For Christmas, one of my stocking stuffers from my husband Zeb (oh yeah, I’m married! I suppose we do have a lot to catch up from since my last blogging phase from 2011-2018!) was a cute rom-com fiction book called “Love, Lists and Fancy Ships.” The main character is a 29-year old yacht stewardess who created a list of 30 things to accomplish before she turned 30. While reading the book, I was 28 and about to turn 29 myself. The number “30” startles my gag reflex. It’s an age that sounds so much farther in the distance for me than it really is. I feel like I just finished college still. I know I’ve hit the major adult milestones in my 20s – bought a house, got married, and found out I was pregnant with my first baby. But I still don’t feel “adult” enough to qualify for the 30s club just yet.

To make the new decade more palatable, I decided to copy the main character from this novel and write my own bucket list to make the most of the rest of my 20s.

The morning of my 29^th birthday, Zeb and I went to brunch together at a local spot here in Idaho. I started a new note in my phone and began listing activities I hoped to do before my next birthday. By the end of our brunch, I had 17 items I would commit to doing over the next 365 days. We brought the note back out at dinner with my parents that night and rounded out the 30 items.

And here it is:

30 Things To Do Before Turning 30

1. Visit a National Park
2. Stand-Up Paddle Board
3. Run a Half Marathon
4. Visit a Museum
5. Sing Karaoke at a Bar
6. Do 30 Push-ups in a Row
7. Officiate a Wedding
8. Read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
9. Try Caviar
10. Fit Back into my Wedding Dress
11. Volunteer at an Event
12. Plant a Garden
13. Catch a Fish
14. Practice Calligraphy
15. Watch All of the Harry Potter Movies
16. Give Birth
17. Make Homemade Bread
18. Sled Down the Bruneau Sand Dunes
19. Attend a Concert
20. Swim in an Ocean
21. Learn New Winter Sport
22. Hike a New Trail in Idaho
23. Visit a New Country
24. Make a Coffee Table Scrapbook
25. Ride a Roller Coaster
26. Take a Dance Class
27. Play 18 Holes of Disc Golf
28. Jump in a Pool with all my Clothes On
29. Go Tent Camping
30. Travel to 3 Different States

Zeb says its cheating to add “give birth” since I’m nine months pregnant as I wrote this list (oh yeah, another catch-up moment for those blog readers that haven’t heard from me in 3 years. Surprise!) but I think it’s a pretty momentous occasion during my 20s that I should get some kind of credit for on this list of activities!

I plan to create a journal/blog entry for every item on this list as I cross it off and document the year through the photos and stories this brings up. So stay tuned to see how we work our way through this list before I turn the big 3-0 on February 12, 2023!