Mother's Day Weekend

This year, I had the brilliant idea to head out to Anderson Island in the Puget Sound for Mother's Day to spend some time at my parents' weekend home there. I know it is a place that my mother goes, to escape the rest of the world so when I suggested it to her, she jumped at the chance.Jilly and I headed over with my mom and step-dad on Friday night (Kenton had to work).  Upon our arrival, we noticed a few oddities about the house. Some kitchen cabinets were wide open, there was a set of decorative pewter measuring spoons on the counter . . . my step-dad took a closer look in the back of the house and found that someone had removed the guest bedroom window and invited themselves in.  It had been a few months since my parents had been out to the island so they weren't sure when the break-in occurred. Fortunately, the house was pretty much in order except for a few things strewn around in the back bedrooms and some open cabinets and drawers.  My parents don't leave too many valuables out there (probably for this very reason) and the things that were taken were slightly odd anyway . . . an air mattress and pump, a few bottles of wine, a jar of change and possibly a pair of binoculars.  Interestingly, the most expensive thing was the increased electric bills because the culprits were not kind enough to return the window they had removed to its rightful place, therefore extra heat was needed to keep the house at the set temperature. 
Once we took a trip to the local market to report the break-in and learn that this house was one of many.  We went back, picked up and settled in for the night.  The next morning, we had a delicious breakfast of cinnamon swirl toast, eggs and bacon,  a member of the Pierce County Sheriff's office stopped by to make his report about the break-in and to his joy and surprise, found not one, but two FULL handprints on the back window which he would later send a forensics team out to properly retrieve for the investigation.  We found out then, that 'our' house was one of 25-30 break-ins on the island that had occured of the last 5 months.  WOW!!!  Makes you feel glad that you're not the only one, but a little scared that someone is causing that much trouble to so many of the homes.  Apparently ours was mild compared to others.  In some of the cases, the culprits spent the night in the houses they broke into and even worse, hosted parties in the houses and left them trashed,
Kenton joined us mid-morning, not long after the office left.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather as a family by blowing bubbles and throwing and skipping rocks off the beach into the Puget Sound.  I even got a few blissful minutes of sun bathing on the shore with my sleeves and jeans rolled up. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of our time on the 'beach' but I can assure that both Kenton and Jilly had a wonderful time throwing rocks together.
Kenton and I made dinner as a special treat for my mom.  Butter and garlic noodles with chicken and asparagus, garlic bread and salad.  After dinner, we headed outside to roast S'mores.  An island tradition.  And then, I got the most wonderful Mother's Day gift of all time . . . my daughter (who frequently fights bed time at home) put herself to bed.  We brushed her teeth and she climbed into bed without any prompting.  We read a story and before I could even come back to check on her, she was asleep.  And the best part about it was, she was asleep in another room of the house apart from where Kenton and I would be sleeping AND she slept in their ALL night long . . .BY HERSELF!  All of these things were enough to have me beside myself for most of the next morning.  It was amazing and Kenton and I took full advantage of it by playing cards together until almost 1am. What a treat!!
Sunday morning brought hand painted decorations from Jilly to both me and my mom.  I got a butterfly, she got a turtle. Breakfast was a spread waffles, eggs, sausage, bacon and coffee.  Num.  Not long after, my step-dad's brother and mother arrived to join us for our mother's day celebration.  I treated my mom to a pedicure and painted my step dad's mom's toes as a small pampering in honor of Mother's Day.  We lunched on Salmon, steaks, garlic bread and fresh fruit before heading home on the ferry for Kenton to go to work.  All-in-all, it was a beautiful weekend celebrating the gift of mother's and motherhood.
Here are some pictures from our weekend: