Moms and Mother's Day

Today is one of my favorite days. I love that a day exists to celebrate and honor moms. Derek and I are both so blessed to have WONDERFUL moms and we love them so much. We also have fantastic grandmothers and aunts who are like moms to us and so it's just great to have a day to celebrate all of them. It can be tough to hear about how other people are spending the day with their mom, knowing that we are so far away from our own, but we were lucky enough for this weekend to have Derek's Mom, Dad, and brother in town! Derek actually got to have Mother's day weekend with his mom and I got to have this weekend with a fantastic mother-in-law.

Our family came in on Thursday evening and left this morning. It was a really fast trip, but we are so thankful that we got to spend time with them. Since we didn't have much time to show them all of Washington that we would like, we just had to pick some of our favorite spots. On Friday we went into downtown Seattle and took them to the Space Needle. We, or should I say I, had planned to go to the Tulip Festival since it was the last weekend for it, but there just wasn't enough time. Plus, I don't think the fellas shared in the excitement over fields of flowers like Mrs. Joanna and I did =) We still had a great time on Friday. We stopped at Jamba Juice on the way (my favorite!!), and then had a delicious lunch at Red Robin on the Pier before going to the Space Needle.

On Saturday, Derek and I had to work in the morning, so when we got off work, we went home to discover that we had plans to go to Olive Garden (Mrs. Joanna's choice) for an early Mother's Day celebration. It was so delicious, as always, and it was even better to be there with our family. After lunch, we took a quick trip to Snoqualmie Falls to let everyone enjoy the waterfall. It was really gushing while we were there, more than when we were there with Mom last month. We could feel the mist in every single spot where we stopped to look at it! Here are just a few pictures from Saturday since I forgot my camera in the car on Friday...


That is alot of water....


The Thomas' at the Falls


Mrs. Joanna and her boys waiting to be seated at Olive Garden


What a celebration without cake??

Happy Mother's Day Mom! Wish I could've been at lunch with you and Lauren today, but know that I love you so much! Happy Mother's Day Mrs. Joanna! You are definitely not a "Marie" and you've raised an amazing son to be an amazing husband. We love you so much! Thanks for spending this weekend with us! Happy Mother's Day to MawMaw Betty and MawMaw Gen...we love you and can't wait until we see you again! And finally, Happy Mother's Day to our very special aunts who have treated us like their own children. You are the best and we love you!