I’ve been fairly absent from the blog over the last week or so.  We’ve had sicknesses running through the house, Louis had some weird allergic reaction resulting in a trip to urgent care, we had a small birthday party for me and then we were out of the house all day on Sunday for my actual birthday.  So it’s been busy.

I turned the big 3-0 on Sunday!!  It’s hard to believe that I’m officially out of my 20’s now…it all happened so quickly.  It feels like yesterday that I was just meeting Bennett (while being a sloppy college student) and now here we are nearly ten years later.  Business owners.  Married.  Parents.

Insanity!!

We had people over on Saturday night for some drinks on the porch but I still wanted to do something on my actual birthday-day, so we went to New Castle, PA to see my Momma.  She took us out to a brewery in a nearby town and then we went to this park called “Living Treasures”.  It is probably the coolest zoo I’ve ever been too.  But mostly because you could pet almost every single thing in that zoo.

We were armed with a bag of carrots and a bucket of feed and walked around the entire park, feeding and petting animals that we normally can’t get that close to.  

I could lie and say that we “went there for Louis”.  But I think it’s best to admit that all four of us had a serious amount of fun.  The bird exhibit is always interesting because I have a mild fear of birds but I also really want them to sit in my hand and eat.  It was all good until one would spook a little and fly away really quickly.  I only had about four mild heart attacks when it happened.

There were a few animals that you couldn’t directly get to.  Obviously.  If the leopard, alligators and lions were accessible…I’m pretty sure that park wouldn’t stay open long.

I’ve said it only a million times already but it’s so, super, freaking nice to have my Momma close by.  Just a quick day trip to her house is actually possible.  It’s a beautiful thing.

Hands down, the coolest animal you got to pet and feed was the giraffe.  I was shocked by how brave Louis was about them.  He went right up and stuck that cute little hand of his out to feed carrots to those giants.  There were even a few times where that long, crazy tongue of the giraffe was practically wrapped around Louis’ hand/arm and he was totally okay with it.  Just pure excitement from that kiddo.  It was awesome.

There were, of course, animals that weren’t so exotic that you got to play with as well.  The goats were adorable.  And seemed to just swarm to Bennett.  Well, and Louis too.  But Bennett had a couple chomping on his pants at one point…followed by one chewing on Louis’ shirt as he had him pinned up against the gate.  Oh the laughter that was coming from the four of us during this scene.

Louis also got to experience his first pony ride.  He was a little hesitant when it started moving, but he was super excited to sit on a horse for his first time.  Oh that smile.

If you live anywhere in the surrounding area of New Castle, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a day trip to Living Treasures.  It was the bomb dot com.  We are already talking about heading back there soon with a friend of ours.  It was that much fun.

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