2013: The Recap

Everyone else is doing a recap of 2013, so I might as well too! 

(Plus, I loved reading through the last five years of the Shull Family and I know it'll be fun to go back through and do that someday on my own. You can read about 2012 here.)

2013 was another busy year for me. If I had to give it a theme, I would say it was the year that I became comfortable being me. Last year I said I thought 2012 was the year of finding myself, figuring out who I was and what I liked to do and then being that person and doing those things. So I think 2013 was the year that I kept being that person and kept doing those things. I didn't feel the need to prove anything to anyone, or doing things to please other people and I was just HAPPY! Maybe that was my theme, happiness, cause I truly am! :)

So in January I rang in the new year at a party downtown with my friends from college. It was a lot of fun. Definitely want to do something like this again in the future! I went to the movies like it was my job. I had not been to a theatre in years, and in the span of three weeks I'd seen five movies! Five! (Lincoln, Anna Karina, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Mis and Pitch Perfect). I was the third wheel on many outings with Molly and John (Big Bang Piano Bar, COSI, my first trip to a casino), but I also had fun nights out with my best girl friends. Bowie also went into heat this month and at one point I wanted to sleep so bad that I was in tears and almost went to my car to sleep!

Ringing in the New Year!

COSI dolphin movie.

Love them.

So in February, Bowie got fixed. That was fun for a few days (not), then everything went back to normal. I had the best Valentine's Day I'd had ever (no boyfriend = no chances of being disappointed) and Molly, Jill, Cara and I went out to dinner and the movies! Molly also got me lovely flowers. :) One of my favorite things of the year happened at the end of February when I flew to Florida to run in the Disney Princess Half Marathon with Erica. I accomplished so many 'firsts' on that trip that I was on cloud nine the whole time. I flew by myself, ran 13.1 miles as Snow White, went to Magic Kingdom (where I rode a roller coaster!), and went to the Gulf of Mexico. It was so much fun! And I got to experience it all with my best friend. :) I also went to a Tiesto concert. I had no idea who he was, but the people there dressed really weird and I'll probably never go again. But, hey, the tix were free!

I got a henna tattoo, too.

I was out of state every weekend for a span of three weeks and hit up seven different states. The first weekend in March I went to Chicago one last time to visit my sister and nieces. They were moving the following weekend to their new home in DC. I loved visiting them in Chicago so much. I LOVE that city. I'm excited to have another large and interesting city to visit, but I will miss not going to Chicago as often. It was great to hang out with the girls, walk to the Sweet Mandy B's one last time with Emery to get a 'special treat' and play dress up. I also went snowtubing for the first time and traveled to Northwest Arkansas to the UofA for a conference. I never blogged about this trip, but I felt like I knew what everything was and had the best time. It really is just as charming as it looks on all the blogs! And I went up in the Gateway Arch in St. Louis! So cool! And I found out that I was going to be an aunt again!! March was a full month!

Top of the Arch.

 
In April I turned 28! Twenty.Eight. That seems so old! But at the same time, I don't feel a day over 25. Ok, maybe I do. I look back to 25 year old Emily and think "I was just a baby then." So I'm definitely much happier with myself at 28, so I'll take it! :) It's just hard to believe that my 'twenties' are almost over! But I intend to live them to the fullest! I also ran my third Dogwood Festival 5K. And Bowie got worms. (yuck!)

Big Bang for my birthday.

5K with Rheadon.

May started off good with Molly's graduation from OSU. This was the first year OSU was on the semester schedule, so what was the last month of school in the past, was now the first month of summer. So it was fun to have all this 'free' time and do a lot of evening walks, happy hours, volleyball playing fun. I went to the circus with Molly, Jill, and Susie, then a few days later went to Cedar Point for the first time. I rode rollercoasters!! I was so nervous but it was so fun too! I wish I'd done more than just two looking back! I will have to go again. I also ran in the Komen Race for a Cure in memory of my Grandma Primer, got a new couch, and went to my 10 year class reunion.

June was a little more relaxing. I started it off with a fun weekend at my friend Sarah's house with a pool party with college friends (and their children) and then went to the Memorial Golf Tourney the next day. Tim Tebow was there!!! (I did not see him!) I ran in two 5k's and celebrated Jill's birthday. It was a really low key month, but still great.

But then July happened and it was busy, busy, busy. It started off with the family vacation to Myrtle Beach over Independence Day. It wasn't our best vacation. It rained a lot and Payton got a concussion on the banana boat. The next week I went to Chicago with Jill for a work conference and got to do a lot of sightseeing while we were there. Then the week after that I went on a cruise to the Bahamas! Which was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! I absolutely loved being on the private island and just floating in the clear, calm water. It was my first time out of the country. I had such a fun time with friends and can't wait to travel again. In between traveling, I worked at the Ohio State Fair, went out downtown and ran into Justin Bieber and Greg Oden. Fun!

August is kind of a blur to me, but I started it out with a trip home for the Pike County Fair and then went to my friend Lauren's wedding. My only wedding of the summer. I've graduated from having everyone getting married to now everyone having babies! In the middle of the month, Holly and the girls came to visit and we had a baby shower for Heather. My great-uncle Bob was also laid to rest, and we had our family reunion on the other side of the family. It was a full weekend of family (all sides!) School started back up at OSU, I went to a concert with my sister, sat in a dunking booth, started graduate school and got blonde highlights again (which I quickly regretted).

In September (I got really bad at blogging) I went to a few football games with the siblings, including my first Skull Session, a craft show with Mom, Molly and Mam, and made my first visit to Pittsburg. Bible Study also started back up, so I was excited to get back in that routine of regularly attending church each week. I had slacked over the summer!

Love these girls.

October started with Bargain Box and the birth of my first nephew, Cooper! I ran a 5K, helped two floats be built for OSU's homecoming parade (one of which won first place!!!) and went to a few more football games! I went to Louisville for a big national convention for work and got to hang out with my college roomie and see Dierks Bentley in concert! He was amazing and I fell in love with him all over again. ha. This month was also really busy because I had a lot of events for work, so I felt like some weeks I spent 60 plus hours at work. Ok, I did. On a sad note, Erin's Grandpa Dunham passed away. He was a neighbor of mine and I will miss visiting him when I'm home. I know he's really happy now in heaven with Grandma Millie.

My boyfriend.

How precious are they? I'm so proud to be their advisor.

In November, my godson turned one! I ran in a four mile race with Erin at Ohio State (got to finish on the field even!!) and went to Chicago with students. It was my last trip to Chicago (that I know of). On the way home we stopped at Fair Oaks Farms and got to see how they milk their cows. It was really neat. I also fell off the blogging bandwagon. Whoops.

December flew by! Other than one trip home, I didn't do any traveling, which was very rare for any month this year. My mom and I had a table at a craft show. I spent 6 wonderful days at home with the family for Christmas - including three different family gatherings! :)

 When I started my 2013 photo album on facebook, the tag line was "this is going to be my year" and I definitely think that it was! It's so good to know that this entire year - 12 months, 365 days - was so amazing because I made it that way and not because I was relying on anyone else for my happiness! :) I'm excited for 2014!

I tried to highlight most things, but definitely not everything from the past year. Let's face it, I got tired of writing! ha. And I might - might, so probably not - come back and link up to all the the posts about things I mentioned, so for now just go back through my history on the left. :)

And to those of you that are new (I put my blog address on my Christmas card this year)....WELCOME! It gets pretty exciting around here. haha.

Disney Princess Half-Marathon - Part 4 (Post Race Beach Day!)

My goal was to wrap up this trip before Christmas, so here is the final post about my half-marathon that I did 10 months ago. Better late than never. :)

So I finished my last recap with going to Magic Kingdom after the race. (At the bottom you can find all the recaps!) Once we left the park, we still had to drive an hour to get back to Tampa - which WAS THE WORST because we had both been up since 2am that morning, RAN IN A HALF-MARATHON, and then walked around at Magic Kingdom for six hours. Either of those three things on one day alone would be enough to make you tired.

We got home and ready for bed and sat down to watch the Grammy's or Emmy's or some awards show that was on and we both fell asleep on the couch before the end of the opening act. We were tired girls. We woke up around midnight and David had gone on to bed! He didn't even wake us up. I'm sure the two of us laying on the couch under our Disney blankets would have made for a funny picture. We would have looked like 5 year old girls in 20(ish) year old bodies with our pajamas, Disney fleece blankets and sharing the couch.

The following morning I was able to sleep in because Erica and David had both headed off to work and Jill and her family were vacationing about 20 minutes from me, so she was coming to pick me up so I could spend a day at the beach.

Best idea ever because I COULD. NOT. WALK. I was fine going down the stairs to the kitchen, but when I had to go back up the stairs to get dressed, I had to crawl. I was in so much pain.

I spent the day laying by the pool and on the beach. It was a great day to relax and not jump right back on a plane and to reality.

Relaxation!

A guy was doing sand sculptures.

A pretty sailboat on the shore!

I love America!

Some Beach....Somewhere

This was my first time seeing the Gulf of Mexico. It was unusually wavey that day, so not as calm as I expected. But Jill and I walked the beach, got a fruity drink at a little beach side restaurant and then I ran in to the water. The water was freezing! But I did it, I swam in the Gulf of Mexico!

It's cold!!

Proof that I went way out in the water. It was like ICE!

Done!

I had dinner with Jill and her family, then Erica came and picked me up after she got off work. It was so weird for it to be so warm outside, but still get dark so early. I associate warm weather with long days, so it was dark at 6pm. It was February, I guess.

Beach Day with Jill.

Erica and I splurged on Chipotle and watched tv when we got back to her place. I had to be at the airport early the next morning. I was so sad to leave her. I cried at the drop off place. This was the first time since I was in high school (9 years) that we had been together for 5 straight days. It was so nice and I made me miss her even more. I might even be getting teary right now writing this. ha! I miss you Erica Lynn!

My flights home I slept most of the way. My layover was in Newark, NJ which was so cool because I could see the New York skyline from the airport. I loved that. I didn't get to see it in person when we went to NYC last year because we came in on the train underground to Penn Station. I ate a really good cupcake there and did a lot of people watching and window shopping. My flight from NJ to Columbus was mostly empty, so I got a seat all to myself and slept for that hour flight.

Since I had only taken two days off, most people didn't even realize I'd been out of the office. I felt like I'd been away for so long!

But I had a great time. This was my first time traveling this far away by myself and it went great. I loved navigating around the airports. And I wasn't terrified at all while flying. If anything, this trip triggered my travel bug! ;)

If you want to catch up, here you go!
Part 1 - Travel and Pre-Race Shenanigans
Part 2 - My first HALF-MARATHON!
Part 3 - Post-Race at Magic Kingdom