My little animal

Lynny has started roaring. Or maybe growling. It's kind of dog meets lion at our house. She'll pop up next to me on the couch, or come crawling into the bathroom while I'm getting ready and she'll start making her animal noise. We think it's hilarious.

And occasionally she'll start doing an animal act along with it. Like the other night when we were putting her to bed. She suddenly started making the growl sound and acting like she was going to pounce. To add to the hilarity of it all, we had just taken her hair out of pigtails and she looks like she has two little horns. We got a video of her, but by the point we had the camera rolling she was too wound up to continue. Her sound turned into more of a scream. But she was so funny. Here's the video.

In other news, being married to a school bus driver has some great perks. Like whenever he drives a field trip to the zoo, we get to tag along. For free. We've been twice now, but the first day was gross and wet. But the other day we enjoyed a nice warm day at the zoo. Lynny didn't seem too interested in many of the animals until we got to the giraffes. She couldn't take her eyes off of them! In every picture we took she was looking away from the camera and at the giraffes.We tried to take a break under some trees, but she wouldnt' have it. She kept pointing back at the giraffes until I took her back over to look at them. I loved it, simply because they're one of my favorite animals too.Fascinated by the giraffes.Under the trees, trying to keep an eye on the giraffes at the same time.

And she has a new favorite means of transportation: Daddy's shoulders. She thought it was so fun to see the world from up there.

And last but not least: Lynny is getting her first molar. And its making her cranky. I don't think we've seen her this unhappy before. Granted, unhappy for Lynny is all relative. She's a very good baby. She rarely fusses, and she only really cries when she doesn't want to go down for a nap. But this tooth has got her fussing much more than usual. I think we're all ready for that tooth to come in and just give her a break. The way things are going, though, she's going to have a full mouth of teeth by the time she's one. Which is next month. I can't believe it's been almost a year since she made her first appearance. Crazy.

I got some splainin' to do

I know, it's been three weeks. Sorry. But here's a quick catch-up:

A few weeks ago was our two year anniversary. I would love to say "I can't believe it's gone so fast" but all I can think is "Seriously? It's only been two years?" It seems like we've been married for an eternity. But I still have the whole rest of eternity to go, so maybe someday it won't seem so long.

Anyway, for our anniversary, Daniel not only got his parents to watch Lynny for the night (which I knew about), but he also arranged for me to not work the next day so that I could actually sleep in for a change. How sweet is that?

He told me he wasn't able to get work off for that next day, so we couldn't really go and do anything special (that man leaves for work at 5:15 am). We had a voucher for a night's stay in Wendover with a free buffet that we had talked about using, but I thought we wouldn't be able to go. Well Daniel surprised me!

He packed Lynny and I into the car hours earlier than I anticipated (with a packed bag ready to go) and we dropped her off at his parents'. Then Daniel blindfolded me and took backstreets to disorient me. Finally, after about 30 minutes of driving, he let me take off the blindfold only to realize we were well on our way to Wendover. Sneaky Sneaky.

I know Wendover isn't exactly a romantic place to go, but it was a nice night away from the ordinary. We didn't do any slots or anything (although we wouldn't have been able to figure out any of the machines even if we'd wanted to); we just enjoyed some alone time. I think my favorite thing was the chocolate covered marshmallows at the buffet.

We also made stop at the salt flats on our way back for our anniversary shot. That's three years in a row of pictures on the flats. We plan to go back when they're not so wet for full family pictures.

I was so grateful to my in-laws for taking Lynny. It was the first time we've ever left her alone all night, and they say she did fine. Thank goodness.

Also that weekend Daniel participated in the Bus Road-e-o at work. It's essentially a series of "obstacles" that each driver has to complete with their buses. Included is parallel parking, backing down an alley, stopping on a $20 bill, etc.

We had a great time sitting on the sidelines cheering him on with our friend Emily, whose husband, Randy, was also competing. And guess what...Daniel came in third in the expert division. He was acting all cool about it, but I was pretty stoked. He got a trophy and everything!

And... we might be moving. (Hopefully!) Not far, we'll be staying in the valley, but to a real two bedroom apartment. Lynny won't be sleeping in a 6x6 cubby with barely a window. She'll actually have a closet! And we'll be able to open our bedroom door without it hitting our bed! And--get this--we'll have a dishwasher. And air conditioning! All for cheaper rent! And the best part: we'll be next door neighbors with the same Randy and Emily as above.

Granted, it'll be tough leaving our little duplex. I'll miss having my own driveway and dinky little yard, and I'll really miss my basement. But I won't miss not being able to hang pictures on the wall, or the swamp cooler. I've loved living here, but we need just a little more room. So wish us luck that we'll get it!