The Best Mothers Day Weekend Ever!

First of all, a big shout out to MY mother on Mothers Day! Here she is after giving birth to me. She is the best mother! She raised 6 no nonsense girls to be just as strong as her. Now that I am a mom, I like to think of when I was her baby. It makes me realize how much she has loved me all along. They say you don't know what your parents feel for you until you are a parent yourself. Amen! Thanks Mom for loving me that much and more!

This year was my second experience with Mothers Day and it was the best one yet! As is usually the case in our little family, holidays stretch to encompass a few days. So this whole weekend was my Mothers Day weekend in effect. First, Friday night Tyler and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which I cried my eyes out during. The next morning, we went to the city recreation center where we have a family membership to take Cameron swimming for his first (real) time!He sure is a brave boy! The pool here (an indoor heated pool, so nice) had a long wheelchair ramp entrance that also doubles as a good kiddie swim area. He walked right in and walked in up to his neck with no reservation. Then we took him out in the deep area and played with him and he really loved being in the water. Unfortunately he graced the trip with a slip and fall to the back of his head which put a damper on the event, but he eventually recovered and we had a nice hour long swim.After the swim, all three of us went down for naps. We took long leisurely naps and afterward I treated myself to a long leisurely bath--remember, Mothers Day weekend. We decided to go out for Mothers Day dinner that night along with all other sabbath observing Mormons, and after some deliberation decided to go to none other than...Carl's Jr!! Or Hardee's as it's called here, and everywhere else not in the West. Interesting, everything is identical except for the name and the menu differs slightly. Here's Cameron enjoying a toy. You can see his little scab.After a very messy dinner we went on a leisurely trip to Lowe's to get me a Mothers Day plant (instead of flowers). (Note on picture: we took a first and I looked fat and sloppy so I overly shaped up for the second, kind of kidding, kind of not.) I have traditionally been a very poor gardener and have killed every house plan I've owned. But I love landscaping and plan to get into it when I have a yard so I figure I need to venture out and try my luck again. It was really funny how nervous I was to pick a plant. I kept saying I wished they had info about how hearty each plant was so I'd know which one to pick. After picking a Hosta plant, we spent a while looking at appliances, lights, etc, and saying which ones we would get for our future house and giving our expert oppinion on things. You know how it goes. That evening we decided that since we had been distracted thinking about it all day, to keep the redbox DVD a second night and watched Benjamin Button again, only to cry even more the second time. I'm a glutton for emotional movies.

Ithink that was one of my best days in a long time. Both of my favorite boys and no appointments and no where to be, just a whole day to do whatever we wanted.

On Sunday, real Mothers Day, Tyler made me a good breakfast, as good as possible with only a microwave, and gave me my awesome presents.Usually I spell out exactly what I want from him but lately we've been trying out surprises, you know, like presents are supposed to be. He did a great job! With a limited budget set by me, Tyler went out and got me a PedEgg (supposed to be really great, says someone he works with), a big bag of Skittles (my fave), a sleep mask and of course a very cute card. Okay, I must explain the sleep mask. Our room has two windows and outside the courtyard is very brightly lit (you know, it's college) and the sun comes up early and the cheap blinds do very little so I am always complaining how light it is in the room. It makes for broken sleep in the morning. So you can see why this gift is perfect.

After a delicious meal of a Stouffers lasagna (the dining hall is closed for two weeks) the day was finished well with a walk in the old rich neighborhood of the city. One of Tyler's and my favorite things to do is to take walks and look at the houses and comment on them and their landscaping; you know, give our expert opinions and say what we want someday. It was so neat to see all the grand southern mansions, even in such a small town. What a unique heritage the South has, no wonder they are so proud of it! Here's a picture of me in front of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. Oh no, wait, this is a real house. I have never seen such huge columns on a personal residence before in my life, minus the White House. A note on the houses here and I imagine in all the South: porches are a big deal. Everyone has a large porch with at least a few sturdy rocking chairs and at most decorating to rival the inside of the house. Here are a few pictures of some of the neat houses we passed on our walk.
This one is actually a church tucked in amongst the houses. It's like a mini cathedral. I think it must be at least 150 years old. We particularly like the gazebo structure on top of the house.I thought this was great, a post to tie your horse to. Who knows if it is genuine, but it could have fooled me. Love it!Thank you Tyler for my best Mothers Day weekend ever! You are the best husband a girl could want!