3rd Wedding Anniversary!!!

Today--May 16, 2011--marks three years since I married my wonderful man!  I can't believe it's already been three years!  The time has flown by so very quickly.  Well, most of the time.  Some of the time, as we love to joke, I can believe every damn day lol.  There are moments that I still stop and marvel at how blessed I am to have found my match, and how grateful I am for everything--yes, even the bad--that has led us here to the wonderful relationship we have.  I don't think those moments will ever completely disappear, and I sure don't want them to!

Our first anniversary, Bryan took me to see Tom Stoppard's Rock and Roll at the Alley Theater, and then we ate at the Rock and Roll Cafe.  Last year, we played it much more low key, and painted the upstairs and then went out for a yummy sushi dinner at Masa Sushi.  This year, Bryan had a whole different type of plan up his sleeve!  We got up early--around 8:30ish--and got ready for the day.  Before we left, we exchanged the gifts we had gotten one another.  I got him some new brewing equipment and a Landshark Lager beer tap handle!  He was going to buy me this amazing knitting purse--yes, I used amazing to refer to a purse lol--from Park Avenue Yarns...but it had sold earlier in the week!  So, instead, he got me a veeery nice gift certificate so that I could order my purse from Michelle!

Then we headed out to our destination--THE ZOO!!!!!

I LOVE the Zoo!  I seriously devolved into a five-year-old when I heard his plan!  Complete with jumping in place and squealing.  I don't know why I get so excited about the Zoo--I just do.  So, we jumped in the car and headed downtown.  It was perfect weather--sunny, in the 70s--so a lot of people had the same idea we did.  It took us a while to find a parking spot, but eventually a handicap spot opened up--the Gimp-mobile saves the day again!  We got our tickets and Bryan donated $2 so that I could get an awesome conservation support wristband.  Then, with me again devolving into a little kid over me super-cool wristband, we entered the Houston Zoo!

We got lunch at the cafe by the entrance--best wraps EVER--and then went to aquarium!  When we went to the Zoo back in September, the aquarium portion was closed so we were both excited to see what kinds of critters were there.  There were many amazing fish--as was to be expected--but there were also beautiful jellyfish AND a cute sea turtle!  His/her shell was gorgeous, but he/she wouldn't hold still long enough for me to get a picture of it.  I was doubly excited to see the sea turtle, because that was the wrist band I chose.  Support the Sea Turtles!!!

Next, we headed to the monkey exhibits!  My favorites were the little red-tail playing with it's best friend, the swamp monkey, and Rudy the orangutan!  The other orangutans were being shy, but Rudy came right over to where we were standing and laid down in front of us eating leaves from a branch.  He kept watching us, watching him--it was so neat!

After that we wound our way to the newest part of the Zoo--the African Forest.  They have this all set up as a journey that was taken by a downed pilot named Tommy.  You start at Tommy's crash site camp, and then follow him into a mock-pygmy village!  All the while, they have a sort of scavenger hunt to find a legendary ape-like creature...I'm so going to take my kid there in the future!  Of course, Bryan and I had a lot of fun ourselves!!!

The African Forest is now home to the chimpanzees, rhinos, and giraffes, as well as some antelope-like critters whose names I don't remember.  We had a lot of fun watching the antics of the chimps, and really enjoyed getting to see the rhinos and giraffes!

We kept going, seeing the cats, small and large, and the bears.  We also swung through the Children's Zoo to see the bald eagle and the otters, as well as the red fox, Texas turkey and whitetails.  I also made sure that we went to see the vultures--they are just SO COOL--and, of course, the elephants.  I took waaay more critter pictures than I can share here, and we also stopped and took some fun pictures with the various critter statues throughout the Zoo.

We also went to see one of the giant storks...maybe he'll actually do his job and bring us a present sooner rather than later lol!

We stayed at the Zoo for about three and a half hours, until I could no longer ignore the building aches and pains.  Lol I'm still recovering today but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!  We headed back to the house and spent an hour or so resting, because my wonderful husband's plans didn't stop at the Zoo!  After we had rested up and drank some water, we got dressed up a bit nicer and headed out to a movie and dinner!  Our funny expressions in this picture is thanks to my silly camera timer lol.

Bryan took me to see Thor!  I loved it--I'm a sucker for superhero movies lol.  Afterwards, he took me to Kim Sons...easily the best Thai food place in Houston.  We had a wonderful meal--and I had a yummy glass of plum wine--and then shared a creme brulee for dessert before heading back home.  It was a wonderful anniversary--I enjoyed every minute of it!  And I especially enjoyed that my sweet, loving husband planned it all out and that we had such a good time spending the day together!