In case you hadn't heard, my mother had a huge birthday surprise this weekend. All seven of her children and spouses (face it...Mom likes them better!) came from all over the country to celebrate her sixtieth.
So, I got to spend the weekend with some of my favorite people in the whole wide world. Plenty of Coke products, lots of playful banter, late nights filled with Halvie-style philosophizing and inside jokes. Also much jockeying for the position of "favorite child."
I love going home to Salt Lake. I like getting fry sauce with every meal. I like hearing people say "yer" instead of "your"...the accents sound like mine and everything feels just so comfortable and familiar. The anchor people on the news are still the same and the mountains are majestic.
Everywhere I go, I am sure I will run into an old friend and, of course I never do. Except this weekend I did see an old friend I've known since 2nd grade. Somehow she looked exactly the same! And she said I did too! (I hope not...have you seen my 2nd grade school pic? Dorothy Hammill would rollover in her grave. If she were dead, which I don't think she is.)
(Last two pix courtesy of my sister, Marta...her husband is a lawyer and likes to shoot...so no copyright infringement here.)
I have the world's best mom. The fact that all her children wanted to be with her (and that we all wanted to be with each other) speaks volumes.
Thanks to:
- Amy for coming up with such a perfect scheme.
- Dan for taking Brad shooting.
- Josh and Micah for not shooting Brad when he forgot your tickets.
- Heidi and Marta for your fine movie selection.
- Scott and Jac for babysitting.
- Pete and Anna for rounding out the grandkid count to an even Two-Oh.
- Candice and Christie for staying married to my brothers.
- Dad for staying up past your bedtime.
- Brad for loving my family as much as I do!
15 comments:
What a fabulous post--you have a great family and a darling mom. My dad turned 60 this year and now I'm feeling pretty sheepish.
That is one amazing birthday surprise! I just love your mom, and I've never even met her. You can tell she is oh so cool and interesting from her awesome blog . . . and also by how YOU turned out. She must be one proud mom to have such an amazing family! I wish I would have run into you while you were in Utah. ;)
between oma's blog, marta's blog, christie's blog, and now yours, i sorta feel like i was there.
minus the fry sauce part. still retching at the thought.
Sounds perfect...at least if I were with your family.
So I sat here and practiced how I say "your".
Sure enough. It's "YER"
I never even knew it! :)
My grandpa used to say, "Smarty Marty had a party. Nobody came but little Marty." Well, we showed him!
Your mom looks beautiful! That must have been a fun shopping trip. What a great gift for a wonderful lady.
It was such a fabulous weekend - excellent documentation here. I was digging the fry sauce, too. My thighs? Not so much anymore.
How can you visit and NOT have fry sauce??? Good choice.
Pefect weekend. What a great thing to do for your mom!
What a wonderful and fun time! My mom spent her last Christmas and my birthday at my house with all my sisters and family! (We of course didn't know it was her last) and it was so fun having everyone there, I wish we could do it again, I guess we'll wait for Heaven!
I am jealous of every single thing on here-including the fry sauce. The whole weekend looks heavenly!
Mmmm.... Fry Sauce...
That's pretty much the only thing I got out of that post. ;-)
The funny thing about fry sauce is my entire family makes it (as best we can) because we learned it from our friends from church and missionaries serving in the ward from Utah...even though we have never lived in Utah for any length of time ourselves (Total east coasters all our lives). (My stint in the MTC doesn't count...they didn't serve fry sauce ☺)
So fun to read all about it on your blog, too. I think my mom likes the spouses better than her own children, too ;)
Oh, you took me back again...waaaay back....I had a Dorothy Hammill cut, too...only mine was frizzy. Blech.
it was so much fun to see you! always glad to have a get together you when you come to town!
This sounds so fun! And makes me really guilty about not doing this for my dad. Hmmm. My mom is 60 next year. There is something to think about.
Sad about the Cougars. Is the happy ending that because they didn't have the tickets, they didn't have to witness first-hand the collapse of BYU's BCS hopes?
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