Time with Gwamma Zee

Gramz got to stay with us from Sept 6-12! The boys got lots of bonding time with her.

Gramz made cookies and muffins with Tanner. That first batch of snickerdoodles was a little interesting since Gramz unknowingly used the wrong measuring cups. It was more like snicker crackers. The labels on my measuring cups aren't visible anymore. So we later figured out that she used the 1/2 cup scooper instead of the whole cup scooper for the flour. Even though the cookies were terrible, it made for a nice science experiment!

We went to the Nature Center. Tanner and Gramma spent a lot of time learning about the different animal footprints at the sand table.

Dallin liked the sand, too!

All week long, Dallin had his hands in his mouth!

We had nice warm weather! 

Gramz took Tanner to the library where they played with all kinds of toys and puppets and read books. We also went to the park. This one is Todd Park.

On her last day here, Jeremy took Gramz to the city (Minneapolis). They went out for brunch, toured the flour museum, and Gramz toured around on her own while Jeremy was in some work meetings. It was cool for the two of them to have some time together.

We love you, Gwamma Zee! Thank you for entertaining us and loving us and taking care of us. As Tanner would say, "Bye Bye! See ya later, come back soon!"

Little Prague & Mall of America

Little Prague is a country town in MN where Czech people settled. We decided to go find some yummy Czech pastries there, since the ones in Czech village, Iowa left us wanting. 

The bakery turned out to be a good hit. They had Bohemian Rye; a thick Czech cracker called Zelnicky; Goulash which wasn't much different than Momz famous macaroni dish; some pastries and this Christmas cake. 

Tanner liked it all. I did too! (Jeremy would have liked it too, but he had to work).

We had a blast at Mall of America!

Gramz and Grampz bought some tickets to take Tanner on a few rides. Tanner loved it!!

Tanner was so excited to ride the train. He yelled "All aboayd! Watch out evweebody! We going fast! Choo choo!"

Dallin hardly gave us any trouble the whole time. What a good baby!

Here's Tanner on the Ferris wheel with Gramz. "We up high! I see you down there!"

It was a super fun day. We were sad to take Grampz and Uncle Matt to the airport that evening, but we were so glad that Gramz would stay with us for another week!

Trip to Iowa

We took a two day trip to Iowa with the Zavoral clan . The drive is decent since we only live 30 minutes from the Iowa border. 

National Czech & Slovak Museum, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Josef Zavoral and his wife, Zofie Zavoral, were the first Zavorals in our family line to come to the United States. They settled with many other Czech families in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

Czech Village

Czech National Cemetary

We found the grave sites of Joseph and Zofie Zavoral in this cemetery! (Jeremy and I came here 6 years ago when we lived in MN for the summer, and since then I have always felt a special kinship to this couple.) This Zavoral couple is Tanner and Dallin's great, great, great grandparents. 

It took a while to find all the ancestors. Uncle Matt and baby Dallin were pretty patient about it! It was beautifully hot and humid at the cemeteries. During our two-day search, we actually went to two cemeteries, several homes, and churches. 

 Tanner had fun pointing out circles and triangles on all the tombstones (which were really the letter O and A). He also had a fun time walking and stomping on the tomb stones, which we tried to keep him from doing the entire time.

This is the grave site of another one of Tanner's great great great grandparents, the Tehels. Their daughter, Mary, married the Zavoral's son, Frank, and together they had Lee, which is Jeremy's grandpa. Did I get that right? Yep! Dang, I'm good with this family history stuff. 

I really enjoyed being at this cemetary again. When we were married, I really took a big interest in learning about the Zavoral family line for two reasons- 1) It was my new last name, so I felt that I better know about it, and 2) I wanted to be able to tell my kids stories about the people that gave them their last name. It was neat to show Tanner their grave sites and start teaching him about the legacy that has come before him. It was also really cool to be with DadZ during all the Zavoral and Czech adventures in Cedar Rapids! His love for his family history makes me love it all the more. 

Field of Dreams, Iowa

above- Jeremy playing ball with his father.

below- Jeremy playing ball with his son.

Needless to say, they were all in heaven!

A Taste of Austin

GramZ, GrampZ and Uncle Matt stayed with us for the week that followed Dallin's blessing (Sept 2-5). We had an awesome time together! On Monday, we gave them some tastes of Austin MN by taking them to the Grush Farm and the Spam Museum.

Grush Farm

The boys played horseshoe for about 2 hours. Jeremy cannot get enough of it!

The Grush girls loved playing and talking with Grandma.

Tanner was excited to help collect veggies from the garden. We came home with lots of food!

SPAM Museum
Every visitor that we get must be taken to the Spam Museum, whether you like or not! So far, everyone has had a great time. Funny thing about this trip- MomZ spent so much time in the first exhibit room that the family ran out of time to see the last portions of the museum. When Jeremy asked her why she was going so slow through the museum she said "Well, I thought the place was going to be really small, so I figured I should read every sign or else we would be done with the place in 20 minutes. I had no idea there were so many exhibit rooms and so much to learn about SPAM!"

Full House

During the Blessing weekend, we had a lot of fun with our guests! It was cool to have enough room in the house for everyone to stay with us. On Sat, Jeremy BBQ'd hamburgers and we all watched BYU football and visited. 

 On Sunday morning, we had church and the blessing (see previous post). When we came home from church we had a big dinner in our new dining room. We ate Hawaiin Haystacks cuz I was able to have it ready ahead of time. Then we hung out and napped. It worked out nicely having 2 kids and 2 sets of grandparents because everyone always had someone to play with! And of course, we loved being with Uncle Matt, too.

In the late afternoon we took everyone to the Nature Center for a nature walk. Jeremy, Matt and the Grandpas tried playing catch along the path, which included a lot of silly passes over towering trees and prairie grasses. It was a gorgeous evening. I took pictures, but I think they got lost with the anniversary shots. (So sad!) Then, we came home and played games. We plugged the kindle into the TV so everyone could play the States game and Pictionary. I was surprised at how fun it was, and everyone giggled a lot and seemed to have a great time!

One highlight for Tanner both nights was after family prayer. He loved going around the room and giving each Grandma or Grandpa a big goodnight hug. It was really fun watching how each grandparent interacted with Tanner and Dallin in their own special way. My two boys are SO blessed to have 4 amazing grandparents that could all be at our house at the same time!!