Darling/Donnelly Family Visit

This past weekend my Mom, Clark, Avah, and Hayden came down to visit.  They ended up staying at the Hilton by the UT medical campus, so they saw where Jasmin's school is.

On Saturday we joined them for breakfast and then went to the Toledo Zoo, which Jasmin and I have been meaning to do for quite a while, and everyone really enjoyed it.  It's a great zoo.  The exhibits are spaced out enough that it doesn't feel packed full of people even though we went on a beautiful day and the parking lot was full.

Saturday afternoon we met up at Panera with my Aunt Faye, Aunt Sandy, Grandpa Si, and Grandma Barb, who were passing through on their way to back to Wisconsin and Minnesota on their way back from a visit in NH/Boston to visit my Dad, sisters, etc.  We had a snack, they grabbed dinner, and then continued on their way.  It was a brief visit, but we appreciated our minutes together immensely.

We then went back to our apartment and relaxed for awhile before deciding to go to Elephant Bar for dinner, after which Avah and Hayden came over to watch Megamind and spend the night.  Hayden passed out within 30 seconds of the movie ending and slept through the night, but Avah decided she wanted to sleep at the hotel, so Clark came over and picked her up around midnight.  We'll try it again when she's feeling up to it.

Sunday we went to the Toledo Museum of Art, which is an excellent art museum.  They have a humongous endowment from the Libbey family (Edward Libbey started Libbey Glass in 1888) which enables the museum to own over 30,000 pieces of art.  They are currently hosting an exhibit of 39 Manet portraits through January 13th and will be the only museum in the USA to have the opportunity before they travel to the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 2013.  The museum also has a large area dedicated to glass and its history, as well as live glass blowing, which we got to watch.  Good stuff.

Anyway, it was a good visit, and we look forward to the next one.  It will have to be before January 2013 if they want to see those Manets.  The clock is ticking.