Grandparents make birthdays better

So, it's just not possible for me to keep up with everything at once. Productive sewing and work? Then, the blog falls behind. Keep up with the blog, and a million other things fall to the wayside. I'm just trying to stay afloat over here. After a super busy week and weekend, we came home from church on Sunday to a garage door that wouldn't open. Turns out the spring broke after we left for church that morning. I'm just so thankful that our car wasn't inside the garage when it happened. Thankfully, it got fixed this afternoon, but it was just one more thing. It's hard enough to keep up with the expected things, much less all the unexpected issues that always seem to be popping up. Anyway, that's not what this post is about. This (overdue) post is about the wonderful grandparent visit we had the weekend before last (Beckett's birthday weekend). (And, yes, I still have posts planned on his party and his two-year update. Just pray our house stays together until then.)

For some reason, we didn't do anything particularly new on this visit, but we were blessed with some really beautiful fall weather, so we made the most of it with lots of outdoor activities, including trips to two parks.

B loves to hang and swing from the bars above the slides.

Racing Papa (any guesses who won?)

And, of course, we couldn't miss out on another trip to the zoo, starting, obviously, with a ride on the train.

This time, we got even better views of the tiger and elephants from the train. (For some really amazing pictures at the STL zoo, check out this page — thanks for the tip, Melissa!)

After the train, it was straight on to B's favorite exhibit, the "fish" (i.e., the fish in the hippo tank, noting that he only wants to see the fish and could give a hoot about the three or four amazing hippos swimming around, which, in this case, was a good thing since the tank was being cleaned, and the hippos were absent).

 

Elephant family!

Checking out the ducks

Taking flight

And saving a hug for dad (B now likes to back up and take running starts for his hugs.)

This shirt could not be more true.

It was a HUGE help to have grandparents here to help with Becket's birthday party (more on that to come). They took care of putting up all of the decorations while I finished the food, and during the party, they took care of their grandparental duties — ensuring B got more than his fair share of goldfish and cookies. ;) (Note the blue-icing-covered fingers in the third pic.)

Before they had to leave the next morning, we took B downstairs to reveal his big birthday gift, a train table! He was so excited! (And Matt probably likes it almost as much as B does — rearranging tracks is his new pastime.)

Then, B got to unwrap a few more presents from us and his great-grandmother. Not surprisingly, the books were a big hit.

Somebody's two!

As always, another wonderful visit!