Columbus Bound

Well, the Armitage family (including Logan since we took him out of school for the day) left for Columbus around 9am this morning. After finding our way to downtown Columbus, we walked to the Secretary of State's office. This is the hilarious part---to have the document state certified, it took 5 minutes. So we drove 6 hours for a 5-minute process...oh well, it was a great day!

After leaving downtown, we decided to eat our picnic lunch in the car on the way to the Columbus Zoo (to allow for more time seeing the animals). It's a good thing we did, because we spent more time pulling U-turns and yelling at people in their cars asking for directions. As we were pulling into our parking space, I asked the boys which animals they REALLY wanted to see today. Landon answered, "Cows". haha

We had a great time at the zoo seeing lots of animals. They had some great exhibits, and something that I had never seen before...you could push a button and take a sniff of a komodo dragon's breath. The boys got a kick out of that. Also, the Reptile exhibit was a hit...both boys petting a snake (Landon getting scolded for pinching the snake). They were allowed to pet a starfish, a sea anemone, and a hermit crab, too. It was a fun day, and the weather was PERFECT!!!

Seeing all of the animals except those in the North America exhibit, we started heading to the exit. As we were turning the corner, Logan saw the Main Gate and said, "Well, we made it to the Main Menu." Think he watches too many DVD's? We thought it was hilarious!! Packed the boys in the van and headed off to supper at an Ethiopian Restaurant. Landon was exhausted!!

After finding the Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant, we were hungry and ready to eat. As you can see we were seated at a Mosseb, and the boys were thrilled that they got to eat with their hands. I'll give you a run down of what we ordered...

Most Ethiopian food is cooked with Berbere sauce (a spiced stew), but you can order Alichas which is a milder version of that stew. When our platter came out, it was loaded with doro wat (chicken cooked with berbere and served with hard boiled eggs), yebeg wat (lamb cooked with berbere), lega tibs (beef sauteed in seasoned butter and garnished with onions and peppers), kik alicha (yellow split peas cooked with onions, green peppers, and garlic), and yatakilt wat (carrots, potatoes, string beans and peppers cooked with tumeric). All of that food was on a big piece of injera (tangy, crepe-like bread), which is used like a spoon to scoop up the food. Quite the experience for our family, and we are definitely glad we did it.

All in all, a fantastic day!! It was so much fun, and I hope the boys will sleep well tonight...including Levi.