How We Spent Mother’s Day (hint: almost every single picture was taken in a restaurant)

First, we stopped at McDonald's in Draper to eat a quick breakfast before heading up to Pocatello, Idaho to visit Marcus' mother, Merlyn (aka Grandma Sorensen).

Emrick has beautiful blue eyes. See that small mark under his right eye? I'm going to be doing a post about that soon.

When we got to Pocatello, we spent some time at the house with Grandma Sorensen and Marcus’ nephew, Rippey. As usual, Emrick needed some time to warm up to the people he hadn’t seen in a while. It was very cute, though. Grandma got out some children’s books for Emrick to look at. She set them on the coffee table, but Emrick kept his back turned to the books and people and stayed safely close to me. When I picked up one of the books and set it on the couch cushion so he could look at it, he decided instead to keep his eyes shifted to the side, like he was waiting for one of these seeming strangers to come lunging at him from behind. It was unnecessary, but so funny and adorable. I wish I’d gotten a pic.

Anyway, so I picked him up and set him on my lap, facing outward so he could observe his surroundings from the safety of my arms. As always, after just a few minutes, Pookie was comfortable as a cow. He got off my lap and started flipping through the books. And by the time we got to Red Lobster for Mother’s Day lunch, he was positively giddy.

Cheddar biscuits.

Grandma teases Emrick with her napkin.

Look at that delighted baby!

Grandma and Cousin Rippey do a little hiding game with Pookie. I don't think there's anything that makes Pookie squeal and laugh quite like any variation of peek-a-boo!

Then we headed back to Grandma’s house where Grandma and Emrick took a walk in the yard, and Emrick picked a little flower for me. When they came inside, Grandma let Emrick play in one of her kitchen cabinets and move around some of the canned goods! That sort of thing is a dream come true for Emrick. I think a can of beans wound up in the living room. You’re such a sport, Grandma!

After a while, we headed back to Utah. By the time we got close to home, it was dinner time. But Marcus and I were still feeling satisfied from the Red Lobster lunch, so we decided to conclude Mother’s Day with a yummy dessert rather than another big meal. So we stopped at Applebee’s and ordered the Triple Chocolate Meltdown with three spoons. I don’t think any of the pics from Applebee’s need captions:

When we finished up at Applebee’s, it was 8 o’clock. By the time we pulled into the driveway we had been gone for eleven hours. Such a long day, and Pookie was great! And dirty! We gave him a bath; got him into a new, clean pair of pajamas; changed the sheet on the crib mattress; and then we put this baby to bed.

Pookie examines the crib situation before bedtime.

And that was our day! It was a very busy Mother’s Day, which was fun because this year I sort of got TWO days. On Saturday, Marcus took on the bulk of Pookie duty so I could have some me-time. I got horizontal on the couch and watched a mind-numbingly stupid TV movie. It was awesome. I haven’t had time for that kind of nonsense since before Emrick was born. I also got flowers and a nice dinner out. One lazy day and one busy day. A perfect weekend.

I hope you all had a Happy Mother’s Day!