Friday Favorites {#29}

Hey! Hey! We made it to Friday. As always, I’m linking up with Andrea and Erika for this week’s Friday Favorites.

Favorite Moment:

Travis and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this week. We don’t usually do gifts but instead exchange cards and go out to dinner whenever we have an available sitter.

I don’t know why, but from the beginning, Travis has always written my name in bubble letters on my cards. It’s so sweet and something I like forward to. (I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing 😉 Anyway, he brought home my card and a cookie cake. Our family loves cookie cakes and usually pick one up for birthdays and other special occasions.

Sweet treat that almost looks too good to eat 😉

Which leads me to my….

Least Favorite Moment:

Homer ATE THE COOKIE CAKE!!!

Y’all, he is SO bad. (Thank goodness he’s cute)

Because I have no willpower when it comes to a cookie cake, we’d each had a small slice of cake before dinner on Thursday. The cake was covered on the counter and pushed back on the counter. After dinner, we were outside and Hadley came out to tell me about the cake. I cried.

1. because I love cookie cake
2. because I was afraid Homer was going to puke all over the house all night long.

We put him in his kennel. He tried to deny he did it, but icing on his nose was proof!

Favorite Activity:

I’m trying to incorporate at least one activity each week for the kids and I to do. I checked our forecast and Wednesday called for pretty mild temps with a high of 80 degrees.

I checked the Cincinnati Zoo’s website for details. Of course, they have new guidelines and the indoor exhibits were closed, but I knew we could at least wander around and check out the animals. The zoo actually had times with a specific number of tickets to be sold for various arrival times. I purchased tickets for the 12:30-1:00 arrival time. Of course, once you are in the zoo, I believe that you can stay as long as you’d like, but at least the arrival of guests is scattered. Also, I knew 2-2.5 hours would be all we’d need to look at the animals.

Cinci is about a 1.5 hour drive, so we left around 10:30, made a stop at Chick-Fil-A for lunch to eat in the car, and drove up to Cinci.

The weather was beautiful and we really were able to keep our distance and see most of what we would have wanted to see.

We’ve been to this zoo a few times. The last time was last year for the kids’ 3rd grade field trip. It was such a fun experience and lots of parents went, so the classes could be divided into small groups of kids. It was easier navigating this time with just my two kids 😉

We started off by seeing the Galapagos tortoises, the Red Pandas, and the Gibbons.

We made a pit stop at the Dippin Dots truck before finding the elephants. The elephants are always my fave!

Then we went to see the giraffes (another of my faves!), and the kids loved seeing the African Painted dogs (I don’t remember seeing them last time), the lions, the bald eagle and hippos.

Last stop was to see the flamingos.

Overall, we had a great day, and I was glad we made the trip up there.

Another favorite activity was dinner out with Travis last night at one of our favorite places: Carson’s Food and Drink.

Favorite Food:

Well, my favorite food should have been the cookie cake…#Imstillbitter

but…the grilled Oscar style salmon for my dinner last night was amazing 😄

And then we stopped by a new (to us) place for a nightcap.

The Kentucky Native Cafe didn’t disappoint with the atmosphere…

or the wine…😉 #roseallday

*both restaurants did amazing jobs with social distancing signs, masking wearing, and tables spread out.

Favorite Pic:

Earlier in the week when I thought Homer was still cute ;), I was looking for him and found him on top of ALL the pillows on my bed.

Favorite Kid Quote:

At dinner the other night, we were having cheeseburgers for dinner and somehow Kobe beef was brought up. Hayden asked if it was somehow connected to Kobe Bryant and we said no. Hadley then said, “People assume Taylor Swift made that one cheese.” I said, “You mean Swiss cheese?” 😂 and we all laughed. Travis asked her if she really thought it was called Swift cheese, and she said, “Maybe…. Maybe not.” 😂

During the same dinner, Hayden, who has been eating mostly soft foods because of his spacers for his braces said, “Wow. I ate that whole meal with just my front teeth!” Way to problem solve, kid! 😉

Favorite Mom Meme:

My hashtag for Hadley often is #sassysincedayone. Also, when people say how much she looks like me, I always say, “Unfortunately, for all involved, she acts like me too!”

Bonus: Flashback Friday

In June 2013, the kids each got their own rooms at our old house. They used to share one very sizable bedroom, and then we put them each into smaller bedrooms. That night, they hugged each other good night and said, “See ya later!” ❤️ Such a sweet Facebook memory.

Weekly Recap:

Here are my posts from this week!

Thanks so much for reading. I hope you have a great weekend.