lion country safari

Now, before I get your hopes up, there are no bears in this post. :)

You may not know that Nate is the oldest of seven (7!!!!) kids. His half siblings happen to be triplets… The cutest triplets that ever lived! I love them for many reasons, the biggest one being how much of Nate I see in each of them. I mean, look at this face!

On our most recent trip to visit Nate’s family, we had a new adventure- We got the chance to take just the triplets out to dinner! I picked Macaroni Grill so that we could all draw on the table, but Branden would have none of it! It pains me to say this like you wouldn’t believe, but it was almost like he was too… *gulp*… old to draw on the table! :( Maybe it was seeing Nate get into it, but before long, he jumped in the fun as well. :) Natalia drew a spot-on portrait of me and Nate (as if you couldn’t tell!):

Katarina, my mini-me, practiced her long division. No, seriously:

I took advantage of the situation and got some swoon-worthy photos of my love and his siblings!

Not gonna be able to do this much longer!

We’re hoping to make this a tradition- It’s so rare Nate gets 3 on 1 time with the kids, and I know it meant so much to him to make sure they know how much we love them! <3 I can’t believe how fast they’re growing… When I met these little savages, they had just turned four years old!

Nate and I took turns teaching them some of our special talents…

Nate wins. :)

After sibling dinner, it was time for Lion Country Safari with my mom-in-law. For those of you not from Florida, Lion Country Safari is basically a zoo that you can drive your own car through. The animals walk right up to your car, like so:

This was the first zoo-like place Nate and I have been to since our trip to “real” Africa last summer, and well… I was pretty much fighting back tears the whole time. It’s so hard to see animals in captivity vs. their natural habitat. I think it’ll be a while until I’m up for another trip to a zoo. :(