My Birthday, The North Pole, The Zoo, & The Springs...Oh My!

I celebrated my 35th birthday on Sunday, July29th with John, Cedric, my parents, my brother--Andy, and his girlfriend--Corinne over the weekend. We stayed at the Embassy Suites courtesy of my parents (oh so nice of them). We went up on Saturday to Colorado Springs and went to the North Pole. Of course, not the real one, but a little amusement park (mainly for small children) near Colorado Springs. Cedric rode two rides: A carousel with mommy (pic is of us beside the carousel) and a taxi car with daddy and grandma (see below). Afterwards, we went to a nice restaurant called Sunbird. It overlooks Colorado Springs, and I enjoyed a delicious lobster tail. Later on, we went swimming in the pool which we only caught on video not the camera. Cedric loved his first excursion in the pool!
Taxi ride with daddy and grandma


First Carousel Ride


Cedric with Uncle Andy and Aunt Corinne

An elf that reminds John of me


John and Santa

Cedric with grandma and grandpa


"Tina, you fat lard, come eat some ham!"


Us stuffing our faces over the weekend...okay, me stuffing my face!


On Sunday, my actual birthday, we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. I like the more woodsy feel over the Denver Zoo but both zoos have their pros and cons...not worth getting into. I loved the giraffe exhibit...you can feed them special crackers. We saw lots of other cute animals, too! We went to the gift shop where Cedric got some goodies including a stuffed animal orangutan from grandparents and a stuffed animal leopard from us. Afterwards, we went to Carrabba's for some great Italian food. One of our favorite places to eat!
Me feeding a giraffe a cracker


Me with my mom and Cedric...I'm half-way through my thirties! *shudder*


"Hey, daddy...did you know one of the definitions of primate is an archbishop or bishop ranking first among the bishops of a province or country, i.e. The Pope?"
"I'll make sure if I ever meet this O'Reilly guy I'll spit up on him!"hehehehe


Cute Meerkat sun bathing


I can relate to this giraffe and Cedric can relate to the baby.


We said goodbye to Andy and Corinne, and we hung out with my parents for a while in Old Colorado Springs near Manitou. John left Monday morning to go straight to work, and Cedric and I rode back with grandma and grandpa. It was a fun weekend and my parents paid for most of it...John and I agree we need to take them to a nice restaurant as a thank you.
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory with daddy and this giant bear..."Got to get me one of those!"


Overall, I had a very happy birthday. John bought me a professional massage at a spa place, Cedric bought me a cute teddy bear holding a baby bear, Andy and Corinne gave me two gift cards, and my parents paid for the weekend and a tree for our backyard. I would have to say though not to trump my gifts from family, but my best present of all was my sweet, baby...Cedric. :)
Cutest baby in the world! :)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Quick note: Do not read if you're still reading the book and don't want any spoilers...otherwise readers beware! You've be warned!

John, Cedric, and I went to Borders on a late evening on Friday night to enjoy the Harry Potter Ball that Borders was throwing. (It was okay!) We had to wait until midnight for the released of the last Harry Potter book. Very sad to see the series come to an end, but we are also very excited to read the conclusion of the story and life of Harry Potter. John and I both agreed Borders release party was very poorly run...complete chaos in my opinion. I'll save you the details...you can get the full story here: http://zablanc.blogspot.com/2007/07/harry-potter-7-wrapup-no-spoilers.html

Now on to the final chapter of the Harry Potter series. I love all the Harry Potter books including this one. Right away my heart was crushed when Hedwig died. Poor owl! Too bad Harry didn't think to let him out of his cage to meet up with him later, but I'm not the writer. :( Mad-Eye Moody also dies in the beginning of the book when they are trying to protect Harry and get him to a safe house. Hedwig died during this escape.

The second devastating incident that brought a tear to my eye was when Dobby died in Harry's arms after he just save him and his friends from mortal doom. :( Bellatrix killed not only Harry's godfather, Sirius, but now his small friend, Dobby as well. Thankfully that bitch gets it in the end.

Severus Snape ends up being a friend after all. I knew he was just too bad to be really bad...it was all a cover to protect himself from mortal harm from Voldemort. In his youth, he made the foolish mistake of becoming a Death Eater, and he regretted it. Dumbledore always knew that Snape was a good guy...it was just so hard to believe at times given his behavior. Sadly, he ends up dying at the hands of Voldemort...Snape is friend not foe!

Other losses: Fred Weasley was such a fun-loving an comical character along with his twin brother, George who will go through the rest of his life without his companion.
Colin Creevey: The little boy who liked to take pictures of Harry in book 2.
Lupin and Tonks: Very good friends of Harry and a newly wed couple who just welcomed a baby into the world a month before they died. Harry is the baby's godfather.

There were lots more losses, but those are the most known characters I can think of. The four above died towards the end of the book when a huge Wizard War went down between Hogwarts' teachers and students against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The best loss of all was Voldemort...horrible person that he was!


Below are pictures of the characters I loved the most:

Rest in Peace, Dobby...I mourn your passing the most because you were a great friend to Harry and his friends, and you were so happy to be a free elf. Now you are free forever.

Rest in Peace, Hedwig...you were a cute owl who reminded me of my sweet baby Harmony.


Rest in Peace, Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore (although we already knew about Dumbledore's passing in book 6). Snape really was a good guy after all, and he cared about Harry.

Ratatouille

Cedric went to the AMC Highlands Ranch movie theatre yesterday with me and Grandma. He had his very first movie going experience, and he did great. He sat on Grandma's lap for the first 20 minutes watching intently than he sat on my lap with an occasionally bite to eat while he watched. He was making his cute cooing sounds at different points of the movie. At the end, he fell asleep. It was loud at times which worried me, but overall he did very well. Ratatouille was a very cute movie...Cedric and I loved it! :)

Harmony got p0wn3d!

Harmony got shaved yesterday, because she had lots of knots in her hair. I tried brushing her, but it wasn't working. She looks so tiny, but I'm sure it feels good in these hot temps. She's a naked baby!!!! :)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Cedric's first ballgame and first NY Mets game. They played at Coors Field against the Rockies...they lost by 4 runs. Final score 6-2...sad!