Monthly Archives: August 2013

Meet up in the Park

The day before we left for Wales we had our first meet up with our friends who would be going up with us. Ryan and I had met both Miriam and Grant at University before they even started dating. Miriam had been my RA and we met Grant through the theatre department. I was really excited that they would be able to be here for our vow renewal as Grant had attended our wedding ten years ago and both of them had come to the hospital to visit us when Ronan was born eight years ago. That was the last time we had seen them and now they have three boys and one on the way. Right away sons started playing together and we enjoyed a wonderful bbq in the park here in Bath, England. It was a perfect start to our vacation and what would be our 10th Anniversary Vow Renewal week.

Q: Have you ever gotten together with friends you have not seen in a long time? Best memory?

The Royal Crescent

11 Replies

I have to say that a favourite part of living the expat life in England is the many gardens through out the cities. The Brits really know how to make use of small places. It is nice to know that even if the countryside is a bit far out of reach by foot, theres a nearby park just waiting for you to enjoy during your lunch hour. There are several great ones in in Bath and amongst those must see sights is the Royal Crescent. So of course when my mum came to visit we made sure to arrange a photo op in front of it. When ever the day is nice you can find the lawn dotted with locals enjoying their lunch, friends chatting up after work, and tourists posing for their photographs. We chose this as our meeting place before our picnic and had a game of frisbee with the boys. While I brought my heart shaped umbrella just in case, we had a lovely day of sunshine with no rain.

Q: Are there nice parks or gardens where you live?

Two Weeks Letter

12 Replies

My fridays are usually reserved for my Best Week Ever posts and upon reflection today I realised it really has been the best two weeks. So much has happened and so many great memories shared with both family and friends in several cities. So today I share another sneek peek photograph of Ryan and I on our 10th Wedding Anniversary in Wales and a special letter to recap the best two weeks.

A Letter to my Last Two Weeks

Dear Weather,
Thank you for being amazing without being over the top. Up until our vacation in Wales we were experiencing a heat wave in England. We leave for Wales and welcomed with rain showers. It did not ruin our plans and I had one of my favourite memories from my trip. A hike in Dollegau with just my husband ended in a rain shower and a fun run back to our B&B. It rained the morning of our anniversary, just like the morning of our wedding, which I had been told ten years ago was good luck. Which we indeed did have with perfect weather onwards.

Dear Family,
Thank you to my mum and sister for coming out to the UK for our 10th Anniversary and to be a part of our Vow Renewal. Ryan, the boys, and I enjoyed creating more wonderful memories together. We are already looking forward to our trip to France next year.

Dear Friends,
I am beyond words when it comes to thanking my dear friends from Uni, Grant and Miriam, for coming out to celebrate with us. Thank you for traveling all the way from Germany with your kids. I loved watching all of our kids play so well together and how it felt like no time had passed. Thank you for traveling so close to your due date and I anxiously look forward to hearing the baby news! Thank you to my other friend from Uni, Lauren, who opened her place in Notting Hill for us to stay for two nights. We greatly appreciate it and had such a wonderful time in London for two days. Thank you to my friend, Leigh, whom I met while we both lived in Hawaii and who modeled for me several times. Thank you for meeting up with us in Oxford and for showing us around the city. It has been so great to meet up a couple times now in the UK, and I look forward to meeting up again in Oxford soon! Thank you to my long time family friends in Oxford for letting us share a day with you and for letting us catch up over the years since when I was a little girl. Again, because I cannot say it again, thank you to all my blogger friends who took care of my blog while I was away.

Dear Sons,
Thank you for being the cutest and sweetest boys I know. Watching how much fun you had over the last two weeks made my world. Seeing you laugh, smile, and make new friends was so wonderful. You really touched my heart during our vow renewal with your sweet words and sweet song. Thank you for making my life complete.

Dear Ryan,
The best two weeks have been because of you. The first week as part of our first ten years of marriage and the second week as the first week of our next ten. I love you so much and so proud to have stood up in front of our family and friends to pledge our love together. Thank you loving me as I enjoy every day I get to love you and look forward to many more anniversaries together.

xx
B.

*Wedding Photography by Miriam Pinkston Photography. Follow Miriam Pinkston Visual Artist on Facebook.

Photography: The Beauty of Makapuu, Hawaii

17 Replies

For today’s throwback photography post I take you to Makapuu, Hawaii with my beautiful model, Helene. We decided to take to a concept that encompassed the surroundings, the earth, and nature. With a colour scheme from the world around us we chose the wardrobe, picked up the accessories and props, and headed to the great outdoors in Hawaii. Helene was one of my models of the month for my project series in 2010.

Love Week Recap

12 Replies

The photo above is my first sneak peek photograph from my shoot with my photographer friend, Miriam Pinkston. I met Miriam and her husband before they even started dating back during our days at University. Today they have three boys and are expecting their fourth child very soon and we now have two boys on our own. So between us we had five boys under the ages of eight playing around together while we were in Wales. It was just so much fun to see them interact and it was like no time had passed when it came to us adults back together again after a decade. Miriam was so wonderful and took the photographs for us and I was just too excited today to not share one. I really loved this one because it was one of the last ones taken while we were on the beach. We were nearly the only ones there and it was just so beautiful.

Love Week has ended and I would like to thank everyone participated by reading the guest posts, for the sweet comments, and all the wonderful messages sent over the different social media sites using the #RyanAndBonnie Thank you also to all ten of the bloggers who guest posted while we were away in Wales, up in London, and in Oxford during our time with family and friends for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. I was just so touched by all the love, not just bestowed to Ryan and I, but to each of the amazing guest bloggers. Thank you to my readers for making this such a success and to the guest bloggers for encouraging each other. I have quite a bit to catch up on and I am hoping to be able to have all messages and comments replied too before too long. Just be patient with me while I get back to you all and know from the bottom of my heart how appreciative I am for your friendship and support.

Have you checked out all ten guest bloggers for Love Week?

Kayleigh – ‘Met the Love of my Life by Chance‘ (How I Wanderlust)

Patricia – ‘My First Love Story‘ (Kisses & Croissants)

Melyssa – ‘Five Love Lessons‘ (The Nectar Collective)

Rachel – ‘Marriage and Moving‘ (Postcards from Rachel)

Bonnie – ‘My 10th Wedding Anniversary‘ (A Compass Rose)

Amanda – ‘How I Fall More in Like with my Husband‘ (Living in Another Language)

Chelsea – ‘Newlyweds Abroad‘ (Lost in Travels)

Belinda – ‘All in the Name of Love‘ (Found Love. Now What?)

Casey – ‘Marriage in a Word‘ (We Took the Road Less Traveled)

Jade – ‘Why I Love my Husband‘ (An Invisible Crown)

Erika – ‘First Date‘ (Chimerikal)

*Wedding Photography by Miriam Pinkston Photography. Follow Miriam Pinkston Visual Artist on Facebook.

Love Week: Kayleigh – ‘Met the Love of my Life by Chance’

1 Reply

I met Kayleigh recently last month as she has been one of my featured sponsors here on A Compass Rose. She caught my attention right away with her blog title, The Way I Wanderlust. As an avid lover of all things Wanderlust, I became an instant reader to follow along with where she has been and where she would love to go next. What I love most about the blogging community is although we may be separated by miles and computer screens, we can meet people who we would be friends with in real life. Kayleigh is one of those people as I love her passions of travel, yoga, and watching Sex in the City. I was really glad she wanted to join us in celebrating Love Week and have saved her guest post for today as we finish up for this series. Thank you so much Kayleigh for being there for me while we were away on vacation for our Vow Renewal.

As this is the last day I recommend you all check out the other LoveWeek posts by all 10 guest bloggers from 8 different countries around the world. It has been an amazing week and I do not know about you, but I have been personally touched to my heart by each one of these amazing women.

Hello A compass rose readers, my name is Kayleigh and I blog over at the way i wanderlust. I am so excited to be a guest post on this wonderful blog. Its so exciting to be participating in the week of love while Bonnie goes off to renew her vows.

The chosen topic of the week is love, something everyone knows and has experienced. When you first think of the word love, its natural to think about the people in your life. Significant others, family and friends. Love is raw and earth shattering. It can be all consuming and devastating. In your life time you will gain and lose it again and again.

I met the love of my life by chance. I was pushed and spilt my drink all over him. Being the gentleman that he is, he immediately ordered me a new one and I haven’t looked back since. Jason keeps me grounded, makes me smile and knows how to make the perfect cup of coffee (the way to my heart). He has gone along with every one of my crazy plans, including selling everything we owned and moving to Australia to travel around for a year. We had been dating only 5 months when we started to save and make these plans. Talk about taking a leap of faith. He embraces my gypsy soul and excepts that its natural for me to want to move all the time and explore new places. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Before I sign off I would like to share the wise words of Carrie Bradshaw:

Maybe some women aren’t meant to be tamed. Maybe they need to run free until they find someone just as wild to run with them. Carrie Bradshaw – Sex and the City.

If you would like to learn more about me and follow along on my adventure feel free to stop by the way i wanderlust.

Thanks for letting me be a sponsor on your blog. Let me know if you want anything changed at all.

Cheers,

Kayleigh

“Tis’ better to live your own life imperfectly than to imitate someone else’s perfectly.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

Recent Travels in the UK

16 Replies

This is one of my favourite photographs I have taken over the last week. It is a photograph of my sister with my two sons staring at the Tower Bridge in London. Usually the focus should be on the landmarks of the place you visit, but for this one I wanted to capture the moment. My sister, a fellow Third Culture Kid (TCK), lives a highly nomadic life as well. She currently lives in DC working as sommelier though will be overseas again come the spring. In my family we never really know when we will see eachother next or where in the world. So capturing this lovely moment of her with my sons at this age was so important. I love to capture all the things that travelers and tourists take on the cameras but I equally like the people and moments for our visual memories.

I am looking forward to sharing our recent travels in the UK over the next several Travel Tuesday posts. We spent a week in Snowdonia, Wales; two days in Notting Hill and throughout London, England; and will be going up to the place of my birth which is Oxford, England today. So many places in a short time with family can be a bit overwhelming. But for us we just took each day at a time and made sure savour each memory.

Q: How do you make the most of your short travels and trips?

Found Love. Now What?

Here’s how it works:
1. Share a post about travel! From roadtrips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!
2. Grab the lovely button.
3. Linkup goes live! Every Tuesday at 8 am GMT.
4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!
5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!