30 days until 30

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by Making Magic in Coach Jenn, Life on Maui, Runners HI, Wanderlust

…2 days until Anu’s Bach party, 6 days until the end of the regular school year, 7 days until my Moms 50th birthday in Oahu, 15 days until my Uncle Rays Maui wedding, 30 days until my 30th birthday, 50 days until Anu & Joe’s wedding, 55 days until Colt’s 30th birthday, 81 days until Lika’s wedding, 94 days until our 2 year wedding anniversary and 113 days until Kevin and Kristen’s wedding in Florida! (whew, are you exhausted yet?!?)

To say I’ve been busy would be a total understatement but not the kind of busy that you hate and all you want to do is pull your hair out, but more of the kind of busy that your non-stop living your life and wishing that there were just a few more hours in everyday. With that being said you can only imagine my surprise when I jumped on my blog to renew my yearly dues and I realized I haven’t posted since December (shame, shame) so here it goes!

This school year of coaching has been nothing short of amazing! I’ve learned so much and grown not only as a person but also as a coach. I’ve established an irreplaceable relationship with my students and I couldn’t feel more blessed to wake up everyday and go to a job that I truly love! It’s been such a positive and enlightening change in my life and I often wonder how I EVER (ever) did anything else!

On top of coaching full time and Lightning Electric part time I’ve also recently started a new adventure with a long time friend and his production company. The role is still evolving but I’m excited to be apart of yet another successful small business on Maui that I believe in. It’s such a big (and rewarding) change after working for corporate all those years!

Aside from my professional life my personal life has also been delightfully busy and filled with all of the things that I love which include but aren’t limited to being a wife to Colt, being a maid of honor to my best friend Kristen and Anu, spending time with family & friends, running, beaching, exploring and traveling!

The Warrior Dash in Oahu, I finished in the top 20 woman in my heat which was a huge accomplishment not to mention a blast!

The run till your green race was my fastest 5k to date!

The happiest 5k on earth, need I say more!

I also took a girls trip to Tahoe with Anu to celebrate her upcoming wedding. To say it was the best girls trip EVER would be the biggest understatement of the century.

After Tahoe came my favorite trip of the year which is going to Cali to visit sister stew, go to stagecoach (watching Lynyrd Skynyrd perform free bird live is now at the top 10 happiest moments of my life) and of course we couldn’t leave without saying hello to the mouse!

As you can clearly see married life continues to get better by the day. Being married to your best friend is truly life’s greatest blessing. I fall in love with Colt more and more everyday and being away from him (even only for the work day) is truly hard. I love being by his side, he makes my life richer and me better. I can’t wait to celebrate our 5 years together, and 2 years married in August!

When I woke up this morning and realized it was 30 days until 30 a part of me felt really sad to know that my 20’s (the best years of my life, thus far) were coming to an end. Yet part of me felt so incredibly overwhelmed with excitement for the next year to come! 30 — three zero — the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult is still extremely weird and overwhelming to me on the daily and now to know that I’m a soon to be thirty year old is even weirder!!! Especially when you hear things like “make sure you have a good a skin-care regimen if you don’t already” and that my exercise routine will now be a necessity rather than a leisure which I can’t lie scares me a lot. But on the flip side I am also ready to find out the good stuff like why they say life begins at 30 and to experience all the new adventures, lessons and blessings that are yet to come.

As for the rest, they say counting time isn’t as important as making time count..” and I fully intend to do just that!

Kona-teering

31 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

big island, family, friends, Happiness, Hawaii, Life, Travel, vacation, wanderlust

We spent this past weekend vacationing on the Big Island with Joe, Anu and her family. We were so stoked when Anu told us at the beginning of the summer that her Dad won a gift certificate for a weekend stay at the Hilton Waikoloa timeshares and decided to give it to us. It was such a generous gift to give and believe me we appreciated and enjoyed every single second.

The boys left early (5 a.m. kinda early) on Friday morning to catch the first flight into Kona, so they could golf with Auntie Shal & Uncle Russ. They were able to play golf at two of the nicest courses on big island and they couldn’t have been more happy.

Since Anu and I were going for more of the relaxing (let’s get drunk at the pool) kinda weekend we didn’t arrive until a little after 12:30 on Friday. Once we landed we drove over to Costco to stock up on all the essentials then headed straight for the hotel to enjoy some much needed girl time.

Anu & Jenn take Kona begins..

Next stop, best weekend ever.

Welcome to our home-base for the next 3 days.

As soon as the bell man (barley) closed the door Anu & I were jumping up and down and running through the condo like 5 year olds for a good 10 minutes.

It doesn’t get much better than this

(this picture captures “vacation” Anu perfectly, my goodness I just love her)

well until you open the back sliding door to your own private pool and jacuzzi…jackpot!

cheers to the best of friends and adult vacations on Kona

Pre-gaming with a game of Apples to Apples (to go) before heading over to Anu’s families place for a Friday night BBQ

Saturday morning the boys hit the golf course while Anu & I took over Kona, the Hilton, the pool and the pool bar

(you know just your typical girls day)

All that swimming and sunning sure did make us thirsty, so it was no big surprise that we spent the rest of our afternoon at the pool bar

We made friends with our bartender Donna and before we knew it we had sipped and laughed the afternoon away

Drink of the day (with vodka instead of rum)

Shot of the day (no clue)

Pact of the day

(you wish you knew)

the daily essentials…

flowers, heart shaped sunglasses, room keys, the boys credit cards and the vap (duh)

Best ranch in the whole entire world (ever in the universe)

A girls day wouldn’t be complete without a ANTM photo-shoot

We got these luscious looking drinks to take back to the room for the boys

(and then drank most of them on the way while stealing a golf cart…)

(don’t judge us, the ground was HOT!)

The boys were not amused with us so they hit the bar by themselves

(but we of course crashed their party)#jjacmusketeers aka double diva’s

After the pool we headed back to the room for some more apples to apples (to go) sunset, dinner and drinks

Since Anu & I had spent the day pooling & exploring we had found Sansei (which is one of our favorite sushi places on Maui) so we opted not to tell the boys and surprised them with late night 1/2 off pupus and karaoke

this is their “surprise” faces

we were pretty proud of ourselves

so we signed them up for some “surprise” songs, lol

Joe didn’t seem to mind

We even sang a few duets

(we would NEVER do this in Maui, btw)

On Sunday we all went down to the other Hilton resort and spent our day pooling and lagoon-ing

and we of course hit the slides

you don’t even want to know why they are cracking up

(or you do…but you just had to be there)

After hours of pooling we were totally water logged so we hit the road to go leave our mark on Kona by writing our hashtag in coral off of one of the main highways
finding the perfect spot

hashtagging it up

getting the “perfect” picture from above

#jjacmusketeers

(were here, best weekend ever)

Stage(Rage)Coach

20 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

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Tags

california, country music, festival, freebird, Happiness, love, music, music lovers, stagecoach

I just realized yesterday when I was creating my “wanderlust” category after blogging about our Kona trip (Kona-teering) that I never did get around to blogging about Stagecoach, the 3 day country festival we went to this past April.

Now this is a major problem for two reasons (1) half of the reason for this blog is to document our life, travel, trips and adventures for Colt & I to reference them again in the future when we are crossing things off our bucket list or just reading stories to our children on how rad our life was, and (2) it was hands down the best concert I have ever been to in my life. So here I am (back)-blogging, but hey better late than never.

For those of you that don’t know what Stagecoach is it’s basically California’s country music festival that takes place over a three day period at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. It is a million degrees and each day has a killer line up of country artists, vendors and fun. This was this years line up:

But before I go on about the actual weekend let me back track a bit. Colt LOVES country music and I mean (LOVES) it. He is a cowboy hat, boots wearing, chewing tobacco country music lover. As for me, well not so much (until now that is) but I am always down for a good time so when Ashley told us that we had to come with her this year we happily agreed. We had to buy our tickets way in advance (like last fall for this April) since the festival sells out within hours so by the time it actually came around we were more than ready, plus the line up was pretty stellar (even for me, I love Dierks Bentley & Lady Antebellum)

We arrived in LA on Thursday and drove from Newport to Indio early Friday morning to set up shop at our awesome two bedroom condo at the World Mark.

I am so ready to rock this 3 day country fest… cowboy boots, check, cowboy hat, check, watermelon, check..let’s do this!

The Stew Crew is ready to party

Pre-gaming before we head out for round 1

The walk from where the cab has to drop you off to the actual concert grounds is like a million miles in a million degree weather (not joking) we were seriously so over it by time number 1 and then had to do it 7 more times over the next 2 days, lol

Colt clearly thought it was hilarious

and so did Ashley

Ashley forgot our wrist bands (aka our concert tickets) in Newport so the boys were in the car ready to go back and drive 3 hours when we called will call and found out we could cancel the old bands and get new ones, whew..Ash you got so lucky!

The grounds were beautiful, well organized, clean and safe and once the sun went down it was the most perfect concert atmosphere

I loved everything about being there the music, the atmosphere, the people it was so country

Since it was so hot the next day we decided to just chill at the pool until the grounds cooled down, we all had certain artists we wanted to see and luckily most of them were later in the afternoon

After a great day at the pool we got country ready, yeeehotttt

here comes the hike, round 2

looks like I wasn’t the only one hating the walk this time, Colt got a huge blister from his new cowboy boots and had to go to medical

but no worries they got my cowboy back on his feet in no time..

The shitshow sisters back in action

(my favorite)

and as the sun went down things heated up

(fat girl status, I love pizza)

check out the girl behind me, I mean it really was that hot but still…lol

Day 3 started back at the pool with the Stew Crew

(Even, Steven, Cleveland just getting it)

sister, sister

and then it was back to the grounds for the grand finale

This was the day I was most excited about so many good artists and the head liner was Zac Brown Band, so fun!

one of my all time favorite moments of me just getting it on my husbands shoulders free-birding

Love this cowboy so so much

the stage(rage)coach crew, we did it!

We are all still standing after 3 long days!

(well barely…)

To say it was an amazing 3 day weekend would be a major understatement. From the festival, to the hotel, to the group of people it seriously couldn’t have gotten any better.

I can’t wait for tickets to go on sale in the next month or two so we can start planning Stage(rage)coach 2014 cause we are just as free, free as we’ll ever be, ever be…

Surprise! We (were) in Reno

04 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Explore, family, Happiness, Life, Marriage, married life, newlyweds, Travel, true love

Well I guess it is no longer a “surprise” that Colt and I spent our Christmas in Reno with our family. However, it was one BIG surprise when we showed up.

(Rewind to October)

We booked tickets back in October when I found a great deal online. It was Colt’s families year for Christmas so I just causally asked him one day if he would like to spend it in Reno. He just kind of looked at me with a “really” face and then excitingly said “Yes! Let’s do it!” I seriously couldn’t have been more excited, traveling for Christmas was like a dream come true for me. It just adds to the magic and nostalgia of an already magical holiday! We booked our tickets that night and decided we wouldn’t tell anyone (besides Ashley & Chad since they would be in Reno too). We giggled and laughed just thinking about how “surprised” they were going to be. We knew from my facebook stalking that Kellie (my mother in law) was hosting everyone at her house and that so much of Colt’s family would be there this year, it felt like real Christmas already and we were still a few months away.

(Fast forward, it’s December!)

When December 1st finally hit I was like a little kid in a candy store. I couldn’t believe we were only 20 days away from the surprise, I also couldn’t believe that it was still a surprise and that NOBODY knew that we were coming (just that sentence alone sends me into a fit of giggles, even after the fact) we were just days away from the best surprise EVER and on CHRISTMAS!

December of course flew by with work and holiday celebrations with family and trips to Oahu that before we could even say “Reno” we were on the plane. We flew out of Maui Friday December 21st on a overnight red eye to San Francisco. Our “plan” was to land in Reno at 9am on Saturday morning pick up our rental and spend the day with Colt’s family (word of advice there is no such thing as a “plan” when no one knows you are coming). We arrived in Reno a little over an hour late (we got delayed in San Francisco) just to find out from Colt’s mom’s facebook that she was snow plowing with Steve and Tristyn in Tahoe for the day! We couldn’t believe it! Here we are in RENO at 10am ready to surprise them and they were in TAHOE! (they didn’t end up coming home until after 8pm that night!)

What you will see below is a series of videos. I was so worried I wasn’t going to be able to remember every second of the experience to write about later so I decided to video blog every moment… ENJOY!

The Stake out Part I

http://youtu.be/5CPywZZey-c

The Stake out Part II

<;;;a title=”The Stew’s Take Reno”

The Stake out Part III

http://youtu.be/BTMM84SSAE4

The Stake out Part IIII

This was the last video of “the stake out” once we left the bar Kellie was home and we flew up her driveway like a mad man(woman). I (thought) I was taping the whole time but my phone died so I was only able to capture this…

http://youtu.be/UBguRS_qIQYb

..because both of our phones had died shortly after “the stake out” I unfortunately was not able to get Austin’s reaction either which was priceless (he looked like he saw the ghost of Colt, so sweet). However we were able to get Grandma’s reaction in her FULL shocked glory….

Since we weren’t able to get Kellie, Austin, and Tristyn’s reaction we later did a video interview with them asking what their “thoughts” were on the surprise…

http://youtu.be/DWpK25-Ccig

Since grandpa really had no idea what was going on during the “surprise” (he just heard grandma screaming and thought he won the Publishing Clearing house) we later asked him what he thought about the “surprise” to give him a little face time…

http://youtu.be/qF97U3SBbN4

and last but certainly not least we FINALLY got to pick up Ash and Chad (secret agents) that were “in” on the surprise…they of course got the FULL holiday mobile greeting from the Stews….

<;;a title=”Picking up Ash & Chad (secret agents)

We had so much fun with these video blogs and I couldn’t be more happy that I was able to capture every moment in its entirety! The Stew’s take Reno was a success!

I will post pictures of the rest of our amazing trip soon, until then keep laughing with one another…

What a (World)Wind of a Year

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Making Magic in Thoughts from Jenn, Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Colt and I spent last weekend in Oahu with my family. We decided to have a Christmas party and help them decorate their tree. We also did Christmas shopping, partied, hung out, ate, ate some more watched football and just enjoyed a family weekend. It reminded me a lot of the holiday weekends when I was younger, everyone just hanging around laughing and talking and farting. We had such a wonderful time. When we got back to Maui on Sunday we were totally beat so we unpacked the small things took at quick shower and jumped into bed. Once we were in bed Colt said “well babe I’ll tell you I never did so much traveling until I met you..” I lay there thinking about his statement and laughed to myself, traveling? We just went to Oahu that was hardly “traveling” I mean minus the fact that we had to get on a plane.

When we got married I told Colt that if we were going to stay living on Maui then I wanted to travel at least three times a year. Now…don’t get me wrong I know I live in Maui and people would die to come here even just once but come on there is so much more to see! So I told Colt our goal for 2013 would be at least two trips inside the US and at least one trip outside the US and that we couldn’t go to a place that we have both been before. For instance we can go to Boston because he has never been but I have or Reno because he has been but I haven’t. Now don’t get me wrong we can still go to places like California, Oahu or Vegas but they just won’t count towards the two trips inside the US because we have both been there. Colt agreed and I could not have been more excited!

Just as soon as he agreed I started planning. Even after Colt’s statement that we traveled “a lot” I still couldn’t help but think that we needed to travel more, do more, go more places until I heard the statement again the other night at dinner with the Vernon’s. We met them and Colt’s Dad at Outback Steak house for Cam’s birthday last week. I went over after work and found them all sitting around a big table drinking and talking. I walked up and gave everyone a hug as Khloe introduced me to her two friends that she proudly got to bring along with her to her father’s birthday dinner. After my greetings I gladly took my place by Colt and Cay and ordered a glass of red. It had been a long day and I was really looking forward to some family time. It was a great dinner and the conversations flowed but it wasn’t until I overheard Khloe telling her friend that “Uncle and I were World Travelers” that my interest really peaked. I listened to her as she eagerly and excitingly told her friends all the places we had been “yea they have been everywhere! They go to California, Vegas, Florida, Oahu and they even went to Thailand, I’m so jealous I wish I was them.” Smiling as I watched her finish I gave her a wink knowing that one day she too would be traveling the world, but as we drove home I really thought about her words. In this past year we have traveled to Las Vegas, Florida, Oahu, Seoul Korea, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai as well as the Golden Triangle which boarders Burma and Laos. It wasn’t until right then that I realized it, we had already hit our goal for 2013 in 2012 and had done so totally unintentionally. I was so excited that some of our bigger places were already checked off like Disney World and North Thailand.

As I sat there smiling I started to think about 2012 as a whole and I could barely believe all that we had done. In just one year we saved for our wedding, went to Las Vegas for our Bachelor / Bachelorette, went to Oahu more than a handful of times to see my family & friends, had our dream wedding at the Grand Wailea, honeymooned all over Thailand, stopped twice in Korea and went to Disney world.

What a truly amazing year it’s been…and the best part …it’s not even OVER!

Us at our Bachelor / Bachelorette Party in May in Las Vegas

Our dream wedding on August 25th at the Grand Wailea in Maui Hawaii

Getting our stamps in Seoul Korea, this was right before we got scolded for leaving the airport when we weren’t suppose to…

Colt re-entering Seoul Korea after our little trip outside of the airport…

Finally, we made it! Sawatdeekah Thailand the Stewarts have landed!

Visiting the Golden Triangle during our Honeymoon in August in Thailand

on our way to ride elephants at the tented camp in Thailand during our honeymoon

meeting the elephants at our camp while honeymooning at the Golden Triangle in Thailand

Colt & I treking elephants through the jungle in Thailand

My husband the master mahout

best experience (hands down) of my life. I rode this elephant for over 4 hours in Thailand

Bathing our elephants after a 4 hour adventure through the jungle of Thailand, this was the highlight of my entire trip.

Elephants or this boat were our means of transporation for 5 days while exploring the Golden Triangle in Thailand

The Burma Bar at the tented camps at the Golden Triangle in Thailand, we were treated like celebrities nightly

The Burma Bar at the tented camps at the Golden Triangle in Thailand, where we were treated like celebrities …nightly

The sunset bar at the tented camps at the Golden Triangle in Thailand. They loved to “suprise” Colt with a new cocktail nightly.

One of the many temples we visited during our stay at the Golden Triangle in Thailand. Woman must cover up their knees and shoulders when entering, it is to show respect.

one of many market places in Thailand, this is were the local Thai people shop and eat, doesn’t it make you so hungry? mmmm

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat and is breath-taking

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat and is oddly beautiful

Colt & I at Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

Chilling at the Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

my most favorite meal ever! I ate this every day that we were in Northern Thailand and would die for it right now.

Playing with 3-6 month old Tigers while visiting Tiger Kingdom during our stay in Chiang Mai

Playing with 3 to 6 month old Tigers while visiting Tiger Kingdom during our stay in Chiang Mai

Colt actually saved a young woman from drowning at the Four Seasons Resort in Chiang Mai. He is so amazing, my hero.

We rode so many tuk tuk's during our trip in Thailand, this picture was taking in Bangkok

We rode so many tuk tuk’s during our trip in Thailand, this picture was in Bangkok. It was pouring rain and the traffic was crazy.

Us in the back of a tuk tuk after a very long and interesting night in Bangkok Thailand.

Harry Potter World in Flordia this past November was amazing. The butter beer was to die for!

Harry Potter World in Florida this past November was amazing. The butter beer was to die for!

We had such a great time visiting all five Parks over the course of 3 days while in Disney World

During our most recent trip to Oahu to visit the family. We love them so much.

…Blessed we are…

The Happiest Place on Earth

15 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by Making Magic in Wanderlust

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Dream, Explore, Happiness, married life, Travel

Is it weird that 90% of the time when I go to write a blog a song which resembles what I am about to write about instantly pops into my head? For example as soon as I sat down to write this…boom:

♪ There ain’t no rest for the wicked,

Money don’t grow on trees,

I got bills to pay

I got a mouth to feed

Ain’t nothing in this world for free.

I know I can’t slow down,

I can’t hold back

Though you know I wish I could

Oh no there ain’t no rest for the wicked ♪

Now the “wicked” part is debatable but the “no rest” part is a shoo-in because we honestly have not slowed down since the wedding/honeymoon. With Colt starting his new job we now have weekends off together and boy have we been making the most of them! We have done everything from family time, to photo shoots, to pumpkin picking, to pumpkin carving, to running 5k’s in honor and celebration of Auntie Jamie to going to Florida and planning & booking more trips. Every weekend since September has been filled with some kind of fun and or shenanigans and I am exhausted! Exhausted from LIFE and LIVING and I am loving it! I love that every moment we have that we are not working we are exploring a new space or place, making a new memory or just enjoying our love. I have to say getting married is the best thing I have ever done! There is just something about being able to experience life with your significant other who is also your best friend that is so exhilarating.

We just got home from Florida a week ago today. Colt has never been to the East coast (I know that statement is so crazy to me too) and I had a work conference in Orlando from Sunday to Friday so we decided it would be a great opportunity to fly him out. We quickly made plans with my two cousins who both live about two hours from Orlando and whom I haven’t seen in 5 years! During those 5 years Kelly & her husband Elton have had 2 beautiful baby girls and Chrissie & Omar also had a beautiful baby girl (I know I can’t believe it, 3 girls!) I was so excited to finally meet them and squeeze them but also have them all finally meet Colt! As if that wasn’t already amazing enough my bestest friend Kristen also decided to come down with her boyfriend Kevin so we decided to make the trip into a Disney World / Universal three day fun-filled family vacation! 5 parks, 3 days no biggie….or so we thought!

Colt got into Florida on Friday night right in time for my conference to end. I couldn’t have been more happy to see him (and in Florida none the less). I had missed him so much that week since this was my first trip without him since we became husband and wife. It was so exciting to be having our first real vacation as a “married” couple. Kristen and Kevin also got in later that evening so we went to dinner had some drinks then hit the sack. I of course had a strict itinerary planned for us over the next 3 days and there wasn’t much time for sleep.

Date: Saturday November 3, 2012

Location: Universal’s Island of Adventure & Downtown Disney

Begin Time: 6:00am

End Time: 11:00pm

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was by far one of the highlights of my trip (it also happened to be one of my bucket list items..check!)

the butter beer was to die for, I had two then thought I might barf.

These three look a little too natural with those magic wands..hmmm

the Harry Potter exclusive “hog’s head” beer (on tap of course) hit the spot after a long day of flying on broomsticks

After 7 hours at the park we were ready to get our feet back on the ground so we drove to downtown Disney to meet my amazing family for dinner. Talk about baby fever, whew…these sweet girls captured our hearts instantly.

Ellyana this is her “don’t you see I’m coloring Auntie” look. Love this sweet angel, she is so beautiful and such a wonderful big sister to Ellysa and cousin to Giana.

Baby Giana. ohh just look at that face! She is so beautiful and such a happy & sweet girl.

The newest addtion to our growing family Ellysa Grace! She is so sweet and cute as a button at just 8 weeks old.

I honestly still can’t believe these are my cousins babies! It is so crazy and amazing to see them as Mom’s with their own families. You are both amazing wives and mothers. Love you both so much.

My beautiful cousins Chrissie & Kelly.

Date: Sunday November 4, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom & Epcot

Begin time: 7:00am

End time: 11:00pm

Good Morning Minni Mouse Diva’s & Best of Friends.

Rock and Roll Baby!

One of Colt, Kevin & I’s favorite ride…Kristen not so much.

our favorite park of the 4

best coaster of the bunch

Kilimanjaro African Safari got two thumbs up!

not much could compare to the Disney World dance party…just shaking our groove thing with the Goof!

Date: Monday November 5, 2012

Location: Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Hollywood Studios

Begin time: 8:00am

End time: 11:00pm

On Monday the parks were jam packed by 9am so instead of waiting in long lines we went over to Epcot for their food & wine festival which took us on a trip around the world and I must say Mickey’s Bar Crawl was a brilliant success!

…well until my best friend threw me in a rose bush!