Visitor!

Later, on the same day that we went kayaking, my Mom arrived!  She'd been in Ohio visiting my sister Rachael, and then drove down to spend a few days with us, too!  We were so excited to have her!

That first morning, I dragged her out of bed to join me for FiA.  I was leading, so I tried to keep it do-able for my Mom and I was so impressed with her willingness to go along!  I guess those new knees she got are doing the trick!  At the end of each workout, each person says their name, their age, and their FiA nickname.  If you're 50 or older, they yell "Respect!" when you say your age.  So my Mom got a FiA nickname (Ohana, which means "family" in Hawaiian and felt very appropriate for her!) and when she said her name, she got three Respects!  I was so proud of my awesome mom!

And we had a great turnout for such a cold morning!

We had such a great time together.  We ate out way too much-- Torchy's, Kanak, Beer Run (best vegetable sandwich ever!), Mellow Mushroom, the Dairy Market, Chaps, and Coldstone...  We hit all my favorites!  We got pedicures.  We got a couple of my prints framed (I always need another set of eyes to help me choose stuff like that).  And, on a very rainy Friday morning, just sat around on the couch chatting and watching tv together.  It was so great!

Mom had brought us a few presents, too, which was fun.  My sisters and I were each given t-shirts that said, "Side by side or miles apart, Sisters will always be connected by heart" so we all took pictures of ourselves wearing them as a thank you.  (My neighbors once were talking about everyone should have a therapist and I thought to myself, Why would I need a therapist when I have four sisters to help me hash out all my problems???)

And my kids each got a carved, wooden animal from Africa, which they loved:

Bentley got a water buffalo, Kendra was given a leopard, Ryder got a rhino, Colton got the lion, and Camille got the elephant!

The time flew by and before I knew it, it was the day Grandma had to go home!  Due to a tragedy at UVA, they'd canceled school that day, so a very small silver lining to such awful news was that the kids got to have one last morning with Grandma, rather than trying to say goodbye while I rushed them out the door.  We'd planned on having lunch with Adam right before her flight, so Craig got to join us, too, which made me happy.

It was wonderful getting so much extra time with my Mommy!!!