Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Saturday morning of Memorial Day Weekend at my dad's. He had asked my husband, Jesse, to paint his kitchen ceiling since he can no longer do it. Riley and I spent much of the time playing and I attempted to clean a little, but didn't get nearly as far as I would have liked. While we were there I showed my dad some of the genealogy research I have been doing. I started the research 5+ years ago and then put it aside until recently. Between a conversation with a co-worker about her family history and my mom passing away it got me interested in the search again. I was able to show my dad one of his dad's WWI documents and one of his great grandpa's civil war documents. My dad was pretty impressed and I can't wait until I can present him with more information on his family. The great thing about this is that my dad is now sharing stories about his family that I would have never known otherwise.

After the painting was done, and lunch was eaten Jesse took Riley home and my dad and I headed over to Fort Snelling to see my mom's grave. My cousin gave each of us kids and my dad lily plants to plant in her memory and my dad wanted to bring the flowers to her grave... and one of her cows. I'm pretty sure that Fort Snelling has rules about what you can  and can't put at a grave, but whatever... he wanted to do it. Plus, even after giving the grandkids a bunch of her cow collection you can still see cows everywhere you turn at my dad's house. We also tried to find my great uncle Jack's gravestone. I had all the information about where to find it, but forgot the exact grave number at home. We wandered around for some time before giving up. Turns out we walked right by the back of it.

My mom's view.

On Sunday we tried to spend some time outside in the morning because it was supposed to get hot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, Riley was being fussy so we spent a lot of time trying to soothe her which meant that we let her watch more TV than usual. Thankfully, after her afternoon nap she was herself again. I've been needing some new glasses so we decided to go to the mall and finally get them. The pair I favored the last time I was there didn't work out as my mascara'd lashes hit the lenses. Oh well. There was a very helpful employee who worked with me until I found a pair that I liked (and she pointed out that I was the same age as her mom - wow, is it really possible that I could have a kid in her 20's?). I was excited to try something new and bolder, but not sure how crazy I wanted to go. In the past I have had solid frames, but for the last 3+ years I've had something that was a lot less obvious on my face. And it wasn't until the last handful of years that I stopped wearing contacts. So whatever I got I had to be used to wearing them all day long. So I purchased glasses and sunglasses, but wasn't able to wait for them to be made. Instead I would pick them up on Monday.

On Monday we decided to go to the zoo. We weren't sure what we would find on a holiday so we tried to beat the crowd by getting there first thing when they opened. It was busy, but the real crowds didn't seem to come until we were leaving. I know I just showed a ton of zoo pictures in my last post (which was from a couple weeks ago), but I have more. I actually didn't think I would take any pictures, but I did. Plus, we explored some new areas. 

Otter. Riley, for some reason, doesn't like to get close to the displays where she can see below and above the water. At a distance she liked this, but if I got her within 5 feet she started to freak out.

Grizzlies.

The camels above were all watching the camels below. You can pay to ride a camel which is what the below camels were for. The ones above seemed so intrigued by these other camels that it made me wonder what was actually going through their heads.

This is where I wasn't going to take a picture because I've already done it here and here, but then I thought it might be fun to take a picture of her with the goats each time we visit the zoo and then we could compare the pictures when she's older. It will be great... I can see her now when I have to bribe her to stand next to the goats when she's 16 years old. Ok, maybe this isn't the greatest idea after all.

Every time I visit the cows are chained up eating. Please, someone tell me that you've gone and seen the cows out wandering in a field or a pen?

Piggies were 6 days old! 

I have a love/hate relationship with zoos. I get a bit disturbed by trapping animals in enclosures. Sure they may attempt to replicate their natural habitat, but THEY ARE ENCLOSED! There is another, smaller zoo in town that I stopped going to because I couldn't stand to see the polar bears pace back and forth. Back and forth. Luckily, those polar bears have new digs at that zoo, but I still saw a couple 'pacer's' today at this zoo. At this display it had a note that the eagle had broken his wing and was no longer able to fly. The note sort of implied that the eagle was better off in the zoo. I sure hope so.

I don't know about you, but I find this picture creepy... and not because the lynx was right in front of us. I may be crazy, but I think there is something human like in his look...

After the zoo, and lunch I headed back to Lenscrafters to pick up my new glasses. I tried them on and had total buyers regret. "What have I done? Why did I make such a big change?"

Then I realized I was probably just freaking out because it's a change. I'm used to looking at myself like this:

But once upon a time I looked like this:

(with my co-workers, Jennifer and Erin in 2009)

And each time I get new glasses I feel like I am going through an identity change, but then I get used to them and life goes on.