Two pigs and a surprise!!

I've always loved surprises. Tom on the other hand does not like surprises. That's why he thinks it's so great when he can surprise me. Our anniversary was Monday, but to celebrate we went to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday night. We went to the Bass Pro Shop and spent the evening just wondering around and looking at all of the stuff they sell. I've never been in a store with so much out doorsy kind of stuff. We ate a a fish place inside the store. The food was really good. I had deep fried dolphin. Tom had a salad with seafood (I can't remember what kind) on top. Along with a bowl of conch soup and a ton of the sweetest bread. I had New England Clam Chowder. My favorite. Soooo yummy!!

We found some really nice bargains while we shopped. Tom was in desperate need of blue jeans. He found one pair and a shirt he had been wanting. I bought some shoes.

We stayed at the Crown Plaza across the street from the Sawgrass Mall. We drove around the mall after getting our room taken care of and WOW!! that is the largest mall I have ever seen. I don't like to shop and just the thought of walking around in there was giving me nightmares!! Back to our room...we had a really nice room with all kinds of fancy amenities. We really enjoyed staying there. On Saturday we slept in and just relaxed. I love my children dearly, but it was nice not to have to get up and take care of them. And to know that they were in good hands helped us to relax even more.

We ended up at the mall around 12:00 and walked around in awe at everything that was there. They had a Cheesecake Factory and we had never eaten there so...we ate there. :):) We had a hamburger the size of Texas that was called a Kobe burger. I think that is the type of feed the cattle are fed. Any whoo, it was really big!! We couldn't have cheesecake. We were way to full.

My sole purpose for going was 1.) to celebrate my anniversary of course, and 2.) to find my girls a piggy bank. We looked everywhere. No one sells piggy banks anymore that aren't battery operated, talk to you, swallow your money and spit it out a slot on the bottom. I wanted an old fashioned piggy bank. The mall has a Super Target. Tom was growling about going to a store we could go to back home, but I was on a mission. I wanted those piggy banks. So we went in and after some directions from a nice sales lady, we found our pigs. Two of them. I was so proud of those pigs. I kept telling Tom not to clink them together and for heavens sake don't drop them. I knew the girls would love them.

Now that I had those banks I could rest in peace. We went back out into the mall and came across this booth in the center isle. They had these contraptions hanging all over the place that would turn as the wind blows them. They don't make any sound, but they are absolutely beautiful. They had so many different varieties and they were motorized by a little black thing that kept them going around in circles. I fell in love with the 3-d humming birds until I heard the price. $75.00 for two of them and that didn't include the motor. I told Tom no way!! and kept on walking.

We went into this outlet store because Tom had seen a Wrangler sign and was still looking for some blue jeans. While we were in there, I told Tom I wanted to sit down for a while and he could come and get me when he was ready to go. While I had my back turned, he slipped out of the outlet store and went back to that booth with those circling, hanging contraption thingys and bought the very one I thought was so beautiful. Not only did he buy that one but he added a metallic blue dolphin and a smaller humming bird in candy apple red. With the motor to keep them circling. I was in total shock. At first I wanted to scream "You spent $100.00 on this nonsense when we could have spent it on something more important!!" But guess what?? He had such a look of love and excitement on his face because he had bought those for me that I couldn't yell at him. It was such a thoughtful thing to do and it made me so happy to know that he loves me so much he couldn't resist getting me something that I really liked.

So there you have it. My two pigs and a surprise. If you live in our neck of the woods and want to see my circling thingy, just come on over. I'll proudly show it to you.

This was Kattie's bank. You couldn't put another dime into it. Below is the new piggy bank. She had so much fun filling it.

This one was Patricia's bank...And the new one. I didn't think she would ever get her money into this pig. She had fun.

This is the humming birds on the top. The 3-d humming birds is in the middle.

The dolphin's are on the bottom. The pictures do not do it justice. I did a video of them. I'll try to down load it so you can see them moving.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVMHzjPagLY. Here's the link. You'll have to excuse Katie. She was having a moment. See ya.