the great grammie visit of 2012

my mom came to visit us last weekend! living far from both sides of our family definitely has its drawbacks -- namely, lack of free babysitting quality grandparent time -- so we're always so excited when people come to visit and we can stock up on good, solid relationship-building. this weekend was perfect.

mom was originally scheduled to arrive on thursday afternoon, but she's now a hotshot blogger and got a last-minute invite to attend an all-expenses-paid blogger summit at the pfizer headquarters in NYC on friday. um, yeah. i'd take that trip too. so instead she jetted out to the east coast for 24 hours (what IS it with payzant women only getting 24 hours over there? we need to lengthen our trips for sure) then flew into seattle late friday night.

saturday was me & b's anniversary, which was to be celebrated a few days later, but we still wanted to have fun. all four of us had THE most incredible brunch of my life (no understatement -- and i've had a lot of brunches!) at pomegranate, right down the street. then we drove 15 minutes and went to jubilee farm for some pumpkin patching.

we went to this same farm last year and had loved it so much, we had to come back. it's just so perfect out there. gorgeous scenery, a hay ride out to the patch, cider & cooked corn, farm animals, even a giant wooden pumpkin slingshot that looked like something from braveheart. we love jubilee farm!

a comparison -- this year's hay ride vs. last year's. my hair is longer & jack is huge!:

after the farm, it was home for apple cider & football. b and i stayed up SOOOO late and went to a midnight halloween party, made possible only by having my mom in town. how else could i ever get a midnight babysitter? thanks mom. b donned his classic ghostbusters costume and i was katniss from the best book ever!

sunday was church and recovery mode after staying out so late. monday, b went to work and my mom & i took jack to the zoo! i had really been looking forward to this because we hadn't been to the woodland park zoo yet, and because i spent the majority of my childhood going to the LA zoo with my mom & MY grammie. (pretty sure this was only because grammie had a membership so it was good, cheap entertainment every time we came to visit -- "what should we do today?" "i know, the zoo! again!" -- but regardless, i have many happy memories.)

unfortunately, this is seattle, not burbank, and we froze our butts off. it rained the majority of the time we were there, i forgot gloves for jack, half the animals were off hibernating somewhere and they didn't even have a rhino. ah well, it was an adventure!

my favorite section was the rainforest because it was indoor and soooo warm. the zoo is pretty well prepared for inclement weather, as it should be, with lots of covered viewing areas and an indoor playground. they just can't force animals to frolic outside when it's 40 degrees out. ;)

we actually got pretty lucky -- the animals that WERE out ended up being super easy to see, like the elephant above. we could get so close! the best part of the day was when we rounded the corner to the jaguar exhibit to see one guy sitting RIGHT up against the glass. for a second i thought it was a fake. ;) but here is proof. i've never been so close to a jaguar and couldn't get over how gorgeous it was. now i want to open a zoo.

we're talking...CLOSE.

we came home to thaw out and then b & i left on our anniversary staycation (more on that later). we were only gone for a day and a half but i think jack & grammie got some fabulous bonding time in. she even taught him how to make her world-famous sugar cookies.

annnnnd then it was wednesday and we took her to the airport. :( it was such a fun visit! come again soon, grammie!