two birthdays and an anniversary!

16 years of marriage have flown by! 

we've had a few downs like most marriages, but i'm happy to say that we've had mostly ups! and I wouldn't trade our life for anything or anyone else's. 

chris took the day off (October 22nd) so we went for an adventurous drive, found a new pizza place (and couldn't believe the size of our appetizer... seriously! it was huge! if there's one thing we love more than good food, its a good deal on good food!), and then I watched chris mow the lawn. and it was a perfect day.

 

the next day was Jack's 14th birthday! 

how in the world do we have a 14 year old?!? truly, it seems like I was transported into an older body and am now living someone else's life. it all happened so fast and I really believe the saying The days are long, but the years are short. 

Jack's birthday was unfortunately on a school day, but because he and chris are both early risers, they had time to go to Aladdin's Diner for breakfast before the rest of us were even awake. ( I did set my alarm so I could wake up and wish him a happy birthday before he left... but I went back to sleep afterwards haha)

jack didn't want much, but he did know exactly what he wanted. because we didn't have much planned, he asked that I set up a scavenger hunt to find his two gifts, which were some new lures and a pull up bar to help strengthen his back for archery.

so Owen helped me set up the hunt and I think it was a success!

afterwards we had dinner and he asked that we have a dominoes tournament followed by cake. what teenager wants to play dominoes with his family on their birthday??? we spent the evening rocking out to all of jack's favorite music which include the Beatles, Paul Simon, Fleetwood Mac, Journey and some new stuff too thrown in for good measure.

it was a lemon cake, with lemon cheesecake and a raspberry curd filling, topped with fondant sushi. all the components for this cake were simple to make, but for whatever reason, the filling kept gushing out of the bottom layer when I was putting it together. I've put filling in cakes before without this happening, so im not quite sure what the problem was. but it tasted good and I was reminded that I need to let go of perfection in the details and just enjoy the overall fun.

on November 7th we had another birthday! after months of literally counting down the days, Owen turned 6!

his birthday fell on a Saturday so we were able to do whatever Owen wanted the whole day. I think that was his favorite part, being able to say "I want to do blah blah blah" and we all happily obliged hahaha.

he started the morning off opening cards from grandparents and aunts and uncles, followed by gifts, which included fishing lures and a tackle box from grandpa and grandma, an rc car from cousin olive, a new fishing rod, and an electric scooter, not to mention his very own money! he yelled "I'M RICH NOW!".

the scooter was pretty tricky to begin with and after his first attempt, Owen was hesitant to get back on it again. but he did and had it down by the end of the day.

after gifts, mom and dad took him to breakfast at Bob Evans. he spent weeks deciding where he wanted to go for dinner, only to switch it up and ask for bob evens for breakfast instead.

after breakfast, jack took Owen on a quick fishing excursion to try out some of his new gear.

the boys were skunked, but they didn't have any time to feel sad because we had a surprise for Owen... we were going to the Columbus Zoo!

its hard to tell with a mask on, but Owen was so excited to see the gorillas! that was the one animal he has been looking forward to seeing "in real life" for a long, long time.

he beat on his chest, hoping to get the leader of this troop to do the same. it brought him closer, but I guess Owen wasn't very threatening because he didn't reciprocate the chest pounding.

the females of this troop made us laugh, they seemed so human! it was almost creepy the way they lounged around, crossing their legs and picking their finger nails.

these kids have Florida in their veins, so the aquarium was another top spot for us to visit.

I've loved manatees since 4th grade, so seeing three of them there was pretty cool, especially the mama and her calf. one of them kept spinning and putting on a show for us. it was great!

the elephants definitely made the kids laugh hard because one of them decided to come relatively close to us and then poop. it goes without saying, our minds were blown by the sheer amount of excrement.

after several hours of animal exploration, we met up with uncle Marc, Aunt DeLauna and their grandkids Kate, Abby, and Jack. 

Ellie and Jack spent some time babysitting these kiddos with DeLauna a few months ago, so they were eager to see them!

by the time we left the park we knew it was too late to go home and cook Owen's requested dinner of steaks and baked potatoes, so we made a stop at Raising Cane's (which was our best visit ever because we drove away and discovered they gave us a box of extra cane's sauce, yes an entire box of about 12 cups of sauce haha... we feel bad if the people behind us paid for all that and they accidentally put it in our order, but we felt like it was a birthday miracle!).

then we headed home for cake... 

a Krispy Kreme donut cake!

the birthday boy was wiped out by the end of his first day as a 6 year old!