It felt like a long and very fun weekend. My parents visited. They got here on Friday afternoon, just as we finished all the preparation work - baking healthy organic muffins and very unhealthy cookies, cleaning up, etc. As usual, when parents arrived, they brought so much stuff with them, that it looked like they were moving in. And of course, they brought tons of food stuff, enough to award their Toyota Corolla an "official hunger-relief car" status. After unpacking and settling down, they got busy spoiling Mark. And Chris and I were just too happy to have 4 more hands to cary Mark around all the time; so we didn't mind. On Friday evening we made a big pizza from scratch. Chris made dough and I - toppings. It turned out so great that we decided to make pizza every week now.
On Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market. When I say "we" I really mean Mom, myself, Chris, and Mark. Dad stayed in the house, smoked, browsed Internet, and tried to get over his back-pain. Mom was really impressed by our Farmer's Market. Now it really boasts a huge variety of fresh fruits, veggies, herbs, flowers, cheeses and all that stuff. Originally we didn't plan on buying anything. But how could we resist all the sights and the smells and the sounds. And so we bought some goat cheese, tomatoes, cukes, and freshly picked bluberries. Mom even bought some flowers, included a small rose plant, to plant in NY. 
Back at the house we set to cooking - yummy cold beet soup, leftover pizza, and a very-berry layered dessert. And we had so much sweet stuff - Chris's oatmeal-raising cookies, muffins, chocolate-dipped apples from 
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and of course all the apricots, cherries, grapes, and peaches that Mom could haul from NY. Then we waited until it cooled off a bit outside and drove to Pullen Park for a little stroll. We chose Pullen Park mostly because we wanted plenty of benches for Dad to sit on since his leg was bothering him. But the evening was so nice and the park - so lovely! There were plenty of children there, as usual, but most of the BBQ shelters were empty. Carousel and other rides were open and paddleboats were gliding all around the little lake. We simply walked around snapping pictures of each other. 
After eating dinner, we decided that it would be a good idea to feed Mark his first solid food in front of his grandparents. And so I quickly made some water-based Gerber Organic Rice cereal; we put Mark in his swing (haven't gotten him a high-chair yet); put a huge bib on him; and I approached him with a little spoon bought just for the occassion. Chris was at the ready with the camera and Dad - aiming at us with a camcoder. I was almost sure with all this commotion, Mark would simply ignore the food. But he was such a good boy - opened his mouth wide for the spoon, made cute surprised cooing noises, and covered his face and his bib with cereal in the most darling way. And after eating ONE WHOLE TEASPOON of cereal, I took him upstairs for some regular food. Then later on he even drew a picture for his grandparents under Chris's and Grandma's supervision.
So after the grandparents left early on Sunday, Chris and I went to the stores to get Chris his Father's Day gift. Since Chris didn't know what he wanted and I didn't want to get him a pair of socks, we went to a couple of stores and got him several bars of gourmet dark chocolate. And later in the evening we drove to yet another park - Lake Lynn - for a nice leisurely 2.2-mile stroll. Going back to work on Mondays is getting ever more difficult!!!
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