Anniversary weekend

FRIDAY was our 5 year anniversary!  David and I had already arranged to celebrate with dinner on Saturday so we didn't do too much other than say happy anniversary to eachother and kiss all the time. Haha, just kidding...  We actually did have a big day planned for Friday.  It started out with a MOPS group event to an exotic animals zoo called Gator and Friends.  It is actually in Louisiana so it took a good forty minutes or so to get there.  I think they are a little too liberal with the word 'zoo' because I feel like a zoo should include more than ten different kinds of animals, haha.  There were probably more than ten different kinds actually but not much more.  The main animals were of course, the alligators.  They had a bunch of those and they were all pretty much just laying around motionless, kind of lame actually.

Haley's favorite animal there was a little monkey in a huge cage all to himself, she also liked the cows.  Emily LOVED all of the animals and flailed her arms and legs at them, made grunting/shrieking sounds at them, and followed them with her eyes wherever they went.  It was pretty cute, she might end up being a vet or something.  We got there around 10:15 and at 11:30 they had a special event where they fed the alligators.  Let me tell you, that was a long hour and fifteen minutes to wait around for that!  They had pony rides and I was completely willing to chalk up the $5 to give Haley one but she would have none of it.  David asked the guy if he could try putting Haley on one before we paid to see if she would actually do it and I was glad he did because she didn't want to go near the little guy.  Emily was all about it but I wasn't too convinced that she would be able to stay on with all of her limbs flailing in excitement.

At 11:30 we got to see the alligators actually get up and swim over to where they were throwing dog food ish food into the water.  I was kind of expecting them to throw chickens or something in there to feed them so that was kind of a letdown.  After the feeding show they got a little baby alligator and taped its mouth shut and then let people hold it and get their pictures taken with it.  We waited for the line to go down and then got a family picture with the alligator.  Haley was not super enthusiastic but we had to keep Emily from gnawing on the thing.

Emy and Daddy

You can see David is trying to coax Haley over, yeah right.

I love how David and I are smiling like we love holding alligators or something

Haley doesn't even want to look at it

After Gators and friends we decided to go to Shreveport since we were close anyways.  I had packed a lunch so we ate that in the car while we drove the remaining twenty minutes to the boardwalk.  The boardwalk is basically an outdoor outlet mall.  First we went to Bass Pro Shop so Haley could see the fish, she was bummed that there weren't any at Gators and Friends.  Bass Pro Shop has a random fudge stand with a super nice lady working who encouraged us to try a bunch of samples.  She must have been in a super great mood because her 'samples' were legit pieces of fudge.  We walked away from that stand with our dessert cravings all satisfied.  

The boardwalk really doesn't have tons of stores so we only went to maybe three or four, but we made them count.  First we got David a pair of flip-flops from a shoe place.  Then we got him some shorts and shirts and me a dress from the Gap Outlet and then we got a couple more clothing items from the Banana Republic outlet.  Then I went back to the Gap Outlet and returned the dress because I was having buyer's remorse.  Man, I'm still glad I returned that dress, awkward as it was considering I had just bought it minutes before.  After buying our anniversary gifts (no really, those were our gifts, haha) we headed home.

We made it just before dinnertime so I quickly thawed out some chicken (there's nothing fast about that by the way) and made dinner.  Then we all sat in the den and watched our wedding video while we ate.  Haley LOVED the video.  As soon as she saw the first couple familiar faces she started asking where Pop's was in the movie.  She was pretty excited when she saw him walking down the aisle on my arm, oh wait, I was on his arm, Haley the movie is supposed to be about your mommy and daddy!  She did say my dress was very pretty and even mentioned it a couple times later.  We paused the movie just as Uncle Steve was starting his message and put the girls to bed.  Then David and I finished it together over some ice cream.  It was hard to watch us cut and eat that cake, I could go for a slice of Bakers of Buffington right now actually.

SATURDAY was a lot slower day.  The girls woke up around 7:30 or so but we brought them back to our bed and they cuddled with us for a while.  Eventually we got up and ate breakfast and didn't take shower because, do you remember that storage unit we bought on Monday?  Yeah, we still hadn't gone back and finished cleaning it out yet.  After breakfast we loaded in the van and drove to Tyler and finished cleaning out that unit.  We had 'dumpster privileges' which we didn't have last time so that was awesome.  We ended up throwing away a super gross twin mattress along with two old tvs.  One of the tvs was literally taped together with duct tape and the other one had a hole in the front so it was impossible to change the channels.  We figured they wouldn't sell.  My question is, who in their right mind decided that it was worth it to pay for a storage unit to hold on to those things?  Did they really think they were going to eventually fix them?  Whatevs.

We cleaned out the unit and then headed home with a couple boxes of stuff, mostly children's clothes.  David made some hotdogs in the grill for lunch and we ate and then put the girls down for naps.  While they slept we sorted through the storage unit stuff and pulled out the bunkbed pieces to make sure we had all of the stuff.  The kids that had slept in them had painted their name on one of the headboards and written with a sharpie on another one.  David and I pulled out the rubbing alcohol and some rags and got it all out, that was a relief.  Those things looked a hundred times better once they were cleaned up and it really didn't take that long.  We took them inside and I took a couple pictures and put them online.

Haley took a two and a half hour nap and Emily slept over three so they were pretty fresh when they woke up.  David and I took turns watching them while the other person showered and got ready for our dinner date.  We had reservations at a super nice restaurant in Shreveport for 7.  A couple from church, Michael and Kelsey Grubbs, had told us a long time ago that they wanted to baby-sit for us for free for our anniversary.  It was super sweet of them and Haley was super excited when they arrived.  We left money for them to take the girls out to eat or order a pizza or do whatever they wanted.  We also got them a gift, it just didn't seem right to have them baby-sit completely for free!

Dinner actually ended up being 'free' too because we used the money from the Christmas present that Pops got us.  This year for Christmas, and last year too actually, Pops gave us a relationship book that we had to read and instructed us to listen to a John Piper sermon on marriage.  I know that doesn't sound like a great gift, but in the back of the book there was an envelope with money that we could use for a date once we completed said tasks.  We finished a week or so ago but we were saving the envelope for our anniversary dinner.  We did that last year too, thanks so much Pops!

Dinner was so wonderful, I was really glad we went to that restaurant even though it was an hour away.  Kelsey and Michael took the girls to Chick-fil-a and said it went really well.  Haley went right to bed but Emily cried a little bit for them so Kelsey just gave her more bottle and then she went to sleep.  When we got home Kelsey and Michael were hanging out in the living room like seasoned parents.  I told them that we are going to watch their kids when they go out for their anniversary, once they have kids that is.  Well, I was going to write about Sunday too but this is already too long so I'll post it tomorrow.  Also, today is cousin Kelsey's Birthday and we will do a Birthday tribute tomorrow but we just want to say 'Happy Birthday Kelsey!'

Haley and I trying on some hats at the gap.  Haley loves to go clothing shopping, so many racks to hide in.  Yeah, I guess we were 'that' annoying family.  It was pretty empty though...

She fell asleep on the way home from Shreveport

Eating dinner and watching our video

Haley was transfixed.  Everyone should have their wedding videotaped, if only to show your kids later!