Jim and I had decided that since we were taking an anniversary trip, we would not give each other gifts this year for our anniversary. So, Jim was a little surprised when I gave him this box at our hotel. It took him a little while to figure out what the two lines meant, but after I explained the code to the left of the little window, he got it!

I bought this shirt for Drew to wear to announce our happy news to our parents.

We invited Jim's mom over for dinner to tell her.

My parents were coming that weekend for a visit, so we waited to tell them when they arrived. Drew had his shirt on, and he was very excited for them to arrive. He got out his Buzz Lightyear binoculars to watch for them out the front window.

We are very excited about this new little addition that is coming to our family. After a couple of dating ultrasounds, it looks like my due date is March 9 - Drew's birthday! Everything looks good so far, but we are praying for an easier pregnancy than last time (especially at the end), and we would appreciate your prayers that I would be able to avoid the complications I had with Drew's birth.

African Safari - Part 2

After the pig race, we got back in the van to do the drive-through part of the safari. Animals swarm around the cars as they drive through. It was very hot that afternoon, and some of the animals were hanging out in the water.

This guy must not have been hungry. He came over to our van, but he wasn't interested in our carrots.

The deer loved the carrots!

So did Drew! He started taking bites out of each carrot before he offered it to the animals.

The buffaloes were some of our favorite animals last time, but we learned our lesson and didn't put the windows all the way down this time.

The giraffes were at the very end. They would bend over the fence to eat carrots too!

It was more crowded this time than it was last time, so we only drove through once this time. We had a very nice day, and I'm sure we'll be back again, especially if I can get another great Groupon deal!

African Safari - Part 1

A month or so ago, I bought a Groupon for the African Safari in Port Clinton, Ohio. We had gone a couple of summers ago, and we thought it might be a fun thing to do while my parents were visiting. We went last Wednesday and had a very fun day.
We started by going through the walking section of the safari. One of the highly advertised animals was the white alligator. They are quite rare, and this one is one of about forty in the United States. There were some geese and swans swimming around the pond.

There was also a pen of mama and baby alpacas.

Once Drew found the playground, I was afraid we weren't going to be able to get away to see anything else. He really like the slide, even though he was kind of afraid of it. He would climb the ladder very slowly,

and then he would get hung up at the top. Children kept passing him at the top because they didn't want to wait for him to sit and slide.

He got braver and faster as he went along, and he had lots of fun.

We were finally able to get him away from the playground, and Jim talked him into taking a pony ride (a little bribery was involved)! He climbed right on to the pony.

He enjoyed his ride a lot and was very brave.

We were very proud of him for riding the pony!

After the pony ride, we went back across the little zoo to see the pig race. The monkeys were being very active as we passed by.

Before the pig race began, the man in charge passed out flags to some of the children. Drew raised his hand to be picked, but he wasn't chosen. (He cried about not being chosen after the race was over.)

The pigs were very cute as they ran around the track!

Mom got a little video of the race.

The 4th of July

My parents were here for the Fourth of July, and since the Fourth is also my mom's birthday, we had a lot to celebrate! We spent the day at the fruit market and at home, and then we went out to Jim's golf course for fireworks that evening.
While we waited for it to get dark, Drew played with his glow necklace

and ate popcorn.

He even shared some with my parents - he passed it out piece by piece.

Once it was finally dark, the fireworks started up. They were really pretty!

Drew sat on my dad's lap the entire time, and he kept saying, "Wow!"

We had a very nice Fourth of July!

Anniversary Trip

Jim and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary last week by taking an overnight trip to Traverse City, Michigan. We arrived around dinner time, and we had a wonderful dinner at the Apache Trout Grill. We each had a different kind of fish, and they were both delicious. After dinner, we went and had ice cream at a little ice cream shop near our hotel. I had a cherry chocolate ice cream, and Jim had a chocolate marshmallow ice cream.

The ice cream shop was decorated with some interesting animal art work. This one was called, "Noah's Ark."

We had a lovely view of the water from our hotel room (ha!).

This was the front of the hotel.

The next day, we had planned to take a sailboat ride, but the weather was pretty dreary and rainy, so we decided to cancel those plans and drive out to see a lighthouse instead.

This was the beach in front of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was smaller and shorter than we were expecting it to be.

We decided not to pay to climb the lighthouse, since we didn't think that the view from a short lighthouse would be that much better than the view from the beach.

We went back to town for lunch, and then we walked through the shops for a bit before leaving to go home. We took our time driving home, and we stopped at a few outlets and for dinner along the way. We had a nice time, just the two of us, and Drew had a great time staying with Jim's mom!