Ice Cream

It's so HOT out all the time now its ridiculous so lately I have been craving some icy cold treats! Normally I would just go to Dairy Queen or stop by the store and grab a pint of Ben n Jerry Cherry Garcia and be happy but since I am trying to be more adventurous I decided to try some new places and I'm so glad that I did!

I didn't realize that Nashville has a popsicle shop... that's all the sell is popsicles.... doesn't that sound awesome??!!! I thought so too! It's called Las Paletas and it is amazing! They have juice pops and creamy pops and unique flavors but they are all made with whole fruits and fresh ingredients. My friend Alyson is the one who showed me this awesome shop and now I'm a little obsessed. The first one I tried was a banana chocolate flavor and it was filled with actual chunks of bananas. Then when I took some friends there last week I got a peanut butter flavor! Both I would def. recommend to anyone. My friends got flavors like clementine, strawberry, cucumber spice and hot chocolate. All were great and so much better than any popsicles you would find in the freezer section at your local grocery.

Want to try one?? Check it out they are only $2.50! The most awesome popsicles you will find!!!

But wait... there is more! The Pied Piper Creamery located in East Nashville near 5 Points! My good friend Courtney and I have been on the adventure of trying new eateries and we planned a little lunch date last week and decided to get some ice cream at the Pied Piper. Neither of us had ever been there and it was scorching hot outside so you can imagine how awesome some cold creamy goodness sounded! The Pied Piper is located in an older charming house in East Nashville. When you walk in the aroma itself is almost enough to satisfy your craving for something sweet. Picking your flavor is the hardest with flavors such as "Strawberry fields forever, Robert Brulee, White Trash" and more! I picked "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger." I know it sounds lame but Butterfinger is my favorite candy bar and it had been way to long since I had one so when I saw that flavor I immediately went for it! It was delicious! Two scoops of that in a waffle cone should be able to cure cancer its so good! I can't wait to go back and try some more!

Check it out!! - You portal to amazingness

Rock Climbing at Climb Nashville!!!

So, when I went to summer camp in High School a couple of times we always had little excursions of ropes courses, zip lines, hikes etc. My favorite was always rock climbing! When you climb a rock wall its surprisingly harder than you think and its takes way more muscles than you thought you even had, but when you reach the top there is this amazing sense of success and accomplishment that takes your mind to another state. Plus, the most fun part of rock climbing is scaling down the wall! Well, the other day Adam and I thought we would try something new from our normal day off together and we decided to go check out Nashville Climb!

It was so much fun! And such a good workout! We loved it! We signed up for the Intro Course. Its only $33 which includes a two day pass which you can use the second day whenever you choose! It never expires. It also includes gear and a belay instruction course which only takes 20min and then you are free to climb any wall!

It was awesome!! I can't wait to go back and try it again!

Check it out: http://climbnashville.com/

Yoga

If you know me at all, you probably know that I'm OBSESSED with Jillian Michaels and her workout videos. I started with the "30 Day Shred" and then went on to buy her "No More Trouble Zones," and , "Banish Fat Boost Metabolism" videos. They are awesome! They are so challenging and even though by the end of them I find myself cursing the TV, I feel so accomplished afterwards. I originally was trying them to help lose weight for my wedding, but now that the wedding is done and gone I am still finding myself unhappy with my body. As a woman I'm not sure if this will ever change. For me working out only happens if I don't become bored! I have tons of friends who talk about doing yoga and how much they love it. In fact, I have a best friend who works at a yoga studio in LA and gets to meet celebrities all the time that take the classes. So jealous. However, for me I have always been afraid to try it. I have seen yoga done on TV and it has always just looked so complicated. I never understood how people get there bodies in some of those positions. I have wanted to take a class and try it out but I was always too embarrassed because I don't know the moves at all and how uncomfortable would that be to try to get used to the technique in front of a ton of strangers. Well, Jillian has saved me on this one! She now had a video called, " Yoga Meltdown" and its amazing!

Of course when I saw it advertised on Amazon in the , " you bought these things so you will probably like this" column I immediately put it my online shopping cart and bought it! I couldn't wait to get it in the mail! When it finally arrived I put on my workout clothes and popped it in the DVD player. The reason I love Jillian is because she explains things so well and she is very encouraging, especially when its hard moves she gives you steps to work up to them! Let me tell you ... I have fallen in love with this video! This video is a hybrid style of yoga which means it uses power poses with movement to help get your heart rate up to help melt fat while sculpting your body! It makes me feel like my body is becoming longer and leaner instead of getting bulky like lifting weights makes me feel. I am so confident that I am going to try an actual yoga class very soon and I can't wait to post about it! Until then, keep reading for there are many more adventures to come!

30 Day Shred, No More Trouble Zones, Banish Fat Boost Metabolism, and the new Yoga Meltdown can be found here!

A Dive to Remember

Welcome to Adventures with Amberly! I have been in some what of a rut lately and its time to get out of it. I have been so sick of sitting around on my days off work and doing the same things and going to the same restaurants... so I have promised myself that I will start to branch out. When I was younger I was known as being adventurous, never afraid of trying new things....so what happened! Well.... I've gotten lazy. Plain and simple. Its takes a little bit of work to research things to try or new places to go but with this new thing called the Internet it should be fairly easy:) Lately I have been branching out of my regular routine and doing things I've always wanted to do and going to some really cool places! I am hoping that this blog will inspire you to get out of you comfort zone and go explore! Whether it be doing something adventurous like skydiving or rock climbing or trying a new restaurant or finally going to that dance class you've always wanted to try or even just trying a new recipe! Get out there and go for it... the world is waiting!

So my first adventure was in May with my mom. She has always talked about going skydiving for her 50th birthday so my dad and I decided to buy her and I two tickets to jump out of a plane! It was life changing! We went to Skydive Greensburg which is about two hours away from my hometown of Bloomington, IN.

When we arrived we immediately were escorted to a small room to watch a video on proper technique as well as given waivers to sign that in bold letters stated.." YOU MAY DIE SKYDIVING"! It was crazy! It was the first time I have ever signed a waiver like that! As we waited for our turn to suit up and board the plane we got to see other jumpers land and they all seemed so excited to back on the ground and they surprisingly were all ready to go back up and do it again! I was getting so nervous and surprisingly my mom was just being cool about the whole thing! How embarrassing! I mean I wasn't freaking out or anything but when I get nervous I get very quiet or a talk a lot. This time I was very quiet! I was also getting married the next weekend and so I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to make it down the aisle!

Our time finally came and we got to suit up and meet our professional jumpers that would be attached to us! Mine however was named, "Ditch!" Of course I would get the guy who's name doesn't make you feel any better about jumping out of a plane but I didn't even have time to ask for a different jumper! We were escorted to a plane that looked like an old army plane and we were crammed in to the max!

The plane ride up to 14,000 ft up in the air was ridiculously long! It took about 20 minutes and let me tell you... thats a long time to have butterflies! So when they finally flung the door open and people started jumping out I didn't even have time to process what exactly was happening before we were out the door! Its amazing the feeling of free falling! You would think that it feels just like when you are free falling in a dream and you wake up in a panic but you actually don't even feel like you are falling until the parachute opens! Once the parachute opens you go back up a couple of feet and then start falling once again but this just feels like your floating like a feather down the ground! When we were finally about to land I was told to stick out my legs and just land on my butt and it was so much softer than I thought that it would be. It was amazing! I highly recommend skydiving to anyone! It is such a thrilling ride! Its kind of pricey but it should definitely be on everyones bucket list!

Here's some information if you would like to check it out: www.skydiving.com