A Romantic Anniversary

It started like this...


James picked the roses up last night, but I found the rest of it on the table waiting for me this morning. The picture is a print by my favorite artist. (Don't you love it, Mom?!) As for the Rook cards... THANKS, EM! Ha! I mentioned to James after our last Colorado trip that Emilee said he really should buy me some new ones. ;-) That's all it took, I guess!

The kids had fruit for breakfast because one of our members gave us the most fantastic fruit pounding this week! It's soooooo great! Apples and gigantic oranges (they almost look like grapefruit) and the longest bananas I've ever seen -- and grapes. The kids have been LOVING the grapes. What a blessing! Anyway, while they were enjoying breakfast I was enjoying a nice, hot bath. ~Aaaahhh~ A great way to start the day.

Then it was time for our Anniversary outing. We loaded up the fam, drove into town, and went to Nick's Crossroads Cafe. It's a little diner type place downtown. It wasn't as old fashioned as we would have liked (more of a trendy college kid place), but the food was still good. James had a green chili chicken sandwhich, I had a Monte Cristo, and the kids had pancakes, eggs, and bacon. :-)

Then we were off to the oozay! (Our kids have never really been exposed to Pig Latin and had no clue what that was until we got there. They still don't "get it." Don't tell!) Yes, for our romantic anniversary get-away we decided to take the kids to the zoo. Haley came and got Jon & Em's kids last week so they could go stay in a nice lodge or something all alone and enjoy a real anniversary. I think it's pretty unfair that she didn't come get our kids this week. You just can't count on some people, you know?! ;-)

No, actually, we had a really, really great day. It wasn't exceptionally romantic (although James wanted everybody to know that he kissed me in the monkey house. Weird-o.), but it was such a nice, relaxing, fun day. We all loved it!

So, the ZOO! It provided lots of picture opportunities, so I figured I'd post a whole slew of 'em. I haven't had any pics to post in a while, right?!

James had a very successful day with the birds. These sun conures were quite personable.



Love the toucans...



Joe went NUTS in the reptile house. He just pinged from one window to the next, chattering on about all of the creatures he's read about in books for the past year.



The last time we went to the zoo was December '07 with the Hays, so it was almost "brand new" all over again. And it's so fun to take the kids at this age. They do so much reading and have learned so many things about the animals, so it's so much more thrilling for them to see them in person. It was great!

They've got several bald eagles at this zoo. We've never seen one take a bath before!

This polar bear was pacing with a purpose--FAST!



The cougar looked to be in search of some lunch...



The lions apparently already had theirs! Ha!



We spent quite a while at the duck pond. We usually don't even stop there because, after all, it's just ducks! There are more exotic things to be seen, you know?! But we stayed and fed the ducks and had a great time. This swan gave Joe a pretty good bite while he was trying to pick up loose food from the ground to throw into the water. :-) Swans always look so beautiful and peaceful. Don't believe it! They're as mean as any goose you'll ever meet! Ha!



I LOVE the Canadian geese. ("Canada geese" always sounds dumb to me, proper or not.) They are so pretty and... "country" looking or something!



Joe had sooooo much fun! He just ran all over the place, scaring birds right and left, trying to feed them!



Love the koalas, too. They're so cuddly, if not a whole lot of fun to watch. (They have a severe energy deficiency!)



James was able to get the kookaburras to laugh! I couldn't tell if they were enjoying his conversation or annoyed by it. They would sort of ruffle their feathers and stare at him, then fly in a circle around the cage and come back and stare him down again. But after a couple of minutes they started talking and worked up to a pretty good "laugh"! It is soooooo cool to hear that!



James also had quite a conversation with this fruit dove. He knows exactly what each bird "says" and if he's able to mimic them well enough they usually talk back to him. This little fellow seemed plenty anxious for a chat!



The white rhinos are HUGE. They're so big and cool and impressive and scary. :-)



These are some of my favorites. There's just something so sweet looking about giraffes. I think it must be their eyes.



Have you ever watched a hippo play? In all truthfulness, it's not much more exciting than the koalas--everything is in slo-o-o-o-o-o-ow motion! Ha! Still, it was neat that they were trying!

There were several animals I wish I had pictures of--like the black panther. SOOOOO cool. The picture of the red panda didn't turn out. And I didn't get a picture of the adorable little chimp girl who was celebrating her 2nd birthday today. (Big event at the zoo today!)

But I got a picture of the boys riding a komodo dragon!



Of course, they enjoyed seeing the REAL komodo dragons today. Those things creep me out. They are so huge and they've got those lo-o-o-o-o-ong, nasty forked tongues flicking. YUCK. And Joe is always sure to explain how, even if their bite doesn't kill their prey, all of the bacteria in their saliva usually causes a fatal infection. All they have to do is bite something, then wait around for it to die in a day or two. GA-ROSS. Anyway...

Here's Katie, always the lady, riding a lion's head.



Now you get to guess... Were the people mimicking the monkey... Or was the monkey mimicking the people?! HA!





Katie took this one of the Anniversary people. Nine years it's been. CRAZY!!!



After the zoo we drove around a bit, then stopped by Sonic for some ice cream before heading home. We picked up some Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner and James ran in the grocery store to take advantage of some really great deals on meat. So we got home and I separated 12 lbs. of burger to freeze, some ribs, and some steaks. Wa-Hoo! It feels great to have a good selection of meat in the freezer.

We enjoyed our pizza dinner (love that cinnamon dessert ring!), then we all piled on the bed to watch The Princess Bride. It was the boys' first time. They loved most of it. Joe is just like Fred Savage though. "Whoa! What is this?! Is this a kissing book???" ;-) He thoroughly enjoyed the fencing and fighting and Miracle Max and all that stuff. The boys especially liked Fezik. It was fun.

And that's about it! Our Anniversary celebration!!! The kids loved it and can't wait until next year's anniversary. Ha! Katie asked a few days ago, "So... what are we going to do for your anniversary?!" As if it's totally normal for it to be a whole family affair. I tried to explain to them tonight how MOST people celebrate their anniversary... by leaving their kids behind! They don't like that idea at all. I told them to brace themselves for it because we're going to try to find away to do it next year on #10! But for this year, we had a whole lot of fun and it all seemed just right. :-)