While writing the last posting, I ended up getting side tracked and looked back through the camera roll on my phone. It brought back some great memories of moments I had forgotten about. Here are some of the highlights from my last year.

In the first month of th year, my husband and I went out to eat with my parents at a hole in the wall restaurant near them called Memphis BBQ. My parents had found this place back in 2018 when my Grandpa was in the hospital for emergency surgery after a fall. On one of the nights, they decided to stop for some food and checked this place out. I wasn’t with them at the time, but I heard rave reviews about the ribs. This place also has daily specials of different items. While I didn’t take pictures of the food, I do remember it being absolutely delicious and worth the side trip. What I do have a picture of is the Irish coffee I had for dessert. It was strong and extra tasty.

The next best part were the conventions I went to. My husband is an independent self-published author, so he enjoys going to conventions to sell his books. I tag along for support and also to help run things when he has to step away from the table. Last year was the most conventions I had attended in a single year. I went to CREEP I.E., WonderCon, Ontario Comic Con Revolution, Monsterpalooza, Midsummer Scream, and CREEP I.E. Aftermath. It’s been great experiences being able to go to all these different places with my hubby. 

I’ve seen so many cool vendors and even started making acquaintances with other vendors that we’ve seen frequently over the past couple of years. This year, I’m going to about the same amount of conventions, but we won’t be selling at all of them. It’s nice to have some to go to for fun. My favorite part about the conventions, is seeing all the creative cosplays. It’s easy to see the hard work and amount of love people put into their cosplays. I really enjoy seeing all the outfits. That’ll be a topic for the future though, I have some photos of really great ones that I’ll be sharing.

The next highlight is seeing Alton Brown live on this Last Bites tour. I was supposed to see him on his previous one back in 2022, but my husband had covid, so I was taking care of him. This time, I was very happy to be able to go with my mom. It was fun experience being able to listen to stories about his early years, how he got into the culinary business, and even seeing him make the 1 million dollar omelet (this was when egg prices were really expensive in 2025 and he used 1 dozen). The whole show concluded by him showing a contraption he built that was invented by one of his uncles. It was a machine to put hot dogs together, but looked like a carnival. He had each city he went to competing against each other on how fast they could put together a certain number of hot dogs. It was very entertaining to watch. I also got his book that he was selling. Not a cookbook, but a collection of essays that he wrote. It’s been a good read so far.

In April, my hubby and I decided to get out of town for our anniversary and ended up going to Las Vegas, NV. We had a little money saved up, so we splurged with rooms at the Bellagio (weekday pricing of course lol). We had a great time exploring the LV strip and all the different stores. I think the favorite of the trip was taking him to M&M World, where he has been obsessed with the strawberry & creme M&Ms ever since. We also made it to the different hotels and even got over to Fremont Street to see the sights over there too. I also took him to his first buffet. We chose the breakfast one at the Wicked Spoon inside the Cosmopolitan.  Pretty sure his favorite dishes were the triple berry croissant french toast and the mini donuts. 

There were a couple new experiences on that trip. On the way out we stopped at the Seven Magic Mountains. Neither of us had been and I’d only driven past them on the freeway whenever I headed out to Las Vegas. It was worth the side trip to see them up close. I love roadside attractions like this and I’m really hoping to experience more of them this year. 

The next one was seeing the shark exhibit at the Mandalay Bay. That was the best. I’m a shark lover and advocate for them whenever I can. Being able to see all the different sharks swimming around and sitting in the shark tunnel was the best. My husband practically had to drag me out of there so we could do other things. I got at least a good 30 minutes just enjoying the exhibit and seeing the sharks swim around. 

A few more that I’ll rush through quickly, because as I’m scrolling through my photos, I’m realizing how much of an interesting year I had and how much I can’t fit everything in here, so they will get their own dedicated posts. 

I’ll end this with the last big change that happened was finally taking care of my health. At the start of the year, I had a little bit of a scare with my A1C number. It was too high for my comfort and there were a couple other things as well. In April, I purchased the Stelo CGM (not sponsored, just like their product) and wore those for about 7 months. The insight it provided was invaluable to getting me pointed in the right direction. In July, I finally joined a gym and really locked myself in by paying to see a personal trainer once a week for 30 mins. Since then, I’m still struggling with the food part of being healthier, but the exercise is a little easier for me. 

This year will be a continuation of my health journey and I’ll post about it from time to time, but it won’t dominate the content here. It will also bring more experiences and some travel hopefully. At the start of the year I’ll be sticking closer to home and doing local places that I haven’t visited yet despite living out here for the last 3 years. I’ll continue sharing some past travel stories as well. 

It’ll be a delightful mix of content this year and I hope you’ll continue to return to see where I go. Until then, safe exploring everyone!