The month of August is an important month, especially here at Father Blogs Best. August is Jessica’s birthday month. This year I wanted to do something a little different than past years. Just to give a little background into our personalities. Jessica is non-materialistic to my very materialistic personality. Our birthday wish lists are usually foils to each other. She usually tries to think of awesome experiences whereas I try to think up great gifts.
So, this year I decided I was going the experience route. I knew I wanted to give her the experience early, so as to throw her off and surprise her even more. For the past two weeks I have been struggling to not tell her, but I held out, and woke her up at 5:45 this morning. “Jessica, I need you to get up and get showered. We need to be on the road in an hour. You are getting your birthday present today!”
Jessica hopped up, hit the shower, we took care of getting the dogs and out and fed, packed plenty of bottles and necessities for Evelyn and were out the door. We were in the car pulling out of the driveway in precisely an hour.
Jess and Evelyn were finally able to wear their “MamaSaurus” and “Babysaurus” shirts. Jessica was ready and exited. Evelyn? Not so much.
Throughout the morning, I kept attempting to throw out false clues, as Jessica had no idea where we were heading. I told her we were taking a quick trip to Chicago. We were going hiking out to a waterfall. Also, that we were going to Kansas City for a BBQ festival. She didn’t really buy into any of my attempts.
We drove a couple of hours and pulled up at the Chattanooga Zoo, which excited Jessica, as she just last week said she wanted to go to the zoo. Little did she know, I had this planned and scheduled the week prior. So, thinking this was her gift, we went to buy our tickets and head into the zoo. Once we were in, I put a sticker on Jessica that designated her for a “Wild Encounter”. She asked where mine was and I told her I wasn’t getting around any animals today. She was still unaware of what she was getting into.
I told her she just needed to be careful as camels are known to spit. She laughed, not believing me. I asked her how she felt about bears or if she was afraid of tigers. She laughed at both. We made our way back to the Deserts and Forests exhibits at the zoo.
We met two employees who were waiting for us at the enclosure for Olive the Two-toed Sloth. The main lady told Jessica she would be joining them in Olive’s enclosure and would get to feed and touch her. Jessica was beyond excited. She spent the next 30 minutes feeding Olive tomato slices, petting her, learning all about Olive and her environment.
I believe she really enjoyed it and the overall experience of the day. We toured the rest of the zoo, and then left to get some lunch. Jessica and I went to our favorite BBQ place in Chattanooga, Sticky Fingers. Had a great lunch, then walked across the street to the Moon Pie General Store. Got some moon pies and decided to head back home to relax the rest of the day.
Lady, I hope you enjoyed your day; getting to hang out with Olive the Sloth, getting to take our little girl on her first trip to a zoo, and eating some great food. Happy (early) Birthday. I can’t wait to celebrate with family and friends next week and see what else you get (or get to do)!!
Father Blogs Best 