The BEST Mother's Day in History

This Mother's Day involved no sleeping in.  No breakfast in bed.  No afternoon nap.  In the past, this would have been cause for extreme disappointment, but not this year.  I had only a few hours to spend with Mark (and everybody else), and I was going to make the most of it.  Turns out, it was the best Mother's day yet.

As I wrote in the previous post, Mark surprised me for Mother's Day by coming home.  I can't begin to explain the sacrifice this was on his part.  His team didn't get back to Ann Arbor from the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia until 7 a.m. on Sunday, after driving through the night.  None of the team had even showered.  Mark hopped in his car at the university, still in his unitard from the race, and left to come back to State College.  No stopping to change, no stopping for food, nothing.

We were in our third hour of church when he walked in.  I had laid out different sets of "piecemeal" clothes at home.  Some shirts of Ethan's, some pants of John's, shoes, ties.  Whatever I could find so that he would have something to wear to church.  Our house is on the way to the church, so he stopped by, took a shower, and drove some more.  I was so happy to see him as was everyone else, considering we were waiting a while for him after church :-)

Obviously, the animals were happy to see him too.  Like his outfit?  Not bad since all of the men in the house are generally the same size now :-)

We came home and made dinner together.  Fruit salad, My Mom's Biscuits, mashed potatoes and grilled chicken, followed up with chocolate cake.  Mark said he was not only happy to be eating again (after losing those 12 pounds), but he was super happy to be eating a home-cooked meal.

There were wonderful gifts too.  Shelves from John (I'll post about those later), cookies from Glo, and a spiffy new iPad cover!

Afterwards, we headed outside for some frisbee and playing with the dogs.

Mr. Dash was attached to the hip to his boy.  He seriously didn't leave his side the entire time he was here.

Hannah was happy to have Mark help her with her frisbee skills.  She's been attempting to keep up with the boys at school, but she needed a bit of practice.  Again, Mark was happy to play since it's been a while.

Glo just loves Mark.  She never misses an opportunity to see him, often missing out on other activities (like white-water rafting this past weekend).

I was overcome with emotion as I watched everybody together.  The thing that struck me the most was that Mark was willing to sacrifice for me.  He was willing to drive 14 hours round-trip (after being in a van for nearly 20 hours in the days before) just to be with us for an evening.  

I have spent my life driving my kids where they need to be, and driving to attend their many performances.  By driving himself, Mark showed me that he has come to appreciate how much my driving has meant to him, and he knew that I would feel the same way with his sacrifice of time.  What a beautiful thing.  What a perfect Mother's Day.