11 Years: Our Steel Anniversary

Saturday (August 10) was our 11th Anniversary: The Steel Anniversary.  For our first anniversary, Eric and I did not have a plan for what we would do about gifts.  Thinking alike (as we often do) though, we both got each other something do with paper, as that was the traditional 1st year gift.  This was completely unplanned, but since it happened we went along with it and decided it would be our little tradition.  Every year since, we have gotten each other a gift that had something to do with the traditional gifts for that year.  This year the traditional gift was steel...

1st Anniversary: Paper (I bought Eric a collage frame and filled it with pictures of us from our wedding and honeymoon.  Eric made me a picture with the traditional "I <3 Tracy" written in sand around it)

2nd Anniversary: Cotton (I can't say I really remember these gifts)

3rd Anniversary: Leather (I got Eric a nice leather tool belt. Eric got me a nice new wallet filled with gift cards to my favorite stores and restaurants...this was one of my all-time favorite gifts ever from Eric!)

4th Anniversary: Fruit/Flowers (I got Eric a bonsai...not quite a flower, but in the same family.  Eric left me a trail of flowers through our apartment with associated notes and small gifts)

5th Anniversary: Wood (again, I don't remember this one)

6th Anniversary: Candy/Iron (Eric got me all my favorite candies.  I got Eric a new tent wrapped in a box packed with Circus peanuts)

7th Anniversary: Wool/Copper (I don't recall what I got Eric.  He got me a copper penny pressed with a wooly mammoth from the Kenosha museum.  I know I got some other things from him to, but the penny is what I remember!)

8th Anniversary: Bronze/Pottery (I got Eric a bronze NASA coin...part of his Anniversary/30th birthday gift...a trip to *attempt* to view a shuttle launch.  He went with the Modern gift of new linens for our dining room table).

9th Anniversary: Pottery/Willow (I got Eric a ceramic piggy bank filled with date night ideas and money to pay for them.  Eric got me 9 pots filled with flowers and a Willow Tree figurine.)

10th Anniversary: Tin/Aluminum (I got Eric a bike trailer to pull Asher (it had aluminum spokes on the wheels).  Eric got me a gift certificate to Tinseltown...the Kenosha movie theater)

11th Anniversary: Steel...

I will start off by saying that today was an AWESOME day.  It was exactly what I wanted our anniversary to be...a great day filled with me time, family time and couple time.  It was a perfect day!  

The day started around 7:30am when Asher woke up.  He gave us an anniversary present by sleeping in a little later.  Since he had almost 12 hours of sleep, I figured he wouldn't take a morning nap, so we began to plan our day with some activities in the morning.  We played in the playroom and had some breakfast.  We planned to head to the zoo afterward, but as we sat at the Dining Room table, Asher began to rub his eyes, telling us that he was more tired than we thought.  I decided to see if he was interested in a morning nap after all and he went to sleep right away...and then took a three hour nap!  So, our plans for a morning trip to the zoo were replaced with a gift exchange, a nap for Eric, and some free time for me.  For about 2 hours on Saturday morning, the house was completely quiet.  It was wonderful!

Video: Asher's New Fun. 

Asher has recently discovered that it is fun to walk/spin around in circles until he gets dizzy and either falls down or runs into something...makes us laugh every time! : )

For the Steel Anniversary, I got Eric a curved shower rod (with "stainless steel construction")...a bit strange I know, but he has mentioned in the past that it would be nice to have a bigger shower...now we will (sort of).  Eric got me a stainless steel cookie sheet (I love the one I have and was thrilled to get another) and a Michigan locket.  We are not sure if the locket has steel in it or not, but we're guessing there is a steel screw or something in it for the magnet inside??...either way I love it.  He saw that I had posted something about it on Facebook and then ordered one for me.  It is a great symbol of us: The "Yooper" and the "Troll"!)

As Eric was reading his card from me, I looked at the envelope he had for me and thought, "I bet we bought each other the same card"...sure enough...

After Asher woke up from his nap I dressed him in his mini Man of Steel shirt (a Steel Anniversary surprise for Eric).  Eric put his Man of Steel shirt on too to match.  Then, after a quick lunch, we headed up to Racine for some family time at the zoo...

The serious look.

My happy guys!

 Asher enjoyed looking at the animals, but it was a bit difficult since many of them were sleeping.  Asher is just starting to understand that when we point and tell him to look at something he should follow our finger.  However, when the animals we pointed at were sleeping and still, he had a hard time figuring out what we were pointing at.  Oh well, I think he liked the monkeys, apes and rhino best!

Look Daddy, an ape.  ...did you know that one of the differences between an ape and a monkey is that an ape has no tail?  I didn't, but now I do! :)

Spider Monkey

Look Daddy, a fountain!

Animals all over, a field of grass, and Asher finds the one spot of grass-less dirt on the property to play in!

Asher & Eric try out the the awesome zoo playground

Asher's hair was CRAZY when he came out of the slide!

-a side note: I will not go into detail on this, but after visiting this zoo twice in the past 3 years now, I can say that I will be avoiding the giraffes for now on!

The rhino

Eric & Asher watching the rhino

Asher & I checking out the miniature pigs!  I think Asher really liked watching them run around.

Asher & I brushing the baby goats.

I tried to get Asher to pet the goat.  He wasn't interested.  Instead, he just took his index finger and poked it in the nose!

Video:

Checking out the kangaroos.

Enjoying a moment of freedom.

Run Asher Run!

A Mountain Goat

The lazy meerkats.

Asher desperately wanted to climb in with the meerkats.

Watching the penguins.  -Side Note: While we were watching the penguins a little girl and her mom were watching them as well.  She said to her mom, "Look African Penguins!" and her mom replied, "I don't think they're African penguins!"  Now, knowing that the little girl was in fact correct I thought to myself how sad it was that the mom so quickly discounted what her daughter said and assumed her to be wrong, when she in fact didn't know what she was talking about.  Although I can't guarantee to never do that to Asher, I am going to do my best not to.  It just bothered me and I was thrilled deep down when the mom read the sign on the enclosure and realized her mistake...telling her daughter that she was right afterall!...at least she did acknowledge her mistake.

Asher watching the orangutan.

When we had finished checking out all of the animals, we headed to the zoo's exit.  Before leaving though, we went to wash all of the zoo germs off our hands.  I took Asher in the women's room with me and washed both of our hands.  Then I took him over to the hand dryer.  It hadn't really dawned on me that Asher had never encountered a hand dryer before...until I turned it on.  I pressed the button and then tried to place his hands under the dryer.  He wanted NOTHING to do with it!  He yanked his hands away and crawled up me to get as far away from it as he could as he started to cry.  Realizing that it scared him I tried to show him it was okay as I dried my own hands.  He was not convinced so we shook his hands and then dried them on my shirt.  :)  Once our hands were clean and dry we left the zoo and headed home.  Asher was exhausted and hungry and cried the entire way.  We gave him an applesauce pouch to appease him.  Then we got home grabbed what we needed and then left again.  This time, we headed over to our friends Britni and Fabien's home.  They were (thankfully) willing to babysit Asher for us so that he could have a play-date with his buddy Theo while we enjoyed a baby-free anniversary dinner.  Although I loved that we were able to have some great family time this afternoon, enjoying some time along with my husband was equally great!  Thank you Brit & Fab for watching our little guy for us!

Theo & Asher enjoying the Laillet's Living Room view.

Eric enjoying his burrito at La Fogata.

Me enjoying my (virgin) strawberry daiquiri...yum!

When dinner was over and we were COMPLETELY stuffed.  We headed back to get Asher and then headed home.  Asher fell asleep before we made and went straight to bed...we shared a rented movie and a snuggle.  It truly was the perfect Steel Anniversary!