Mother's Day

This past Sunday was, of course, Mother's Day. Hopefully all the mothers had a happy day. Around here, though, we celebrate The Mother's Day Weekend Extravaganza.

It takes a lot to concoct an extravaganza, but you don't need a parade or marching band. We kicked things off by flying the MOM flag then heading north to Canada. The plan was to hit Vancouver to see the olympic countdown clock, ride skytrain and either cruise on a water taxi or traipse through Stanley Park. But having just exhausted ourselves the prior weekend with a trip to Seattle we deferred to Kim's idea of going to White Rock. It's only half the distance, still in Canada (read foreign, international, exotic - just pretend I'm trying to make an Extravaganza here).

White Rock is a little town just across the border. It offers bars to nineteen-year old college students, a drinking age of nineteen and a beachfront boardwalk. We've been within spitting distance of this town for twenty years but had never been there so we grabbed our passports and the boy's birth certificates and drove north for thirty minutes (plus about fifteen at customs) and found our way to the beach. We skipped the bars, but had a nice getaway. We took a pleasant stroll by the water, the boys played in the sand - gosh can they get dirty quickly, ate fish and chips (we passed on the borscht) and finished it off with an ice-cream cone.

Sunday Kim was showered with lavish gifts. The boys both made things for her at school - hand prints from both plus a photo of Jack and lavender from Lucas. She also got the traditional garden decoration, this time an orange glass ball picked out by Jack, an outdoor tablecloth (picnic print) picked out by Lucas and a gift certificate for a tattoo. I know gift certificates are impersonal, but it's next to impossible to surprise someone with a tattoo.

Then there was one more surprise, time away from the kids. Uncle Dave and Aunt Karen came over to watch them so that we could go see Star Trek. Kim thought it odd and a bit off-footing to abandon her children on Mother's Day, but I'll chalk that up to shock. I can't tell you the last time we went to a movie.

All in all a decent little extravaganza if I do say so.