Since I’m sitting at my remicade infusion for 2.5 hours, I figured this would be a good time to recap my birthday adventure. I won’t post all 400 pictures,  just the highlights (you’re welcome!)

We drove to Binghamton to stay over and be close to the Animal Park the next day, and started the celebration on the eve of my birthday, at a cute little restaurant and pub across the street from the hotel called the lost dog cafe:

While we waited for dinner, we had cocktails in the lounge half …

…including having an aptly named drink:

I loved this sign I found in the bathroom:

The next day, we got to the Park early to be first in line, and of course I was wearing my sweet Spo Giraffe shirt that got several comments from other Park guests:

Of course, our first stop was to see April, Oliver and their new baby Tijari.

April was in the barn with Tijari and seemed almost as happy to eat carrots from my hand as I was to feed them to her.

Tajiri, unfamiliar with eating carrots and interacting with a human strangers, stayed a safe distance away, reposed quietly in the back of the barn, watching with curious eyes.

Outside, Oliver was working the crowd and happily gobbled his share of carrots from me. I was so ecstatic and awed to be so close to these majestic creatures and get to interact with them the way we did.

We spent about two hours in the park, visiting all the other great animals there, and made one more loop back to the Giraffe family before heading home. On the way home, we stopped and picked up a gluten free birthday cake Jim had ordered from a local bakery that was DELICIOUS!

As if all of this was not enough to spoil me, I came home to a pile of birthday gifts from Jeffrey and Jim, covering all my favorites: Superheroes, Giraffes, Peanuts and Mermen!

I also got this awesome carved, wooden giraffe chair from Jeffrey:

After gifts and cake, we played several rounds of “That’s What She Said” (A game similar to Cards Against Humanity.” ) This is a sampling of the card combinations that kept us in stitches:

Finally, per our birthday tradition, it was time for our official birthday pictures. We have a tradition of getting matching shirts every year for our birthdays and taking pics. This year, we were the Captain America Corps:

We also tried to get some selfies with a “Superhero Selfie Kit” but we didn’t quite get the hang of it:

It was a FANTASTIC birthday, and I am so grateful to Jeffrey and Jim for once again making me feel like a Queen for the day!