Best Mother's Day

 

Feel so blessed that I still got to spend Mother's Day weekend with my mom in person even though we're across the country. We've been planning her next visit for a couple of months now and decided on this week when Jaden is wrapping up his finals and spring semester was done for me. Mom got in on a Thursday and is in town for an entire week. It's been great! We had originally thought about driving into DC for a few days but we have a Cincinnati trip planned to see Garth Brooks and then will be driving to Chicago for the summer so we decided to hold off and just hang out and explore more of Pittsburgh while she was here. Which was a little trickier than I thought because this is her third time coming out here... I kind of feel like we are running out of things to do. But we made the most of it and she kept saying "I just want to spend time with you guys!" So that is what we have done! Right after she got in and settled we took her down to CMU campus and Jaden walked her through the different buildings he goes to classes in. I have been on campus dozens of times for his flag football games and to go to the gym but I hadn't ever walked through the buildings so it was cool for me too. 

He showed us the software engineering building that Bill and Melinda Gates funded which was neat to see. But the coolest part for me was when we walked across the street to the Tepper Business School. Jaden doesn't have classes there but shared this which I thought was pretty awesome. He said, "when I flew out here in November in 2019 to do the campus tour I remember sitting at the top floor of this building and looking out trying to imagine myself walking around this campus and going to classes across the street. I made it a goal to get here and we made it." I am so proud of him. He truly has worked so hard to get here. From the moment he told me about it I had all the faith in the world he would do it. And he did. As much as he's ready to be done with school forever (and he was so sad watching all the kids walk around in their robes since it was graduation) I try to continue to remind him what an amazing opportunity he worked so hard to get.  It is so exciting to think about the doors it will open for us in the future. I am just so proud of him! 

Mom flew in on Cinco de Mayo so after our campus tour we picked up tacos from Tocayo's which was the first restaurant we went to when we got into the city. Their tacos are some of the best we've found out here but they don't hold a candle to Chunga's or Casa del Tamal back home in Utah. Although I will say their queso is top notch! We came home let her settle in, in our makeshift guest bedroom which is also my office, and chatted for a few hours before heading to bed.

The next day I worked a half day and then we set out for the rest of the day. Jaden actually suggested we go and see Phipps Conservatory at Schenley Park it is a giant greenhouse full of all sorts of different flowers and trees. I never thought I would see palm trees out here but sure enough there were several in one of the greenhouses! The Claude Monet exhibit had just opened which was really well done. They took different paintings and tried to recreate the setting with plants and staging in different parts of the conservatory. It honestly was really awesome I'd take people back again. Only disappointment was the butterfly room, they hadn't hatched yet so we mainly saw cases of cocoons and only two butterflies. 

 

 

 In the tropical Hawaiian exhibit Jaden started dropping hints about another Hawaii trip to my mom. She said "you don't have to convince me." To which Jaden sat down on a bench, pulled up his calendar and started looking at dates during winter break. We've officially ruined him for all other beaches and vacations. Hawaii is our family favorite vacation destination and it's quickly becoming Jaden's as well.

 

From the conservatory we headed over to the Waterfront shopping district in Homestead. It has become my favorite place to do my grocery shopping because it is less chaotic than the city and there are actual parking lots and room to move around. It's right on the side of the river (hence waterfront) and is a cool location. We frequent the area a lot when we go to movies with friends because there is a big movie theater there as well as several restaurants. And of course Costco. As I've talked about before we don't have a membership so we depend on our friends that do to get Jaden his favorite Costco cashews. However with Mama Nance in town she took us right over and we stocked up on cashews and other bulk grocery items.

From there we went to six different stores trying to hunt down a matching Mother's Day dress. It's our tradition we've had for years that for either Easter or Mother's day we wear matching dresses to church. Even at 24 years old I'm still game. I figure people always tell us we're identical why not prove them right?! We finally found some on clearance at the Loft (the fact that they were half off is even better because Mom can't resist a good deal). There is definitely a prairie trend going on right now I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I think our dresses weren't too bad maybe a little school teacher-ish but I was set to teach relief society that Sunday and mom is former school teaching so it worked. 

We decided to beat the crowds and have an early dinner at our favorite Italian place Girasole. We knew Mom loves a good Italian meal and Girasole's did not disappoint. We even learned a little bit more about the restaurant and that it was started by the Girasole family which means sunflower in Italian. It's seriously probably our favorite place to eat in Pittsburgh. 

Then we came home, chatted, watched a movie and went to bed. 

Saturday morning rolled around and Mom got to come ministering with me. We gave a ride to a lady I minister to in the ward to the church so she could audition for an upcoming stake musical and then took her grocery shopping, While we waited for her to audition mom and I sat in the car in the church parking lot and talked about life, the gospel and our testimonies. It's times like that I treasure. We talk on the phone a lot but in person conversations are just that much better and I felt so grateful for the opportunity to have her back.

When our errands and rides were over we headed home to quickly get ready for the ward family history carnival Jaden helped plan. Mom has gotten really involved in indexing the 1950 Census records, and has indexed hundreds of names on her phone so she was on top of her game and represented our family well. It was fun to introduce her to members of the ward and also watch Jaden man his station of explaining the new Billion Graves initiative the stake is doing to photograph graves in the surrounding cemeteries. 

We had wanted to take Mom to see the new movie Uncharted but apparently it's no longer in theaters but also not available to rent so we ended up just buying it and watched it from home. It was really good we all liked it a lot. Mom loves Antonio Banderas. 

Sunday rolled around and we got up and picked up our ministering friend and took her to church. Normally she doesn't get up in time for 9:00 a.m. church when we invite her but mom had invited her and told her I was teaching and she decided to come with us. 

Church meetings were good my lesson was on Susan Porter's "Lesson's at the Well" I asked the ladies earlier in the week to come prepared to share an example of a woman who has taught them something about Christ. I felt a lot of gratitude to have my mom there on Mother's Day and also tried to express my gratitude for the women in the room that have reached out in motherly love to me during our time here as I've been away from my mom.

I firmly believe that all women are mothers regardless of whether they have children in this life or not. Sheri Dew put it best: "Motherhood is more than bearing children, though it is certainly that. It is the essence of who we are as women. It defines our identity, our divine stature and nature, and the unique traits our Father gave us. Every one of us can mother someone- beginning of course with the children in our own families but extending far beyond. Every one of us can show by word and deed that the work of women in the Lord's kingdom is magnificent and holy. I repeat: We are all mothers in Israel, and our calling is to love and help lead the rising generation through the dangerous streets of mortality."

I know that all women are mothers and have the ability to touch the lives of so many with their motherly love. It is a special kind of love that most closely mirrors Christ and I am so grateful to have felt it from so many women in my life especially my own mom.

 

 

Peaches

• Setting up the "guest room" and putting together a little welcome basket for her
  
• Mom is here!
• Spending time with mom
• Car chats
• Costco run and cashews
• Girasole's
• Matching dresses
• Introducing ward members to mom
• Having Tanner and Amanda over for Sunday dinner before they head to Seattle next week for Tanner's internship at Amazon
• Watching Zumbo's Baking Challenge with mom, Jaden doesn't like it but sat and watched it with us
  

Pits

• It poured rain a lot which was fine but also not the most fun to walk in
• Mom and I both chose bad shoes when we walked around campus so we got blisters
  

Lessons Learned

• You're never too old to match your mom
• All women are mothers and have the ability to touch the lives of so many with their motherly love
• Conservatories are much cooler than I thought