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| Cheers to an amazing 30th Birthday! |
I have felt such a calm as my 30th birthday arrived. Something has been telling me that this is my year. I have arrived, so to speak :). I have a beautiful home in the most amazing community. I am married to my best friend and together we complete each other. And don't get me started on how blessed I am with the two most beautiful amazing children in the Universe! So much happened in my twenties... so much hope and dreaming. So much pain and heart-ache. So many beautiful moments that will live on in my mind and heart forever..... The birth of my babies being at top of that list. I graduated from college, and started an incredible career. I have made so many friends that have helped me through the hard times and have celebrated with me during the happy times. We moved to Nevada and have been able to enjoy family close by as we raise our children and have experienced so many happy holidays and joyful memories. I have felt such peace as I came to the close of a decade because I wouldn't change any of it. Not even the times when all I could do is lay on the floor and cry. Because those were the times when I grew the most. The times when my heart came so close to my Savior because I had no other option. I could either grow or die. And through the choice of growth I was blessed with blessing and opportunities beyond what I thought possible.
I wanted my 30th birthday to be a celebration of life. A chance to be free and let my heart experience all the adventure it could handle. I wanted to let loose and be free of restriction or responsibility. I wanted to just be me. The real me, deep down inside. And oh, how amazing it was!!!
We left the kids with my sister Briana and then Josh and I went on a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera!!! I knew the kids were in good hands and my Mom would be close by if Briana needed anything. So I was able to let loose and experience a freedom I haven't known for about 6 years! Basically since the day I saw the first positive pregnancy test :).
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| I haven't laughed so hard in a long time :) |
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| The drinks were soooo good! |
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| Grateful for my hubby and all he does for me. |
We started our Journey porting out of Long Beach, CA. We spent the first two days at sea, eating lots of food and relaxing outside in the sun by the pool. We woke up and ran outside on the track with nothing but miles blue ocean to look at and fresh sea air to breathe in. Talk about relaxation! I even got in some yoga and meditation which was incredible! At home I have to listen to ocean sounds on my phone to really feel at peace (and to drown out the sounds of my kids fighting), but here I had the real thing! I did yoga as I looked out over the ocean and timed my breath with the waves. I didn't even need to close my eyes during meditation to keep my mind clear because I could just look out over the miles of blue/green sea and my brain instantly became calm. My Pisces heart was experiencing pure joy in that moment and I felt so much gratitude.
The first port was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and it just happened to be my actual Birthday! Since this was an extra special day, we chose this day to swim with the dolphins which was a dream I have always wanted to experience! I opened the cabin door on our way out to breakfast to find a special birthday gift from the cruise line! It was a spa gift card!!! Josh and I headed right over to the spa deck to schedule a facial and shoulder massage for me to experience after we got back from our dolphin swim. I was soooo excited! I have needed a massage for some time now, but time is something I just never seem to have. Before we went ashore, we went to the fancy restaurant and had a fun birthday breakfast! The waiter put a candle in my pancakes and they all sang EXTREMELY LOUD to me while everyone clapped and watched. I blushed but was secretly loving all the birthday attention as we all do :).
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| Blowing out the candle :). |
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| Happy Birthday to me! |
We took a small tender boat to the shores of Cabo and took in the breath taking beauty. We were a bit early so we wandered around the streets of Cabo, buying gifts from local vendors to bring home to our family and some real Mexican vanilla for ourselves :). Then we walked over with our tour group to the Dolphin aquarium, got zipped up into our wet suits, and divided into groups. The excitement was exhilarating and I couldn't believe this was really happening! The water was cold as we jumped in with our dolphin "Gandalf" but we warmed up soon enough. Then for the next hour we all took turns playing and swimming with our dolphin. My favorite part was when Gandalf took each of us on a personal ride deep under water! We held onto his fins and away we went! Afterward, we got to kiss him and he gave us each a kiss as well :). His bottle-nose was surprisingly warm and his skin was so soft but so rubbery! I told the trainer it was my Birthday so I got a special experience of dancing with the dolphin! He copied every move I made as we splashed around and spun in circles :). I could have spent all day there and was so sad when our time was up. They wouldn't let us take pictures and tried to charge us $300 for their "professional pictures" but we didn't bring that kind of money and wouldn't have paid it anyway. So this was a memory that would have to live on in my mind. And oh what an incredible memory it is! The fun was topped off with the driver of the tender boat bringing us back to the ship letting us take the wheel! Again, once in a lifetime people!
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| Beautiful Cabo |
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| Our ship! |
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| Coming into Mexico |
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| Stud muffin :) |
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| Doing a little shopping |
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| The love of my life |
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| For eternity... |
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| We've got crabs! |
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| It's dolphin time! |
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| The after photo of our dolphin adventure! Wet hair and don't even care! |
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| Happy and free as we took the tender boat back to the ship! |
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| Just call me Captain ;) |
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| And don't forget my first mate (hehe!) |
After we got back on the ship, I got my amazing massage and the therapist talked me into scheduling another one for the last day of our cruise because she said I needed it so badly. She said she'd never seen tense knots and shoulders like I had in all her 20 years of massage therapy! I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how bad until I experienced what it felt like to have those knots gone... or mostly gone at least.
The next day we spent on a private beach in Mazatlan! The weather was beautiful and the ocean was so beautiful. We laid there under our palm tree cabana and people would constantly come up with free drinks and even free massages! It was incredible! After a couple hours of lounging on the beach, we did our speed boating excursion which was exhilarating! Those boats went so fast and it was so scary at first! But then I decided to let loose of all my inhibitions and with a rebel yell to the sky we zoomed off even faster, I felt my heart soar! We took turns driving and exploring the city by boat. It was beautiful. I even pulled a James Bond move when my hat flew off my head and into the water. I turned our boat around and narrowly missed hitting the rocks as I gunned the throttle and we zoomed off again. The tour guide wasn't happy about this but I didn't care. I felt unstoppable :). After that, we spent another couple hours on the beach and then as the sun started going down, we got back on our tour bus and headed back to the ship.
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| Relaxing Mazatlan! |
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| Speed Boat time! |
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| Feel the power! |
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| What a rush! |
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| Mazatlan market streets |
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| Waiting by the pretty fountain for our ride |
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| Hola from Mazatlan! |
On the third shore excursion day, we ported in Puerto Vallarta and took a bus up into the mountains of the city where we came to a horse ranch/taquilla distillery. We took a horse back riding tour through the mountains and got to see what third world poverty really looks like. As we rode by small shacks made out of garbage bags and broken plastic, we got a look into how half the world lives. I waved as a small naked child, about the age of two, peeked out at us through the plastic door he was hiding behind. Dogs and chickens ran around wild, and there was a slow pace to everything. People seemed to have nowhere to be and not much to do. We came to a river and dismounted our horses. There was a family playing in the river next to us trying to cool off because there is no such thing as air conditioning there. The tour guide asked if any of us wanted to experience riding a horse bareback through the river and of course I volunteered! Like I said, this was my chance of a lifetime to experience every adventure that came upon me. Josh was wearing jeans and didn't want to get them wet, so he passed up on the opportunity. I was wearing pants too but I didn't care. This was the chance of a lifetime! I held onto the horses mane as the guide led us into the cold water. It was the craziest feeling as the horse paddled with his legs underneath me and nothing but his head poked out of the water as he gasped for air. I felt my Dad close to me during this whole experience. I knew it was something he would have loved. Horses were his thing, and he tried so hard to give Sadie and I a beautiful childhood growing up with horses. Riding this horse felt like second nature and brought back so many memories with my Dad. So many happy memories. After this amazing experience, we rode back down to the ranch and spent the rest of the afternoon eating freshly made tacos outside as we watched the dancers perform. It was beautiful. I felt so calm and happy on the bus ride back to the ship as the tour guide pointed out fun sights and rambled off random Mexican trivia.
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| Such a beautiful day for a horse ride! |
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| I've never seen a real cocoa tree before! See the cocoa bean fruit?! |
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| Listening to the rules before we mountain our rides |
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| So beautiful! |
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| My horse was the sweetest! |
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| This was the nicer of the shanties..... :( |
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| The Mexican family hanging out with us by the river |
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| My first time riding a horse bareback! I've always wanted to do this!!!! |
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| My heart soared as I experienced yet another once in a lifetime first! |
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| The guide trying to keep up with me and my trusty steed (haha!) |
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| The lady taking the picture had her finger in front of the lens the whole time (insert eye roll here) but if you look closely you can see the top of the tour guides' head. It was so deep he couldn't swim fast enough! |
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| WE DID IT!!!! And nobody died! The face of victory! |
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| Taco time after our horseback adventures |
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| Josh got a little too much sun haha! |
The last two days were at sea days, which was nice. I finished a book I had been trying to read for a year now and we had fun watching all the competitions and dancing going on while we lounged in our beach chairs and sipped on fruity umbrella drinks. I felt so rejuvenated and so relaxed. I realized on our last day at sea that it had been days since I had experienced any thoughts of stress or responsibility. At home that happens every 30 seconds, so this was an incredible feeling indeed. We missed our kids, but didn't ever want to leave that ship. I felt a depression slipping in that last evening as I sat in a booth eating ice cream and looking out over the waves; searching for whales and dolphins coming up for air. Josh sat next to me and together we talked about our future. Neither of us ever wanting that moment to end. The last night started to get really rocky as the waves got bigger. California was experiencing a storm and we were heading right for it. We had planned on eating a fancy dinner our last night there, but Josh got super sea-sick and we ended up spending our last night in our cabin, eating dinner in bed and popping motion sickness pills. It was anticlimactic but we had experienced enough adventure on this trip to last a life time, so we were okay with it. We went to bed early and the next day waved good bye to the amazing Carnival ship
Splendor that had provided such an incredible vacation for us.
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| Ahhhh.... Sunshine and a good book... perfection right here! |
As we drove home to our kids, we happily talked about all of our adventures and all the things that we would miss. For me it was the yummy food I didn't have to cook and lack of chores, and for Josh it was the reading and time spent together with no distraction. I had to admit, that part was pretty dang good too ;).
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| Meanwhile the kids were having the time of their lives doing crafts and making a huge mess! hehe! |
As we pulled into our garage, there was a welcome home sign drawn by our kids posted on the back door. We opened the door to find the whole house decorated with balloons, streamers, and homemade pictures taped all over the walls :). It was such a happy homecoming and my heart was singing as I held my babies again. We gave everyone their souvenirs and then we sang happy birthday to Mommy and I blew out the candles on my strawberry birthday cake that my Mom had prepared. I look terrible in all the pictures because I hadn't showered or applied makeup that day, but I wanted them taken to remember the moment anyway :). Our kids were so happy and had hardly missed us at all! Briana is such an incredible Aunt to them, so this didn't surprise me :).
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| Adventures are great, but my heart is always right here with these two. ALWAYS. |
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| Oh how I love my sweet little fam. |
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| And all the others who worked so hard to make my birthday at home special! |
We spent the next couple days with Briana and Thomas because they were moving to Indiana and we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them before we dropped them off at the airport. I was so sad to see them go, but I was also really excited to get their stinky cat out of my house and to not have all their stuff in my living room. It was hard for me to come home to this but I did my best to enjoy the moment with them and remind myself that I can always clean the house later. Yes, I am THAT person. A messy house does not exist in my world. It causes way too much anxiety for me. So this was good practice for me in staying calm amidst stressors.... and trust me, Briana's dirty way of living is definitely stress worthy haha.
We had a fun girls day with my sisters and Mom (and Thomas haha) at the mall. We went shopping and out to eat at Red Robin. It was fun but the feeling was almost melancholy because we all knew Briana was moving away the next day. Thomas is from Indiana so they are moving closer to his family. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Briana is pregnant. It was a surprise to all of us but we are so happy for her and so excited to meet this little cousin! Sadly, she chose to move far far away so I don't know how much of him/her we will see. But I get it. She wanted a little adventure before she became a Mom and moving far away is definitely a good way to start that! I cried as I dropped them off at the airport but we all knew this would be good for them. It's just sad to say goodbye to someone who has played such a large role in our lives. Nana, as our kids fondly call her, has always been there for us. And now she will be gone :(.
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| The girls (plus Austin) ;) |
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| It got a little crazy in the mall.... haha! |
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| Just a girl doing her shopping :) |
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| Bittersweet to say goodbye to our baby sister :) :( |
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| Mama :) |
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| It was nice to get some time to chat with Sadie. She lives right down the street but we hardly ever see her. Life just gets so dang busy for all of us! |
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| Buying shoes for the kids while we were at the mall. Why not, right?! |
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| Ordering some grub! |
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| Our kids love Briana and Thomas so much!!! |
So that was our crazy, incredible week! A happy birthday experience topped off with a sad goodbye. Funny how life works isn't it? However, I feel at peace with life and I know we are all where we are meant to be. Thank you Heavenly Father for allowing me to live such a beautiful life. It has been one hell of a ride!!
