Tahoe Top 10

If we're friends on Instagram, you know we just got back from Tahoe with Eric's side of the family! :) It was a really great time and a nice little getaway. I have more photos that I'm sure I'll bore you with, but for now, thought I'd just share some fun Top 10. :)

In random order...

#1 The super awesome clear blue water. I haven't ever seen a lake that gorgeous and pristine.

#2 Catching my first fish...ever! I'd never been fishing and caught my first lake trout on a morning fishing expedition...and then got to eat it later for lunch when Eric grilled!

#3 Hiking! I freaking love hiking. I wish we had more places to hike around here. Oklahoma is gorgeous, but it's also pretty flat. ("Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...") Don't get me wrong... we have some trails and Turkey Mountain and all that... but hiking in the real mountains...unbeatable. We hiked to a little waterfall...I also freaking love waterfalls so that's an added bonus!

#4 SUPing. Eric, his brother and I decided to SUP all the way to Emerald Bay from the Camp Richardson area (for those who know the area). We quickly realized that was a bad idea with the 30mph wind, but the SUPing was fun nontheless! (I'll spare you the story of almost getting carried out to the middle of the lake by the strong winds and Eric yelling "TURN TO SHORE!" b/c he didn't think I could hear him... as I yelled "I'm trying! STOP YELLING AT ME!" It was a special moment, friends....hahaha...It reminded me of the Friends ep where they're moving the sofa and Ross is saying "Pivot...pivot...").

#5 Being there for one of the biggest storms in recent times and losing power for several hours...We had to get a bucket of water from the lake in order to fill up the back of the toilets to flush since our house was on a water well (electric powered). It was pretty hilarious. :) And well...lemme just say... the storm was legit, but these Okies felt right at home in a good old thunderstorm...haha!

#6 Gondola ride to the top of the mountain. It was gorgeous. I'd love to see that place covered in snow. :) I'm sure the locals would too, since snowfall has been lacking in recent years...which also impacts the lake. I hope this year delivers for Tahoe snowfall.

#7 Boating all over the lake. It was cool to see everything from the water. Eric wakeboarded until his legs went a little tingly from the cold water...haha..

#8 The sunsets. It stormed for the first couple of days we were there off and on, but those storms delivered some amazing sunsets. There's just something about a gorgeous sunset over the water..*happy sigh*

#9 Not needing A/C! Don't get me wrong.. I'm a Caribbean beach vacationer to the core...but sometimes escaping from the hot Oklahoma summers for cooler weather is just divine. A light sweater and shorts? Yes.please.

#10 Last but certainly not least... Getting to spend fun quality time with Eric's side of the family. I don't have siblings so it's such a different experience to me to have a group of people to go do things with on vacations. It's really fun because everyone can really do their own things and have a great time. :)

 

 

My Cubs hat made lots of appearances on this trip b/c (1) I didn't want to do my hair and (2) my derm said to be careful burning my sun-damaged scalp. I looked back at photos and laughed at how many I have wearing that hat. Go Cubs! lol! :)

 

 

Turning 33 and accomplishing "all the things"

Hi friends. So I'm now blogging as a 33 year old! :) I'm considering this my last year in my "early 30s" since I'll be in my mid-thirties next year...right? (Don't answer that). Anyway, I had a great weekend celebrating my birthday and Independence Day! (It doesn't suck to be born on the 3rd and always have the day off after your birthday...just saying).

 

32 was a really big year- I got married, changed jobs, bought a new house (my FIRST house)...so 32 was pretty landmark as far as ages go. :) Excited to see what's ahead for 33. And with so many things last year, I'll even be great to just have a calm and solid year. Isn't it crazy how much can happen in just one year? And not going to lie... my 30s have been really good to me. I'm definitely a lot happier than I was in my 20s on an overall basis...Not that I wasn't happy (just had flashes of fun memories in my 20s like a superfast slideshow in my brain)...but it's a different kind of happy. A more comfortable-in-my-own-skin kind of happy if that makes sense.

Anyway, I had a goal of writing a post about 33 things I've learned...or something similarly creative and thoughtful... but it just didn't happen. That said, I've still been doing some thinking. And, for some reason, it's recently dawned on me that there's only so much time to accomplish all the things. What are all the things? All the things... Ya know...the things you mentally list that you plan to do "someday."

(No I am not having a quarter/mid life crisis. I had that in my mid twenties. It was weird. Be glad you weren't around).

For example... So...it's no secret that I big puffy heart the beach and beach towns. If it's warm, quaint and coastal, I'm pretty happy. I've always wanted to live at the beach (and so has Eric, so that helps). I think if when I'm old and wrinkly and reflecting, I'd be sad if I couldn't say I'd lived at a beach at some point in my life when I was young enough to enjoy it. For some reason, I really started obsessing about it in the past month or so...I didn't want to tell Eric b/c well... we just bought an awesome house. And I LOVE Tulsa. Like...if you ever come to Tulsa, I will pull out my Tulsa pom poms and practically do a cheer for you (I don't really have Tulsa pom poms). But I really started thinking about it...and finally mentioned it to Eric. And...I could list the zillion reasons why I love my husband and why we're a perfect match...and one of them would be that he "got it." Like...didn't even have to explain or justify. He just got it and was like "Well let's do it then...We can make a plan." (Love that he plans... The A-type chick in me gets all warm and fuzzy with plans.)

No, we're not talking this year...or next... or even the next few. There's not a rush. We're excited to renovate our house and settle down in it. But sometime in the next handful of years or a little more, you might read a blog about us picking up and going coastal. Which coast? Who knows. Maybe it's a phase... sure. So I could link this post someday and be like "haha.. how silly I was..." But...maybe it's not. And if it's not...then why not do it, right? Life is only so long.

I think some of this is coming from getting older (and wanting to do all the things...duh.. I said that)...and some of it is coming from just being happy. It sounds like it's restless...but it's actually the opposite. I'm really happy in this 33rd year of my life. And it feels good. I'm with the person I plan to spend the rest of my life with and start a family with. I'm really satisfied with my career and the place I've reached in that regard. I've got great family and friends. And importantly, I'm happy with who I am. That doesn't mean there aren't bumps and bruises along the way, sure, but the glass is half full the way I see it. And I'm enjoying the present...but also thinking "okay what next?" and I'm not thinking that with a frustrated sigh but more with a big smile with sunshine in my face. Cheesy...I'll give ya that...but it's true.. Yes, there's family planning too among the "things"...and while we definitely want that, we're also not in a hurry (even though that seems to break some people's brains and make them comment with strange, slightly inappropriate things but that's for another blog), but there's definitely a feeling of "Let's do it!" regarding all the things... things like living at the beach someday, among other items.

So no deep thoughts about being 33. Just a happy post about life being good and new horizons yet to discover. :)

And now that you've read my rants for a few minutes of your life you'll never get back, I'll share some pics from my birthday! 

 

Birthday breakfast at Wild Fork :)

 

...where, if you don't order the sourdough french toast, you're just out of your mind.
 

This guy. :)
 

Okay, so I've wanted to go shooting. Eric kept avoiding taking me (which I'm sure has nothing to do with how clumsy and high strung I can be... exactly the kind of person you want with a weapon). Anyway, I actually rocked it. And I had a blast!
 

I've been wanting to try our new blowout bar so I thought it was a good birthday treat. I kinda wanted loose, beachy curls and got tight, bouncy curls.. so there's that. But, I couldn't have done it myself so it worked. And it was fun. They gave me wine. That didn't suck. I'd go back.

Pre-dinner photo with these guys. And you'll notice the curls fell quite a bit like she said they would. I liked it more when they did. :)

We took a selfie like this in our first real photo alone together (not in a group), so naturally, I wanted to re-enact it outside Prhyme after dinner for some reason. It turned out pretty cute, I think. :)
 

The rest of the weekend was spent birthday lunching with my mom, pooling it up at our new house with friends and then with other friends watching fireworks. Add some r&r, some errands and that's the weekend! Hope you had a great holiday weekend!