keeping up with the Jones’s and watching too much TV (and not the quality kind). I’m grateful that I have made the most out of every place I’ve lived and visited. California was full of beaches, great restaurants, surfing and the US Surf Open, the LA temple, time in Long Beach with one of my best friends from high school, my first trip to Las Vegas and seeing Zedd in concert, incredible work events like the ESPYs after party and publicity jobs for different clients. Jamaica and Florida have been the same way and I like to think that I’m doing as much as I can with the time I’m given in Utah.

Looking back on 2015, I checked off a lot of things that are on my temporary bucket list: the kinds of things you think about like “That would be so fun, let’s do it!” and then never plan it out, the time passes you by, and it’s over. Luckily, I married a man who fully supports my initiative to pay for whatever it is and get it on the calendar so that it’s a done deal. Some of those things for 2015 were the Loveland Living Aquarium in Draper; a Florida trip with Brian and a Rays game; a home trip with Brian including a DC day full of monuments, museums, and the National Zoo, plus a Baltimore day with the National Aquarium and the restaurants I miss (Glory Days and Panera Bread), the DC temple with Brian, AND one of my best friend’s weddings; concerts to see Ed Sheeran, Joshua Radin, Imagine Dragons (sort of), Fall Out Boy with Wiz Khalifa, and incredible, local bands; Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork; the Payson Temple open house; tons of great Utah hikes including the famous Donut Falls; Crystal & Downata Hot Springs; exploring Vegas more; wakeboarding; Hot Air Balloon Festival; my first Lagoon experience this summer and Frightmares in October; my first Bee’s game; getting engaged; getting married; getting my endowments; buying and renovating a house; going to the circus for the first time since I was little; going to Jamaica for the first time; the Christmas Concert on Temple Square; ice skating at the Galaven Center; celebrating NYE at The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City and taking a private flight with a friend the next day.

At the beginning of every year, I have this shift in my view. I get past the frustration of too much darkness outside and not enough warm weather and I finally begin to relook at the time of year as a beginning to plan a lot of new things. That’s where I am now. So my goal is to set up something fun and memorable for every month of this year. I want to see something that I’ve never seen before, or do something I’ve never done before. Life is too short to let it pass you by.

For January 2016, we went and visited the Midway Ice Castles that I wrote about previously. While this isn’t something that I would call a must-see in Utah, they are well-known and something I wanted to check off the list. This weekend, Brian and I are leaving Friday and spending our long weekend in Las Vegas with his brother, sister-in-law, niece, and nephews and we’re going to have a few pretty awesome firsts. Stay tuned for that!

The reason I decided to write all this out for you all is in the hopes that it inspires you to also take action and mark 2016 as the year that you started planning for all the things you want in your life, AND MAKING THEM HAPPEN! 

Traveling, inside the U.S. and internationally, is something I have a lot of passion for. I’ve been to 31 U.S. states (that I can say I have memories of), the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, St. Thomas, St. John, Canada, Jamaica, and Italy. And this isn’t enough! I want to see so much of the world, and so much of it is close by and accessible. So I’m going to make us a plan, because traveling makes my heart happy. 

If you’re like me and also have a desire to see the world but don’t think you can afford it, I’m including a few websites I’ve used in the past that have great deals on vacation packages! If anyone knows of any other great ones, please share them in the comments below!! Thank you in advance!!

1. www.cheapcaribbean.com : Cheap Caribbean has awesome vacation packages to basically every Caribbean island. Most packages include airfare and you can set your preferences to only include all-inclusive resorts (aka no paying for food and drinks separately, you just show up and eat anywhere on the resort). Check out their packages and promotions tabs! I’m talking 5-days 4-nights, all-inclusive resort plus airfare for $580 a person. You’re welcome! (: (This is where Brian and I booked our Jamaican honeymoon)
2. www.applevacations.com: I personally haven’t ever used Apple Vacations but I’ve heard great things about it! I’ve found Cheap Caribbean to be more affordable, but you never know!
3. www.eftours.com: *International travel* EF (Education First) Tours is the company my university used for my study abroad trip to Italy touring Florence, Bologna, Milan, Venice, & Rome. There are so many things already built into each day for you. We went to an olive press factory, had cooking classes in Rome, toured the Colosseum, took a Gondola ride through the canals of Venice. The great thing about EF is that you don’t have to be a student. As long as you’re 18-28, you can enroll on one of these great international trips. Some are shorter from 6 days, or you can enroll in something like the “Ultimate Europe” trip where you spend 35 days traveling all over the continent. Some of the famous trips they have are Ireland, Costa Rica, London & Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, Amsterdam to Athens, Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand, Highlights of Japan & China, Spain France & Italy, Italy & the Greek Islands, Grand Tour of Spain, Berlin Prague & Munich, Germany Italy & Switzerland, Peru & Machu Picchu, or London Paris & Barcelona, to name a few. 

Take advantage of whatever resources are out there for the things you’re passionate about. Your life is now! 

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