YOB: #19. Have a Lord of the Rings Marathon

By Lara

As you may remember, I had surgery on my kidney stone in early October. The whole kidney stone experience is really what derailed our original concept of the Year of the Birthday. However, I think it has evolved into something bigger than what we had first anticipated.

When we still thought that we would be able to accomplish all of the items in one year, we knew that we needed to do something low key while I was recovering from my surgery. In early October, we planned to check the Lord of the Rings marathon off the list.

Beth and I both love the Lord of the Rings movies. It's really one of the few movies that lives up to the literature that it reflects. In fact, I may even like the movies just a little bit better, which never happens.

Click to read more ...

YOB: #28. Have A Progressive Dinner (Part 2)

By Beth

I have fond memories of youth group events as a middle and high school student. Scavenger hunts, Dorney Park, overnight camps and missions trips and, of course, progressive dinners. These were some of my favorites because I'm a naturally nosy person and on a progressive dinner you get to see the inside of several people's homes. If it was the home of a boy I liked it was even better. My youth group had a few progressive dinners over the years I went there and I attended them all. So many good memories! Lara had similar memories from her youth so we added a progressive dinner to our list. We must have been delusional.

Click to read more ...

YOB: #13. Go Gambling in Atlantic City (Part 2)

By Lara

I'm currently flipping through my journal. I've already written about fireworks and the pop culture museum... Have I written about Atlantic City? No. I don't think that I have. Ok, then. Here we go.

Beth and I have a very dear friend who lives in Atlantic City. While we were compiling our list, we both realized that we had never been gambling at a casino. This corresponded with our desire to see Nicole, so plans were made to include her in the Year of the Birthday. Fortunately for us, Nicole was also turning 30. We arranged to go to a casino on her birthday weekend.

Click to read more ...

YOB: #12. Paint Daisies On A Big Red Rubber Ball

By Beth

I've always loved pirates. The attitude, the danger, the clothes. One of my favorite movies/books growing up was Treasure Island (the movie had a very young Christian Bale in it, I adored him before he was cool). I watched it over and over and could probably still quote most of it. I also love raw vegetables. Given the choice between dessert and veggies, nine times out of ten I'll choose veggies. Knowing this about myself, it was no surprise that the Veggie Tales Pirates Who Don't Do Anything was such a big hit with me. I don't know that Lara shares my love of veggies, but I know she loves pirates, at least one that is.

Click to read more ...

YOB: #15. Go To A Cave (Part 2)

By Lara

I have always wanted to explore a cave. This is probably due to my deep desire to blindly stumble into a secret country. In "Prince Caspian," Aslan explains that the Telmarines got into Narnia from our world through a cave. I know that my odds are SLIM, but I'll never know for sure if I never explore a cave, right? That's how caves got on the Year of the Birthday list in the first place.

We had originally hoped to go to Indian Echo cave in Pennsylvania. Beth has already been there. However, Hershey was vetoed as too expensive. So, I did some research about caves in Maryland. There is really only one public cave in Maryland. It's called Crystal Grottoes. I thought it would be a fun road trip.

Click to read more ...