As many of you know, I have a list of things to do each year before my next birthday. I started this last year- with an over ambitious 52 things to do before I turned 30. The list got trimmed down to 30 things to do before I turn 30. You may call it cheating, but it's my list, I can do what I want! I highly under estimated the cost, and time commitment to do many of those things. Anyway, here's my much more manageable (and cheaper- can you hear Asa's sigh of relief right now?) 31 things to do before I turn 31.
1. Swim with manatees
2. Crochet an afgahan
3. Make at least 24 new recipes
4. Go to Key West (and stop in the Everglades)
5. Go Camping at least 3 different places
6. Get at least 5 new stadium pictures
7. Make 12 sewing projects
8. Read 12 new books
9. Make a Calendar Journal
10. Go Canoeing or Kyaking
11. Do at least 6 new things in the Tampa Bay Area I have not done before
12. Learn how to cook on a grill
13. Learn how to play two songs on the keyboard
14. Go Ice Skating
15. Get to level 75 on tetris attack
16. Go on the Shiekra
17. Learn how to eat with chop sticks
18. Eat at the Taco Bus
19. Teach Calib how to do the laundry
20. Teach Peyton how to cook lasagna
21. Teach Hayden how to ride a bike (without training wheels)
22. Make a scrapbook from the Epic Vacation
23. Organize the stuff in the Closet (papers, pictures)
24. Watch 24 new movies
25. Blog one entry per week
26. Fix the laptop hole in the door
27. Learn at least two songs on the guitar
28. Make Homemade Pasta
29. Go Puddle Hopping after a rain storm
30. Go to Caldesi Island
31. On our one year anniversary, take a picture of us holding a picture of anniversary #1
As you can see, (or your just reading now because you got bored reading my list) number 25 is to blog once a week. I rather enjoyed documenting out adventures on vacation, so I thought I would continue on. Our adventures here are much less exciting than our whirlwind 28 days around the country, but in many cases, just as entertaining to read about! Sadly though, my subtitle of '27 days. 9 states. 1 epic vacation' will have to be changed. Any ideas are welcome! So, anyway, get excited for 52 riveting posts about life in the Waterstraut household!
This week, we've see my 20's go. It was really sad, I'm thirty. THIRTY. Gross. Ughhh.. I suppose it's better than the alternative. My dad dreaded 65. And, well, lesson learned. I'll try not to complain. My mom was down for my birthday. You know, because we haven't spent enough time together this summer. She also brought Calib home, so we were all finally reunited. We bundled my birthday into a 5 day extravaganza of events. Because turning 30 deserves much more of a celebration than just one day.
Friday night we headed out to island nights- a cool festival type atmosphere they have at our water park here. I had some conch shell fritters, which were interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about them. They were like hush puppies but slime-e-er. Yea, now that I'm describing them they weren't all that awesome. But, at least I ate it. I still haven't brought myself to try gator meat. I should have put that on my list. Saturday we went to the fresh market at wiregrass. Apparently this happens twice a month, and has been occurring for at least 18 months. I had no idea. It's a cute little street market at the outdoor mall here. Although, I've noticed a lot of things people are selling I can/do totally make. I'm pretty crafty like that. We also went out to the stadium where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have their annual night practice. They had $1 drinks and hot dogs. Which basically means I spent the entire time in the concession line. Mom took advantage of the free beer, because as we know mom is a big drinker, and we got to cap off the night with some fireworks. Sunday we went to the pool. Here's the thing about our pool this time of year. It's HOT. Like, somewhere between 'this is nice and warm' and 'whoa, this is a hot tub'. I tried to visualize the cruise ship pool, or even the ones in Ohio, and thought to myself- you don't want to be the girl who complains no matter what. I also got to go see Harry Potter- or as Asa and I have been calling it HP7P2. You have to emphasize the HP7 and insert a dramatic pause before the P2. We're nerds like that. Also, was anyone else severely creeped out by that bloody baby Voldemort? (dude- Voldemort is in the google dictionary- awesome!) I certainly was.
Monday we headed out to the beach- to overcast skies. It rained a bit, but nothing to deter us from playing in the gulf. On the way, in the middle of the divided highway in the grassy area, I saw a bald eagle. Which, was just amazing to me. I had never seen one in the wild before Alaska. Apparently I didn't have to go that far. Peyton found lots of little baby hermit crabs, which he then brought home. (do I need to state the obvious here- they did not survive). I sprayed sunscreen on everyone, but did a terribly poor job. Haydens face looked like someone drew a red marker all over it. Apparently, I didn't get as much of his face with the stick as I thought I did. Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. I am so super excited to have my passes back again! It's my 2012 birthday present, you know because 2011 was already used up for that little whale watching cruise I went on in Alaska. It was pouring down rain, and I said to my mom 'it can't possibly rain all day- the last time it did that was when Cort was at Disney'. Well, I guess chalk that up to Sattlers visiting Disney, because it rained nearly all day. At one point, I went on space mountain with Peyton and Calib. When we got off the ride it was POURING. I was watching all the people stuck driving around in those little cars just get absolutely drenched, and I felt horrible bad for them. A little while later Mom and Hayden showed up, drenched, as they were one of those people stuck driving around in the little cars. The rain had some good points though: we didn't mind the sunburn as much, nobody got hot, and it kept the crowds away. Plus, walking around barefoot through puddles in the Magic Kingdom on your last day of being 29 = SUPER FUN! Couple that with a dole whip, and proudly displaying a 'Happy Birthday' Button so all the cast members are paid to tell you happy birthday, and you've got yourself some kind of early birthday celebration. Asa came later in the evening and met us for dinner, and mom took the kids home so we could go see cirque du soleil at downtown disney. Asa was really skeptical of it, but it was super cool. People flipping around everywhere, little girls with the spools and sticks (it doesn't sound that entertaining- but really it was AWESOME with a capital AWE), and jugglers- yes please!
Wednesday was my actual birthday, so my wonderful husband got up early on his day off to go down to the aquarium in a massively big Florida sized storm (yes, it was still raining- a Sattler was visiting after all). They have a behind the scenes penguin tour, where you get to pet the penguins and go into their habitat and everything- but you have to get there early enough to register, because they only let 20 people in a day. Penguins are much softer than I anticipated them being, but just as friendly and socially awkward as one would expect. Think Chilly Willy. Anyway, they also poop alot. The keeper said he spends about a quarter of his day picking up poop. Apparently, they go every 15 minutes. It's like Asa after he has Taco Bell. After the aquarium we went to dinner, where I noticed Alaskan King Crab is just as expensive here (maybe even a little cheaper) than it is in Alaska. How weird is that? Whatever, we found our own crab legs later on the beach. They weren't quite king crab leg sized though.
For my birthday presents we went to color me mine. It's a paint your own pottery place. We went last year on my birthday too, I love it because its something to do, plus a gift, and you get to go back later in the week and get it when it's all finished. This year everyone made dinner plates. I haven't gotten them back yet, so I'm pretty excited about that. Plus last year Hayden just mixed all the paint and I ended up with a weird black fish platter. This year he actually kept the colors separate. Way to go being five! My mom could only take a few days of work, so we had to drop her back at the airport before we headed home for two kinds of cake (30 is also way too much of a celebration to just have one cake), complete with SPARKLERS for candles. FYI, this may be a better activity to do outside. All in all a good birthday.
Today we're back to the old grind. By grind, I mean doing arts and crafts, workbooks, and making delicious deserts. Our day was complete with a slime/gak like substance made from glue, water, food coloring and borax (I had no idea how versatile and cheap that stuff was!). We also used old shirts to make some pretty awesome super hero capes, and had some kool-ade slushie, since the central air was MIA today. One more week of summer vacation and it's off to school they go. I've been looking up volunteer opportunities. I'm considering the zoo, that could be fun. I thought about the NICU, but I'd rather not relive that experience, so we'll see.
Quotes from the week:
Hayden: I can't wait to go to school and see Daniel and Deigo (his friends from the cruise ship- he's convinced they'll be there)
Peyton: Aw, man, I should have made the yellow slime. It looks way more like snot.
Birthday Winners: For those of you who were aware I asked for jokes instead of the old 'happy birthday'.
Next Up: Tomorrow is be glad I'm married to Asa day. (It's the honorary 8th annual). And bracing myself for the big change. No, not that big change- the going to school one. I'll see ya next week! Have a fantabulous one!
Also- disclaimer the pictures were being all weird. So, excuse the weirdo formatting.
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