The Best Mother's Day Present Ever!

I have been so busy that not only have I not had time to update my blog but I've haven't even been able to keep up with reading other people's blogs. I love doing both so it's hard not to have enough time to get to it. But I had a few minutes before church so I thought I'd look at the blogs and try and get caught up. Imagine my surprise when I see a recent post on my own blog about our recent vacation! I had to blink and look 2 or 3 times to make sure I was on my own blog. (Okay, so the surprise took a few seconds to sink in - I'm not that bright!)

Oh man what a great present! It brought my heart so much joy that I could hardly contain myself. I was thoroughly entertained and touched by each entry. I laughed. I cried. Thank you all so much. And thank you to Kacey who spearheaded the effort. Wow! It was the best present ever!!!

I do have just a couple of disclaimers, though. We actually had 5 staterooms for the 13 of us and not 4, as Kristy stated. I didn't want anyone to get the wrong impression and picture us as the cruise version of the family who houses 4 generations in a 3 bedroom house and parks our cars on the lawn. It was close but it wasn't that bad!

Also Kylie referred to our family as a "good looking bunch." I'm not sure it's okay to call yourself good looking unless you're Kristy. She does it and, for some reason, it's just not offensive when she does. If Kristy feels she is looking good, she will be the first to admit it and I admire that. Why wait for compliments? Just start dishing them out yourself. What I think Kylie meant is that we are good looking compared to what we looked like before we all got cleaned up for dinner. I think the final picture (when compared to the way we looked just an hour before) would have be considered good looking based on the marked improvement!

And the last thing I would like to address is our quest for the cheap, plastic, gold-colored cruise ship trophies that were being given out as prizes for different contests. I'd like to tell you that it's absolutely not true that I suggested we cheat... but I cant. Kristy is the one who wanted the trophy so badly and I just had to get it for her. Thank goodness it didn't cost money to enter the contests or I would have been one of those crazy people at fairs who spend $100 to win a $5 stuffed animal.

Okay, now I'm not claiming that individually my family members (including myself) are anything to brag about, but collectively...? And then you throw in our amazing sons-in-law...? I mean, come on! We could balance the national budget by the time the Jeopardy music ran out! Well, at first it was just surprising that we were getting beat by some less-than-stellar-looking teams. But after a while I was fairly confident that there was a certain amount of dishonesty going on out there as people were scoring their own answers and that was bugging me. I am no cheater! My husband and family can attest to that. Winning by cheating is no win at all! But I must have been dehydrated or something and starting to hallucinate because it is true that I did suggest that we find a more creative way to score so that we could get our hands on that darn .25 cent trophy because I knew that we deserved it! I am not proud of my actions. It was probably just a mild form of scurvy but I did have to have my children remind me that a tainted win was not worth it.

Other than that, they got it all just about right. It was a great trip and I just love being with my family. We "get" each other. No explanation necessary. I guess that's what makes family great.



I love, love, love my kids, my kids-in-law and my grandkids! And I thank them from the bottom of my heart for the best Mother's Day present ever!!

PS - So since you guys are so good at it and since I have a 50th birthday coming up next month, how about we parcel out the past blog entries that need to be done... September trip to Paris, Christmas in California (I'm hoping to somehow copy Kacey's blog post over to mine), Kendall wins Junior Miss, and so on. Any takers?