Mother's Day 2014

I had the best Mother's Day this year. While I missed not seeing either of my own mothers, it was really nice to have the whole day to myself to do whatever I wanted.  For my mother's day present, the boys told me I could get a lilac bush, which is my favorite flower. Robbie ended up watching the boys so I could take a trip to the greenhouse and I might have gone a little bit overboard. I wanted to create a little garden centered around the lilac bush. Since peonies bloom after lilacs, are beautiful, fragrant, and thrive in similar growing conditions, I got one pink and one white shrub. Lilacs tend to grow tall and have lanky woody stalks at the bottom so I wanted some shade loving plants to occupy and add color, habitat, and life to that region. I chose several varieties of hostas and one bleeding heart. Finally, I wanted some ground cover so I wouldn't have to add mulch every year and be a self-sustaining little ecosystem, so I got a couple of bearberry plants. These are evergreens so they look pleasant year round, they spread to cover the ground, have flowers in the spring and berries in the fall that birds love. The garden doesn't look like much now, but when it matures it will be fantastic!

In the morning, I woke up to Meo singing me a beautiful little song about Mama. It was wonderful.

This weekend, Robbie let me be frivolous and buy Link and Meo matching outfits. I thought Mothers Day was the perfect day to wear them for the first time!

In the morning, Meo and I watered the garden and fed the birds while Link and Robbie made us some yummy cheesy scrambled eggs, bagels, and fresh strawberries.

Then all four of us went for our first spring hike. We went up Douglas Mountain, which is fairly short but still invigorating (especially when you are out of shape!). Meo had a cold and was sleepy so I carried him up on my back. I hadn't worn Meo for a long time so I was proud of myself for being able to do it!

Meo got out to stretch his legs, but the black flies and mosquitos on this trail are always nasty and I had to scoop him back up and keep going pretty quickly.

Here we are on the summit, which was breezy and bug free!

Meo is a young Indiana Jones.

Little Link slept most of the hike.

Nursing Link.

Meo walked about halfway down, but I scooped him up because the bugs started attacking us again and we went down a very steep trail that was forcing him to go VERY slowly.

When we got home, Grandma and Grandpa came to see the boys after their return from Iowa and to pick up their car. It was really nice to see them and hear about their road trip back home!

Before dinner, the boys and I went out to our very nice ice cream spot nearby that serves local Gifford Ice Cream (our favorite). I had a crazy sundae with Fly fishing fudge (M&M’s, cookie dough, and chocolate chunks jump in and out of a fudge river flowing through vanilla ice cream). It was sooo yummy.

Link is too little for ice cream, so he ate a strap instead.

When we got home, we had a fresh, healthy salad for dinner, then settled down into our bed routine. It was such a perfect day!