It was a wonderful, and yet wild weekend for us, and it all began on Friday morning with . . .

TAKE DADDY TO SCHOOL DAY:

All the dads were invited to Lily's preschool on Friday morning to help with a special Mother's Day project.  Lily was so excited for Kevin to come that it was all she could talk about, and when Friday finally came, it was the first thing out of her mouth.  They made a card and decorated the gift bag for the present the kids had made earlier in the week. 

Both Kevin and Lily had such a wonderful time!  (And just to show you what a great dad Kevin is, without a second thought, he gave up playing in a golf tournament to go to her school for this.)

Then there was a . . .

PHOTO SESSION AT THE BEACH:

While they were busy at Lily's school, and Derek was playing with my friend Suzanne, I headed out to the beach for a last minute family portrait session (they moved on Saturday to Arizona).  It was for our friends, the Browns.  It was really fun and the photos turned out great.  (Check out some more of them at www.thatbrowngirlphotography.blogspot.com)

Later that night, after we all spent the rest of the day playing together, it was time for . . .

OUR LATE ANNIVERSARY DATE:

 Kevin and I like to keep it simple for our anniversary, and so we use the excuse to go out to a very fancy mean once a year.  This year, our friends the Oggs, recommended a place called Alligator Soul.  It was such a nice restaurant, and had the most amazing atmosphere, as it was in the basement of a very old building downtown. 

The food was delicious, the service was great, and it gave me another excuse to wear my sparkly dress.  The highlights had to be when the waiter slipped Kevin a rose to surprise me with, and when the owner made a flaming heart on our table – which burned through the tablecloth, but was so cool!  It was a wonderful night :).

Then it was Saturday and time for . . .

A ROAD TRIP TO JEKYLL ISLAND:

On Wednesday Kevin met us for lunch at Bennigans, and as soon as we walked in, a man handed us to cards that were good for free entry for four into the water park at Jekyll Island, Summer Waves.  So we got our friends, John and Victoria, to tag along (because John can never say no to Guitar Hero Road trip mode), and we headed 1 1/2 hours south to Jekyll Island.

The water park was really fun, and since we arrived right when they opened there was almost no crowd.  We took turns playing with the kids and going on the bigger slides.  Derek was not at all happy about the water park – not really sure why – but Lily LOVED it.  At first she was a little scared, but once Kevin finally got her to go on the kiddie water slide, there was no stopping her.  By the end of the day she was going on the big slides with the rest of us :).  That's my brave girl!

On the way out, we drove through the historic district of the island and saw all the beautiful mansions.  Then it was of to Steak & Shake for a late lunch – yum!  When we got home, we all took it easy, and then later that night, John and Victoria came over for . . .

PINOCHLE:

 Before we started with our pinochle game, they taught us how to play Nerts, and Kevin proceeded to win every hand.  Then we moved on to pinochle, and the "card gods" decided to smile down on us girls, because we demolished the guys in just four amazing hands.  It felt wonderful! 

From there though, we all went downhill.  None of us did very well, and Kevin and John tried to "shoot the moon" since they were sitting at -1280 and us girls were at -370.  Unfortunately for them, they didn't succeed, and so the girls were once again the victors.  Definitely one for the history books :).

After that, they headed home, and we went to bed to get a good night's sleep for . . .

MOTHER'S DAY:

It was a nice Mother's Day, with cute little gifts and cards from the kids, talking to my mom on the phone, roses from the ward, Lily singing so loud and nicely during the Primary's Mother's Day performance,  Kevin making dinner, and getting to just take it easy.  My favorite gift was a t-shirt Lily made for me at school – so cute!  It was a wonderful day and I feel very lucky to be the mother of such wonderful kids!

PS.  Just a little something for fun – the local paper did an article about our friends, the Cardiff family, and it was really cool.  Then it was even made cooler by noticing that one of the photos they put in the paper was a picture of a portrait I took!