Walkin' through the Zoo...

We had the opportunity to go to the zoo yesterday. It was a lot of fun! The kids had a blast. Especially Heather. We were able to see lots of cool animals, ride a train, and pet a snake! Here are some photos:

This is from earlier in the week. I found Heather with her arm around Josh. Just chillin' and eating together.

Inside a dinosaur egg.

On the train.

Josh's favorite thing in the world is sliding down the slide!

Josh loves, loves, loves his hat!

Petting the snake

Some of you may be wondering about Heather's surgery and how she is recovering, and all that. She had surgery on the 7th to close two hernias. The surgery went well, and was done quickly. Heather was back to "normal" before we even left the hospital. She was a little worn out, but didn't even take a nap that day. :( I was hoping she'd at least be tired and want to lie on the couch for a while. No such luck. It was like she had a surplus of energy for the entire two days she needed to take it easy! It was a constant fight. But, she is all better now, and can run and jump to her hearts content!

Showing off the owie, and her Tinker Bell pillowcase from the hospital.

May the Fourth...be with you!

This last Friday was a great day for at least two reasons. First, it was my last day of final exams here at Iowa State University. This is a huge relief and I'm looking forward to a summer without lectures and assignments and textbook reading (of course I'll have to keep up with my research and with relevant scientific literature). I'm so happy to reach this point in my grad studies.

The second reason it was a great day was that Stephanie threw a surprise celebration party. May 4th is "Star Wars day" (get it? "May the Fourth be with you") so Stephanie created a themed dinner with all sorts of cleverly named finger foods.

Star Wars fare dinner: Yoda's soda (sherbet floats), Hutt dogs (Lil' smokies),  Luke's lightsabers (frosted pretzel sticks), and Palpatine's produce.

Vader taters, Bantha fodder (homemade Butterfingers), Wookie cookies (Oreos), Princess Lays (chips),  and "Han" burgers. 

Stephanie really outdid herself (again) in terms of creativity, and we had a lot of fun eating together and playing with "lightsabers" (foam pool noodles) afterward.

Stephanie's hair wasn't quite long enough for the Leia buns, so she went for the closest she could get!

After the kids went to bed, we played a Star Wars-themed Trivial Pursuit (yes we still have that from my high school days!). I am both happy and sad to report that for the first time in our marriage, Stephanie bested me in the contest!

This is the third or fourth of such themed dates Stephanie has put together in the last several months. Since we can't afford to get babysitters very often right now, these dates have been a nice break from the relatively lame Friday night dates I've planned (or more often, failed to plan). I'm really lucky to have a girl like Steph!

And finally, here are a couple of random cute recent pictures.

Josh, you don't want to know where that's been...

We got a nice solid wood bookshelf at a garage sale this week. Later Joshua had fun closing himself in the cabinet.

Heather enjoying a raw onion. What is up with this girl?

Mmmm...yummy!