Happy Birthday Josh

Happy Birthday Little Brother!

This past Labor Day weekend Mike and I took a trip down to Charleston. Joshua's birthday is Sept. 3 and this one was his 16th birthday and the first one that I was getting to celebrate with him since I left to go to Idaho.

Josh's birthday weekend began with all of us attending his cross country meet. It was fun watching him run and cheering him on. We also got to cheer on my dad's team. (I never know who to cheer for so I just choose to cheer for both) It was a really bad day for running since it was VERY hot and humid. I don't know how any of them ran and finished the meet. I think Josh did a very good job in the meet :)

Joshua running toward the finish line (in red)

 I wanted to do something for Josh's birthday but I wanted it to be a surprise. So I found an idea on Pinterest to put plastic in front of his door and fill the middle with balloons. Then when he opened the door the balloons would fall in on him. So with help we were able to pull it off. My dad and mike blew up balloons the night before while my mom and I made Josh's birthday cake. Then we woke up early the next morning to put the plastic up and fill it with balloons. Then the four of us stood outside his door and sang Happy Birthday until he woke up.

We had a video but for some reason I can't get it to load right now so these pictures of what it looked like before will have to do :)

Later that day we decorated and had Chick fil A for lunch along with cake and ice cream. Then it was present time.

The lovely kitchen decorated by me, mike and my mom

The present basket

We recycled the balloons from the morning but most ended up on the floor

The cake was delicious! It was a yellow cake with vanilla frosting so simple but it was yummy! I wanted to steal some and take it home but I decided to let the birthday boy enjoy as much of his cake as possible.

He tried really hard to get all of them at once but he missed 2 but he got em with the next blow

Next we opened presents but when you don't tell people what you want for your birthday this is what you get......

Candy and money :)

 Mike and I also decided to give Joshua another surprise as he walked downstairs for his little party. Hehehehe While my mom and I were picking up decorations I got 2 cans of silly string and well while he was walking down the stairs....well why don't I just show you what happened

He was a good sport about it but I'm sure I should expect a surprise when its my birthday :)

We ended the weekend by taking a family photo so that we could have a recent one. I think it turned out very nicely especially since it was done in the living room. Thanks for humoring me guys :)

Happy 16th Birthday Josh!!!!! I hope you had a fun birthday weekend and that you have a great 16th year!!! We love you and we loved spending the weekend with you!

New Jobs

While Mike is busy studying and becoming a chiropractor, I have found two jobs and I love both of them. Both of them involve me taking care of children but they are very different.

My first job when I moved here was to take care of an adorable little two year old girl named Abby. Her mom drops her off at my apartment in the morning and she stays with me til around lunch time. We have a lot of fun playing with trains, reading books, going to the park, playing tetris (which really means that Abby takes the pieces and makes designs with them) and lots of other fun activities.

One little story about Abby is that she loves Mike. Everyday she asks to see my phone and look at the picture of mike in the silly hat (its his graduation picture in his cap and gown). Then she scrolls through the pictures for a few minutes. She goes to the window when she arrives and looks for our car. If its their then she announces to me that Mike rode his bike to school and if its not that he took the car. She usually asks me when Mike will be home throughout the day. I think its so sweet how much she likes him and its sweet to see how excited she gets when we call him at school or when she sees pictures of him.

One day while she was looking at the silly hat picture I went to the closet and got the silly hat. She was very excited to wear it and have her picture taken. While we were at it I went and got some of my other sillier hats and we took some pictures in those too. Enjoy!!

My second job is an afternoon job as a preschool teacher. I don't have too much to say about it yet since I had my first day yesterday and it was a lot of just learning the ropes and observing. Right now its just 2 days a week until October then it'll hopefully be 5 days a week. Fingers crossed! Either way I'm spending my afternoons with adorable little kids and its a good mix of instruction and playing. I also get to teach social skills and manners which is a nice mix.

Both of these jobs are wonderful and fit my personality perfectly! One day in the future I may want my own classroom but right now I'm perfectly happy with preschool age children and watching Abby. Hopefully this second job works out well but the first day was great so all signs point to a good job. So right now all is well in Boiling Springs!

Discovery Place

While Mike and I were wandering around Charlotte, we saw the Discovery Place Museum. I thought it was a children's museum (and it is) and that you needed to have a child with you to be admitted. Mike wanted to check anyway and I'm glad we did cause it turns out anyone could get in as long as you didn't mind being surrounded by kids and being in a very loud museum.

We had so much fun!! It was one of those interactive museums to their was a lot of stuff to see, touch and play with.

The first section we went into was called "Build It"

 Mike next to an Eiffel Tower

 Me next to an Aztec Temple

 Mike decided to build a house. I think it turned out very nicely. (See that pile of blocks...that was my tower before it fell)

Next I tried this display out. You put paper into the bottom of the tube and wind shoots it out the top. I had fun putting it in and dancing around in it. I think this is the closest I'll get to dancing around in flying money :)

This exhibit was neat. It was all about sound and they had this table and blocks with different instruments on them. When you put the block on the table it made that sound. We had fun creating our own band with some very strange sounds.

Next we tested our physical strength. They had 3 pulley's: hard, harder and hardest. Mike tried the hardest one and was able to reach the top.....I was not able to do so but YAY for Mike!!!!!

This is a gyro box that you were supposed to carry while trying to walk along the red path. Mike did pretty well

.

Next we tried to lay on a bed of nails. It sounds like it would be really uncomfortable and it is but it also sounds like it would hurt and it surprisingly did not. The only negative part for me was that my hair got pulled a little but it would have been fine if I had made sure it was on the pillow my head was on. You lay down and then press a button and the nails slowly rise out of the case. Its a very weird sensation. 

Next we went downstairs into the "rainforest". They had exotic birds and a rope bridge that you could walk across. 

 They also have a small aquarium in the museum. This little octopus was fun to watch :)

Later I decided to go back and try the pulley labeled hard and I made it to the top :)

We had a lot of fun at the museum and I took a lot more pictures than this but I don't want to upload all of them. This museum would have been more fun with children but until then we got to act like kids for about 2 hours which was fun.

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!