Birthday Surprise

For my birthday, on Monday, June 29th, Mark took me to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill. After a long day of work for both of us, we got home and changed quickly and headed up to the restaurant. I had my favorite, filet migon wrapped in bacon, with blue cheese on top, YUMMMMM!

The whole night Mark had me fooled that he didn't get me anything, not even a card. He has been working so many long hours I figured he didn't have time to pick out a card, and I didn't really expect a gift since I don't really need anything and didn't provide him with any hints of what I wanted. After dinner, he excused himself to the restroom, and when he returned he put this on the dinner table:

Inside, was a beautiful necklace to match the ring and bracelet he had given on other prior special occasions. Now I have a complete set. What a wonderful husband I have, who spoils me rotten! Even without the blue bag, it was a very nice evening spent together. Thank you, Sweetie! I love you very much!!

San Diego Weekend - June 2009

The weekend of June 19th I traveled to San Diego to see all of my maids and their children, and of course for Father's Day. All three of my bridesmaids from my wedding have now had children (all boys). Saturday we all got together at Elizabeth's house to visit with everyone and have a delicious dinner. Thanks again Elizabeth, for having the whole crew over at your house! Here are a couple of pictures from the evening:

We also tried to recreate a photo that we took at Elizabeth's house approximately 6 months ago. I think I had posted it on our blog sometime in Nov or Dec. 2008. It was really hard to get everyone to look at the camera with all the kids being so active now.

I can't believe how much all the boys have grown. They are all just adorable.

On Sunday, I spent the day with my family. We took my dad out to breakfast and then to dinner before heading back to AZ. I also spent a nice time with my mom and sister-n-law at the Senior Follies show at the East County Performing Arts Center.

Mionskowski Family Pictures

For those that haven't found it yet. I added a link to the right under "My Blog List", which will take you to our family photo site. I will be posting all of our pictures here from events and trips that we take. Enjoy!
http://mionskowskifamily.shutterfly.com/

Africa in AZ

After getting back from our trip to Canada in June, Mark and I had a couple of days together before heading back to work. We decided to take a road trip 2 hours north of Phoenix to Camp Verde to visit the "Out of Africa" animal park. We walked around the entire park admiring the amazing animals. During our walk we passed by "Boom Boom" at Rhinoceros that the park had rescued. He was laying down in his habitat, and when we stopped to see him we started calling his name. His ears perked up, and then he finally got up and started walking toward us a few steps. Eventually he decided it was too far of a walk and layed back down again.

It was also predator feed time during our visit, so we followed the animal caretakers drive around, stopping at each habitat throwing a total of approximately 400 pounds of raw food to eagerly waiting carnivores. It was really interesting to see how large animals, including lions and tigers, feed and go after their food.

Afterwards we took a bus ride through the preserve visiting the zebras, ostriches, giraffes, etc. We even got to stop and feed a treat to one of the giraffes on site. See the picture below of the giraffe giving Mark a big wet kiss!