Happy Birthday, Grandma Darlene!

..who has a landmark birthday tomorrow (August 29).

We celebrated Grandma Darlene's birthday yesterday at Como Park Zoo in St. Paul.

Anju and I (Shawn) left Lengby at 7 a.m. and arrived about 12:30 at the zoo. En route we had lunch with Grandma Carolyn. This was also the first day of the "Great MN Get-Together," the MN State Fair, held just blocks from the zoo. We drove by the fair to get to the zoo. (We usually go to the State Fair about every other year. We'll take it in next year, when we don't have a 2-year old.) The parking lots were full. Sister Sara had to parallel park my station wagon for me on the street.

Anju loved seeing the various animals. Como Park is a free zoo, operated by free will donations. Their collection of primates is very impressive. Jonah loves the monkeys with the moustaches! Though she was initially frightened by large orangutans and gorillas, when we went outside the primate building, Anju asked (half in sign, half in speech) "More ooh-ooh-oohs."   Anju liked the baby giraffe and other baby animals. She called the male lion "dad'n kitty." Anju was pushed in the stroller by Sathish, who joked "Everybody will think she belongs to me!" She also let Auntie Sara carry her around a lot. Anju is warming up well to the rest of our family.

This was also a reunion with siblings Solveig and Jonah after they spent a few days with my parents.

After seeing all the animals, we surprised mom by holding a birthday party for her. Amy had sent along a gluten-free cholate cake. Sara, Solveig, and Jonah had picked out balloons and birthday plates for mom as well. She was really surprised at our impromtu celebration.

A little after 3, I loaded up the kids in the station wagon, and we headed back to Lengby. I stayed surprisingly awake considering I had driven over 5 hours down and now was driving 5 hours back. It was about a 540 mile round trip. The kids were very anxious to get home. Stops were limited except for supper. We got home about 9:15 p.m. I was very exhausted at that point. Solveig was bursting was energy after being in the car for over 5 hours. Today I got to sleep in a bit, as Amy got up when Anju awoke :)