The best is yet to come.

As I wrote yesterday, it was our 6th wedding anniversary.  

We didn't have any fancy plans, but we both knew that we wanted to do 2 things - celebrate with our kids and then celebrate without them.  

The zoo seemed like a perfect place to celebrate with them, so after breakfast we started to get ready to head out the door.  In the midst of my preparations, I walked past a box on the counter that was covered up by a towel.  

"What's this?" I asked as I whipped the towel off of it.

Bah-zing.  

"Happy anniversary" Brian said with a smirk.  We don't usually get each other big anniversary gifts, so this was a HUGE surprise.  

I muddled through packing the diaper bag despite my shock and we headed out to the zoo.  

I've talked about my love affair with our zoo before.  It's not huge, nice and shady, you can get really close to most of the animals, and they have a lot of fun things to do with the kids.  Brian had never really explored the petting zoo part, so we decided to head over that way.  There's a little indoor "zoo academy" with pretend vet tables and a sandbox for kids to dig for fossils.  This is also where they house all of the reptiles and small animals, and there is always a zoo volunteer around to pull them out of their cages for the boys to touch.  

Just outside there is an outdoor "animal habitat" where you can build your own animal housing and such.  Really it's just a fun place with caves and bridges and stuff for the kids to rip and tear through.  Brennan was so good at helping his brothers around and making sure they didn't fall or get scared.  So cute.

Since we spent so much time letting the boys burn off some energy, we decided to let Brennan pick which animals he wanted to see.  It was no surprise to us when he picked the deer and the giraffes.  They're always his fave, probably because you can get up close and personal enough to feed them both.  

 

We filled the afternoon with busy work around the house and maybe even a nap for yours truly, then it was time to get all prettied up.  I was even brave enough to pair my skinny jeans with my cute heels.  Balls y'all.  

My friend Lisa came over to watch the boys so that Brian & I could go out to eat.  We were both in the mood for a relaxed atmosphere, with simple food and good beer.  That pretty much describes Cocoa Beach in its' entirety (except that you can't forget surfers and weed - cuz there's tons of that too), so off we went to the CB Pier.  

Bri had a bacon gorgonzola burger, I had teriyaki salmon, and we split some onion rings to start out with.  We talked and laughed, reminisced about the past and dreamed about the future.  It was relaxing and comfortable and perfect.  

After dinner we walked out to the end of the pier.  It was dark and windy, but the perfect temperature.  The waves crashing around the pier were the perfect soundtrack to the gorgeous moonlit ocean.  I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate our love and our life together.  

As we drove home, I told Bri that this was my favorite anniversary so far.  He said that it was top 5 for him.  That's why I keep him around ... he can still make me laugh at his stupid jokes.  Hopefully we'll have many more favorite anniversaries to come!