Birth-deer Weekend

Morgan and I celebrated our respective 26th and 27th birthdays together on a weekend in February because she was born in January and I was born in March and because that was the only free weekend for months. 

We went to the Lowery Park Zoo in Tampa and then on to IKEA in Tampa. It was a great weekend. One of the best we've had. 

We arrived after work on Friday, just before Morgan and Grayson went to bed. When I walked in the door, he started laughing. It seemed like he was laughing at me, but it was such a cute laugh that I don't mind. He is such a happy baby. 

He wasn't so sure about the glasses thing.

We picked Sydney up in the morning and headed to Tampa. Grayson was properly accessorized for his first trip to the zoo.

It was 67 and sunny, with a little breeze, so it was pleasant but the jackets stayed on. We live in Florida.

We took a "safari" train ride around the zoo and Grayson fell asleep at the end. 

But not before being super charming.

His Aunt Sydney is his favorite.

We got snacks and so here's Carson feeding me a bite of his ICEE like a baby bird. He loves to hold a spoon way above my mouth like this if I ask for a taste. 

I took a picture of my sister in law Erin's favorite animal, the Manatee! 

We got Syd to snap this one as we were getting ready to leave.

Next stop: Baby's first trip to IKEA! 

Carson, Caleb and Sydney weren't thrilled about this stop, but Morgan and I played the birthday card and so we got to go. 

You may remember this, but Carson and I went to IKEA in Atlanta last year for my birthday and I'm thinking that this would make a mighty nice tradition.

Loading all our new things. Carson and I got a coffee table because we've been looking for one, and the white dishes I've planned on getting for months. 

We went to a local pizza place when we got back to Ocala and it was fantastic. Carson and Caleb shared a pizza that looked pretty good, but I think Morgan and I got the best things: she had Chicken Parmesan and I had a baked spaghetti with ricotta. Also meatballs but I gave them to Carson.

Post- dinner, Morgan and I went on what was supposed to be one lap around the neighborhood but turned into seven. I got 14,000 steps that day! After that, we opened our birthday gifts to each other and then the four of us (Grayson was in bed) went out and sat around the fire pit and talked. It was a great evening. 

We went to church the next morning and then Morgan made a tasty lentil soup for lunch. I selflessly played with Grayson while she cooked. He sits up now! And also waves, but no pictures of that. 

We ate outside because it was so nice. 

Carson and Caleb sang Happy Birthday and then we enjoyed our ice cream cake from Publix. Carson was being clever and got trick candles. 

Grayson may have gotten his first taste of whipped cream, and might have enjoyed it a little.

After all that celebrating, it was time to go! Morgan requested one last picture. We have lots of these goodbye pictures now. 

It was such a great weekend and it almost made me want to move to Central Florida so we can have more like it!

February Pictures

I'm I know I've mentioned that I've been trying to declutter a little at a time as much as I can. While I was going through some old letters and things, I came across this, that Scott made probably 10 years ago of Mini, the dog. 

Jillian and Emily and I were trying to describe what our apartments looked like one day in our group text. They both sketched out theirs and I thought to myself that mine wouldn't be hard to do at all... this was my third try, done in the car in the Chic-fil-A drive thru. 

Our company sent a huge box of chocolates to the office for Valentine's Day. It was gone in two days because I guess we're all pigs (for the record, I had two pieces - would have been more, but someone took all the chocolate covered nuts before I had a chance to have even one).

Plans didn't work out for my parents to come to Tally for Christmas. Nor did they work for them to come in January, or February. So right around Valentine's Day we got a big box of Christmas presents. For the record, we'll give them theirs sometime this month. I have a corner in the guest room that's full of red and green bags. 

One of mine was repurposed - it said my name on the other side of the tag.

I got this great little bracelet. 

We got "The Biggest Story" by Kevin DeYoung. It's a children's book that tells the big story of the gospel throughout the Bible. Great illustrations too. We sat down and read the whole thing before opening the remaining gifts.

We thought this acronym was a real stretch. Doesn't count if the first word in the acronym is the acronym - or does it?

I changed into my running shoes during my lunch break for a few days to walk around the lake, but I felt a little silly in black pants, a nice shirt and running shoes. 

February was pretty mild. We had some cold days, but for the most part it was pretty nice and we had a lot of days in the 60s and 70s (last Feb had record colds so you never know with Florida). We spent lots of time walking at different parks and on campus. Here's a sunset from one evening walk. 

And Carson found this short stop sign so funny. He made me take a picture next to it. A normal-sized one is on the left side of the picture. 

We went to membership classes for the church we've been attending. Took this in the hallway of the children's wing while we were on a tour of the church buildings. Since we don't have children, we'd never been in this part of the building! They paint murals each year depending on what the VBS theme is, and last year was a farm theme about spiritual growth. This long hallway and another one are all painted with scenes and I was impressed. Actually all the youth buildings impressed us. We really like this church. 

The class was Saturday from 9-1 and then during the second service on Sunday. We discussed what it meant to be a member, church leadership, the gospel, and different theological points. Carson and I found this picture very funny. 

Carson missed the Sunday portion of the membership class because he had to present a paper in the Graduate Studies conference his department held at school. I took a picture of the schedule of events so you could see his name in print there. 

So one Wednesday, we were supposed to have "The Storm of the Century". It was supposed to be really big: thunderstorms, tornado watch/warnings, really really terrible. They cancelled school for Leon County and had delayed opening until 10am for classes and faculty at Florida State. So imagine my surprise when I woke up, preparing for the worst, and discovered that this is what the day looked like. It rained (not terribly) overnight, and the west side of town had a few power outages, but calling this "The Storm of the Century" before it happened may have jumped the gun a little. On the bright side, it was a slow day at the bank, and the roads were pretty clear on my commute because people were at home.

I walked around the park on my lunch that day.

A little Oscars dinner Carson whipped up

Carson setting up our new coffee table!