It's always been Ian's dream to be the CEO of a children's hospital. He is fascinated with healthcare and all of its intricacies and if you know Ian he has a huge heart, especially when it comes to kids.
Well, a couple months ago he got a little closer to his dream. He was accepted into the Master's Program of Healthcare Administration at Texas A &M! We have the letter and smile to prove it. I mean, come on, doesn't he look so good in a suit? I think he'll make an amazing hospital administrator. (please note the cute A&M swag he's wearing).
After receiving this exciting news, we only had a few weeks to move. Thankfully Texas A & M is in College Station which is only 3 hours from where we were currently living with his parents. (I'm going to miss his mom's cooking)
We found a great place to live, or so we thought. The model looked great, the price was great, it was close to campus. It was perfect. But we moved in and it was AWFUL to say the least!! I've never seen a dumpier apartment in my life. We should have known it was going to be a disaster as soon as we walked into the office on move-in day and there was a line of people complaining about their apartments.
The counters were falling apart, the stove, fridge, dishwasher and shower didn't work. There were cockroaches. It was a nightmare. Since Ian's parents drove down to help us move all of our stuff, including heavy furniture we had just bought, we had no choice but to move our stuff into this welcoming abode.
We actually had to stay in a hotel the first night because the smell in the apartment was so bad. They had just painted probably a day earlier and "re-finished" the bathtub. Yeah, not our idea of a move-in ready.
Oh, and this is us trying to keep a smile on our faces. This was day 2 of living in this apartment when the fridge started working so we were a little bit happier.
Since it was our anniversary two days later, we had made plans to go down to South Padre Island. Even though it was a crazy weekend moving in, we felt like we deserved to forget about the mess and get a little piece of paradise. Am I right? So off we went!
To be honest, I was skeptical of this vacation we planned because it's Texas and does Texas really have good beaches? I was pleasantly surprised!
South Padre is BEAUTIFUL! There were palm trees everywhere. It's only 30 minutes from the Mexico border, so I can see why it looks a little more exotic than the rest of the state.
Our time at South Padre consisted of lots of boogie-boarding because man does the Gulf have waves like no other! It was fun and exhausting. The water at the Gulf is not pretty but it's warm and the sand is nice. We did lots of crab scouting at night. We also discovered that there was a little amusement park there so Ian of course HAD to ride the go-carts. We went to Sea Turtle Inc. where we got to see turtles that are rescued either because they had an injury or didn't quite make it to the ocean. They rehabilitate them and then send the turtles back into the ocean if they're healthy enough. It was cool seeing that one turtle had a rubber fin!
One of my favorite places we went was the Birding Center. It was a mile and a half of walkways in this swampy area that led out to the ocean. We saw lots of native birds, fishes and crabs. Supposedly there were crocodiles there, but I didn't see them. Marketing scheme maybe? I was REALLY looking forward to seeing them but I guess they decided to hide from us. But this place had an amazing view it was so worth the visit!
They even had a pretty spiral staircase!
We got to play on jet skis, which I have never been on before. That was so much fun! 40 minutes of pure joy and freedom! The dock was in the cutest little neighborhood with gorgeous beach homes right on the ocean water.
Besides having fun in the water, the food was amazing! We may or may not have eaten gelato every night while we were there. (Ian seriously wouldn't let us go a day without having one) For our anniversary evening, we went to a Japanese grill where they cook the food in front of you. We also had sushi of course, since this was one of our first dates together. But our favorite place we ate was Gabriella's.
It was the last night of our vacation and I was craving some Italian. This place was seriously the most romantic, charming restaurant I've ever been too! Think lady and the tramp. White and red checkered table cloths, a candle, an old-fashioned black and white love story playing on the TV in the background....I was so close to ordering spaghetti just for the sake of trying to reinvent our own Lady and The Tramp...but I love pizza too much. And holy crap, I've never tasted more authentic Italian pizza!
I had tons of leftovers the next day and I was literally eating slices of pizza on our road trip back to College Station. It was that good.
What I loved about this vacation is that we didn't "over plan" it. I tend to want to do a million different things in a day and plan everything out. Ian is the exact opposite. He flies by the seat of his pants and would rather play in the ocean all day and just chill. That's just his personality. I don't really get it, but this vacation I felt like we actually compromised and I realized that sometimes it's okay to have down time. That's part of vacationing.
Speaking of planning activities, we planned a sunset and fireworks cruise for the last evening we were there, but guess what? It rained so they had to cancel. I was super bummed!! But it's just an excuse to come back right?
Something I've learned through all of this past month's exciting and not-so-exciting events, is that life can be tough. It's not always smooth-sailing but when you have someone who loves and cares about you it makes life so much more enjoyable :)
