It was a good Mother's Day. I wasn't anticipating a little sleep-in, but it happened. And as I was waking up, a freshly-bathed and still naked Greta popped her head into my room and said, "Happy Mother's Day! Chachacha!" I received handcrafted cards from my littles and all throughout the day, Holly and Greta frequently wished me a happy mother's day. As we put Holly to bed, she wished me a happy mother's day evening. They really were so sincerely excited to celebrate me - it was perfect. Although, Holly is ready to march on Washington to establish a "Kid's Day." Love that girl - she's the best!

One huge highlight is having my own Mother here! So far, we've had such a good time and I'll be savoring my last few days with her before she heads back north. She's been so helpful and has greatly reduced my anxiety and stress while Conor was in Chicago. She thoroughly scrubbed my kitchen table, helped me pick out house plants and tomato plants and plant them. She's read a countless number of books to Holly and Greta... the list goes on. A lot of service and love!

And a continuation of a tradition... Mother's Day photos!

We timed our drive home so that we could stop at a beach for our picnic lunch. Again, it was really pretty. The whole drive on highway one was breathtaking.

Holly and Greta hitched up their skirts to play in the ocean, and got their underwear soaked in the process. Made me laugh. Their happy faces make me happy.

As you can see in all the photos I posted, Greta is crazy about Conor. She is morphing into the biggest Daddy's girl. It's a little weird because she's always been a Momma's girl. Sometimes I'm like, "great, go see your Dad," and sometimes I feel a little discarded. No matter what, it's adorable to see how much she loves Conor. And I can't blame her, because I'm pretty crazy about the guy myself.

After our river rock throwing, we went for a short (and I mean short) walk in the Redwoods. We need to figure out how to get Greta to walk. Any mention of going on a walk and her legs stop working. Lucky her, she has a Papa who will give her shoulder rides for the sake of the peace. For the small amount of time we spent in this part of the woods, it was really beautiful.

It's such a pleasure to photograph family because I love them extra.

When we went to Victoria in January with all of Conor's family, we got everyone together for a family photo shoot. That's a lot of people - 11 adults and 14 children. The oldest of the grandchildren - Dylan - is reporting to the MTC this month! He's serving a 2-year mission in Toronto for our church. We're really proud of him and very excited for his adventure.

Back to the Cranmers... Elizabeth has been such a wonderful sister-in-law to me. She's an excellent friend and a wonderful confidante. We share a lot of similar interests and she's full of knowledge. Sometimes I have to remember I'm not competing with her - I don't know why I get like that. Elizabeth has a beautiful family and it makes my heart ache to live so far away. We love spending time with these cousins!

Funny thing is, I feel like we got into a good groove our last day on our trip. It took us a little while to settle I guess and then we were good. We went for a little walk along a nearby river and the girls spent a good amount of time throwing rocks into the river. I remember doing a lot of that as a kid. It's the simple things right? We found a frog and that was a real thrill! Holly picked him up and he kept jumping out of her hands. We watched him hop his way to the river and then swim and then we left him alone because we did want him to survive the giant children.