I love the Zoo!

I have to say, the St. Louis Zoo is so awesome! I haven't been to another city's zoo but I know that the one in St. Louis is one of the best in the country. My sister and friend, Kate, work at the zoo and my mom and I went to visit them last week. Having friends (and family) in high places is awesome. We got VIP treatment all day!

We started off by petting the stingrays at Caribbean Cove. I was a little freaked out but they really are cute! They actually like when people pet them! You put shrimp between your fingers and they come by and suck it up. It was such a cool experience...I loved it!Next, Kate came to pick us up in the golfcart so we could go see the baby tigers in Big Cat Country.I got so excited that I could zoo my little camera and get such a close picture of the "babies" (I think they are almost a year old now)...Then, we got to pass the "employee's only" chain and I got to take a picture even closer...I was so psyched that we were so close...and then the coolest thing happened. We ran into the curator of carnivores and he allowed us to go under Big Cat Country and into the place where they have the cats' cages. Check out these pictures...no zoom needed!!!

These are pictures of the mama...she was beautiful and HUGE! It was so hot and she wanted to stay in the shade.
Next, we walked inside the facility and to a tunnel where we could see the babies from the other side. So cute!!!I was kicking myself that I didn't bring our good camera. Seriously, this was the coolest experience...I was so excited! Thanks Kate and Ali for the VIP tour!

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Crazy weekend (Part Two)

The morning after Zoofari, we woke up to prep for Day 2 of our crazy weekend. This is our second year doing the Pub Crawl for Cancer and I really didn't think we could have had more fun. We started off at Joey B's on the Landing and "crawled" around the area for the next few hours. Here is the deal with the pub crawl. You form a team with 10-12 people (it is $400/per team to register) and you drink 4 pitchers of beer at each bar. You visit 5 bars throughout the afternoon and the bars donate the beer towards the cause. What a fun way to raise money for cancer, right? Bina was our team captain this year and she did a great job (she even bought us themed costumes)!

Here we go.....
Nice and sober at Bar 1Dancing at Bar 3...Playing games at Bar 4...Getting crazy at Bar 5...Becoming ninjas after Bar 5...(yes, that is Mike in the middle)And then the pictures end. I am so glad that we could do our part to help cure cancer. Seriously though, this is such a fun event with thousands of participants and I can't wait to do it again next year!

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Crazy weekend (Part One)

I think I am still recovering from one of the most fun weekends we have had in a while!

My sister works at the Zoo and invited us to Zoofari, which is one of the Zoo's biggest events of the year. The theme is "creative black tie" but unfortunately, we didn't get too creative! Mike was out of town all last week and he flew into St. Louis and drove straight to meet us at the Zoo.

Zoofari was amazing! There were 60 restaurants that had booths all around the paths and were sampling their best dishes. Think of a restaurant, it was there! There were also bars with every alcohol that you can imagine.
Reunited with my hubby...see the bears behind us?

The boys (Mike and Ali's boyfriend, Kyle) enjoyed some interesting things...oysters....and pulled pork (literally pulled off of the pig...uch...).

Group picture...(This is where the heat became unbearable. It was probably 8:00 and 90 degrees.)The Commodores were playing on the main stage and we were dancing the night away.And then the rain rolled in...It was awesome! So much fun just running through the rain. We were soaked!Such a blast! Thanks Ali for inviting us. Hopefully we can go to Zoofari again in the future.

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Love you, Dad!

Happy Father's Day. You are the best.

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Rain, rain, go away...

Dr. Mother Nature,
Please give it a rest. This rain is just ridiculous! You chose sunny weather on the days I am busy and rain on all of my open days. I bought a summer pass to the pool and haven't been in 2 weeks. I would love a sunny weekend too! Friday night is Zoofari and Saturday is the Pub Crawl for Cancer. Thank you for your cooperation.

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An unwelcome visitor!

This morning at about 8:30, I was relaxing with Mia when I heard something fall in the other room. Of course, my mind thought, "A killer is in the other room. Oh my gosh...what do I do?" I slowly walked into the sunroom to see what fell. On the floor was a can of Mia's Kong Stuffing and on the shelf was this little guy...He stayed so still so I ran for my camera. After I took this picture, I tried to catch him and that didn't work too well. I had him trapped by the door which was wide open for him to escape but instead he decided to run into my basement. Awesome. We have a new roommate. I don't know what to do!?!?

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Mia is 12 weeks old!

Time flies, huh? We got Mia just before she was 8 weeks old. Yesterday, was her 12 week old "birthday". I thought that I would take pictures on the same couch to show her growth but can't get her in the same position so it might not work.

Here she is at 8 weeks:And again at 12 weeks:She wouldn't put her head up! Does she look bigger to you? Are you getting sick of Mia pictures yet?

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Adventures in Mia-sitting!

Miss Mia has been a handful this past week. Her favorite past times are ones that I would prefer her not to have.

She loves toilet paper. LOVES it. She actually reminds me of my parent's cat that would pull it off of the roll. Here is what Mia did the other day. Obviously, I couldn't be too mad...I ran right for the camera so I should show Mike her shenanigans.
Step 1: Take end of TP and put it in your mouth.Step 2: Run through the living room and dining room.Step 3: Hold on tight to the TP in your mouth and head into the kitchen!
Step 4: Keep going...run down the stairs.Step 5: Finally, reach your destination of the sunroom. Pull, pull, pull until the entire roll is throughout the house. (Look at this face..."Who me?!")Another favorite hobby of hers is to visit the neighbor's yard. The first time it happened, I panicked when she wasn't in our yard. Never have I wanted her to grow more than I do now!

I captured the whole return home on camera! (I had to put some of her food on the ground to lure her back over.) BUSTED!She has so much fun getting into trouble around the house and guess what she does the moment Mike gets home!?!

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Baby F is almost here!

On Sunday, my girlfriends and I threw a baby shower for Allison! She is the first of our close college friends to be pregnant and, therefore, the first shower we have thrown. In my honest opinion, I think we did a great job!I made a delicious salad (thanks Mimi for the inspiration). Lettuce, grapes, strawberry, Gouda cheese, walnuts, and poppy seed dressing. Yummm....The diaper cake and onesie clothesline was adorable. This onesie was my favorite!Here are those wonderful friends I was talking about!
Allison looks so great and I am just so excited to meet her little boy. They haven't decided on a name yet so they are keeping it hush hush.The teacher in me just had to get her the books she registered for. Her childhood favorite was Goodnight Moon and I threw in Love You Forever because it is just so so sweet (and a tearjerker!).Congrats Allison! I voted on Baby F being born on July 9th so push extra hard on that day. LOVE YOU and can't wait to meet your little man!

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