A Perfect Day for Alyssa: Horses and Cakes!

I had such a super lovely day on wednesday ^^  The A horse riding team had a competition against a few other university teams and I went with a few friends to go and support, take photos and have a bake sale to raise money for Riding for the Disabled (RDA). RDA is a charity which I have been greatly involved with for the past year and a half. It helps children and adults with mental and physical disabilities to ride horses, which provides them with a fun form of a therapeutic activity. Last year, Emma and I went to Anglesey Riding Center every wednesday to help out with RDA, and then to have a one hour riding lesson afterwards. It was always such a nice day for us both ^^ This year I am co-running Bangor University's (my university ^^) involvement with RDA, however sadly I have lectures every wednesday this year and have only been able to attend one RDA session, Emma and I are gutted!

Anyway... Here are a few photos that I took during the competition, and a video ^^

What made the event even more lovely was having my two girlies Emma and Lucy there as well ^^ The three of us baked cupcakes the night before and bought them for the cake sale, I must say, although ,guilty as charged...they were made from Betty Crocker mix ( but shhh! ^^), we were still quite proud when people were choosing to buy them ^^

My beautiful Lucy <3 Notice how we're all bundled up with layers upon layers of clothes... yeah well that's because it was FREEZING. We couldn't feel our feet the entire time we were there, and we were convinced our toes would have fallen off by the time we got back home to Bangor, thankfully we were relieved to find that our toes, were indeed, still in tact when we got home ^^

 

Emma, Jess, Alice and Lucy <3 Notice Alice's drawn on mustache!? Bless her, she's had this mustache painted on this entire November! You may be wondering why... well she's been wearing it for Movember. For those of you who don't know what Movember is... it is an annual month (November) long event that involves growing a mustache to raise awareness about male health issues, such as prostate cancer.  As Alice (being a girl and all ^^) can't grow her own mustache, she decided to draw one on and wear it for the entire month, with people sponsoring her to do so. The money she raises will then be donated to the Movember Foundation Charity.

The RDA bake sale table! .... yum!?

I had such a lovely time on wednesday, and I can't wait for the next riding event! Hopefully next time I will be able to capture some better photos, as all of mine this time round didn't really turn out well... most of them were blurry! I really need to learn how to use my camera... I've had it for three years now (oops...!).

Thanks for reading guys! I hope you all have a lovely weekend, take care... and don't forget to have fun!

-Alyssa xo

Treasured Memories

I finally have the opportunity to tell you about my week in Iowa! :) As you may already know, it's my first time in America, and therefore Iowa is a completely new part of the world for me, so I really enjoyed experiencing life there. We spent our first day in Cherokee with Logan's grandparents, the next  three days in Okoboji at Logan's grandaparents' cabin by the lakes, on the fourth day we went back to Cherokee, and then the last two days we spent at Logan's other grandma's house in Ottumwa. It was a really eventful and enjoyable week, and I had such a wonderful time and am so happy I have a bunch of wonderful memories to look back on :) 

Logan took me to his childhood park in Cherokee. It was really nice to finally be able to experience places he's spent his whole life experiencing!

Our first day at lake Okoboji! We took a tour on the lake on a boat called The Queen II. It's such a beautiful place, and I loved looking at all the big beautiful houses surrounding the water. It would be incredible to own one of those houses!

Later that afternoon we played mini golf, which was a really nice and relaxed way to spend the evening :) I learnt that I absolutely SUCK at mini golf haha.

The sunset was really beautiful that night. We went to have frozen yoghurt at a cafe called bon bon, and it was so delicious! The sun was setting whilst we were sat outside enjoying our desserts, a perfect end to the day :')

The following day we went out on the boat. Logan and his grandparents went fishing. I gave it a go, but I didn't actually want to catch anything because I hate the thought of causing harm to an innocent little fish! I still had a really lovely day soaking up the sun though, and enjoying the sounds and sights of the water. The weather was beautiful which made the day all the more enjoyable.

These two photos were taken at Spirit Lake. I really love this photo of me and Logan and I think i'm going to frame it when I get home, or at least put it up somewhere for me to be able to look at all of the time :)

These two photos were taken back in Cherokee at a park that Logan used to go all the time as a child to play on the swings and climbing frames. Again, I really enjoyed being able to experience things that's helped shaped Logan into the person that he is today. I LOVE this photo of us! You know, the major thing i've learnt from this trip is that I should never again underestimate the power of love. Logan and I have been together for almost four years (in November), and for three of those years we've lived in separate countries, yet our relationship is still as strong as ever, and continues to grow each and every day! Our friendship is still the most important friendship I have ever had, and his love still never fails to make me the happiest i've ever been. Although we've been apart more than we've been together these past three years, every moment without him was and will always be completely worth every moment I get to spend together with him.

 On our last day in Iowa we went to the Iowa State Fair. It was both mine and Logan's first time there, and it was quite a unique experience, i'm really glad we went! They had loads of horses, and being a horse back rider, I really enjoyed seeing such tall and beautiful horses!

This was such a strange meeting! Blake (the guy on the right) was one of my room mates this year in university in Bangor. He was an exchange student from Iowa, and he just happened to be working at the state fair! It's such a small world!

This seriously was the best lemonade I have ever had! I've never been a big fan of lemonade, but the ones at the fair just looked too good to miss out on. It was so sweet and was just perfect for a summer's day.

Another first time for Logan and I.... deep fried oreos! They sure don't sound like they would be very tasty, but I felt obligated to try them just so that I can return back to Europe and say that I had a deep fried oreo in the States, meehee. And guess what... they were so good! They were so soft and warm, and just YUM!

So as you can see, Logan and I were super busy during our week in Iowa! We left to go to Chicago on the 18th, and we stayed the night in Logan's new apartment, and left for Tennessee on the 19th. Our night in Chicago was perfect. It was our anniversary, three years and nine months! Logan and I are only ever together for about two or three of our anniversary's a year, so they're always super special to us when we actually get to celebrate together! We had a lovely night. We went out for dinner at a restaurant called California Pizza Kitchen, and we had the most delicious pizza! Seriously, it may have been one of the best pizza's I have ever had! And the dessert, OH MY GOSH, that was insanely good! It was butter cake with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Afterwards Logan took me to Navy Pier, it was closed, so we sat by the water right by the pier, and it was really romantic and  like I mentioned in a previous post, one of my favourite things to do with Logan is to just sit by water and talk and look out onto the water, admire the pretty lights of the boats and stars. It was a perfect anniversary, and I wouldn't have had it any other way :) 

This was my first time seeing Chicago, and it's an absolutely beautiful city! Logan has been living here for the past three years, for college, and i've never visited! He's always be the one to visit me in Singapore (because both his family and I still lived there). So finally I was able to see where he's been these past three years! It was completely different to how I imagined! The architecture is gorgeous, and there is just an incredible amount to do there, I don't know how you could ever get bored. I've missed being in a big city, I haven't been in one since I lived in Singapore, so since September! And yeah, I love small towns, the country side and the sea, but I also really love the city life. I love how it's always so busy and always full of life. It's hard for me to feel alone in a city, I feel. Which is one of the reasons why I love cities. Whenever you're upset or feel alone you can just watch the world around you and you don't feel so alone any more. Another thing I love about cities is the lights! One of my favourite things in the entire world are lights. Chicago at night time, wow, the lights are amazing. I love the view from Logan's apartment window, he overlooks the city and so at night I wanted to just lay and look out the window and just enjoy the city lights :')

Logan and I have been back in Tennessee for the past five days and we go back to Chicago tomorrow, so i'll be spending my last five days in the U.S, in Chicago. I'm really sad to leave Tennessee, because i've fallen so in love with this state. It's so charming, and it's such a pretty place. I'm quite in my place here too, with music taste and such. Elvis Presley is everywhere here, what Tennessee being his home, and for those of you who know me well will know that i'm a big fan of Elvis! We went to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville the other day and they had Elvis's car and gold piano there. It was pretty cool! They also had Taylor Swift's guitar, which I loved to see as well, because i'm a fan of her too :) 

I have a crazy love for vintage things, especially type writers. I really want one! If someone were to give me a vintage typewriter as a present, I might cry haha. They're just so beautiful! I fell in love with this one <3

This was Elvis Presley's car! It's awesome, and I could totally imagine him in it. He had a gold plated tv in the back, which I thought was pretty darn cool :3

This is Elvis Presley's gold piano! Elvis was such a great piano player, I wish he had played the piano for the public as much as he had the guitar! Seriously, what a piano to have in your home huh!?

Taylor Swift's guitar! It's so pretty, I would love to own a guitar this beautiful! This photo really doesn't do it justice, really doesn't capture the sparkle and shine of it! My eyes were in heaven just looking at this guitar <3

After the Country Music Hall of Fame we went to RCA Studio B! Which was incredibly cool! So many amazing singers have recorded at that studio, including Elvis, Roy Orbison, Don Gibson, Dolly Parton, The Everly Brothers, and many more. 

Logan and I sitting at the piano Elvis used to always play <3

This is the studio! The tour guide had us all sit down in the chairs circling the room, and told us about the history of the studio. She told us that Elvis used to stand and sing at the bottom right hand side (of this photo) of the room. She told us the story of when he recorded Are You Lonesome Tonight.... Elvis was becoming frustrated because one of his back up singers kept singing the last word incorrectly, so he told everyone to leave the room, he turned off all the lights, and sang the song in complete darkness, and this version is the one that was used. The tour guide asked us all to close our eyes, and she played the song and told us to imagine being there at that moment in time. It was amazing! I could feel the music and could feel Elvis singing it in the room. It was a heart melting experience <3

I have had such a wonderful time in both Iowa and Tennessee, and i'm very sad to say goodbye to Tennessee, it really has won a big place in my heart, however I am looking forward to my next five days in Chicago, and am really excited to spend some one on one time with Logan in the place he's been living for the past three years. There are so many sights to see and so many more memories to be made. I won't be blogging until i'm back in Spain, because I really do just want to enjoy every single moment I have left with Logan this summer, because I won't be with him again until Christmas (maybe even later, our plan isn't concrete yet). So have a wonderful week everybody, and I'll be sure to update you about my time in Chicago once i'm back in Spain!

-Alyssa xo