{Heart} Day

We decided to spend Valentine's Day at the zoo! And when I say day, that's what I mean! We left our house at 9:30 am & got back at 4 pm! There wasn't a better thing to do than be with my little Valentines at the zoo! And, we LOVE going while school is in because we pretty much had the whole zoo to ourselves:)

Porter climbing like a mountain goat.

Porter wanted me to take a picture of the bear:)

The river otter was doing flips in front of the glass!

There were 3 huge beavers crammed into their little lodge. It looked so funny!

A fun thing about going to the zoo on Valentine's day was the animals got their own valentines! The sea lions got seaweed hearts...

with fish attached for a treat:)

Brody & Hudson's favorite (and my favorite!) was seeing baby Lily... finally!

She is soooo cute!

Climbing...

and more climbing. Does that surprise anyone???

The giraffe's are another one of my favorites.

Porter was enamored with the porcupines! They are normally huddled in the corner where we can barely see them, but today they were busy walking around, moving twigs. I literally had to drag Porter away from them!

The giant crocodile was Porter's favorite animal of the day. Look at that thing! I think Porter was brave standing next to it for a picture! Even with glass in between! Yikes!

Brody's favorite was petting the farm animals.

Valentines for the mountain lions. Porter told me there was probably meat in their valentines:) I said that was a good guess!

Another of Porter's favorites are the monkey's. I think that's because he's half monkey!

And I just had to add this picture. There are these John Deere benches in the farm area. The first time I went to the zoo (when Porter was just a baby) I noticed these benches because they say Moline, Ill. on them. Moline is part of the Quad Cities where I grew up. Davenport & Bettendorf are in Iowa, Moline & Rock Island are in Illinois. Moline was actually where our church was. We always joked about the fact that we lived in Iowa & had to drive to Illinois just to go to church! Anyways, every time I visit the zoo & see these benches, I always think about when I lived there.

When we got home from the zoo, we were all pretty exhausted. I picked up this heart pizza for the little boys. I made Brandon & I a steak dinner with wild rice & asparagus. Yum!

Then Brandon gave us valentines. The boy's card said: You three boys are my "Super Heros". I love you more than Spiderman! (even though you puzzle me!) He gave them 3 super hero puzzles-in-one. They were so excited! My card said: There are sooo many "Riesens" why I love you! I love you soooo much that I would climb the "Andes" mountains for you! We were "mint" for each other! I can honestly say... I am never "puzzled" when I am with you! He gave me a bag of Riesens & Andes mints & an awesome glow-in-the-dark puzzle of the skyline of New York, New York. I can't wait to put it together! 

Thanks honey!

After the last Valentines were given the kiddos were more than ready for bed & Brandon & I had a movie night. We watched the super romantic movie, Here Comes the Boom;) Well, it may have not been the most romantic movie ever, but it was really good! 

To me, that was the perfect Valentine's Day!