{Terri's Birthday Wish} Going to the Zoo :)

Like so many middle-aged birthdays I did not have a party to celebrate the day I was born....instead my amazing boyfriend {Nathan} and my wonderful parents {Rod & Linda} joined me in going to the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo.  It has been way too long since I have been there and I wanted to get out on the town/away from home.  So I loved my 25th birthday trip...it seems like when you get older the less parties you get to celebrate, but you still get older :)

One amazing waterfall...too bad I couldn't have this |view| |sound| |smell| in my back yard :)

Of course we always have the wonderful jungle section to see/visit in the Zoo.  It is so amazing to see new life growing and around.  While we were here this day we got to see a mother and her baby monkey playing around.  Well it looked like the baby wanted to play while the mother was hoping to clean and/or feed her baby.  But either which way it was very cute to watch a mother with her little baby. 

Here is the cute little mother and baby :)

While we moved to the next area we decided to take cover at one of the newly added domes.  In this dome we got to walk among the butterflies.  While getting ready to go into the butterfly garden we needed to be checked for anything that may attract butterflies to us [such as food].  While walking through the gardens we got to see very beautiful colors and the carelessness of everyone in their surroundings.  There were several times that butterflys would tag along anyone that would allow, but you can be sure that when we left everyone got checked to make sure that if a butterfly was riding along that it did not stay.  They needed to make sure the butterflies stayed in their building.  Below is a picture of all the varieties of butterflies you could see in the gardens |if you looked hard enough that is|.

After walking with the butterflies for the day we went to the Aquarium to see all the new babies |mainly jellyfish| and the larger fish too :).  Of course it never ends while I am in with the fish it is something about the dome shapes of the glass that make me feel a little whoozy, but it is worth it to see all the amazing fish that {if out looking on your own would take you a lifetime to see} you would not normally see....so here are a few that we saw.....

 Here are a few more pictures of our adventures at the Zoo.....

This gorilla had his back towards the glass trying to ignore everyone walking past to see what was going on.  While we were coming up on this area all we could hear was a loud "thud" then laughter....as we further investigated and found out....people were sitting with their backs towards the glass.  In case you are in the same loop as we were |this pisses the gorillas off; they hate being ignored...go figure|  So we stood and watched for a while as a lady was brave enough to sit with her back against the glass....gorilla at the time is pacing back and forth getting closer to the lady.  And out of nowhere this gorilla sits down and slams his fist against the window right at the lady's head....as I jumped and she did too we learned something new for the day....so yes I will not be sitting with my back against the window with a gorilla on the otherside as you never know how many times this has been done before or even if the glass can hold up with all those powerful hits.



It is a little hard to see, but the mother had 1 cub that was very active today when we were walking past.  This little cub was jumping on the mother and pulling the tail while she was up walking around.  Of course when we were walking away the little cub was going down for a nap.

As we were heading out for the afternoon...On to Golden Corral for supper :)  Yumm-O



{FuN} Pictures 2010

So once again I love {Nathan} so much that as we had a day off from work and were living our life I informed {Nathan} that we were going to meet up with some of my friends for a double date at the Friday After 5PM up at the Molengratch.  What he did not realize is that I have made us an appointment with Christy and Ryan at Digital Galleria Designs to take some fun pictures of us as a couple. 

So here are a few of my favorite shots so enjoy :)

I know I found these pictures to be fun and exciting.  I believe after {Nathan} finally relaxed and let loose he had fun too :)

{Halloween} 2009

It is that time of year again...Halloween {a time where girls can get away with dressing sluty}.  As my roommate and I are renting a house we decided to get it all decorated for a Halloween party.  Brenda, Dolly, Jaime, {Nathan and I} began decorating we had a ton of fun, but we did end up losing track of time and everyone began showing up way before we were even dressed ready to party.  Gumbies were made as well as the food and everything was set for a night full of celebration!!

Our table was filled with several goodies :)

1. Little Smokies smothered in BBQ Sauce

2. Brenda's Cheese Dip

3. Tortilla Roll Ups

4. Cream Cheese covered with Jalapeno Jelly

5. Meat & Cheese Tray

6. Candy :)

7. Gummy Feet and Hand with |Bones| inside

8. Margarita Cupcakes

9. Gumbies and Alcohol!!!!

During this party we played a ton of beer pong in the garage, chugged several alcoholic beverages even though some of us did not need to continue drinking.  We were having so much fun and then Jeff got to playing "I'm on a boat" song and began dancing and being goofy and being our laughter for the night. 

I am super blessed to have amazing friends that came to our party as they did arrive they were welcomed by our amazing pumpkin that {Nathan} made for the guests.

As our night ended our friends went their own way as we began cleaning up a few things...especially the food that we really wanted to keep for the morning to help us with those amazing hangovers....  as for the night we had amazing girlfriends that showed up to help us celebrate and it was amazing hanging out with these ladies :)



{Highlights} of Hanging Out...

So since my {first} time meeting |Nathan| I pulled the whole not wanting a relationship with him for 3 months {best months of course...we |texted| everyday, |talked| over hours, and |spent| practically every weekend together}, but I was still not ready to make the sacrifice of becoming a girlfriend.  So I was enjoying every second of spending/talking with {Nathan} until our wonderful friends started asking millions of questions....

"When are you two going to be dating?" 

"Has he asked you out yet?"

So since our friends were so concerned with when we planned to begin dating {Nathan} finally tackled me on February 21, 2009 in the dinning room of the house I was renting a room from and he finally asked me....."What do you want us to be?"  Me being completely shocked and confussed while not knowing what I wanted or if I was willing to take a chance to be hurt |again|.  So as he laid on top of me waiting for an answer I did my usual...|"What do you want us to be?"|  From then on it was pretty much history....After two weeks we began to fall in love and then we spent several months together getting to know each other!!!

{First} Meeting...

Around December 2008 I was having a very hard time getting over a guy and my friends thought that going out on the town would be a great way for me to "let loose" and move on.  As my friends were right we went to Woodys [at the time] aka Billyjak's Saloon right now in the future.  As we paid our $5 to get in for the band Insane Jane and to party all night long we made our usual rounds saying hi to the regulars.  After getting our amazing drinks we decided to grab a table with friends and get to playing drinking games.

While playing games and dancing to some pretty good music my girlfriends decided that I needed to meet several guys throughout the night [of course their way of getting my mind off a guy].  So as I was nice to keep meeting the random guys they were trying to set me up with, one of course was {Nathan}....someone that had a sense that just lured me in.  I couldn't help but glance {sometimes watch his every move} and keep wondering more about him.

Finally, after watching him dance with several girls out on the dance floor {yes he was a chick magnet and yet I still wanted more} it was "last call" for the bar anyhow!!  After I talked to the person I was renting a room from to see if an [after party] was in the future she established "Let's Party!!!!"  So I got our usual party suspects gathered to make a beer run and we were running to the back of Pella's Wal-Mart with a shopping cart and then running up to the register to beat the dreaded 2:00AM shut out.  After paying for our alcohol we finally made it to the house and started welcoming our guests. :)

Of course it took {Nathan} forever to show up so I was beginning to wonder if he would ever show (of course I was anxious...I was beginning to like him and wanted to know more).  FINALLY he showed up carrying...|a French Vanilla Capuccino|...yah I thought he was crazy bringing that to a drunk fest, but oh well!!  So as we began playing cards, talking, drinking, and sharing stories I began noticing that he was off talking with Erin and Carissa while I was too busy to talk to anyone named {Nathan} his mystery came back to me.

So after I kicked out a friend due to inappropriate actions they all saw the "other side of Terri" but they all still stuck around |good for me|.  But after some Central College friends were talking about the silly little teasers that were played on them I had some girlfriends ask "How can you just kiss someone and not be worried what they will think or do?"  My answer: It's easy...I only do it with friends...now just watch and {learn}!  As I turned around to give the closest |friend| a kiss to me I found the one person I had been avoiding all night {Nathan}...so after giving my kiss to him I realized that this is the {first} time I have had a kiss returned to me. 


As the night turned into morning we finally exchanged phone numbers....and the random texts and my usual [I'm not looking for a relationship, but we can be friends] texts became an {I refuse to stop texting him because there is something there} regular/daily activity.