Exploring Charlotte

Last week Mike found out that he got almost all A's on his midterms! I wanted to do something to celebrate and because that usually means an excuse to go out to eat I asked Mike where he wanted to go. He asked for Chinese food and for him that generally means Panda Express. Now, the closest one to us was in Charlotte which is about an hour away so we decided to make a day trip of it and so we packed a lunch and headed up to Charlotte on a Saturday. We decided that the best way to explore a new city is to walk. So we parked the car and picked a street to start on. I LOVE being back in a city. I love the sounds, the business, the people, and just the overall feeling of always having something to see and do. While we were exploring we found the Square which is just the center of the city. I guess we just have good timing cause they were about to film a commercial about Charlotte and so we were extras in a commercial. Their were people dancing in the street and they needed people to be standing on the sidewalks cheering. It was fun to be part of it.

Just to prove that Mike and I were there together since I didn't feel like asking someone to do it...Its a reflection in a window. Its a big disc sculpture that was pretty interesting.

The helicopter cam during the commercial.

Our view of the square...their are 4 statues. Each one has a name. They are industry, future, transportation and commerce.

Then we continued our journey around the city and decided to visit the Nascar Hall of Fame. But..once we found out it was $20 a person...we decided to look at the cars through the window and just take a picture outside.

Next we continued to wander and I just enjoyed taking pictures of the city. We actually went to the Discovery Museum but I took so many pictures and we did so much that I'll dedicate another post to that story but we did enjoy our time in Charlotte. The Panda Express but delicious and we finished our visit with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory and a slice of Caramel Turtle cheesecake! Yum!

Lions, Leopards and Giraffe's....Oh My!

A couple weekends ago Mike and I decided to take a little trip down to Greenville for a visit to the zoo. I was a little worried that we wouldn't see anything since it was August and if you've been in SC in August you know that its hot and very humid. But Mike assured me that since it was late morning and cloudy that we would probably see some animals. I'm glad we went cause it was great! It wasn't too crowded so we got to look at animals as long as we wanted and since its not a huge zoo we went around twice (their are some animals that were just too cute to not sneak a second peak) Now to address the title of this post. I know you're all thinking...wait...that's not how it goes but the saddest part of our trip was that we didn't get to see any tigers or bears but we did get to see some giraffe's and some adorable leopards :) Thus the name of the blog....maybe my new saying will catch on :)

We caught Mufasa....the king of the savannah and what was he doing??? Just typical cat stuff...gotta get those 20 hours in

Mike loved the giraffe's! Just look at that spine!!!

We loved the leopards! I just wanted to go hug one! Now onto Mike's favorite animal in the zoo....the red panda! Master Shifu!

Just look at that face! These pictures really don't show how adorable this little panda was. He was good at posing for the camera too :) Now for my favorite animal and surprise surprise...it's a member of the cat family...the ocelot!

Unfortunately, they did not want to cooperate with me so this was the best picture that I could get but they really were so cute. And now for some more highlights from the trip:

These two monkey's are howler monkeys. They were adorable on our first trip around but halfway through the second they started howling. I couldn't believe how loud they were! I was trying to imagine what the rainforest must sound like if this was just 2 monkeys! Needless to say that I got a headache but I felt better when I saw the leopards (in the cage across from them) pacing up and down. I was so close to letting them out and letting them devour those monkeys...I know they wanted to.

This is Ellie...ellie the elephant that is.

This little guy was far less annoying and sat there for a few minutes and let everyone take his picture. I think he liked the attention and he was pretty cute.

We had a great time at the zoo! We just love seeing all of the animals! Next we want to visit the Columbia zoo and then go down to Busch Gardens and go on the safari but in the meantime its nice to have a zoo close to our house.

Fourth of July

This year for the 4th of July we went down to Charleston to celebrate with my family. We were only there for about 3 days but we had fun. We spent our time with family and friends. We were kind of sad though since this was the last trip for us since mike was starting chiropractic school the next Monday. We were excited for the holiday though.

My parents had a big dinner planned with tons of great food and they also invited our friends Reagan, Mike and their two kids Brigham and Olivia and Reagan's sister Shelby. We spent the day playing board games and watching movies. We watched Finding Nemo and The Incredible s. While we were watching the incredibles, reagan and mike's little boy brigham came crawling into my lap. He just over one year old and was quite content to just sit with me and watch the movie and play with some toys. He is so sweet...who wouldn't want to cuddle with this little guy!

And of course Olivia couldn't just sit and watch a picture being taken without her so she came and joined us :) They are both so sweet :)

Once it got dark we went outside to do some little fireworks which were fun and then a neighbor down the street (who had a couple hundred dollars worth of fireworks) put on a fireworks show and we just sat and watched it. They were pretty and it was fun to be right under the huge ones. We had a pretty late night and were tired by the end of it.

Except for it being really, really hot and humid we had a great day!

Sunday Afternoon

Our parents weren't exactly away but it was a sunday afternoon and we were trying to find something fun to do. So what happens when we get bored???? We build forts of course! I admit though...I thought it would be fun to build a fort but it had to be big and it had to be air conditioned.

Birthdays!!!

I know I'm about a month late but I've just been busy moving into our new apartment and job hunting. So now I'm finally going to blog about my dads birthday and mine. This year I finally got to spend my dad's birthday with him instead of being 2600 miles away. It was wonderful to celebrate with him. I have the best daddy ever!!! I'm happy we could spend the day with him and finally sing happy birthday to him. For his birthday we got him a Moe's gift card (he loves to eat there) and he also got a Clive Cussler book (it's one of his favorite authors). We also had chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (his favorite kind of cake :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!!! We love you!!! At the end of May it was my 22nd birthday. This was the first birthday that I was able to spend with my family in 4 years and also the first birthday I've had without snow....that was wonderful! I had a very simple birthday. I didn't ask for anything and since it was a sunday I wasn't going to go out. So instead I spent the day playing my favorite board games with my family, eating homemade black bean pizza that my dad made, eating dessert and opening the presents I got. It was a very relaxing day and a wonderful birthday.

A lovely card from my little brother Josh :)

I think this may be my favorite present. Its a wonderful card from my wonderful nephew Max :)

Mike got me a new picture frame for me to use to decorate our new apartment. I love it.

He also got me the Wii harry potter years 5-7 game.

I also got shopping money from my parents :) as well as an Aeropostale gift card from Mike's parents. I love shopping so this was a perfect gift. Until next year :)

Roaring Twenties

Almost 2 weeks ago Mike and I went up to Spartanburg for the weekend. Mike enjoyed going to classes and learning more about chiropractic school. While he was off doing his thing, I enjoyed some much needed 'me' time. I slept in, went to the gym (this really is fun for me), sat by the pool and went shopping. It was great to just relax for a few days and not have to do anything. We also got to go see our new apartment again which made me more excited to move in and decorate it and make it our home. On our last night we got to go to a roaring 20's banquet. It was fun to dress up and go to a party. The party was at a Marriott in one of the fanciest ballrooms I have ever been in. It was beautiful and we met so many nice people. We had more food than we could imagine and it was all delicious! Mike and I also went dancing for the first time since we got married. It was something we have said we wanted to go do but we just never got around to going for one reason or another. The only thing that was kind of weird was that I was the only woman there, under 30, who was wearing a dress with sleeves and who could bend over properly if needed. I think I've been in Idaho too long cause it shocked me to see people dressed immodestly but luckily I was able to adjust quickly :) So in summary, the music was awesome (live band), the food was delicious and we got to eat as much as we wanted, and the people were some of the nicest people I've met in a long time. I think I'm the luckiest girl because I got to go to the banquet with the hottest guy :) We also got to go to the temple on our way up to Spartanburg. Mike and I hadn't been back since we got married and it was wonderful to go. I love how I feel after going to the temple but I really love how I feel when I'm in the temple. Whenever I go I never want to leave cause its where I am happiest and the most relaxed.

Home Sweet Home

It's so nice to be back in the South :) I've missed the diversity and the hospitality you only get in the south. Its back to humidity and big fluffy hair but their really is no place like home. It was great to be here with Stacey for the first few days back. It was fun to show her around. I love having people visit especially for the first time because I get to see things in a totally different and touristy way and some things I see for the first time. We didn't get to show Stacey everything or do everything that we would have liked but we had fun with what we had time to do. We knew that we had to take her downtown and walk around and show her the battery. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Now at this point you all want to see pictures....however I forgot my camera so I didn't take any. Thankfully Stacey had her camera though and took some great pictures :) I just borrowed a few of hers to share. A trip to the beach was a necessity while she was here. I wanted to make sure Stacey knew that warm oceans exist and it doesn't have to rain at the beach. (The Pacific is freezing and I've heard from a reliable source that it is cloudy on the Washington/Oregon coast more than it is sunny....which just isn't fun for me when I'm used to sunny and warm beaches). Again, we had another beautiful day and I remembered my camera this time :) Our last stop was to visit Angel Oak. It is a HUGE oak tree! Its about 1000 years old! It is only 65 feet tall but it covers 17,000 sq. feet. I had never been here before but we heard about it and thought it would be cool.