Birthdays

Over the past several weeks we celebrated Madeleine's birthday as well as Matt's.  Mom and Dad came out to stay with us over Memorial Day.  We loved having them here.  We mostly just did normal things together--grocery shop, cook, clean up, sit outside, do yard work, play with Madeleine, go to the park...

I wrote a memory for Melory about Memorial Day with my parents here.  Memories are her preferred gift from us when holidays roll around.  I'll share it here since I don't have any pictures to post.  (Hopefully Mom or Dad will send me a few pictures from their phones though--*hint hint*.  

  Melory's birthday 2013 memory from Christy

This past weekend my parents came to stay with Matt and me and Madeleine. I love when my parents come to visit. And this is why:

Memorial Day, 2013. Matt says it was pretty much the perfect holiday. It starts out by he and my dad waking up early and hiking in Rock Canyon. My dad is interested in hiking these days. He's always enjoyed hiking but my brother, Michael, asked him to hike to the base camp of Mount Everest next fall. (My dad wouldn't think of doing this himself, but it's something he can do with a one of his boys and it means both of them getting healthier and prepared for the task; so he's in.) Dad also needs to get used to hiking more in higher elevations. And here's a chance to go with his son-in-law. So off they went.

After the boys leave I fall back asleep. Sweet, sweet sleep! Madeleine and my mom and I wake up around 8:00am. My mom is so happy when she's with Madeleine. And Maddie gives her the wrinkly-nose smile and begins pointing at things and jabbering away about what this and that are in language that still isn't quite understandable.

Around 9:15 the boys return from puttering around the canyon and are hungry. I'm defrosting bacon and intend to make hash browns and eggs to go with them. My dad asks what he can do to help—so he gets handed a knife and cutting board and starts cutting up the vegetables to add into the hash browns. Although I'm talking with my dad and cooking I can hear my mom in the background talking to Maddie. Their interactions are like a cheery little minuet to me. A few minuets later my mom is cutting up fruit while Matt bribes Madeleine to crawl by placing coveted toys across the room.

The warm breezy afternoon comes and my dad helps with Maddie and/or with weeding and filling in our flower beds with several flats of annuals. Mom sits in a lawn chair in the shade and visits with the neighbors.

They're just so helpful, pleasant, company. They want to be with me. Their idea of vacationing is to help me cook and do dishes, grocery shop, and work in the yard. The sun shines brighter when they're here. The water coming out of the hose sprinkler glimmers a little more than usual as Maddie crawls across the yard towards it. My dad scoots along beside Madeleine shading her with an umbrella. It takes them twenty minutes to get within range of the sprinkler and then Matt runs through with baby in arms. Her arms are flapping and she giggles. The daily struggles don't feel like much of a struggle right now and I'm perfectly content.

<end of memory>

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For Matt's birthday he took care of me while I was sick... quite the birthday, huh?  On Saturday we managed to go for a walk down to the Riverwoods and play on the splash pads with Madeleine (the water features that are built into the cement for kids to run through).  She loves water.  On Sunday Matt's mom made his birthday dinner--grilled chicken on the bbq, potato salad, cheddar biscuits, fruit (strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, and mandarin oranges), and roasted asparagus.  Matt made himself his favorite banana cream pie with pecan/graham cracker crust; Melory made chocolate cupcakes (for Meleah's birthday), and Alisa brought blue cake to announce they're having a boy!  

Along with several new shirts and his Nexus 7, Matt got a puppy for his birthday!  Danny brought it in before dinnertime.  :)  

Okay, so it isn't actually our puppy but Danny and Alisa wanted to tease us and make us think they really got him a puppy.  Alisa took our family picture with the little guy before he was taken back to his rightful owners.

P.S.  There are a few pictures Alicia took at Madeleine' birthday party.  They are mixed in with their other photos from the Utah trip but here's the link if you're interested: http://thatsaprettypicture.pass.us/utahtrip/