Alright ya’ll, I am officially 21!

I celebrated my twenty-first birthday on the seventh. I had a class to go to in the morning, but after that, I was ready to celebrate!

Andrew and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch (naturally, our favorite place pretty much on earth). We didn’t think they did anything for birthdays, but when we told our waitress that I was turning 21 she brought out a variety of beer samples for me to try. I enjoyed trying them all (the college student in me relishes everything that is free).

But I still hate beer.

There is a famous brewery in Kansas City that (apparently) makes really good beer and they offer free tours twice a day. So we drove downtown and arrived only to find out that the tours had already filled up. I didn’t think that they would be very busy on a Tuesday and we even arrived half an hour early.

The guy was pretty nice though, and he directed us to the tasting room where he said we could try some free samples (yay free again!!). I haven’t tried their beer before so they gave me two samples. I can’t remember their names, but they were their two best sellers. They were really gross. I couldn’t even finish them so we just left.

Even though we didn’t get to go on the tour, we had a really nice time. We drove a few blocks over to Union Station because Andrew insisted there was a lot of things to do there. There really wasn’t, haha.

The World War I Memorial – which we had visited before and really enjoyed – was just across the street. It turned out to be a beautiful day to just walk around. We didn’t go into the actual museum, but just strolled the grounds and then went to the top of the tower, which has a great view of the city.

I think my favorite part was when the security guards yelled at Andrew for not walking on the stairs. He insisted they were talking about someone else, but I knew exactly who they were talking to. ;D

That night, I went to Firehouse Subs to get my free (!!) sub sandwich that they give out on your birthday and then we stopped for ice cream afterwards. Andrew had bought a variety of cheap wines to try and they were very cheap, haha. It was really fun though. We had a couple of close friends over and played ping pong (I lost terribly). I got to wear a tiara, however, since I was the birthday girl so that made it better. My pride was only slightly wounded. You’ll have to excuse my selfies, but I was slightly inebriated and I really liked my tiara.

The Office was just playing in the background all night, but as we all became a little tipsy, we ended up just lying around and watching episodes back to back.

Not the most eventful 21st birthday, but I had a really nice time with Andrew and friends.

P.S. Fruity drinks are the best ever.

Friday was the start of my spring break and my parents and I made plans to spend a long weekend in Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen my grandma in at least a year and Andrew has never met her. It’s a twelve hour drive there, so I packed my headphones and coloring books and we were off Saturday morning at 530 AM.

 

I love being in Pennsylvania, or at least the area my grandma lives because everything is very simple. The nearest Walmart or even grocery store is about a 20 or 30 minute drive and – we hadn’t noticed this before – the town she lives in is called a village.

I don’t think I could live out so far away from “civilization” but I love going to visit. It’s nice to get away and to just be with my dad’s side of the family. I don’t get to see them nearly enough and Andrew has only met most of them once at my brother’s wedding so it was nice for him to meet them again before the wedding in August.

We took a lot of walks, my mom and I showing Andrew the area. We took the bridge across the river and to the railroad tracks and then back to my grandma’s house.

I forgot how much I missed my grandpa when we went back up. My grandma loves to talk about him and everything just feels off without him there. I wish Andrew could have met him. It’s hard to believe it has almost been four years since his death. We wanted to stop by and see his grave but we just didn’t have time.

We found an old globe in the room upstairs that I had fun looking at. Russia was still the Soviet Union and Myanmar was still Burma. We also found an old album of all my aunts and uncles and their weddings. So much fun looking at all the crazy hair and big glasses.

All the little things that make my grandma’s feel like home. I meant to capture a few more but I was feeling a bit too lazy, haha. All in all, a wonderful relaxing weekend with the family. ❤️