Thinking Turtle and Hatching Eggs at the Dallas Zoo

 Yet another Dallas Zoo post, but these pictures were too cute not to share! Liz and I met up at the zoo to see the dinosaurs today. We passed by the Galapagos Tortoise exhibit and the kids were thrilled to hear a tortoise hiss at them from deep in its mud puddle. Another tortoise looked like it was thinking happy thoughts and I had to take a picture! Maybe I'll come up with a good meme for it later.

I finally got Clara's adorable new pose on camera! She's been walking around with her hands clasped behind her back looking at things on occasion, and today she stood in front of the Baryonyx model contemplating the mysteries of the fish it had in its mouth, haha! Derek and Bryce were more inclined to try their hand at hatching dinosaur eggs with Isaac, Andrew and Emeri.

 Whatcha thinkin' about, turtle? Turtle stuff?

 She was fascinated by the Baryonyx

Busted! She's just too cute!

 Four baby dinosaurs in their nest

 Derek tried his best to hatch that egg!

Not all the baby dinosaurs were thrilled with the bright, hot sun. Emeri wanted to go back to eating raisins, lol.

7 Year Anniversary

 Happy anniversary, Mitchell! My mom watched our kids while Mitchell and I went for a mini-getaway Friday night to Saturday afternoon. We spent the whole time laughing, talking, watching movies and just having a blast! We stayed at a beautiful Hyatt in Dallas and went swimming, had a late-night snack at the hotel restaurant and watched parts of the Harry Potter marathon ABC was running. Saturday morning, we ordered anything we wanted from room service (because it's our anniversary!!) and then went to the Perot - without kids! It was so cool to be able to take our time perusing the displays, discovering and exploring hidden treasures - like a whole new area of the dinosaur exhibit! My camera died soon after that, but I still got a cool picture of the view from the elevator ride (which doesn't allow strollers). Those were the two things I wanted to do anyway. :) We had a blast talking about what we liked and we even went to one of the 3D movies. It was an interesting documentary about one of James Cameron's deep sea expeditions. Not bad, but definitely not something the kids would've sat through.

I'm going to get mushy now. You've been warned. Seriously though, I'm so glad Heavenly Father blessed me with such a wonderful husband! Mitchell is a wonderful husband, father to our kids and my best friend. We are so different and yet so similar and it's been amazing to see how we've woven our personalities into each other through the past years. From two, we're continually growing into one. We've made it through some of the roughest years of our lives and he never once wavered in his commitment to our family or the Lord. He's a wonderful example of a priesthood holder and I'm so thankful our kids will grow up having the power of the priesthood in our home. Our relationship has grown so much and changed in a myriad of beautiful ways; I can't wait to see where the next seven years takes us, babe!

 Seven years down, eternity to go!

 I love my handsome husband!

 Look at that spread! A feast fit for a king and his queen! ;)

Entelodont or "Hell Pig" skull - one of my favorite prehistoric animals!

 Edaphosaurus - gentle herbivore with a cool sail

 Coelophysis - graceful therapod dinosaur

 Fossilized Green River ray - I can't wait to decorate my home with fossil accents!

 Fossilized sea stars

 Giant fossilized crab!

The skyline view from the escalator ride! We had a blast!