Crazy 8

Grant and I celebrated 8 years of marriage earlier this week. The title, “Crazy 8,” has more to do with the week surrounding our anniversary than it does our 8 years together, although I’m sure we drive each other a little crazy at times. Grant and I got to go on a date to the movies on Saturday to celebrate because we knew how hectic the week would be. Grant has worked late or had class every night this week. In fact, he’s in class as I’m writing this. Can’t wait for him to come home so we can consider this week over!

On the actual day of our anniversary, Grant had to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) for his admission to PSU (he’s been taking classes without officially being admitted, and he has reached his limit). Grant has been putting off taking this test for about 2 years. He hates standardized tests. He took the test in Portland in the morning, ending around 3 in the afternoon. The girls and I decided to meet up with him at the zoo once he was done. One of the wonderful things about having a zoo membership is that we can go for just an hour or so if that’s all the time we have, and it doesn’t waste any money.

I didn’t take a ton of pictures, but here are a few. We met up with Nazhla (I have no idea how to spell it), this owl who, who, whoooo was practicing being on stage. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. There were hardly any people at the zoo, and no one was really around while the owl was on stage, so we walked right up to the front and talked with the trainer a bit. The girls seemed really impressed.

The cheetah was pacing around, wandering right up to the glass. I love the big cats, hate the small ones. We saw the lions, but they were sleeping.

 Phaedra was loving her independence. We let her get out of the stroller to walk a bit while we were in the predators exhibit. I didn’t like the way that cheetah was eyeing my little tootsie, but Phae was loving wandering on her own. She’s starting to learn that we mean it when we say she has to hold on to a finger. If she lets go while she’s supposed to be holding on, she gets picked up, so for the sake of her freedom, she holds on when we tell her.

After that, we could hardly get her back into the stroller.

And it goes without saying that we had to stop and wait for her many times. She gets distracted so easily, wanting to poke at any little thing on the ground along the way.

While Phaedra enjoyed walking and exploring, guess who enjoyed sitting in the baby seat? Eleanor just loves it when she is allowed to regress back to using whatever babyish item we have for Phae. In this case, it was the front, more confined, seat of the stroller. She asks at almost every meal if she can sit in the booster seat instead of Phaedra.

After the zoo, we headed over to PSU campus so Grant would be on time to his class after we got something to eat. Grant has been raving to me about this place on campus where he loves to eat pho, a Vietnamese soup. Grant, knowing how much I love soup, and knowing how much he loves it himself, has been so excited to have me try pho with him. This is pho:

(Image via HERE)

As much as I tried, I couldn’t muster the same love for it my husband has. Grant got something else for himself as a “back up” in case I didn’t like the pho. After a bit, we traded. Even with the “back up” meal, I was way out of my comfort zone. I have had some experience with Vietnamese food before, and I have to say that I am now decided that I do NOT like it. It’s just too . . . different for me. The pho wasn’t the worst experience I’ve had with food. On a don’t-like-it scale of 1 to 10, 1 being something I will eat even though I will never actually crave and 10 being something I can’t put near my mouth without gagging, I’d give pho a 4, meaning it makes me uncomfortable, but I could fake liking it if it was really important for me to do so.

Luckily, my husband is very understanding of my pickiness. He enjoyed the pho, and I boxed up the other food for him to eat as leftovers. He even offered to take me to Big Town Hero, but I wasn’t that hungry. The girls and I had been snacking most of the afternoon. So, we spent more time with him until it was time to walk him to class. I got some cheap fast food for the girls and myself on the way home.

Eleanor fell asleep on the way home. I tried to wake her, but she cried. We made a deal that if I let her sleep, she would cooperate when it was time for jammies and wouldn’t tell me she wasn’t tired. I never thought she’d keep the deal, but she was an absolute angel about bedtime. No tantrums, no stalling. She came out of her room once and tried to tell me she wasn’t tired, but I reminded her of our deal and she went right back to bed. It was amazing, so different from what I’ve been dealing with lately.

I had intended to make some sort of a dessert that Grant and I could enjoy by candlelight once he got home from class. I searched all over and couldn’t find the candles, and then I realized that I was tired. So I gave up on the idea, and we just watched a few shows before going to bed. Even though it was hectic, our anniversary was still very special.