Happy Birthday to me

I know, I know....I am super late....what else is new?

On my birthday we set out to have fun...and that is what we did. First my boyfriend Josh made me a smoothie...with blueberries, strawberries, bananas, and aloe vera juice.

Off to explore the day...first we went to Lake Macbride to see what there is to do there, which surprising was a lot.

The weather here is so weird...can go from sunny and beautiful to a thunderstorm warning within minutes...I have never seen clouds move this fast before. It has been on and off rain all week, so we figured while the weather was pretty we were gonna head up to the lake and take our chances.

We get there and the weather is sunny and great...in fact it was like this from the time we left home to when we arrived (about 20 minutes)
We go to the boat area and were told that they just had a hard rain just minutes before we arrived (i told you, weird weather)

We looked around and I already did kayaking with Heather so we decided to Canoe...
The girls at the counter were real nice, gave us our cushion for our butts and a life vest, which we were told we didn't have to wear...uhmm ok.

We picked out our canoe and went to put it in the water, I tell ya we are seriously the most uncoordinated couple ever. I volunteered to sit in the back thinking I will have no problem steering...I had no problem with Heather when she and I went.
We get in the boat and Josh tells me about when he last went canoeing when he was a child and a wave, from a boat that had gone past, tipped them over....well I don't want that to happen so mu stress level went up a little with the possibility of flipping over when the girls at the counter give me a life vest that I DON'T really NEED to wear.
We paddle out and I quickly figure out that this is not like the time with Heather,....there are boats flying past and I and hoping with each wave that hits us that we do not flip over. Then while I think I am doing a good job at steering and paddling I get told that I need to peddle faster or that I am paddling on the wrong side....ok I love Josh very much but I was doing everything in my power to not hit him with my ore. lol
We make a lap around at least half of the lake when I feel a sprinkle of rain hit me and decide we should turn back now before it rains really hard. We turn back and try to avoid all the boats and other people out on the lake. It starts to come down a little harder and my stress level goes up higher...because I may be able to see the dock but it also felt miles away and it's not like we were making a straight line with all the wind and small waves pushing us around...not to mention I do not want to tip over, I can swim but I am not a strong swimmer AND I hear all these horror stories about brain eating bug creatures in lakes and stuff.
We finally made it to the beach dock area where we started from. We got out and put the canoe away. Finally we were done, and I look over and tell Josh, "next time we are renting a motor boat!" screw all this paddling shit, it's too stressful.

The anger I had disappeared the minute we got on the beach, we checked out at the desk, got back in the car and headed up further to Cedar Rapids. There is a cute little "downtown" "hip" area of Cedar Rapids called NewBo (it's super small). We stop inside an adorable thrift shop, and I love thrift store shopping. I found a bunch of goodies...old licence plates, old mics, and an old record player stereo that still worked, he wanted $80 bucks for it...we wanted it so bad but couldn't figure out how to get it home, we were driving a little Honda and didn't want to mess it up by putting it on the roof..so we didn't get it :(

We walked a little further and saw a "before I die" board, apparently these are very popular at fairs and festivals...so we wrote on it.

Josh wrote "to grow old with my baby doll, Shea" and I wrote "Marry the man I love, Josh" (I didn't know what else to write)
Then we went across the street to the indoor bazaar called the NewBo City Market, which was kinda cool, we were in search of food and wanted to see if there was anything in there....but nothing that struck us.

There was a plant booth that had some cute things, Josh got me some succulents (he's partial to succulents, being from Arizona) we got about six little succulents which the woman said that they would be very easy to take care of, which is good because I have a black thumb. She said just put some rocks in a pot then a little potting soil.
By the way the lady lied, they died do fast! I will stick with my tropical plants that tell me when to water them.

Outside there was a sandcastle contest going on, its amazing what you find just driving around.

We did finally found a place to eat at Parlor City Pub and Eatery, it was a cute little place, apparently very popular for their beer selection, I had a buffalo chicken wrap with was pretty good and our server was very helpful, we asked about the place across the street and he seemed to be very informative about that place and about the on goings around town. All the servers wore different beer shirts....you know I notice and tried to figure out their uniform ;)