Ry's B-day weekend

Last week, I picked up my mom from the airport. She had been up at Audrey's, helping with baby Lucas and decided that since she was on this side of the country, she would drop down here and visit us for a week. Good choice Mom!
It was really fun to have her here.

Back in August, I looked at Georgia's Football Schedule and decided that the week that they had a bye was the week that we were going to go to Columbia, SC, for a temple trip.
The bye fell on Oct. 24th, which also happened to be the day before Ry's b-day.
We decided to get a hotel and make a weekend out of it.
We asked Ry if she wanted to go to the Zoo in Columbia and choose a restaurant for dinner or have a friend party. She chose the zoo (phew!)

As soon as Matt got off work on friday, we loaded up the car and headed out. Having my mom with us was an added bonus. We had a built in babysitter for the weekend. We got to our hotel, checked in and then Matt and I went to go see Griffin House play downtown and my mom put the kids to bed.
The next morning, Matt and I went to the temple while my mom swam in the hotel pool with the kids for 3 hours. Thanks Mom!

It was cloudy and raining when we left the hotel. Ry decided on Cracker Barrel for lunch-Yum!

When we left Cracker Barrel, the rain had completely cleared up, the sun was shining and we had perfect weather for an afternoon at the zoo.
We all really liked the Riverbanks Zoo. It had lots of animals and the layout was better than some other zoos I have been too.








Ryanne is obsessed with any carousel. Usually we try not to spend too much extra money once we are in the zoo, but we couldn't refuse the b-day girls wish.


Is this the creepiest thing ever? I think so. Jonah loved it.

We came home on Saturday night and had birthday cake on Sunday.
Ry was too excited about this b-day present to look at me.
Ry told me she wanted a princess cake, but quickly changed her mind and said she wanted green frosting with dinosaurs on top. I said ok and let her decorate.
We used candy-coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds for the dinosaur eggs.

And as usual, Savannah got up on the table to help. She has a serious sweet tooth!

It was a great weekend!