Ok, so maybe that's a bit much. But my mother did arrive on Wednesday night. We quickly jumped in my car and headed to the airport. Grandma Joan was heading back east to help Great Grandma Kowal make the trip west. Ggmak (the official abbreviation) hadn't been out since our wedding some... uh oh... I should know this... seven and a half years ago. Although we had seen her in January (and again in March for Great Grandpa Peter's funeral) we were all looking forward to seeing her on our home turf.

The two grandmothers landed in Seattle late on Friday (even later for them since they were still on Eastern time). I shuttled them back to the house and everyone settled in for the night.

Saturday we did little other than watch the kids play in the yard (thank goodness for great weather) and try to keep them from knocking each other or ggmak over. Tokul, unfortunately, was deported to the garage with only a few breaks to get out. Amy walked in the morning and took Clara to a birthday party before lunch. When ggmak needed some quiet time to rest I took Lilly, the non-napping wonder, up the trail. (And yes, of course, after five big minutes of bouncing in the backpack she was sound asleep. Some people have to drive their kids to sleep. I have to hike. I know. Tough life.)

Auntie Amy and Uncle Ryan came by after lunch for dinner much to the delight of the kids and ggmak. We played baseball and soccer and swung the swings. Overall it was a really good, mellow day.

Sunday was a little less so. We had a Mother's Day breakfast and realized some of ggmak's meds were still in Massachusetts. No big deal, just the FRICKIN' HEART MEDICATION! Oh dang. So there were many phone calls and much hand wringing, but in the end we tracked down her doc her sent a three day supply prescription to the local pharmacy and a neighbor who broke into ggmak's house and sent the rest of the meds.

It wasn't until late in the afternoon that Grandma Joan and ggmak headed up to Whidbey where they'll be for the next few weeks. After that they'll make the trip to Portland and ggmak will stay with another of her daughters for a few weeks before being escorted back east.

So after a few days of running around and having the house buzzing it was time to relax... for a minute or two. We ended Mother's Day with a BBQ with friends. Clara ran and screamed and generally had a good time with Aura and Lex while Leo tried to keep up. The two youngest toddled around and fell down until it was clearly time to go. They were asleep before we got home and actually, for once, transferred with little fussing.

Next weekend Amy's looking forward to Mother's Day Observed during which she'll get some quiet time and, with luck, a little sleep.