Momma Deb comes to visit

One of the best things that has ever happened to me is my mom. She is pretty amazing. Those of you who know her will agree - she is just the right mix of sassy, blunt, hilarious, giving, kind, and freaking awesome. And she came to visit me (ok, really she probably came mostly to visit DJ, but I won't hold that against her). Let's see what happened, shall we?

She flew in on Sunday afternoon. We picked her up at the airport, came back, and I made some yummy steaks, rolls, and salad. Because, really, what good is having good company without having good food? And I wonder why my pants are all tight... Anyway... my mom and DJ got to spend some good, quality time together hanging out. He's a sweetie but and just loved on her all night long.

Helping Dad fix a thing or two before Grandma got here. And yes, they both are in their Sunday clothes while working on those projects. It's a Valentine thing.

The next day, Deg went to work (boo!) and Mom and I went on a long walk, got ready, and shopped for a good, long while. Because if you're not eating, you should be shopping. :) After we'd worn DJ out with that, we went to get Deg and went downtown to a really neat enclosed park called Downtown Container Park. It's so cool in there - very family friendly with restaurants, shops, toys for the kids, and live bands every night. We ate some awesome BBQ and kettle corn and generally had a great time hanging out with each other.

We let DJ have some of my roll. He thinks he's such a big kid now, since he gets to eat big kid food.

The next day, after our walk and our time getting ready for the day, we went downtown to Mandalay Bay to see the shark exhibit and aquarium. We both really liked that, and DJ seemed to be pretty interested as well. The coolest was the tunnel where you got to have sharks and sawfish and all sorts of other creatures swim around you. There were also jellyfish, lizards, a golden crocodile, a komodo dragon, and all other sorts of fish. Loved it. Then we went to some of the outlets and shopped some more. After that, we picked up some pizzas at a place Deg wanted to try, picked him up, and headed home. My mom volunteered to babysit so Deg and I could go out on our first date sans child since having said child. I, of course, cried all the way out of our subdivision. We went to the dollar theater and saw Ender's Game. Loved the book, and the movie was... well, we loved the book. But we got out, and that's important. And it's awesome that my mom was willing to do that for us.

DJ wasn't bothered at all by the giant shark swimming at our heads.

Look how excited he is to see all those fish! Also, this might be the first time his neck has seen daylight in months.

Baby shark!

The next day, we had another walk, got ready, and shopped a bit more. Then we came back and trolled around on Pinterest. My front room is kind of naked right now and my mom is really good at that kind of thing, so we spent some time looking at ideas and colors and whatnot for what might go in there. Then DJ and I stole a nap while my mom talked to Ryan on the phone about the State of the Union Address from the night before. We went and got Deg, ate leftover pizza, put DJ to bed, and played Scrabble Flash and Phase 10, which my mom slaughtered us in.

Best buddies.

On Thursday, we drove Mom back to the airport. We left the house at 6 in the morning. DJ woke up enough to give Grandma some snuggles before she left (they were such great pals all week and he was such a trooper to let us drag him all over the place with us). I, being the leaky faucet I am, was impressed to only cry once we dropped her off at the ticketing area. She flew back to Idaho, where it was freezing and snowing, and I have missed her every day since.

I am so grateful that she came. For a long time, I was the worst child ever. Seriously, my whole family will admit that I was the worst, and boy did I put effort into winning that title. I was a brat in every sense of the word. As I've aged and matured and, well, calmed that crap down, I've been so grateful that my mom loves me anyway and that we've been able to build a really great relationship with one another. And I love seeing how much she loves DJ and how much DJ loves her. I'm pretty lucky to have such a great mom, and I'm so glad she came to visit.

And since you read this whole post, dear reader, you get this bonus picture of what my dad was up to while my mom was visiting: