We were super excited that Uncle Zach and Aunt Katrina (aka Zakina) and Cousin Leila came to visit us from Thurs, May 8 to Mon, May 11.
On our drive up to get them from the airport, Dallin made some adorable faces.
After picking them up, we went straight to the Mall of America for dinner.
Dallin kind of hoarded the food.
After dinner, we played at the lego tables for a while and then went home because it was past bedtime.
The next day, Friday, I took the guests on a special tour of our town. We toured the Hormel Home where I've been teaching Music and Movement classes for parents and kids ages 0-5. We also would have gone to the SPAM Museum, but it is under construction and relocation. But I drove them by all of the other important sights: the factory, corporate office, high school, Main Street, Hospital, Walmart and the dollar store, haha. And I of course took them to the Nature Center, where we spent a lot of time at the creek that was overflowing onto the trail.
The three Littles loved Katrina's idea of making "boats" by throwing sticks, leaves and flowers into the creek and watching them flow down the waterfall.
Dallin and Leila are less than two months apart. Aren't they so cute!?
Umm, yes, I forgot to bring Dallin's shoes.
Umm, yes, I forgot to bring Dallin's shoes.
In the afternoon, we let Leila and Dallin nap. Leila came to say goodnight to Dallin.
They also enjoyed the swing with Zach.
We went bowling Friday night and had a lot of fun! We had one lane for the adults and one lane for the kids (with a bumper). It worked out really well, and the kids learned how to take turns.
Here's a blurry picture of me rolling the ball, while Leila takes her turn behind me with Katrina.
Tanner loved having two turns in a row. Dallin loved holding the ball on his own and carrying it to his lane. Leila was mostly interested in cleaning all of the surfaces with baby wipes. Such adorable little kids!!
That night, a few of us spent some time drumming.
On Saturday, we started off by attending a baptism for our friend. Jeremy had the privilege of baptizing him! We have had three new members baptized this year, and all three were baptized by Jeremy. A few people at church are calling him Jeremy the Baptist, haha.
Right after the baptism and lunch, we headed to Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo, about an hour drive. It was our first time being there this summer season, and we had a super great time. The otters, bear, and porcupines were hilarious! I think all the animals are excited about spring.
Seeing the snakes
Here's Tanner and Leila watching the bear. He was so funny! He was in his water hole, playing with a big ball. He would try to hold the ball down in the water and seemed thoroughly entertained when it popped up out of the water. He splashed the water like toddler in a tub, and just played and played!
Dallin says "Beeer!" for bear.
Wagon buddies!
Waving hello to the mountain lion.
Katrina did her best to get a good shot of Zach and Leila watching the bison.
This is one of my favorite areas of the park. We all enjoyed playing Frisbee and running around. All of us, that is, except for Tanner. The poor thing was super dis-regulated at this point of the zoo excursion. Despite all our efforts to help him, he never really calmed down. It's hard to see him so unhappy. Literally every moment was a battle with himself, from not knowing where to stand when looking at the bison, to not being able to decide which stick to choose off of the ground to play with, to struggling with how to hold his banana without getting his fingers dirty. He only gets really bad like this when he's tired or hungry, and I can't figure out if it's normal or not. I sometimes wish we could just zap him with a tranquilizer or some kind of sugar drug that would get him back to equilibrium. It doesn't help that I keep coming against red tape from our health care providers with trying to figure out how to help him.
This family is pretty adorable!
Jeremy and Zach are really good daddies.
Our efforts to get a good group shot weren't very successful.
Diaper changing time in the trunk of the car.
We found an Asian place to eat dinner. Jeremy tried playing a hand game with Leila.
She thought Jeremy's game was dumb.
On our way out to the car.
That evening, we made a fire on the back porch and made s'mores! Thanks to Katrina for the great idea.
Can you tell who these people are? It's our look-a-likes!
It was a beautiful evening!
Sunday was Mother's Day. Tanner talked with Daddy the night before. Jeremy told him that on Mother's Day we need to be extra nice to Mommy. Tanner decided he would make me a paper airplane and wrestle with me. Then he said "Aunt Katrina is a mommy, too! You need to tell Uncle Zach to be extra nice to her, too."
We went to church in the morning and video chatted with MomZ in the afternoon. We were lucky to be in on the video call when our brother Matt called Mom. He is serving a fulltime mission in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a big deal to be able to talk to him because the missionaries in our church are only allowed to email and write letters home. They only get to make two phone calls a year, one on Christmas Day and one on Mother's Day. Everyone from the whole family was able to see him on the video chat, so that was very cool! He looks grown up and his Spanish is really good!!
Tanner and Katrina had a some great one on one time together while most everyone else napped.
That evening, upon Zach's request, we had a dance party with the kids. This seems to be our family's thing when any of the Zavoral cousins get together! SO FUN!
Leila really loves playing with her cousins!
After we got the kids to bed, Zach and Jeremy played darts in the man cave. Then they let the wives join, and we played a fun couple's dart tournament. Katrina ended up doing the best. On another night during the weekend, we all played the game Moods.
Throughout the weekend, we ate pretty well. We ended up eating a lot of Asian dishes because I made Thai Cashew Chicken one night and Thai Curry another night. Plus the Asian restaurant food after the zoo, and Katrina had panda express at the mall!
I tried making acini de pepe salad, which I first ate and fell in love with at Grandma Davidson's house one of the first times I met her. I was pretty proud of myself for making it because I've always been afraid to try it. I figured Mother's Day would be a good time to try. It turned out really good! Everyone got 3 and 4 helpings of it. Jeremy made one of Grandma's brownie cakes from scratch on Mother's Day. It was super yummy.
On Monday morning, Leila and Katrina came with me and the boy's to their little preschool class. We had fun there!
Then, we drove up to the cities to spend most of the day at the Mall of America again. Zakina really liked it! I think we went into more stores that day than I've ever been in during one day at the MoA. We also ate yummy food, played in the toy stores and went on some rides!
My little niece is SO cute. She loved it when I tickled her arms and legs to the rhythm of "Clickety, clickety clack."
Toy store.
Both Tanner and Zach were very focused on the games at this table.
I tried a spinach souffle crepe at the crepe stand. It was SOOO good!! Dallin and Tanner were very happy to have the equivalent of 3 spoonfuls of ice cream in their own little cups.
I love it when they are so easy to please.
Here's one of the highlights of the day!
We got to go on three rides, thanks to a nice ticket man that let us have one of the rides for free. Dallin loved this blue train, and we got this funny selfie of the rest of the family in front of us.
Here's the real selfie
After the rides, it was time to take our visitors back to the airport. Tanner cried when they walked away from our car. They've been gone about two weeks now. Every time Dallin sees an airplane, he says "Zach, airplane? Trina, airplane? Waywa (Leila) airplane?" Then I say "Yes, Zach and Katrina and Leila all went bye bye on the airplane." Then Dallin gives out a sad sigh or ugh. He's probably wondering when they will ever get off of that airplane! We were so glad that they were able to make the quick trip up to visit us. It is so fun to be with them!!