Flashback Friday: Mother's Day

I am participating in another Flashback Friday.  If you would like to participate or check out the host of this awesome weekly event, then please go on over to Christopher and Tia.  They're awesome.  I promise. :)

Since Sunday is Mother's Day (if my husband is reading this, he's probably making a mad scramble to try and figure something out last minute - hehe), I decided to do a post about my first Mother's Day.  Well, the first one where Johnny wasn't in utero (I was pregnant the previous Mother's Day and I considered myself a mother at that point too).  :)  It was Mother's Day 2008 and Johnny was 9 months old - a little boy with huge grins, a mohawk (naturally grew that way), and learning to crawl.  I finished up my junior year of college the Friday before Mother's Day (interesting fact: my alma mater always holds Graduation on Mother's Day, and I'm fairly certain I was the only one at my college graduation who was both a graduate and a mother), and my parents were planning a trip to Montana that Saturday for a small family reunion and would be back on Mother's Day.  Seeing as I had just finished my classes for the summer and Johnny had never been out of state, and it had been a while since I had been to Montana, we decided very last minute (Friday night) that Johnny and I would tag along with my parents to Montana for the weekend.  John couldn't come, because he had to work.  So, Saturday morning, my parents picked Johnny and me up and we hit the road to Montana.  It was a pretty drive, as always, and we stopped for lunch along the way.  Johnny did surprisingly well for the 4+ hour drive to Missoula where one of my second cousin's was graduating from college and we were having a mini-family reunion with my maternal grandma's family.  

We arrived in the afternoon and met up with other family members at a cabin that my cousin's parents had rented.  My grandparents had brought their 5th wheel and parked it in the lot next to the cabin, and this was where my parents as well as Johnny and me stayed along with my grandparents for the night.  Most of my other family stayed inside the gigantic cabin.  It was a gorgeous cabin!  We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up with a lot of my grandma's family that we hadn't seen in a year or two.  It was a wonderful trip.  Johnny was a well-behaved baby and did very well sleeping with me in the 5th wheel.  The next morning we ate breakfast with everyone (after my mom and grandma tried to be sneaky - they weren't successful - and had Johnny sign a Mother's Day card for me while I was in the 5th wheel bathroom and I could hear Johnny screaming and fussing because they wouldn't let him eat the crayon.  It was very sweet though and I still have the card. :)) and hung out for a little while, and then after family reunion photos in the late morning, we headed back home.  It wasn't the longest of trips, but it was definitely nice to see everyone and it was a laid back trip for Johnny's first trip out of state.  

My mom and Johnny in Montana :)

Johnny and his best friend (my dad, aka: papa)

Me and Johnny - keep in mind that I've been in a car all day and excuse the fact that half of my hair has fallen out of my ponytail.  It isn't some weird futuristic haircut where I have uneven hair lengths on each side of my head. I promise. ;)

At this age it was "Give me the camera!".  Now it is "Quit taking pictures of me!!!" *sigh*

Johnny and my dad on Mother's Day

My grandpa and Johnny 

A bunch of my family on Mother's Day - all wonderful moms in this picture! :)

Pretty much everyone that was at the reunion

Me, Johnny, mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa

My grandma's sister Rosemary, my cousin Lee Arden, and his daughter Ivy. :)  They live near my parents, so they had driven to Montana too for the reunion.

The college graduate is third from the left (in the back). :)

Once we got back to Washington state, it was almost dinner time.  We had just enough time to pick up John and then go and meet family from my dad's side for a Mother's Day dinner.  It was also a really nice time. 

Johnny on my brother Joseph's shoulders while we were waiting at the restaurant 

Grinning for mama :)

Johnny and his cousin Romy

This was a photo of Johnny and me the Monday after Mother's Day. :) 

This was Johnny's first time getting ice cream at my cousin's ice cream shop The Scoop!

It ended up being a wonderful first Mother's Day! :)  It was a wonderful first out-of-state trip for Johnny.  We ended up going to Oregon later that month to visit some of John's family too, so he had another out-of-state trip pretty soon after this one.  I have only had two Mother's Days so far, and I'm sure this one on Sunday will be just as special as the previous ones. (Hint, hint John. Hehe)  

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And I just wanted to explain my absence on my blog this past week...Johnny and I both have colds and have been trying to heal through all the nose-blowing, medicine, fevers, and general grumpiness.  We feel like we're starting to get over it though, so hopefully we'll both be well before Mother's Day.  And most definitely we want to be well by this next Friday, because my parents are coming to Denver to visit us for the weekend! :) 

Also, I would like to give a shout out to Tia for the wonderful Mother's Day postcard I received in the mail today.  It was very beautiful and I really appreciate it. :)  I know I already thanked you on Facebook, but I wanted to thank you again for being a really thoughtful person and a wonderful friend.  You are one awesome mama of three little ones (one still growing in your tummy!) and you inspire me daily.  Your postcard seriously made my day.  For a while there, I was sure that the best part of my day was going to be when Johnny sneezed and shared his wonderfully gooey mucus with my face.  Then your postcard came along, and well, it was a hard choice.  In the end though, I think yours won. ;)  (Also, please everyone, wish Tia a belated Happy Birthday!  It was on Cinco de Mayo. ;))