Mother's Day Outing

In true Knudtsen-Spears family style, my mom and I had our belated Mother's Day gathering today (only 5 months behind schedule). We weren't able to get together for the actual day back in May, so we planned a few months ago to spend today doing something fun. We settled on visiting Como Zoo and Conservatory, hoping to please three generations of women!

We are having Indian Summer currently, so the day was perfect. Temps in the low 80's, slight breeze, lots of warm fall sun. In order for me to drive myself and the girls to the zoo, we had to bring Eric to work then take the car. This meant that I was ready to walk out the door at 7:15 this morning...not a common occurrence. For the girls, this meant that Hope went into the car in her pajamas, and Eva arrived in the car wearing only her underwear and crocs on her feet. She knew the "get in the car in PJs" plan, but happened to get up early enough to at least get her pajamas off and underwear on. So, I quickly changed Eva into her clothes and buckled in before we reached the first stoplight.

We headed off in the morning rush hour to drop Eric off at work, planning to run a few errands, hopefully give Hope a car nap, and meet my mom at Como around 10:30. The morning went nothing like planned, but still turned out great. We ended up staying at General Mills and eating breakfast with most of his team (HUGE omelets and oatmeal in the cafe). After breakfast we hung around the cubicles a bit while Hope made everyone laugh and Eva made a strong attempt at being anti-social. In the end one of Eric's coworkers had a stuffed, yellow cheerios bear which persuaded Eva to utter a few niceties.

After breakfast, our attempt at running errands failed as Costco was not open yet. Instead we browsed Lakeshore Learning and all three of us lusted after beautiful, well-crafted, smart toys.

When we had pried ourselves out of the store (without a purchase, thank-you-very-much!), we headed towards Como. Thankfully, Hope did nap. Thankfully, mom was about a half hour late allowing Eva and I to eat our lunches (at 10:15 am) and Hope to keep napping.

The rest of the day went as planned...except that we stayed longer than we expected- a sure sign that we were enjoying ourselves! Como conservatory is very cool, old, and interesting for adults. Eva had a grouchy attitude about this part and kept asking if we could go see the animals. The zoo is small, but full of the critical exotic animals that zoos are supposed to have, so it is perfect for us. I will leave you with pictures, but I can't sign off without sharing the highlight of the trip for me- the orangutan mama with her baby!

Eva was enjoying the monkeys a lot. She was standing on the other side of thick glass from the orangutan exhibit, absent-mindedly watching some other monkey family. the orangutans were being covert, so we all were excited when one jumped up on the ledge and started walking close to us. Eva turned around at the very moment, almost face to face with a monkey that is bigger than her and STRANGE looking. With a cry of fear, she literally threw herself into my arms. It took me a moment to convince her that we wanted to look at this beast, the key words I used were "monkey baby". I have to admit, seeing a monkey mama and her baby is eerie. They reminded me so much of Hope and myself, the way the baby hung on tight while the mama busily wandered around. The baby had a hilarious mohawk, and the mama clearly had better things to do than stand around while people watched her baby nurse. How eerily human. Anyway, they were fun to watch, and I really enjoyed being "needed" by Eva for a few moments ;).

Classic bag lunch on the bench. Not so classic (depending on how well you know my mother...) is her sock situation, the half pound of cheddar she is eating like a snickers bar, and in the other hand the large tomato she is eating like an apple. You're one of a kind, mom!

Eva was most excited to see the giraffes and to get her treat from Grandma- that enormous, artificially flavored lollipop. Both turned out to be AWESOME!
Mom was interviewed about her political opinions by some TV station...

After wandering through the exhibits, Eva and Hope played on this turtle statue for quite awhile while mom and I chatted. Eva assured me this statue would not break...thank goodness!

Prettiest picture of the day (but I'm not biased ;).