Top 5 Tuesday: Vacations

Happy Tuesday! My professor let us out an hour early from class tonight, and I am in a great mood! And, I could also use a little motivation to get me to Spring Break, so why not link up with Rachel over at Just Peachy for Top 5 Tuesday in which today's Top 5 just happens to be vacations!

I love to travel and have been lucky to be able to do a good amount of traveling in my life, and I still have SO many more places I want to go! Kyle and I are currently saving for a South-American last- hoorah before we have children...don't worry, that's still a few years away! Even though we won't do too much major traveling before then, we'll at least have some pretty amazing memories of some pretty wonderful vacations to get us through until our next!

1. France & Italy for our Honeymoon
This is by far one of my favorite vacations ever (as it should be!), and I spend many a days dreaming about the amazing Italian food, the thrill of being at the top of the Eiffel tower, riding a bike through the Louvre at sundown, and walking along the beautiful beaches of Nice!

2. Bimini, Bahamas...Another favorite! After I graduated high school, all of the seniors in our youth group spent a week on a catamaran in the gorgeous, deep blue ocean! It was seriously one of the most amazing trips of my life. We stopped somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with no land in sight, jumping off the boat. We snorkeled around an abandoned ship, spent our days laying out on the boat....oh what I wouldn't give to do that again! And, let's not forget the amazing water-balloon fight between the two boats...priceless! It was the typical post-graduation trip...the perfect way to start the summer before college! The bad news...I didn't have a digital camera at the time, so all my pics are hard copies that are still at my parents house! Boooo me :(

But here are some pics that I found on facebook from a group that went a year or so after us...I'll just pretend these were mine!

3. New York City
Some friends and I went to the Big Apple for our Spring Break during our sophomore year! It was SO much fun! We had a big group because we went as part of a Teaching Fellows enrichment experience, and some days we all did stuff together, and others we split into smaller groups! I remember how proud I felt of my bff, Ash, and I when we navigated the city all by ourselves to do some great shopping and hit up the Met...did I mention that it snowed!? Crazy times!

4. Jamaica

Our youth group went on a wonderful mission trip to Jamaica and spent a week in an extremely impoverished area, building a church and leading a vacation Bible school. It was an amazing experience and extremely humbling. We also got to spend the weekend at a really nice resort, which now that I think about it...is a little crazy to go from one extreme to the other, but our youth group always liked to add in a little something special on the side for these trips! I cannot believe I'm going to show you guys this picture because it is totally embarrassing...and please remember that I was only in 8th grade and it was before I realized that bangs were totally not cool and that a hair straightener can go a long way!

My 3 best friends (Kristen, Julie, & Michaela) and our awesome Bible Study leader, Ms. Amanda!

5. Any of my family summer vacations around the US!
Did I ever mention that my family and my mom's sister's family spent 6 summers traveling all over the US together!? Those are some of my favorite trips from all times, and we are forever bonded for life over these experiences together! We've done pretty much every national park, historical sight, big city, you name it in this country, and I could not feel more blessed to have had these experiences! Again, the lack of photos that I actually have is frustrating, but I promise there are a ton on my family's computer...must upload to mine ASAP! Here are the only 2 I have...which actually do no justice to the amazing things we've seen! Oh welllllll....

Florida!

Los Angeles!

Oh yes, there have been some great vacations! So glad I got to take this little trip down memory lane! Here's to the next 5 great vacays!