Sharing My Weekend – Lions, Tigers, and Bears – OH MY!

(Minus the tigers because they were nowhere to be found.)

This past weekend we took our last road trip up to Virginia to see my mom. (I’m getting closer to my due date and am not allowed to travel.)

Hubs and I took the day off on Friday and drove up Friday morning. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some traffic along the way, so it took us about an hour longer than it normally would have, but that’s okay. We made it safely and that’s what matters! After we got to my mom’s house and rested up a bit from the ride (about four hours – really not too far away), we headed out to the zoo. None of us had ever been before and I think it’s safe to say we all had fun!

We saw lions…

(no tigers) and bears…

We didn’t get to see the tigers or rhinos, but we saw lots of other cool animals.

These guys were so funny! Every time Hubs made a “kissy” noise all of the prairie dogs would stop eating, or doing whatever they were doing, and jump up and throw their hands up in the air and squeal. It was hilarious because there were about 10-12 in the area together and it was just funny to see them all do synchronized jumping. =]

And there were these super scary animals… =]

The weather was absolutely perfect for the zoo! The sun was out but it wasn’t hot at all. We found this little gazebo along the way and decided to snap a picture. Thanks Mom!

I thought I did really well as far as walking goes. I didn’t have any trouble, my feet didn’t hurt at all, and I didn’t even have to stop and sit/take any breaks. We walked for a good two hours too! =]

We were pretty hungry after walking around the zoo, so we grabbed some lunch at Johnny Rocket’s. It was another place that Hubs and I had never been and it was really good! We were SO full by the end of lunch (plus it was around 5:00 PM) that we ended up not eating the pot roast my mom had in the crock pot for us. I felt bad, but I seriously couldn’t eat anymore! (Until dessert of course.) We watched a movie that night after we got home and then headed to bed.

On Saturday we headed out to the Navy Exchange, where my mom works, to scope out the baby stuff. Then we got some Starbucks and headed to the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science center. It was my mom and I’s first time going – Hubs had been there once before all of the new renovations were done, so it was kind of new for him too. This was another really cool place to visit where we saw some cool animals.

They had these areas where you could “walk through” the fish tanks so it was like you were inside. They were massive.

The sharks were pretty cool to watch. Unfortunately, one got us…

Just kidding! We’re still alive! (But I did almost kill myself trying to get INTO this thing. Don’t they know that big kids want to take cool pictures like this too?!)

The turtles were my favorite part. They were HUGE.

The aquarium was pretty neat and, again, we spent about two hours walking and I felt great. After we finished up there we headed home to wait for my older brother to get off of work and to get my nephew so that we could all go out to dinner together. We went to TGIF and then Babies R Us and back home. My little nephew is the cutest little thing!! I can’t believe he will be one year old next month!

He got a little sleepy at dinner and just grabbed his blanket, stuffed it into the side of his high chair, and laid his head down. So cute! (Before he did that he had his head down (on his blanket) on the table.)

This is what happened every time my brother set my nephew down in his crib for bed time… Hubs snuck in there and started playing. I can only imagine what bed times will look like at my house. =]

He did finally go to sleep…

After my brother and nephew crashed on the couch we kicked them out of the living room and watched another movie. I didn’t make it through the movie before falling asleep. I’ll just take that as a sign that the movie wasn’t very entertaining – ha. It was After Earth or something like that with Will Smith.

Sunday morning we hung around for a little while and then said our goodbyes to head back home. Hubs wanted to stop at Bass Pro Shop on the way home, even though it’s about twenty minutes in the opposite direction, because we don’t have one where we live. Yet! We have heard rumors that one is coming soon! While we were there guess what happened? I made a sweet deal with the store peeps. They had a set of dishes that we really liked on clearance for $40 (from $60) because it was the last set (so the display set), but they were missing a plate so we talked them down to $30 and snatched them up! One of the smaller plates was missing which was a-okay with me because it’s the big dinner plates that we really needed. After getting home we realized they accidentally (maybe on purpose?) also gave us one of their extra large coffee mugs. Pretty sweet!

All in all it was a really fun, eventful last road trip. We both had a good time and are glad we got to go somewhere before Peanut gets here. (We had originally planned on going to the mountains but couldn’t make it work out.) We probably won’t be taking any other “big” trips like this until Peanut is about six months old. We are planning a trip around the Fourth of July next year to go to Smith Mountain Lake where Hubs’ grandparents live. His family always tries to get together around that time and it’ll be fun to introduce everyone to Peanut then. =]

What did YOU do this weekend?!