A few years ago, I made a list of 30 things I wanted to do before I turned 30. Some of my ‘things’ were quite elaborate, some were simpler. I achieved 16 before my 30th birthday at the beginning of the month. I mean, it’s over half and considering there has been a global pandemic for over 18 months of it I’d say that’s pretty good going! Some of the things I ticked off my list have been some of the best memories of the last few years! Let’s take a look…
1- Go on holiday to Cornwall
In August 2018, we had a short family holiday in Cornwall, surprising my parents, brother and nan who were already on holiday there. It was amazing to see some of my most favourite places again, not having seen them since childhood. I’m keen to go back as soon as possible, but for longer this time!
2- Go on holiday to Wales
When I wrote my list, I was hoping to go back to Pembrokeshire where Dave and I had our honeymoon and babymoon. We’ve had some amazing family holidays at Bluestone near Tenby since then. We had a magical Christmas break in 2017, a perfect summer holiday in June 2018 and a wonderful break at the end of January 2019.
3- Go to the beach and make sandcastles with Autumn
Autumn was only 5 months old when I made my list, so sandcastle making seemed a long way away. It didn’t take long at all to come round though and we have now made sandcastles several times. Not always in the summer, either. We’ve been known to wrap up and sit on a beach making sandcastles in October!
4- Expand our family
The journey to expand our family was harder than we thought. It took longer than anticipated and we had a miscarriage too. With lockdown starting and me feeling very uncertain due to Covid-19, we were seriously considering putting things on hold for a while. Then I got a positive test! We welcomed our little rainbow baby Reuben into the world in January!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ9TJ8HLPxM/
5- Go ‘up North’
In October of 2017, I went up north for the first time! Previously, the most north I’d been was Norfolk. Yep. I heard about a blogging conference called BlogOn in Manchester and thought it would be a good idea to go there to learn new things and make connections. It felt like a bit of a gamble so early in my blogging career (I booked it only two or three weeks after starting this blog!) However, I loved it and I’ve been to every one since! The most recent was BlogOn Xmas this October in Bracknell and I had a great time. (On a side note, how cute did Autumn look in her little Man U kit?!)
6- Own something designer
I really love Coach bags and a couple of years ago my lovely husband bought me one for my Christmas and birthday present!
7- Go for a woodland walk with Autumn, crunching on leaves and making a picture with some
We have had so many crunchy leaf walks now. Recently, we went for a walk and spent time listening to the noise they made as we stepped on them and brought some home. I made an autumn wreath for the door, while Autumn made a picture with some sticks and small leaves.
8- Go to the zoo with Autumn
We’ve actually been to the zoo several times now! The first we went to was Drusillas Park, which is one of our absolute favourites. It’s definitely worth the drive down from North Kent! She was just shy of 2 years old when we went. She arguably enjoyed it more then than she does going to the zoo now, actually!
9- Decorate the living room
This was on my to do list for years! When we bought it, our house had terribly laid laminate flooring that hasn’t been looked after well at all. The walls were lumpy and painted in an odd flesh-like sort of colour. It was just embarrassing and I couldn’t wait to get it sorted out. We finally managed to decorate it 3 years ago in a grey and ochre colour scheme. I finally had a living room I was happy to invite people into!
10- Move house
Annoyingly, we didn’t get to enjoy the decorated living room for all that long. Not long after finding out that we were expecting Reuben, we decided to move to a bigger house. After having our offer accepted in June, it took ages for the paperwork to all go through thanks to the pandemic. We finally managed to move in in November, 6 weeks before I was due to give birth.
10.5- Learn to crochet
I’m going to give myself half a point for this. Last year I taught myself to crochet a little bit! Not enough to actually make anything worthwhile, but I did do some crochet all the same.
11.5 – Take Autumn to the cinema for the first time
It was such an exciting experience taking Autumn to the cinema for the first time! We went to see Paw Patrol: Mighty Pups and she loved it. She sat surprisingly well and really enjoyed the whole experience.
12.5- Play in the snow and make a snowman with Autumn
Aww, this one makes me smile. We had some really good snow a few years ago. She was wading through it as it was knee height for her. We had so much fun having gentle snowball fights and making snowmen. She absolutely loved it!
13- Teach Autumn how to ride a bike
Another half point here! She can’t ride a bike without stabilisers yet, BUT she knows how to steer and pedal. I reckon that’s definitely worth a half point!
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba_OVDvg85f/
14- Teach Autumn how to write her name
Autumn was so keen to learn to write her name, it was no hardship teaching her. She now writes it all the time just for fun, including on every picture she draws!
15- Bake fairy cakes and cookies with Autumn
Oh, we’ve done such a lot of this! Autumn loves baking and for a few months liked the idea of being a baker when she grows up. She’s currently moved onto being a hairdresser though.
16- Go back to Chinatown in London
Yay, I managed this one too! I was disappointed to find that Chinatown wasn’t as good as the previous time I went though. I’m yet to visit since the pandemic started, so it’ll be interesting to see what it’s like next time.
I wanted to try and tick a couple more things off late last year, but didn’t manage to do any more things on my list before I turned 30. Of course, it’s always more difficult to do things with a baby in tow! Living life day to day, it’s sometimes difficult to see the big picture and your achievements. Writing this post has made me see how much has happened in the last 4 years!
I wonder what the next decade will bring?
Cover photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels