Happy Bird-day Scott!

Scott,

You are now closer to 30 than you are 20! This is the 10th birthday we have celebrated together. You are now 1 year closer to becoming a laywer, (2 down, 2 to go!), 1 year closer to becoming a daddy, 1 year closer to our inevitable Europe extravaganza, 1 year closer to buying our first house, and for the next 4 months, you will be older than me.



In the last year, we have celebrated two years of marriage in Nashville, had a wonderful Holiday Season full of lots of gifts, love and photographs, we adopted a little turtle friend named Sheldon for a day, you did some advocacy in DC, we swam in the Atlantic and spent the week at our second home (The Outberbanks), spent New Years with our wonderful friends, Jess and Dave Meginness, were in the Lydia and Brad's beautiful wedding, and conquered a rough second year of school. We've done so much. We've had a lot of great laughs, and a lot of cries. It hasn't been the easiest year, but we definitely made a lot of wonderful memories.

Here's to many more, I love you!!

Today, we celebrated Scott's 26th, in a very low-key, casual way. We woke up late and and took a late morning walk to our park, which we have lovingly named 'Honeysuckle Woods'. On the path, making our way down to the pond, we spotted a little turtle friend!! There, on the side of the path was a little Snapping Turtle! He was just waiting for us, as if to say, 'Happy Birthday, Scott! I'm just waiting for you!' With a squeal of delight (of course), I picked him up and put him straight in my hand and marveled at how cute and tiny he was. (Probably the only time I would or could ever hold a Snapping Turtle in my hand without getting a finger or two snapped clean off).
Scott was excited too and held him for a minute. We named him Lil' Snaps and after many photos and little finger pets, we decided to save his life and take him down to the pond.  (Mamma Snappers have their eggs far away from water, so when the babies hatch they have to find their way to water....he was a LONG way from water and seemed very parched in the sunlight).

We set him down in the shallow water around some algae, and to give him some privacy, we walked the rest of the way around the pond. Before we left the park, we stopped by again to make sure he moved and he sure did! He found a nice little spot about 4 feet away from where we dropped him and his head was all stretched out above the water, he was very happy indeed.

Good bye Lil' Snaps, it was nice knowing you!!

Lil' Snaps!

For lunch, we stuffed ourselves at a near by China Buffet, went to Target (Which seems like a daily ritual lately) and came home to a present wrapped in Reindeer Paper! (it was either that or pink and purple dots). I NEVER know what to get Scott, usually I end up giving him a cd or a book or something small, because he just doesn't ask for anything. But, this year, I decided to spend a little money and get something that I know he had been dying to buy. BOND 50. A collector's edition boxed set of ALL 22 Bond movies on Blu ray. (commence mouth watering...) He was through the moon!  Pretty much immediately, we popped the first movie, Dr. No, into the blu ray player and snuggled down for a mid afternoon movie and some Hershey's Chocolate Cake.

After long post movie nap, we did A LOT of porch sittin' just because it was such AMAZING weather. We grilled hot dogs on the grill, watched Wreck it Ralph (Awesome movie, a definite must see!!) and ended our day with a walk to the edge of our hill and sat looking across the Licking River Valley and the Cincinnati Skyline and just enjoyed the night. All in all, I would say a good Birthday. 

2 Peas

Happy Birthday my love, I can't wait to see what we get into this next year. 

Lauren Marie