Friday, November 02, 2007

Birthday Weekend

My sister Gail and my parents came to visit last weekend for Gail's 30th birthday. I'd been looking forward to it for months and was about ready to burst by the time they came.

On Friday night, we went to Provino's, a local Italian restaurant where I could eat every day if I knew the amount of butter and pasta wouldn't kill me.

Gail opened her present from me/us: a scrapbook about growing up as sisters.
I'd thought of the idea a year ago, but of course only put the plan into action 2 months ago. Subtract being out of commission with the Lasik surgery, and the 20-page book was completed in 6 weeks. Whew!

You can see the inside pages here. Just be sure to start at the last layout at the bottom - that's actually page one, and work your way backward from there.

On Saturday, we went to the Atlanta Zoo, which I hadn't visited yet. The baby gorillas were the best part, with their entertaining antics and sibling rivalry. Here's the mama gorilla preventing one of the babies from pestering another baby. She also gave him a smack on the head for good measure.
One of the babies was obviously used to the crowds - or else had taken his cue from a toddler at some point! He hammed it up for the audience and stuck his tongue all over the glass.

On Sunday, we ate lunch at John's parents' house and finally got a decent picture of Monty and Darra together. Monty was all "ho hum, whatever" and Darra was ready to bolt. Not because she doesn't like Monty - she LOVES Monty - but because she doesn't like being posed. Yes, it's a posed picture. But who cares, it's cute!!
After Gail and my parents left for the airport, Darra was kind of down. She wouldn't even eat breakfast the next morning. She got quite spoiled with attention when they were here.
Now Darra's back to being stuck with just us. Poor thing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was totally bawling my eyes out looking at your scrapbook. What a wonderful present!

As far as picture of Darra, how do you EVER get her to pose? I have a ton of pictures of Buddy's back. :)

Jane Eyre said...

I had a lot of fun working on the scrapbook. A deadline sure helps!

With this picture of Darra, we are just off to the side saying sternly, "STAY! YOU STAY!" and using the pointy finger. She's actually pretty good about staying still for the camera. Probably because we take so many pictures of her, she's just given up!

Anonymous said...

We had a wonderful time. Thanks for encapsulating it in your blog, especially the scrapbook. M & D

John said...

Valerie - I LOVE your scrapbook pages. You are so creative and did such a great job. I'm sure Gail cherishes it.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever submitted photots of Darra to Weeniechic?

http://www.weeniechic.com/

It's a really cute site. Darra's sooooo cute, you should send her in. :)

Jane Eyre said...

Sarah, thanks for the tip. I've never heard of that site! I'll look into it and maybe Darra will be famous!