The Labor Day Holiday

How to Create the Perfect Saturday:

Lunch with grandma? Check.
Going to Brad & Regina's? Check.
Out of town friends in town? Check.
ZOO!? Check.
COLDSTONE?! Check. (Birthday Cake Remix, baby!)
Holly & Sam arrive? Check.
Bohemian Rhapsody sung by everyone in the car? Double check.

And thus started off my Labor Day holiday. :) I've tried hard to use three-day weekends for major projects and I've completed a lot through that. (The mass purge of the filing cabinet and closet come to mind as recent accomplishments...) But this weekend was all play. Harvest Moon every night. Staying home Sunday and Monday. Completing small tasks on larger projects. McAlisters Deli. It was so nice.

Of course, the Zoo is always a personal favorite, but this was such a strange trip. I thought a lot of the exhibits would be lively due to being the last major summer holiday and the parking lot was packed. (Seriously, we finally sat for several minutes waiting for a family to deal with strollers and iceboxes just for the spot). But we mostly saw...exhibits? Very few animals. Mostly just their exhibits. :) We did get some fun interaction with the gorillas, and the giraffes are always lovely (elephants still in Tulsa, but next year!). Even the Sea Lions were off somewhere else. No chimps. Few wild dogs. Can't find the otters again.
However, price of admission was all worth it just for Philip & Eric filling in the meerkats inner monologues. I wish I had direct quotes, but I don't, and no amount of attemping to reprise it will do it justice.

I haven't had Coldstone since Vegas when I tracked it down in the Excalibur. It was wonderful.

And then everyone sat on the patio of Coldstone for, um, two hours? reminiscing.

Of course, everything that was on hold over the summer comes back into full swing this week. My boss told me to rest over the holiday and that we would have to come back ready to go on Tuesday. Now we'll start our holiday work -- preparing for our annual open house, Thanksgiving, Christmas silks, etc. Wednesday night Bible Study returns this week at 5:30. Drama will start back up this coming Sunday. There are no less than four birthdays this week alone and several more in the coming weeks. I'm excited for all of them.

Hello fall! Let's begin again. How are you?