Gina's Birthday

Sunday, April 6th, was Gina's birthday. For this special occasion we went for a nice breakfast at a cafe, chilled around the house, had some yummy cake, watched her open her presents, and went to Nandos for a YoungLife dinner.While it doesn't sound A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, I love how we've improvised on birthdays and festivities while living here. Before, it would be this huge bash with all our family, but now its just about celebrating happy moments with the people we are close too, our immediate family and friends.Birthdays are such fun times, and even when it's not my own, I still enjoy celebrating others birthday and having the opportunity to enjoy their happiness with them.

Happy Birthday Gina :)

Snow!

As soon as we arrived back from Cyprus (which by the way was warm and sunny), we were welcomed back by the lovely British rain :P Little did we know that later that night, temperatures would freeze and the precipitation would continue to fall...This is outside the front window just after I woke upThis is outside my bedroom window looking out onto the backyard that morning.

I was so weirded out by the snow! I mean seriously, its April 6th, which usually means spring type weather, and outside there's snow, its about 30 degrees, and it feels like January. I swear this had to be one of the effects of global warming. As weird as it was, I still enjoyed every bit of it. The cool thing about snow is that it just brings out the best in everyone. You look outside and children are building snowmen, kids are having snowball fights, and adults just take it all in.

At the same time, I just marveled at the wonderful creation bestowed upon us. And how, while its out of the ordinary, God gave this beautiful gift to us to enjoy for a few short hours (as everything melted by noon). There is a perfect quote to go along with this:

"Snow is a magical blanket...it hides what's ugly and makes everything beautiful"

Cyprus

So for the second part of Spring Break, we decided to take a trip to Cyprus. For those of you who don't know, Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Mediterannean Sea. On a map, it's directly south of Turkey, west of Israel/Lebanon, and North of Egypt. Its basically a Greek island, though half of it is ruled by Turkey (there is many disputes and even a UN border between the Greek and Turkish side)

Anyways, on the island we stayed at this fantastic resort called Aphrodite Hills (due to its proximity to the mythical birth place of aphrodite). Our room had its own private pool and overlooked the golf course and the Mediterannean.

While the temperatures weren't hot enough to swim or go to the beach, it was still fairly nice weather (we were able to wear shorts and t-shirts and lay out BY the pool). Me, my dad, and my sister's boyfriend David (who came with us) went golfing one day on the 18-hole championship golf course at the resort while my sister and mom went to the spa. Another day we went into the town of Limassol and did some shopping, as well as went to see Aphrodite's Rock (that mythical birthplace I mentioned). Each night was usually spent eating out at one of the many restaraunts at the resort.

I'm really glad I went to Cyprus, cause it was quite a different vacation than our norms. Usually, I go on school trips involving work of some sort or sightseeing in some old European city. This vacation was more of a relaxing, lounging around type of thing, in which we just got to take a break from well life. Everyone needs those every once in a while.