A lovely Sunday

We're still coming off the high that Minnesotans experience when - for more than just one day -temperatures are in the mid 70s, there's no rain (or snow), the grass is green and flowers are blooming. It made for an especially enjoyable Mothers Day, as we were able to be outside a lot doing whatever we pleased. The boys were (mostly) cooperative and happy, which was just icing on the delicious cake!

After picking Honey Buzzers over monkey bread for breakfast (who does that?), we loaded up the van and went to Oxbow Park / Zollman Zoo. I've blogged about trips there before - it's one of our favorite places because it's just the right size for young kiddos to run free, giggle over a variety of animals, have a picnic, and not end with a long car ride back home during which everyone is hot and tired. Perfecto!

This is pretty much how our family toured the zoo (Miles is way ahead of Tanner and Westy is trailing behind...kind of wandering aimlessly...) -

But sometimes Westy found the gumption (and focus) to zoom ahead. Watch out!

The bison were the most entertaining of all the animals, which is odd because usually they are the most boring. Nothing against those critters....it's just that they usually sleep in a far corner where we can barely see them. Not on Sunday! Most were right up next to the fence, and this guy put on a show as he rolled around in the dirt and snorted. Yikes!

Weston thought if he told everyone to be quiet, maybe the bison would go to sleep. Unfortunately this plan failed miserably. But it was cute anyway.

His next mission (that also failed) was to feed the goats. He earned an A+ for effort.

And then Miles stood next to the cow/horse pen cleaning station and pretended to be an employee, to which Weston grew very angry. Very, very angry. He wanted access to the brooms and shovels.

This photo is rather creative, no?! There's a big swing off in the distance and in a perfect world, the auto setting on the camera would have taken a picture of our family sitting on it. I was trying to figure out the angle here...a grass-eye view more than anything, but fun in the I-wish-I-was-a-decent-photographer sort of way.

After multiple attempts at the family photo a very nice woman (who had probably been watching and laughing the whole time) came over and took this one for us -

Then it was time to do the chicken dance over to our picnic spot!

The day was begging for a picnic and so were our growling tummies. Surprisingly we all sat nicely on the blanket and ate the entire lunch! Did someone pay my children (and husband?!) to act this way?

Maybe it was the pudding. Yep...definitely the pudding :)

And what better way to end the day than with more sugar?? I made a rhubarb/raspberry/blueberry crisp for dessert, which Miles dubbed "rhurazblue cake". Eating it on the front steps really enhanced the flavor!

Here's to hoping for another gorgeous weekend! We have some special visitors coming from NC and it sure would be nice to show them a good time outside....and perhaps have some kids (whose names shall go unmentioned) run laps around the house or something. Ha!