This weekend we headed down to NoVA — Northern Virginia for those of you not from NoVA — to celebrate the little one’s third birthday.

So far we have taken the opportunity to go somewhere unique for each birthday. Her first birthday was at the top of the Empire State Building.  Birthday #2 was at Niagara Falls (mom’s choice) and the Anchor Bar (dad’s choice), so she could say that her first ever chicken wing was at the Anchor Bar. I know that should have been enough for Father of the Year, but that greatness doesn’t hit until she goes on her first business trip and needs to make idle table chatter over appetizers.

The catch on this trip was that we weren’t sure the National Zoo would be open when we got there because of the failure up to that point to agree to a national budget.  Fortunately, by midnight Friday, a baby-steps version of a budget was agreed to so we could go to the zoo — and save us from having to tell a three year old why some people she never met were keeping her from hearing a lion roar.