Fun with grandparents, part I

On Thursday, Grandma Cookie and Grandpa Grumpy (Willard) drove in from MT for a visit. Zach has been so excited for days... that afternoon I could barely get him to nap, since I had mindlessly told him that G&G would be there when he woke up. So after he was in his bed for about 5 minutes, he started calling "Grandma? Grandpa?"

We had a busy couple of days right after the Willards got here, since my college friend Mary and her daughter Kelly were also in town. So while I spent some time with them, including a girls-only dinner and drinks downtown, and Scott and Alan went to a Twins game, Teri got some good one-on-one time with Zach. I think her voice may have been hoarse after all the story-telling and imaginary play with Zach's animals. Saturday was the first of the mens' two-day outing to the 3M golf championship, where I think they ate and drank their way through two skyboxes.

Saturday night Scott and I somewhat accidentally found ourselves closer than we wanted to be to the stage at the Basillica Block Party. While we enjoyed the Counting Crows show, I have to say my personal highlight was when the opening act (Matt Nathanson) closed his set with Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." We weren't the only ones singing along at the top of our lungs, either; apparently those young twenty-somethings like 80s rock too.

Teri, Zach, and I found our way to the Como Zoo Sunday afternoon, while the guys were at the golf tournament again. While we got to see cool things like the tiger swimming in his little pond, and a butterfly taking a ride on my back pocket in the butterfly tent, the highlight for Zach was undoubtedly the ice cream and popcorn he ate for dinner... alternating between one and the other. Yummmm...

Some of you may have heard stories about Teri's love for the Mall of America. Zach can name her favorite stores, and is now informing us that while he likes to shop at the Disney store, he does not like Christopher and Banks. He even explained to Alan that girls like to shop at C&B, so that's why he doesn't like it. Scary, scary logic for a 2.5 year old! But he had a great time yesterday at the mall with G&G (I think more ice cream was involved), while I took the opportunity to finally paint some primer over the ugly brown paint in our bedroom. As Alan pointed out, I've had paint samples taped to the wall since they first visited us last November, so it was about time. Here's a "before" picture... I'll post an "after" once we finally decide what color to go with. Isn't that a lovely shade of brown???