Weekend in Cocoa Beach: (Vacation Part I)

Since I’m sure many of you are anxiously waiting for the next segment of the Bunton Family Vacation, I’ll continue on. In case you missed it, that was sarcastic ^^ ;)

8:30 am: Mom’s tooth is fixed, gas tank is full, breakfast is being eaten (Krispy Kreme and Starbuck’s), and we are finally, FINALLY on our way to Florida. As you can imagine, it was quite exciting. We drove and drove, then drove some more. Friday afternoon, I got a call informing me that I was receiving $500 toward my spring semester! Financially, this semester has been (and continues to be) very tight, so this was absolutely an answer to prayer, as it allows me to be debt-free for a little bit longer.

While driving through Atlanta, in fairly significant traffic, this is the conversation that transpired:

     Emma: This is worse than driving through Madison!

     Dad: It’s Atlanta, Georgia!

     Emma: I don’t know where Atlanta, Georgia is!!

…Maybe you had to be there, but I still find it rather hilarious.

After grabbing supper at Chik-Fil-A that night, we made it to our hotel in Cocoa Beach around 3:30 am. It was 60 degrees—in the middle of the night!

The next day (Saturday), we headed to Ron Jon, which was within walking distance of our hotel. We got a few souvenirs, then had lunch at “a N.Y. Pizza House”. In the afternoon, Thomas tried his hand at surfing while the rest of us enjoyed quality time at the beach—soaking up the sunshine!

No day could be complete without some sort of—wrinkle. Before leaving our hotel that morning, Mom realized she forgot to pack any of her sandals! (We found out later she had left them on the ping pong table in the basement…in Wisconsin!). Much to the dismay of Emma, Mom, and I, we were forced to head to the mall for some shoe shopping. On our way back from the shoe shopping expedition, we stopped for ice cream at the “Ice Cream Junction”, a local place with delicious hand-dipped ice cream.

Sunday was another relaxing day for us. We headed for breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts. Dark chocolate hot chocolate and blueberry munchkins (donut holes) made my morning—I highly recommend both of these things, but am glad (for the sake of my jeans fitting) that there is not a Dunkin’ Donuts nearby J Thomas wanted to try surfing again, so Emma and Dad went along to watch. Mom and I walked on the beach for a while (which is *quite* the workout. Don’t believe me? Go walk through sand!), and collected some sea shells. Mid-seventies and sunny, white sand in between your toes, waves rolling in…you can picture it, right?? That afternoon, we came back to the pool and talked about wedding stuff.

Here’s the “funnies” from Sunday:

     Dad (in the pool): Look, I found a toy!

     Emma (laying out by the pool): I say so many things, and then think ‘wow, I’m an idiot’!

On our way to supper….

     Thomas: I wonder what kind of injuries you would get around here?

     Dad (quickly responds): Python squeezes!

At supper…

     Emma: I’m gonna move to Florida and just live off the government. That way, I can be at the beach every day!

…Maybe she’s on to something?!

That brings me to talk about food…again. We ate slightly ridiculous amounts of delicious food on this vacation. We tried out this place called “Florida Seafood”; it was a local, family-owned place about 10 minutes away. Food was amazing! Emma and I shared blackened Tilapia with garlic butter pasta. And our waitress kept bringing these corn fritters—think funnel cake, only better!

After our seafood dinner that night, we headed back to the hotel. Dad and Thomas watched football in the lobby while Mom, Emma, and I did some re-packing—We watched the premiere of Biggest Loser at 9. Watching people work out made us feel better about all the corn fritters we had eaten only a few hours prior J    

Monday morning arrived, and we spent the morning walking around some shops that were nearby. At noon, we shuttled to the port. Just prior to actually getting on the cruise ship, Thomas says “I’m gonna touch the butt”! (Finding Nemo, people…surely you’ve seen Finding Nemo?)

…This is just the beginning of our cruise, but I’ll have to blog about the rest of it later. 

3 day weekend

Another weekend with my fiance has come and gone. Fortunately, we both had today off, so we were able to extend our time together J 

On Saturday, we saw Lincoln (which makes me want to some historical research), did some shopping, and went to Meatheads for a greasy burger when it was all said and done. FYI: If you go to a movie on a Saturday afternoon, you will find yourselves in a theater full of senior citizens. Not kidding.

On Sunday, we went to church, had tacos for lunch, then spent 2 ½ hours in Bass Pro Shops! Yes, seriously—never thought I’d ever spend that long in such a store. And as much as I hate to admit it, we had a blast! We’ll never have a $27,000 “Party Barge” (aka huge pontoon), but I’m totally ok with that J We went to a Peoria Riverman hockey game, too—they played the Houston Aeros. The Riverman won 6-2. Micah made sure we had fabulous seats—right in the middle, in the 2^nd row, next to the penalty box J It was a fun time. After the game, we stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel (at 8 pm) on our way back to the farm…

…Did I mention that we’re getting married 11 months from today?! 

The week before vacation

It’s hard to believe that our vacation has come and gone already. In case you didn’t know, my family spent a few days in Cocoa Beach before heading on a Royal Caribbean Cruise to Coco Cay and Nassau, Bahamas! The trip was so much fun; it was relaxing and exactly what we all needed. The weather was PERFECT—75 and sunny in January…what could be better?!

But before we could actually leave for Florida, we had to deal with a week where things just weren’t going according to plan. On Thursday, the day before we were supposed to leave, my car started having issues (again!), dad got his stitches out (a few days early), and mom broke a tooth—I think those were the “big” things” ;) They left WI a little later than planned because Dad’s physical therapy appointment took longer than expected. Anyway, my family finally made it to Illinois on Thursday night, just in time for dinner at Avanti’s with all the grandparents and Jordan. We do love tortellini!

Rabbit trail, sort of— Dad called nearly 20 dentists on Thursday afternoon trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that Mom could get her tooth fixed before we left. She was able to get an appointment for the next morning at 8 am. Redbird Dental is fabulous; we were on the road at 8:30! This was such an answer to prayer, and it was super nice that it worked out so well J

TOMORROW!

Best news of the day? Leaving for family vacation tomorrow! We’re driving to Florida (yes, driving!). We’ll spend the weekend near Cocoa Beach, soaking up the sunshine! On Monday, our cruise leaves—we’ll go to the Bahamas! I’m so excited and so ready for this time with my family J It’s our last big family vacation as a family of 5…good and scary, right?!

I really need to finish packing, organizing, cleaning—my family will be here in a few hours! 

December Recap

A couple weeks ago, I finished another semester and then went to Indiana to spend time with my fiancé and his family.

2 really big things about that sentence ^^

1.       I finished semester #2 of nursing school. It was an insanely hectic semester, and I’m finally a senior in college! I’m so thankful for the people who prayed for me all semester long, but especially during finals—I ended up being pretty sick that week, and it was truly a miracle I was able to think clearly for all those cumulative exams!

2.       Fiancé? Did you catch that word? I LOVE being able to say that! More on that later…maybe ;)

For now, I’m moving onto Christmas Adventures…maybe Christmas Chaos would be more appropriate?!

Christmas Adventures began for Micah and I in mid-December, when I headed to Indiana for the weekend. We had a couple of get-togethers with his family. The weekend was full: My future sister-in-law had a cookie exchange at her house on Friday (so.much.fun); an extended family Christmas gathering on Saturday; church and another Christmas on Sunday. Those weekends make me even more ready to just be in Indiana and not have this back-and-forth nonsense!

The following week on Thursday, Micah came to Illinois. On Friday, we headed to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with my immediate family. The weekend went by WAY too quickly, but we had a really good, relaxing time. On Sunday night, Micah, Thomas, Emma, Neva, and I found ourselves back in Illinois.

Mom and Dad couldn’t come to Illinois for Christmas this year because of Dad’s surgery. He fell and shattered his wrist the week before, and had to have surgery on Christmas Eve! 1 shiny plate and 11 pins later, his wrist is back together again J He does not recommend falling on the ice and shattering your wrist—he claims it’s rather painful. Fortunately, he’s recovering quite well!

I had to work on Christmas Eve, then Micah and I headed to Indiana. We spent Christmas at his parent’s house; Micah’s brother, sister-in-law, sister, and nephew were there, too…It was a nice Christmas day, and I really do love his family J

Christmas this year was awesome, relaxing, fun, and different—maybe even a little bittersweet? It was full of firsts and lasts, too…First time I didn’t spend Christmas day with my family. First time I spent Christmas with my fiancé and his family, in another state. First time I’d traveled to 3 states in 4 days over Christmas break. Last Christmas before our wedding.  Lots of other “lasts”, but I’m assuming most people quit reading 3 paragraphs ago, so I won’t bore you with the rest of them J

I’m consistently overwhelmed with this crazy, amazing, wonderful life God has SO richly blessed me with! Looking forward to 2013 with great anticipation! “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” ~C.S. Lewis

The Great Biking Adventure

First of all, I’ll state the obvious: I’m not an adventurous person. I really like safe, boring situations that go according to plan. (This makes me sound completely boring, but it’s the truth…) Thomas, on the other hand, is nothing like me. We’re as opposite as you can get, and have almost nothing in common…and I was hoping this trip would be a good bonding experience for us. We desperately needed it J

While I was in WI, Thomas got the “brilliant” idea to go on a bike trip…to Illinois (a distance of about 500 miles when avoiding highways). I quickly ruled that idea out for a couple of reasons: 1.I only had a couple of extra days before I had to be back at work and 2.I would have died J But we did come up with an alternate plan, one we could both live with.

We decided to leave on Thursday morning, and have the parents pick us up on Saturday. Of course, I wanted to find places we could stay at night, but Thomas seemed to think that half the adventure was in not knowing…So I didn’t plan. The only thing we knew was the general direction we were going.

Thursday morning was actually pretty fun. We encountered several ridiculously huge hills, and some animals—deer, maybe a bear, rabbits, squirrels, elk or something that resembled elk, sheep, and a adorable furry, fat dog named Moxie. I sort of freaked out when I realized this dog was chasing us, and it followed us for a good little ways. Finally, we stopped and looked at its collar…. We figured she would get tired and go back to where she came from. Eventually, her owner came to get her.

Around 1:30 on Thursday, we made it to Eau Claire, about 43 miles from our house. Being the healthy people that we are, we stopped at McDonald’s to eat. And then the rain began J Thomas and I sat in this McDonald’s for about 2 hours, while considering several different options. In my mind, the only option was having mom and dad come pick us up, and forgetting about the rest of this adventure. Sounds good, right?! Thomas was adamantly opposed to that idea; he wanted to just go in the rain. (I may have considered going on, even with the rain, if we had a place to stay that night…but we didn’t have that!)

When I say “and then the rain began”, I’m not talking about a little sprinkle. What I’m referring to is a torrential downpour, where it rains sideways. We eventually called the parents, only to find out that this rain was going to continue, at least for tonight. Thomas and I came to a compromise: We decided to have mom and dad come pick us up—we would go back to Chetek for the night, and get dropped off in Eau Claire the next morning. (I was especially happy because it meant one less night of sleeping in a tent!)

Thursday night, we found ourselves back in Chetek…right where we started. That night, my family went to Casa Mexicana (our favorite) and we were able to hear more about the Romania trip. We also found a spot for Thomas and I to camp on Friday night (yes, that was my idea…)

Friday morning we found ourselves riding bikes…again. Fortunately, the first 20 miles of our day was on a super nice, paved, non-hilly bike trail. It was a dream!  Friday was a LONG day. We had a little over 60 miles to cover in order to make it to Merrick State Park. As much as I hate tent-camping, I love state parks, so this seemed like a good place to stop for the night. We biked. And biked. And biked some more. By Friday afternoon, I thought my legs might fall off…and part of me that would be an OK option because maybe they would hurt less? I had convinced myself we were getting pretty close to this state park, and here’s the conversation we had while stopped at Kwik Trip.

Thomas: We’re in the home stretch!

Amelia: Oh, good. {Thinking: we have no more than 6 miles}

Thomas: Yeah, so we’re almost there

Amelia: How many more miles? {Thinking: I might actually make it!}

Thomas: Only…a little over 13

Amelia: 13?! 13 MORE miles?

Once we got going again, those 13 miles weren’t as bad as I thought they might be. But I was more than ready to call it a day! Finally, around 4:30, we arrived at the much anticipated Merrick State Park. Since you can’t reserve spots for tent camping ahead of time, we just hoped there would be one. And there was! We loaded up firewood into an already packed trailer, and found our little campsite, located right by the water. (I have no idea what body of water it was.)

As we’re walking onto our campsite, Thomas sees a snake (which he tried, unsuccessfully, to catch). I’m thinking “great, not only are we sleeping outside tonight, THERE ARE SNAKES HERE!) Not exactly comforting. However, that was the only snake we saw…

After setting up our tent, Thomas thought we should ride an additional 2.5 miles into Fountain City to get food. It took him a little while to convince me of this, but eventually I agreed. We were about to turn out of the campsite when I decided that another 5 miles on a bike was not something I had any interest in doing, no matter what was at stake! So, Thomas ventured into Fountain City without me (hoping to find Chinese takeout—no, I’m not kidding!) He settled for muffins from kwik trip.

Saturday morning came bright and early, and once again, we found ourselves on bikes. From the start on Saturday, I felt like I had ridden more than 100 miles in 2 days (maybe because I had?!) Thomas seemed much more un-phased by all of this, but I’m just telling you: I hurt. Once we got moving, it really did get better.

Our plan was to make it to LaCrosse by Saturday afternoon. We had covered almost 25 miles, when we stopped in another little town. Here’s what happened:

Thomas: You look like death.

Amelia: Thanks. I feel like death.

Thomas: What’s the problem?

Amelia: We’ve been on bikes for 2 ½ days!

{LaCrosse was another 18 miles down the road, and we both knew that wasn’t going to happen!}

Thomas called mom and says “Amelia’s dying, so you need to come get us”

Then, of course, mom wants to talk to me.

Mom: What’s wrong?

Amelia: I don’t feel good.

Mom: Why not?

Amelia: …because I’ve been riding a bike for the last 2 days. You wouldn’t feel good either!

So, we decided to end The Great Biking Adventure after approximately 125 miles. Even though we shortened our day on Saturday, I honestly could not believe we made it that far. And by “we”, I mean me! Obviously, Thomas could have gotten a lot further without me.  The Great Biking Adventure was never really about biking for me, as crazy as that may sound. It was more about spending an uninterrupted amount of time with my brother; it was good for both of us to be stuck with each other.

Once mom and dad picked us up, we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. From there, I took off for Illinois while they headed back to Chetek. It’s never enjoyable to leave my family and drive back to IL, but it was a lot more bearable this time because Micah was going to be there! Knowing that we got to spend the rest of the weekend together made me much happier to be in Illinois again J

By the time I got back to the farm in Illinois on Saturday, I could hardly move. I felt like I was 80 years old when getting out of my car. It hurt to walk, or move in general. But here’s some things I learned:

·         

•       You don’t need all the “right equipment” to go on a bike trip. We borrowed a bike trailer and a bike for this little excursion. 
•       If you really want to go on a bike trip (or if you really do NOT want to go on a bike trip, but your brother talks you into it), you can and you should…no matter how out of shape you are! Don’t use your lack of athleticism as an excuse not to go!
•             Sometimes, you have to get out of your comfort zone in order to do something fun. Truthfully, this was fun.
•        We biked through beautiful parts of WI that we never would have driven through.
•        Having super limited electronics for a couple of days was…nice and relaxing. Thomas and I actually had to talk to each other!
•       Biker shorts are optional J

Summer 2012 Recap

It’s hard to believe another summer has come and gone already. My summer FLEW by…Tomorrow (yes, I said tomorrow!), I start my 2^nd semester of nursing school. The super good part of all this is—I’m one step closer to being done (and I mean DONE!) with school…FOREVER!

I had a good summer, but I spent a lot of time working. Nursing school is quite expensive, so I had my fair share of 13 and 15 hour days spent at the nursing home. (For the record, I did work 8 & 9 hour days like a normal person, too…) My weekends off were spent with the people I love, which often involved driving…to other states J

While my parents and sister were in Romania for 2 weeks, I was in Wisconsin with Thomas and Neva. It was so nice to be off work during that time AND actually be at home. (It would have been nice if the rest of my family was there…)

Late in July {while I was home}, I got a phone call informing me that I was getting a scholarship for the fall—in the amount of $1,000!!! This particular scholarship was through my employer, and I was so excited to get this news…I had been praying and hoping and planning that it would work out like this. Fall tuition is paid in full, and (thankfully!) I’m still debt-free…at least for one more semester. So thankful God provided in this way!

During the time I was home, Taylor G., Thomas, Kaydie, Neva and I spent the day in Duluth. We spent most of the day at Gooseberry Falls, then headed to Canal Park for some mini-golf. Neva beat us all, and we didn’t give her an advantage! By this time, we were getting pretty hungry, so we headed to Grandma’s for supper. All in all, it was just a fun, relaxing day…I love any time I can spend in the Duluth area and this was no exception!

I also went kayaking for the first time this summer, and would like to go again! We only spent a couple of hours on the water, but it was a good time…

 “The Great Biking Adventure”…that just might be its own post!

I wanted to spend one more weekend with Micah before school started, and I was able to go to Indiana last weekend. We had a good time, and it’s only 2 weeks until I see him again! J It was nice to have my last little excursion before another crazy semester kicks in…and with that, summer 2012 has come to a close!