Mother's Day 2020

This event was many months ago and I can still feel how invigorating it was to get out of the house for the first time in months, but I won't get ahead of myself.  Usually Spring is full of outings as the air warms up and the flowers bloom, but this spring was very different. I was grateful that he had mostly warm weather and that we have a wonderful yard for my boys to play in everyday so we have been feeling beyond blessed in that way. Anyway, MOther's day was so long ago that I'm not remembering many of the details that weren't photographed (Thank you blog for helping me remember so much of my life that I otherwise would have forgotten) But I'm sure my boys started by making me breakfast. They also had presented me with some gifts including some Dahlia bulbs, door mats, a new toilet seat (the boys thought this was hilarious) some hose nozzles and I think some other things. Later, after we were all dressed for the day, Charlie had created a scavenger hunt for me to go on to find my last gift. I found a package wrapped in large leaves on a tree branch and when I opened it, there was a new fancy watch for me. It was pretty exciting. 

We had a low key day, playing inside and outside, we had beautiful weather and an easy costco lasagna for dinner. We also scoped out spots to plant my Dahlias...Also, funny side story. At this time I knew I was pregnant but didn't know the gender. I had spoken with a couple friends that if we were having a girl, I really like the name Jane Dahlia. Jane has always been our top choice for a girl but I had never mentioned the Dahlia part to Max and he didn't even know I loved Dahlia flowers. (Also, I loved that I could see Dahlia as a form of Dale which is my wonderful Red Grandpa's name who passed away when I was 12) Anyway, I thought it might be a sign that I'm having a girl, my little Jane Dahlia, when Max gave me the Dahlias. Stay tuned to find out if we're having a girl, but I'm likely to have our baby before that news ever gets to our blog. 

Anyway, My favorite mother's day tradition is spending the evening in a beautiful place with my family and getting some sort of photo with my kids. We realized that we have always had amazing weather on Mother's day because we have been able to do this for years. This year, after dinner, we walked to Marshall Park (Green Swing Park, according to my children) It was a fun little hike and the first outing  my boys had done in months. The playground was closed but that didn't stop us from having fun. 

We also wanted to take a photo to send to our families to let them know we were expecting baby #4

We found lots of painted rocks on our way. 

And we found a dreamy spot for mother's day photos...and for hiking barefoot. 

Looks like a couple boys were getting bored from all the photos. 

I think this is the one we actually ended up sending to our families. 

After they participated in my extensive photos, they were left with a lot of play time which meant forging up and down the creek. 

Max was telling Edwin some secrets. 

Here is Edwin's reaction, I found out later that Max told him that he could pee on a tree if he needed to. haha!

And another highlight was trying out the slingshot for the first time. 

Don't worry, they weren't aiming for anything. Just figuring out how to launch it. 

And then we hiked back to our home. It's fun to see little messages (and painted rocks) along the trail to bring unity despite this weird socially distant world we're living in. 

Anyway, I just feel so incredibly grateful for having the role of being a mother. There are challenges Every Single Day but there is also so much sweetness in each day and these boys are loved so much from their parents and they (especially over the last 6 months) have truly bonded and become incredibly close friends. 

Even though we have been keeping our distance, we have still been able to have lots of adventures in nature, which will hopefully be coming up on the blog!