My mom told us that what she wanted for her 60th birthday was to go to Hawaii.
And even though it tough for us, we made the trip.
I mean, for her, obviously.
We suffered through the beauty and the fun family time and the gorgeous nature and amazing peaceful free time.
Because we love and care for her and are willing to do anything for Mom, you know.
Ben and Jeff got to go deep sea fishing with my dad and it was beautiful. Ben did get sick, but I still think he would rather be sick while fishing then not sick at home.
The boys played a little golf.
We found some sea cucumbers.
And held Presley the whole time.
And played with Kai every second she was awake.
Kai was so much fun and even and we just had a blast getting everyone together. It was so incredible.
Every cousin situation was just the best. So much stinkin cuteness and love and ridiculousness.
Ben and Jeff went fishing a few times and had the best time of their lives. They caught the state fish on the first cast and ben was BESIDE HIMSELF.
Presley gave us the biggest grin while we were listening to Adele's "Send my love to your next lover" and it was the best smile ever!
Getting to celebrate my mom this week with the whole family was truly the best week ever. We gave her six gifts- one for each decade- and each gift corresponded with an attribute that she had. And each kid (or kid in law) presented one of the gifts to her. The one I presented was 'fun' (and that gift was matching tanks with Hawaii 6-0 on them, of course). Fun is one thing about my mom that I value so so much and an attribute that speaks for so much of who she is. She is supportive (sports bras), sweet (m&ms with her face on it), fresh (cordless dyson), always puts her family first (a surprise family photo shoot with a real photographer! No lame Christmas cards this year!), and Godly (prayer journal, just in case anyone was wondering)- just to name a few. But fun is definitely the icing on the cake of all of those. (And an attribute of God that I think so many people forget about or have trouble seeing.) She knows how to celebrate and how to make everyone around her feel loved and special. The best example of this was when Avery mentioned she wanted to zip line a few days into the trip. We hadn't thought of doing that and had no idea how to make that happen. But she immediately did research, looked it up, called and set it up and made sure Avery got to go. It was a little bit tough because Avery was the only kid who could go (because you had to be 70 pounds) and we didn't want to leave anyone out. But mom had watched Avery take care of the babies and wanted to reward her for being such a good oldest cousin. And she absolutely did. It ended up just being mom and Avery and I and we all had the best time being together and getting to have such an exhilarating, awesome and fun experience. In this, and in countless other times through out my life, she has taught me how having and providing and bringing fun can make people feel so special and loved. And that's what this week was- non stop fun with so much overflowing love.
Cant wait for Hawaii 6-1 ;)
