5 years and counting

While going through my blog postings, I noticed that this one said "draft." I must have finished it but not ever posted it! It's back from late July ... so sorry to just be officially posting it now. Here it is!
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I must say, 9 hours of straight sleep feels quite amazing.

This past Friday night, Nate & I went to Omaha, NE to celebrate our 5th anniversary. So the boys had a little vacation of their own and had their first sleepover at Grampy and Gramma Stidolph's house. It felt odd to leave the boys behind and revisit our pre-parenthood days for 24 hours. Although, once a parent, always a parent ... we often found ourselves talking about the boys and even noticing other families with babies and discussing our opinions on the strollers they were using. Regardless, our little getaway was a wonderful short break from it all and our time together just the two of us was very enjoyable and relaxing.

Friday evening, we dined at a fancy steakhouse close to our hotel in downtown Omaha. 801 Chophouse. By far the BEST steak we've ever eaten. The dollar signs reflected it, too. Our wallet didn't thank us but our taste buds sure did!! Saturday, Nate & I spent the day at the Omaha Zoo - what an amazing place! And yes, some people thought it weird that we would go to a zoo to celebrate our anniversary and leave the boys behind. However, we had taken them to the Des Moines Zoo just a couple weeks earlier and they were much too young to appreciate the giraffes and monkeys just a few feet from their stroller .... so we'll be sure to take Thing 1 and Thing 2 to the Omaha Zoo once they are old enough to appreciate it (possibly next year since I want to go back soon!). Then it was home again to get some greatly-missed baby snuggles!

our downtown hotel

ya know it's a fancy place when they put a gold sticker on your toilet paper

yep, I ate the whole 16 oz

and so did this guy!

we chose a soufflé dessert that took 40 minutes of preparation ... it did not disappoint!

served with with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry sauces

jellyfish at the zoo!

there's a butterfly on his head!

(inside the butterfly house)

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*Below are pictures of our trip to the Des Moines Zoo mid-July*

they noticed the zoo animals were all sleeping in the heat, so they took note

C checking out the lion fish in the tank

Brayden, there's a fish right in front of your face ...

B has no fear ... nose to nose with an alligator

awestruck by the peacock

Cooper making friend with the wallabies

thanks for bringing us to the zoo, Mom and Dad!

ps: this grass tickles!