29

So today is my 29th birthday. It was a wonderful day... nothing too eventful by any means... but that is just the way I like it. I woke up to Mr. Luke telling me good morning and happy birthday and then Andy made me a wonderful breakfast sandwich... so sweet. Then I spent the day at home with Miss Emma and I actually did some much needed cleaning and organizing. Emma looked up at me at one point today and said, "Is it your birthday Mommy? Happy Birthday Mommy!" Love her. When Andy got home from work we went to Fiesta Mexico for dinner with the family... it was wonderful to just be with my family on this day. Such a sweet little 29th birthday.

It is hard for me to believe I am 29... just one year away from 30, but for some reason 30 doesn't seem to worry me... it seems so young still. I still feel very young. :)

I decided to reflect back on some very memorable birthdays in the past. . .

My 23rd Birthday- I found out I was pregnant with Luke. I remember Andy took off work and went to the doctor with me. I remember when we found out, Andy wanted to swing me around the doctor's office. It was such an exciting moment for us. We went to tell my parents, and then went to Andy's mom's school and took her lunch and told her the good news. It will he hard to ever top that birthday! :) It was wonderful! Also, Andy got me our cat, Boot on this birthday as well!


Here is a picture of Andy, Luke and me on my 24th birthday... a year after me found out we were pregnant! I can't get over how young Andy and I look!!



My 21st- I guess I have to put this one on there... right? :) I was one of the few people who actually waited till her 21st birthday to have my first drink of alcohol and I've had very few drinks since then. I had some kind of fruity beverage in a glass bottle as my first drink. We had a party at our apartment at Royal Lex and it involved dancing. It was a really fun time with a great group of friends.

I'm still looking for the pictures from this party.... I know they exist, but I can't seem to find them.

My 18th- My friends in high school got our AP Spanish teacher to play along with this one. My friends got her to talk up a "spanish club convention" that was going to be held at the Holiday Inn Express in Nicholasville on Saturday. So I was planning along with my friends to go to the Spanish convention and figured we'd celebrate my birthday there or something. I was bummed that I wasn't going to get to hang out with Andy that day though, because he wasn't in Spanish club. Well it turns out there never was a "spanish club convention." My friends had gotten a couple rooms at the Holiday Inn Express for a birthday party for me! It was such a surprise, that I still didn't really get it when I got there. Andy had gotten a room for he and the guys and my friends Amanda and Jen had gotten a room for all us girls. My friend Emily made the cake. I'm pretty sure we dyed hair, played games and stayed up all night! It was such a surprise to a girl who hates surprises. :)

My 15th- I remember this party very well. A bunch of friend met at my house and headed up to Lone Oak country club where a 70s themed party was going on. We hung out there for a while... it was fun, but our group was kind of the life of the party. Then afterwards we headed to Becca Thobaben's house for a sleepover with about 15 or so of my girlfriends. It was such a wonderful time!
I've been very blessed with wonderful friends and family to share each of my special birthdays with! Seems like every recent birthday has been spent at my parents house with all my extended family eating dinner and having cake and ice cream. (This year included) It's wonderful to have so much family so close by to share with me on my birthday!

Here's a picture of me celebrating a birthday at my parents house with my family... so lucky to still have my sweet Nannie celebrating my birthday with me!

I've had some wonderful birthdays in the past, including this one and can't wait for many more! :)

Our I-65 Pilgrimage- Part 3 The End.

After leaving Panama City Beach, we headed toward Montgomery, Al where Mary and Josh live. We made excellent time on the road and made it in about 3 hours... the kids were great little travelers again. We arrived at our hotel in Montgomery and rested for a little while and then we went and met Mary and Josh for Chick-Fil-A for dinner. The kids got to get some energy out on the playground and the adults got to chat. It was really good to catch up with them. After we ate, we headed over to Josh and Mary's apartment. It was a cute little place. We looked at their wedding photo album and took a tour of their apartment. The kids were getting tired, so we didn't stay too long. Here's a picture of the kiddos with Josh and Mary at their apartment.
The next morning, we got up early and headed to the Montgomery Zoo. Josh's friend works for the Zoo, so Josh hooked us up with free tickets, a free stroller, and free drinks at the zoo. We weren't expecting all that, so it was quite nice. I can't say enough about what a wonderful little zoo they have in Montgomery. It was a small zoo, but that made it nice, because you could see everything and even come back around to the animals who were sleeping when we saw them the first time. Also, it was almost like we had our own private zoo. We hardly saw anyone else there the whole day. It was such a nice day!


Emma's favorite animal was the rhino. When we first walked over to the rhino, he was just laying on the ground sunning himself, so we watched him for a few minutes and were about to leave. Then, Emma said, "Get up little rhino," and much to our surprise, the rhino got up. Then Emma said, "Come to your river." The rhino then walked over to his "watering hole" and took a drink. It was neat. We called Emma the "rhinoceros whisperer" the rest of the day! haha!! Emma just loved the zoo. It was funny to hear her "commentate" each exhibit at the zoo.
The baby white tiger cubs were so cute. Last summer at Cincinnati Zoo, we got to see a small glimpse of some tiger cubs, along with about 300 hundred other people trying to get a glimpse at the same time. So, it was so neat that the kids got to be right up against the glass and watch the cubs play.
Luke and Emma got to feed the giraffes. Emma got a little scared, so I ended up feeding the giraffe as well. Luke loved feeding the giraffe and he really made him work to get his food.
Another animal we got to see was the sloth bear. Emma got right up against the glass and then the sloth bear came right towards her, she jumped back and got kind of scared. Luke says the bear roared at her. :) It was funny. I am glad I was able to catch the moment on camera. We sat and watched the sloth bear for a while. It is funny, but the "sloth" bear was one of the most active animals we saw all day!
We took a train ride all around the zoo as well. I think Luke really enjoyed the train, but I think it made Emma a bit sleepy. We had a wonderful afternoon at the Montgomery Zoo, I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area.
After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and rested. Then we headed out with Mary and Josh. We headed to park by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.... what a beautiful place. While there we feed some ducks. We had hoped to see the black swans there, but they must've already flown south for the winter because we could not find them.
We walked outside around the place. It was just a gorgeous place to take photographs. We also saw a beautiful sunset over the water outside the museum.
After the park, we drove to Prattville to eat at Jim and Nick's BBQ. It was really good food... but the best was the dessert. Seriously, the best chocolate cream pie ever... it was delicious. Mary and Josh had the pie at their wedding a few weeks earlier and I'd been wanting more since then. Dinner and the conversation at dinner was great. On the way back into Montgomery, we got stuck in a traffic jam... road construction on the interstate. It probably added about a half hour to our drive, but it wasn't too bad. I know Luke loved having the extra time in the backseat playing games with his Aunt Mary.

The next day was Friday, driving day. We were headed from Montgomery to Nashville and then Nashville to Bowling Green. We left Montgomery around 10AM hoping to miss rush hours in both Montgomery and Nashville. When we got on the interstate we hit a traffic jam again. From about Prattville all the way to Birmingham we did not get above 35mph on the interstate. It was getting quite frustrating. It seems like we were constantly driving from one traffic jam to another. We finally arrived in Nashville around 4PM, which is just at the beginning of rush hour.... another traffic jam.

We finally made it to our stop in Nashville, at the Nashville Dominicans. We were stopping there to see Sister Mary Anthony. She's a gal who was in the DTS (the youth group Andy leads). We wanted to stop and see her and the Nashville Dominicans. Unfortunately, since we'd been driving in so much traffic, we got there quite later than we'd expected, so we only got to spend about 45 minutes with her. She showed us around the place. It was gorgeous. She invited us to stay for Vespers, but let's just say it wasn't the most "kid-friendly" place, so we didn't get to stay. The kids were a little wound up from all the driving.

From Nashville, we headed to Bowling Green where my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Mike live. They had fixed us a wonderful dinner. My Aunt Gayle's turkey chili is fabulous. I can't wait to have it again. The kids got to play some air hockey and some Wii and then we all hit the bed. The next morning Aunt Gayle fixed pancakes and bacon. We got to talk and catch up with them. It was a great way to end a great trip.

This trip was a different type of vacation, different than I've ever done. My trips aren't usually about the journey, but rather the destination. This trip was about a journey with my family. A journey together... seeing new places... and making new memories in old places.

I can't wait to do it all again... even the traffic jam part! What a wonderful journey!

Our I-65 Pilgrimage- Part 2

After leaving the Sister Servants in Birmingham we headed to our next stop, Seaside/Seagrove Beach, FL which is located in the Florida panhandle between Destin and Panama City Beach. We made excellent time on this part of the trip. The kids were wonderful little travelers. I think they watched the movie, Caillou probably three times during this part of the journey. I think Andy and I had had about enough of the Caillou theme song when we arrived at our condo, Mermaid Cove. It was about 9:30 PM and the kids were starting to get restless and a bit tired, so we were very happy to arrive. Andy got out of the car and tried to open our condo using the code the realtor had given us the previous day. Much to our dismay, the code didn't open the door... sigh. So he tried again, then I tried and it wouldn't work. We tried calling our realtor, but knowing it was a Sunday at 9:30 PM, we knew she wouldn't be there. So then we tried the emergency number... no anwser... we tried again... still no answer! I was starting to panic and the kids were getting restless. It was at this point Luke said, "Okay guys, Let's just go to the Marriott!" It was funny. And we would have, but the Marriott in Panama City was about an hour away and we knew it was booked, because that is where we originally planned to stay. We were beginning to wonder where we were going to sleep for the night. We were in the middle of "condo-land," so finding a hotel nearby for the night wasn't really an option. We started to head to Panama City. As we drove, Andy called the emergency number one last time and the realtor finally answered and gave us the correct code. So we were able to get into our adorably decorated condo... it was super cute... with a Mermaid theme.... here's a pic:

We unloaded the van and all hit the bed. The next morning we got ready and hit the beach... for the whole day. This day was my favorite day of the whole trip. I got to watch the kiddos enjoy the warm water and the cool sand. It was the perfect temperature. And I loved watching Andy play with the kiddos on the beach.




Andy and Luke build our house out of sand and Luke even found a stick to use for the Sweet Gum tree we have in our front yard.

We all played in the sand and in the water. We had an absolutely perfect day!
Then, Luke decided we needed to play a game on the beach. The idea was kind of like soccer, but we had to keep the ball out of the water. It was a lot of fun and I loved listening to Luke make the rules to the game as we played. He is so creative.
It was a wonderfully relaxing day with my sweet family.... truly a perfect day and a perfect setting. I loved it.
The next day we headed to Grayton Beach State park. I hadn't been since I was about 12 or so. The last time I was there was with most of the Bellman family including my Great Grandma Ruth. It was her favorite beach and being there made me feel very close to her. It really is such a gorgeous beach... it has been ranked in the USA Most beautiful beaches several times and most recently in 2004. The best part is that it's a state park... no hotels, no high rise condos or anything on the beach... just the beach, the beautiful dune and the sea oats. It's stunning... it really is. The sand is so white and the water so clear. Not to mention the fact that there were hardly any other people there while we were there. It was kind of like our private beach.


When we arrived at Grayton Beach, we decided to take the Nature hike, which took us through the dunes and under a canopy of trees... Luke loved it. :) We also hiked by Western Lake, which is one of only a few other "brackish" lakes in the World. "Brackish" means combination of salt and fresh water. It was gorgeous to the the Lake, the dunes and then the beautiful Gulf waters. Grayton Beach is definitely one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been too. And it was even more beautiful that I had remembered.

The kids really enjoyed another day playing on the beach and in the water. I couldn't help but think that Great Grandma Ruth was smiling watching the kids have so much fun on her favorite beach.
The next day we had to check out of our condo and Seaside, so we got up early and headed to Panama City Beach where I've visited more times that I can count. This time instead of driving on 98, we took the scenic route to Panama City Beach. We drove through all the little beach towns and the West end of Panama City Beach. My family pretty much always stayed on the East end of the Panama City, so I actually saw a lot of place on Panama City Beach that I hadn't seen before. Once we arrived, we took the kids to play putt-putt at one of my favorite places to play mini-golf in Panama City, Coconut Creek. Andy and I played here when we came in 2003 when we got engaged... we played lots of mini-golf on that trip.

Luke played his first round of mini-golf and got his first hole-in-one! When we first got there, he acted like he didn't really want to play, but he ended up loving it! He wanted to play another round after we were done. Emma was cute playing mini-golf. She tried using the club, but after a while she decided it was easier just to kick it. So she would put her ball down and kick it towards the hole. It was cute. She actually almost made a hole-in-one herself. Andy of course won, but I didn't play to shabby either... if we'd played a few more holes, I would've beat him! :) haha!
Next we went to eat lunch at Schooner's... a favorite place of ours to eat. I've eaten at Schooner's so many different times that I can remember myself at all different ages being there.... with the swim teams girls, on Senior Spring Break with all my girlfriends, with my family numerous times, with Luke when he was only 10 months old, then again when he was two, then just a two years ago with most of the Bellman family when we were here to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. Needless to say when I eat at Schooner's there's a flood of memories... not to mention the food is really good as well.
Finally, we ended our time in Panama City with a short walk down the beach... just about a block from Schooner's and showed the kiddos where Andy asked me to marry him over 7 years ago. We try to visit that spot each time we are in the area... it is very sentimental to us! :)

We had a wonderful time in both Seaside and Panama City Beach and had wonderful weather. Next up it was time to head to Montgomery and visit with Aunt Mary and Uncle Josh and the Montgomery Zoo.

Our I-65 Pilgrimage- Part 1

I've taken the trip down I-65 south countless times. Several times as a child and teenager going to Bowling Green to my Aunt Gayle and Uncle Mike's house. And a then on a bit further south to "the World's Fastest Pool," Tracey Caulkins Natorium in Nashville, TN for many swim meets. Also, many other trips to Opryland and Opryland Hotel as a kid. There were also 2 trips to Huntsville, Alabama to Space Camp back in the day when I wanted to be "the first woman on Mars." (That would've been impressive, right?) Finally, I can't count the number of trips I've taken down I-65 South to exit 168 in Montgomery where we would get onto HWY 231 and head south to Panama City Beach. Growing up we did this trip about 2 times a year. It kind of was like going home.... considering my grandparents were there. Driving south on I-65 it seemed like my Dad would only make two stops. One in Franklin, TN and the other in Montgomery just as we got off the Interstate... if you "had to go" before then... you had to hold it. :) haha. Seemed like we were always trying to get there as fast as we could. This has been passed on to me as well... every vacation we've taken I've tried to take as minimal stops as possible as "get there as fast as we could." This trip is a different trip... full of stops... all kinds of stops we passed on the way down I-65 on the way to our final destination.... Panama City Beach.

Our first stop on the way was Vulcan Park in Birmingham, AL. Each time we drive through Birmingham we look for Vulcan, the big statue of the Roman God of Steel. I can remember the first time Dad ever told me about Vulcan and how Birmingham used to produce a lot of steel. Seeing Vulcan over Birmingham always meant we were half-way to Panama City. After passing through Birmingham probably more than 25 times in my life, I decided we needed to go up to the top of Red Mountain and actually see Vulcan. So we did. He was quite impressive and much bigger than I had expected. We took an elevator to the top of the statue and we we got out we had a beautiful view of downtown Birmingham. We decided to take the stairs back down and Luke counted each one. There were 134 stairs.... at least that is what Luke counted. After we came down, the kiddos ran around in the park a bit, then we had a picnic dinner. It was a wonderful way to start our trip. I am so glad that I finally got to see Vulcan up close after all these years of driving past him. Here are some pics. . .



The second stop on our journey was also in Birmingham at the Sisters Servants of the Eternal Word which is where we would be spending the night. The Sisters have a beautiful retreat house where they allowed us to stay that night. When we arrived at our room in the retreat house, Luke said, "I hope they left little chocolates for us on our pillows." haha!! I think he's stayed at the Marriott a few too many times... funny boy.

Emma's Godmother, Sister Marie Therese was so happy to see us. I just can't get over how happy Sister Marie Therese seems to be! I mean she always had such a bright beautiful smile, but it somehow seems even brighter now.

We got to go to Mass with the Sister Servants, then after Mass we went to the Irondale Cafe AKA the Whistlestop Cafe where the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed. It was a great little cafe with lots of good home cooked food.... it was fabulous. :) I highly recommend it if you are ever in the area. Neither Andy nor I tried the "world famous fried green tomatoes." I kind of wanted to, but I've never really been a fan of tomatoes.



Right by the cafe are the railroad tracks, so after lunch, we waited for a train to come by. Emma got really excited about watching the train. She waved to the train and said, "Hi Train!" Cute girl. After lunch, we got to go back to the Sister Servants and spend the afternoon chatting with Sister Marie Therese. She got to show us around the place. It sure was beautiful. The back of the place has a beautiful pond with two swans, Molly and Mimi. When you arrive at the pond, they come right up to greet you and then swim around right next too you as you walk around the pond. It was so neat. They were beautiful and I don't think I had seen swans before this trip. Here is a picture of Miss Molly and Miss Mimi.

It was great to catch up with Sister Marie Therese as we walked around the pond. She just seems to love being a nun. She is such a wonderful Godmother to Emma. She loves her so much and writes to her as often as she can. It was a joy to watch her with Emma. We hope to make this an annual trip down to see her. It was just so good to see her!
We left the Sister Servants and headed to Seagrove Beach/Seaside which would be our next stop.