Mothers' Day 2015

Wew hew for Mother's Day!  Gotta love the one day per year when you can ask everyone to do stuff for you and they feel obligated to say yes!!!

This year, I sent David to Idaho to look at a house on the Saturday before Mother's Day.  He was gone the entire day.  In fact, he came home after I left for the annual "we'd-rather-go-out-to-eat-together-than-buy-each-other-small-gifts" dinner with my mom and sisters.

We stopped at Grandma Church's house first.  We had a nice visit, but we were unable to convince her to join us at the restaurant.  I don't know how to label people in this picture because there is no "left to right" or "row one," etc.  Let me try:  I'm the huge beast in front.  Katie W. is smiling at my shoulder and Katie S, is the one in glasses.  My mom is in the light green jacket.  Grandma Church is in white and Krsitin is in stripes.  That wasn't too hard.

We ate at a Greek restaurant that I used to frequent - University Broiler.  Seriously.  I used to eat there so often that I knew the owners and they knew me by name.  But that was a lifetime ago.  I didn't see the owners, and I'm sure they wouldn't remember me if I had.
We sat by a mural of a beautiful Greek Coastal town - I thought Kristin looked perfect beside it in her sailor-striped shirt.   

Some of the delicious food we ate.  Goodness!  I love me some Greek food!

Mother's Day itself was very nice.  We had yogurt parfaits for breakfast.  They were delicious.  David surprised me by buying a box of chocolates from Florence's while he was in Rexburg the day before.  It was a very thoughtful and nostalgic gift!  Of course, each of the kids wrote me nice letters (Nicki even helped Quin write a letter.  She'd say, "Do you love mom?" and he'd nod his chubby-cheeked head, so she'd write it down.  Then she'd say, "Do you like how she cooks for you?" and he'd nod those cheeks again.)  I received a lot of origami and paper decorations throughout the day.  One (again from Nicki) was made of several strips of paper woven together into a mat.  A rock was placed on the mat, along with a sign that read "you hold this family together."  Josh made me a special mug at school.  Nicki gave me coupons for FIVE free foot massages!  She gives great massages and I need them - I have neuropathy issues and I've started running again so they're flaring up.  Alison gave me some valuable coupons for things such as free babysitting, an exercise partner, taking my turn to do the dishes, and being quiet and not arguing.  I felt really spoiled by all the attention and thought that my cute family gave me.

For dinner, we ate homemade chicken noodle soup and a couple of chewy baguettes dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  My mom brought over fresh strawberries, real whipped cream, and pound cake for our dessert.  It was fantastic.  Then, David played chess with Ali and tried teaching it to Josh.  It was nice to see all of them playing together.  I, meanwhile, bummed around on the couch and watched church videos on Mormon.org.  Ahhh...bliss...

Momma and her gaggle of Gee's:  Nicole, Alison, Quinton, Bronson, and Joshua.