Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!

April 27th was Brooklyn's 9th birthday!! NINE- I can't believe she is 9!! I remember her birth like it was yesterday. She decided that she wanted to Hogle Zoo for her big day.

(A little side note so that I remember. We ended up having a crazy week before her birthday! Sean's grandpa was going in on Friday the 26th for an Angiogram. Since Sean's parents are in South Carolina, I had promised Sean's mom that I would go down and sit with grandma while the procedure was done. My sister-in-law Chantel left Smithfield at 4:30 A.M. and headed down. Gracie and Ella had a sleepover at my parents house and Sean dropped Brooklyn off to school and my mom picked her up after- thank goodness for family!! Sean's grandparents were so surprised and grateful when Chantel and I walked into the room. We waited for awhile for grandpa to be prepped and then it was finally time to take him down for the procedure. We said good-bye to him and went to the little waiting room and got situated for the hour wait. It had been about 5 minutes and we hear, "Code stimi to the ER, code stimi to the ER." We mentioned that that hadn't sounded too good. About 5 minutes later, a nurse comes in and tells us they had had an unforeseen medical emergency. Our hearts dropped- we couldn't imagine what could've happened to grandpa in that amount of time. I think he noticed the looks on our faces and then told us that someone was coming in with a heart attack. Oh my gosh, I almost had a heart attack!! Anyway it ended up putting them about 3 hours behind so when they finally got him in, he ended up needing to have a stint. So we hung out for the day until Sean could come down and spend the night with his grandma. Despite him having to have the procedure and stint, it was actually a fun day- no responsibilities and I got to sit and visit with Chantel and grandma all day! I got into the valley around 8:30 P.M. and was exhausted! The gals and I ended up staying at my parents again, woke up for Gracie's 9 A.M. soccer game, got ready and headed to the zoo.)

We had a GREAT day!! The weather has been so yucky this spring and this was one of the first good Saturdays, therefore meaning the zoo was packed!! We managed to have a fantastic time even with the crowd. Brooklyn saw that they rented wagons and decided that she wanted one so my brother Brian who is a great uncle and gives the kiddos anything they want and his wife Sher went and rented one. It was classic when I looked up and saw my dad pulling Brian in the wagon! The kids ended up have a blast in it. Some of the favorites were the monkeys, polar bear, and giraffes. There is also this cool exhibit there now where they have Lego sculptures. There is a life size polar bear made out of Legos. We have such a great family that loves us and the gals- they were willing to drive down and spend the day with us at the zoo.

We stayed at the zoo right until closing time and walked over to a little park and Brooklyn got to open her presents there. All she wanted was the McKenna (American Girl) DVD and leotard for gymnastics. She got spoiled from everyone else there. The next day, pops made her a cake so she could blow out her candles and we had cake and ice cream. Happy Happy Birthday Brooklyn!!! We love you so much!!!