Our Family of 3: My 23rd Birthday!

The Saturday before my birthday I was up early working on my latest project of organizing mom's new office space. Jeremy had left bright and early to go surfing for the day and so I figured I would start out early to see how much I could get done. I totally forgot about this lunch that mom said she was going to at Charlene's and had invited me to go with her too. So imagine my surprise when mom says we have to leave in 15 minutes. I'm deep in the middle of paperwork, pictures, fabric, etc. and I had't showered or even brushed my teeth. Mom tried to talk me out of showering but after smelling myself I figured it was a necessity. This meant doing my make-up in the car which of course ended up spilling all over me. To say the least, I was a mess.

On the drive over I got a text that was a little confusing. I read it out loud to my mom to see if she understood and she blew it off but I was a little suspicious. Then we started to drive down Charlene's street and I saw some familiar cars.

Me: "Mom, is something happening at Charlene's?"

Mom: "What are you talking about?"

Me: "Because if there is some surprise happening that I don't know about I'm going to be totally bugged and embarrassed."

Mom: "Karlee that's pretty presumptuous of you to think that."

She was totally convincing and I felt pretty dumb. But of course I was right to feel suspicious The door opened and there was group of some of my favorite women there to surprise me. And I was surprised! Especially to see Katie and Michelle who had flown in just for this! It was a fantastic party and I felt very loved and spoiled. There was food, dessert, a handmade quilt to be tied by all those who were there, and books for me and Leila. Such a great party! I'm so spoiled!

"Mom...I knew it!"

So surprised to see Kaite and Michelle!

Decor

Opening presents

My moms working on the super cute ladybug quilt!

Baby Bumps...only one is real!

And of course cake time...gotta love the BUNT!

I was also able to hang out with Michelle that night before she had to jet back to Utah.

Can you tell its the middle of the night?!

On the day of my birthday, Jeremy took the day off and we went to the San Francisco Zoo. I LOVE zoos and so I was very excited for this surprise especially since I have never been to this zoo. We were some of the only people there without kids and one guy even commented that we were starting pretty early gesturing to my stomach. But I guess we are just kids at heart! It was so much fun!

Gorillas!

This big guy sat on his haunches and stared down the people watching him the whole time we were there. I would not like to be stuck in a cage with him!

This guy, on the other hand, was very friendly. (It said on the sign that this gorilla and another one like to tease the big guy.) he stuck out his tongue at me and wiggled it so I did it back. Then he did it again. This happened several times...so cute!

Of course I had to see the lions!

This monkey was pretty cool looking...it also had a blue bum!

Jeremy with all the penguins

I was amazed with the hippo...I had never seen one and it was huge!

Cool story. We were walking around and saw these two bald eagles completely in the open. I thought they were fake but as we got closer we realized they definitely were not! Turns out each of them have some injuries that prevent them from flying away but the zoo takes care of them. So cool!

These snuggling bears are sisters. They had a cool rescue story too but I can't remember the details now!

I made Jer pose on the grizzly since I had already posed on two other animals! He's a trooper!

We stopped to each the lunch we pack on a bench by a tank of seals. I wanted to sit in the sun since it was little chilly but it turns out this was the best place! The seals put on a show for us during our whole lunch!

Crazy thing is both of these seals are blind! The zoo brought them here after they were found with serious wounds (one had a gunshot to the head).They have rehabilitated them and since they cannot return to the wild they keep them here. This was one of my favorite exhibits!

We loved the koalas too! Amazing fact: how koalas give birth is crazy! The baby grows inside the mom like other other mammals but when the baby is ready it just crawls down the birth canal it's self and buries itself in it's mother's pouch. Sounds a lot simpler than how we have to do it!

Flamingos! We matched!

The monkey cages are really tall. Earlier we had looked at them from down below but you can also view them from a higher up deck. So glad we went up there. So many cute monkeys that stay up there including this guy. He was totally passed out on a ledge. Livin' the life!

At the very end we got to catch a giraffe feeding. We got to get right up close to them! It was amazing! Perfect way to end the trip!

We had to be back for Jeremy's volleyball practice and then quickly rushed back home to help get everything ready for dinner. I was very spoiled to have my mom make me a delicious dinner and Jeremy got creative with the dessert. Yummy!