Without a fail, the weather will never cooperate when you have family visiting from out of town, so my dad and stepmom got to experience some blustery fall Minnesota weather while they were here at the beginning of the month.  The kids could have cared less about the weather, though.  They were simply happy to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting.

We stayed pretty close to home for their visit, which was fine for all of us.  They braved the wind one afternoon and went for a walk, while the rest of us stayed in jammies… which is kind of just what we do when we aren’t planning on going anywhere – guests or no guests.  Ha ha.

There’s nothing quite like having grandparents around that makes kids get extra silly for some reason whether it be in person or on a phone call.  Both of the kiddos were eating up the extra attention and Enzo would wake up in the morning and immediately want to know where Grandpa and Grandma were… alas, he did that for a few days after they left as well.

We did get at least one nice day out of the weekend, though, and decided to go to the zoo so we could walk around and get some fresh air. It could not have been a more perfect day.  The animals were loving the cooler temperatures and were being more active than I’ve ever seen them before.  I also didn’t get the camera out once… it seemed like so much work as we had once again schlepped way too much stuff with us and I didn’t want to dig it out from under coats and who knows what else.  Anyhoo.

The animals were all in a playful mood and it also wasn’t super crowded, which was even better and meant we could linger at a few of the enclosures just a bit longer than usual.  I mostly wore Phoebe so we could pile stuff up in the stroller, but the stroller was nice when it got chilly looking at outside animals and then I could put her in her puffy coat.  She loved watching the fish, as did her brother, so we are probably due for another aquarium visit soon.  Maybe that will be her first real walking adventure too!

One of these days we’ll hopefully end up closer to Colorado and in a more central location to all of the family on both sides.  It’s always been the plan, the puzzle pieces just haven’t matched up yet.  I’d love for my kiddos to be able to get to know my side of the family a little better, though, before they get too much older.  On an unrelated note… kids are so uncooperative and hard to photograph. I don’t think I have a career in child photography ahead of me. Ha ha.

And…. Surprise – everyone look surprised!

Ha ha. Outtakes are so much more fun, right?

Miss you guys already!