Birthday Weekend

This past weekend I had a great time celebrating my birthday with my family!  I had asked for a few presents (mostly some new clothes) but what I really wanted was time.  I asked Mark for time with him, time with the whole family and time by myself!  I got a bit of all three!

Friday night, Lindsay, Brad and Grandude all kept their eyes on Caroline while Mark and I went on a date. We had a yummy dinner at Macaroni Grill, did a bit of shopping for me and Caroline and stopped and got some dessert on the way home. Date nights have become so important to me. I'm thankful for wise couples that have instilled in me the value of a weekly date night!! I am fine throughout the week when Mark is gone but it seems that the moment we leave for a date I am able to breathe a HUGE sigh of relief. Often times I will even ask Mark if we can have a minute of two of quiet so I can collect myself so that the rest of our night can be filled with talking and laughter!

Saturday, Mark and I took Caroline on a little jog.  I am so proud of Mark.  He has started running and is doing a great job.  It's a joy to be able to workout with him now!

Afterwards, we went on a little adventure and had lunch with this friend...

Not a dog, but a pig named Olivia!

Mark, Caroline, Lindsay, Kelsey, Grandude and I all went to visit a petting zoo.  We had so much fun! 

I love this picture of Kelsey below, "I've got nothin" or maybe she is trying to hug sweet Olivia!

While we all enjoyed our time there, we did spend a good bit of time reassuring Caroline that everything was OK.  She never cried but she never really warmed up to the animals either!

Even Aunt Lindsay tried to help out and you can see that Caroline still wasn't too thrilled.  Who doesn't love a baby bunny!?

She did enjoy the "hay ride" though.

Lindsay is such an animal lover and the pictures of her and Kelsey throughout the day are gorgeous.  She has such a bright, contagious smile.  There are so many good pictures I didn't know which ones to post.  :-)

We had a great time learning about the animals.  This is PJ the chicken.  Did you know that chicken's feathers are soft?!  Me neither.

It turns out we didn't really need to go to the petting zoo though!  We had our own banana eating monkey with us the whole time!

Sorry about the terrible humor.  I seriously don't know what happens to me when I write!  Surely, I don't make jokes like that in my everyday conversations!?

Saturday night we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner.  I thought the girls would enjoy watching the guy cook in front of us but the "fire" ended that pretty quickly.  The food was good though and I enjoyed some more time with the family.  My birthday weekend was great.  Here's hoping to a great year as I prepare for the big 30...eeks!