5 year anniversary in which the bucket list is recorded

Well, for heaven's sakes, it's been 5 years since I married my man! How did that happen? Time has seriously whooshed by - it's no joke when people say it flies when you're having fun. He's been such a hunk of a hubby. Who would have thought that when I married my 20 (TWENTY!) year old guy he was set to be such a sexy dad? That sentence sounds wrong, but hey! It's true!

(...And by the way... Marrying was the only large life event I will allow to have happened when I was occupying the "older" state of our 6 month difference. Children-having, house-buying and any other significant life event must be done when we are both of the "later" end of the years' spectrum... Haha!)

Anyhoo! What was the haps on our glorious, highly milestone-ish anniversary? Well! It was my year to plan, per the odds and evens planning scale we put in place way back when, so it was going to be a big, BIG surprise in which we jet-setted off to a super, ridiculously amazing location. Here's how it was to go:

I mysteriously (bluntly) told Chad that I needed him to transfer x amount of dolla bills into my super secret Stroller Strides business account, so that way I could make all the accommodations necessary on our massive, Caribbean or Fijian-filled vacation destination. Shortly after the drop was made, I made a few changes with Stroller Strides and Chad started at an awesome new company, so we decided that it probably wasn't the best time in life to take off for 7 or so days, especially because I kept having weird anxiety about leaving the kids and/or not taking them with us - I'm totally a person who thinks travelling with your kids is a great idea. Who cares how old they are and if they will remember it or not? YOU'LL remember it and it will be awesome! Anyway, we decided that a fabulous weekend getaway would suffice and be more enjoyable in the end because I would feel great about where the kids were: at the most awesome Aunt Maggie's house!

So off we took on June 30th (a day after the actual BIG day) down to La Jolla where we stayed at an awesome resort (hey-o for never staying at resorts and mainly opting for cheapo options! It really made me appreciate the bell hop, man! Hahahaha). But really, it was the bomb. The first night we did absolutely NOTHING, then went down to one of the restaurants for some nachos around 11:00. The next morning we left to get a few breakfast burritos and to grab a little bit of cashola for the poor bell hop we had to stiff the night before (woops!), then we again resumed our NOTHINGNESS at the pool where I creeped on a massive wedding group. Saturday night we went down to Gaslamp for some amazing sushi and then went to a country western bar (that was CHAD'S idea to attend! It may have taken me 5 years, but I got the guy to like country. A true win if there ever was one)!

Sunday was another morning of nothingness, but not after the missed-breakfast breakfast we had at 11:45 am. We both had burgers after our bar night. The waiter even asked us (rudely!) if it had been a long night! What the hell, man???! Anyhoo, it was funny, but yeah...

We took off to pick up the kids around 2:00, but not before we made our official "BEFORE 30 BUCKET LISTS!" Woooohoooo on these things! I'm pretty stoked about them. I have to write them down here because a) they're awesome, b) I have to remember these things and c) who knows what our "Before 35" bucket lists will look like? And then beyond that, what will our LIFE, LIFE bucket lists look like? No matter what any list looks like, I'm very lucky to get to do it all with this guy - truly a blessed lady. Beyond the amount of fun we have together, something which I talk constantly about here, he's just the all-around best guy for me. I enjoy him, love him, like him and value his opinion, his take on things and what he has to say. He's a dedicated dad and family member to his mom, dad, brother, sisters and on from there. His values are held in high regard when making decisions, and above all, I just treasure him! Lucky people, Carter, Kota and I are - lucky people.

Anyhoo, here are the "Before 30" lists!

MINE:
- Buy a house
- Go on a family vacation to Hawaii
- Do at least one weekend getaway a year with the fam
- Do one weekend getaway with Chad per year
- Be completely debt free except for a mortgage (diiiiiiiiiie.)
- Fully research and decorate bought house exactly the way I want it even if that takes a few attempts
- Join a specialty club and consistently participate (gourmet cooking club or something like it)
- Run a half marathon
- Read/understand the Bible
- Take an international trip
- Start savings for the kids beyond the ant-mound amount we have at the moment
- Send kids to VBS one time per year minimum
- Visit all best friends who live out of state for leisurely purposes (3 people at the moment)
- Go on a girls' trip with my mom and sister, even if it's just for one night
- Get... Augmented.
- Get family bikes
- Get our kids baptized/religious ed going

CHADS:
- Get a tattoo
- Go on a tropical vacation
- Get 2 new (to us) cars
- Buy a house
- Buy another house
- Have a man space of some kind
- Teach Carter how to play sports
- At least once a  month take each kid out by themselves for daddy date time
- One date a month with Nicole
- Take the family to at least 3 musical theater performances
- Host Thanksgiving
- Host Christmas
- 70" TV
- Get baptized
- Baptize kids

So woohoo! Some are goal-like versus bucket list-like, but hey! They're still pretty prevalent, eh?! Pretty excited about how awesome the last 5 years have been and how much more awesome the next 100! Gooooo team Cisneros!!! I love you, lovah!