Happy Birthday, Joe!

Today was Joe's birthday. Twenty-nine years old. SOOOO old, right?? (Yet somehow he still manages to stay two years younger than me. Boo.) So, lucky, happy coincidence, today happened to also be a VERY free day for the birthday boy. No school, no work 'til 11 p.m., and a whole lovely day to just be SPECIAL.
I started him off with lemon scones (from Soulemama's blog) and ham and eggs. Then we played with cutie-pie Noah for a bit before putting him down for his morning nap. Then, pure luxury-- both Joe and I took our own morning naps while Noah slept. Yum!
When Noah got up, we decided, spur-of-the-moment, to head to the zoo that is less than two miles from our house. Turns out, this was the best possible day in the world for our outing. It was 65 degrees and clear, sunny and beautiful. Noah was in great spirits, Joe, though fighting a cold, was happy and relaxed... And I kept feeling waves of pure delight as we strolled through the lovely landscaping of our amazing zoo, smelling yummy BBQ smells from the food pavilions, feeling the crisp pre-fall breeze... PERFECTION.
As a treat, we decided Noah needed to experience his first carousel ride. So Joe held Noah and I snapped photos of the beautifully restored carousel and my cute boys on it.

Such a fun little moment in our amazing day...

And then we headed off to enjoy other parts of the zoo... The monkeys, the penguins, the sea lions-- And Noah is finally at an age where he NOTICES these critters, and enjoys watching them. Makes the zoo even more fun for us!

After the zoo, we headed home for some downtime, then Joe's sister Mary came over to treat Joe to some one-on-one time with just me while she babysat Noah and we got to go to dinner.

{Thanks, Mary!!}
And Joe's choice? P.F. Changs, just for their DanDan Noodles. He dreams about that dish...

(Ya know- we don't get much couple-time outside our home these days... and while we don't really notice that we're missing it at the time, when we actually get out together without baby, it is SO NICE. We both loved our little dinner date. LOVED it. )

To finish off the evening, Joe opened the rest of his gifts, we enjoyed dark chocolate raspberry cupcakes (made by me, and I am SO proud of them. Photos to come tomorrow if Joe doesn't eat the rest of them tonight!!), and both of us just chilled out... me editing photos, Joe watching Goonies and talking to his family members on the phone, accepting birthday wishes.

All in all, a pretty great birthday, according to Joe. I loved this marvelous day as well.

*

To finish, a few more fun vintage shots of my awesome hubby-- just one last tribute to him on his 29th birthday. Love you, Joe.

{the kiddos' expressions= PRICELESS!!}

{LOVE LOVE LOVE this next one. LOVE it. He is so dang cute!!}
{ever the soccer buff...}
{and what a hammy, cheesy "hey, ladies" grin from this young, awkward adolescent. Seriously. What a schmoozer!}
...Ah. This is the man I love.... We had a pretty amazing day today, didn't we, love?