Mother's 65 Celebratory Day Weekend Extravaganza

So.. when you are an introvert and you have a visit from your fabulous inlaws for special Grandparents Day at the girls' school plus your Dad's big 65th birthday mountain birthday extravaganza and it's Mother's Day weekend as well.. you find yourself pretty silent on the Monday that follows. You might even find yourself bursting into tears for no reason on Sunday night and sobbing on your husbands shoulder - despite having one of the best weekends imaginable. Us weirdos get a backlog of emotions taken in without time to process and reciprocate fully and that's what happens. Anyway.. I am not sure anything truly interesting is going to come out of this post since I can barely form a sentence today (I spent all afternoon playing playdough with girls.. playdough is a universal language). 

This is the quick family shot from Dad's birthday party. Pretty good looking bunch of folks I think.

The twinsies ended the day covered - head to toe - in mud. Best day ever. 

Yes, it is every bit as beautiful in person as it looks on "film". 

 

Babies love ice buckets.  Yes, she is still a baby.

Me. Visiting. Talking. And talking and talking and..

 The girls ran..

.. and ran.. 

.. and stopped just long enough to pose. 

We got this one shot of the birthday boy :) there were lots of folks to visit with and see

My lovely sisters-in-law. 

Lots of hammock time.. 

Frankie refused to nap but spent the majority of the day surfing from shoulder to shoulder being alternately cuddly or fussy. She was a super trooper.

Bluegrass bands, bar-b-que, this view and birthday cake? What's not to love right?

Then there's my new favorite picture of all time. My brother Page - fisher/hunter/outdoors man extraordinaire - borrows a left handed fishing rod (he's right handed) from someone there and started fishing while the rain was sort of gently starting to come down a bit. Pretty soon the girls and I are standing around watching him as he carries on a conversation with folks nearby and casually casts out and reels in the line over and over - expertly placing it in various deep spots. Every time he tossed in towards this one big rock face I thought for sure it was going to hit the rock and slide down into the water - silly Sarah. Of course it just went "plink!" right into the perfect little spot. Anyway before long he catches a little brook trout (??) and he turns around and hands me the rod and lets me reel it in!! Then with the girls watching he gets it off the hook (he asked me if I wanted to eat it and I choked under the pressure and told him to let it loose) lets them take a good look at that beautiful little creature and then off it goes back down stream. Well now I am all giddy and excited and the girls are HOOKED and want him to catch a fish for them too. So my sweet brother stood out there and fished for what seemed like a blessed eternity. I say blessed because during this time Frankie finally conked out and slept on my shoulder for awhile - so I got to sit and watch my daughters follow their uncle up and down the bank. Watch them put their little hands out and hold his jeans pocket to catch their balance going down the steep parts. Watch him put his arm out to steady them if they came down the wet grass too quickly. It was heaven. I couldn't even break myself away long enough to grab the camera and thankfully Larry snapped this awesome shot. I just stored the entire thing away in my memory. Can't really express how special it was. Sitting under the trees in the gentle shower of rain, holding my sleeping baby, watching my childhood hero - my big brother Page - fish with my big girls as though it was something they did together every day. It was a moment I won't soon forget. 

And then there was Mother's Day. I got the royal breakfast in bed with homemade cards and my favorite flowers treatment. Then I got the Whole Foods picnic lunch treatment (Yum!). THEN John and Mariel showed up with THIS. Mariel brought goodies for everyone as she usually does but she also brought loads of beautiful flowers for the girls to arrange in vases around the house. Plus three beautiful lavender plants for us to plant outside. One for each Shinglette to care for. 

How spoiled am I?!?!

What a fabulous aunt. 

If I had every flower in the world to choose from these are the ones I would have chosen - seriously. There is no filter or photoshop on these picture they were and are just that gorgeous! Now my house looks like a resort. 

Happy Uncle John in the background there. It was just the best day.. the best weekend. The best visits and late night talks with the best people and the best food and the best memories.