the zoo with john and my birthday celebrations

last friday provided a rare treat for us...burrito and john both had the afternoon off from school and to celebrate we headed to our favorite place, the zoo of course!  it just also happened to be the last day for us to go before our zoo passes expired so it worked out perfect.  we met our good friends who have 1 year old twins and had so much fun!

the boys were just slightly overexcited to show john every square inch of the zoo, especially the new MOLA exhibit.  it was fun to go slow and see if we could find all the snakes, bugs and critters through each window.

and i was excited to have someone there to actually take a picture of me and the boys at the zoo instead of me always being the one behind the camera!

we thought this monkey was so funny.  she would just sit and ignore us and then look up and put her hand on her head like "what do you want?"

the rhinos were out and about that day too, and we think these two were in love because they would rub their faces up against each other through the fence and then touch lips as if to kiss!

the boys are always fans of the meerkats, thanks to the movie the lion king.  look real close and you'll see burrito and noodle!

the elephants were super active too!  the zookeepers had given them several big branches full of leaves for their afternoon snack and they were eating them up.

we spent over 3 hours there and it felt just like heaven to me.  i just love that place and it is full of memories for our family.

after we left the zoo, we zipped back to our house because aunt stacey was coming over to watch the boys for john and i to go out for dinner.  it was my birthday present and a great one at that!  john and i tried bj's brewery, a new restaurant that is always packed and it was this night too.  i ordered the open-faced meatloaf sandwich with cheddar potatoes, onion strings and grilled veggies.  it was SO HUGE, john said i had to take a picture.  so i did!  see?

it was really good and i felt stuffed for days!

on saturday we celebrated my birthday at my mom's for dinner.  i picked cousin's bbq, fried potatoes, and lemon pound cake to eat for my birthday dinner.  it was so yummy and we had so much fun just relaxing and watching the boys play outside.

my actual birthday was spent with a stomach bug, not exactly how i wanted to celebrate but i was thankful to have celebrated with family beforehand.

and this week has been a week of cleaning, organizing and enjoying time with noodle at home.  on thursday we went "treasure hunting" at one of our favorite thrift stores and had so much fun.  noodle is such a good shopper and was so patient, even while i tried on some clothes.  so we celebrated by stopping at this really fun park with the spider web climber.

tonight was super sweet to me because both boys wanted to snuggle up with me on my bed before bedtime and we just talked about our day and plans for the weekend.  i just love these sweet times with my boys and i am so thankful for them.