Birthday Girls

After I finished unpacking the school and Eric got done with guiding for the week we were able to visit Poky one last time for this summer. We went for two very important girlies birthdays. We were originally going for a surprise 50th birthday that we planned for my mom, and luckily Mara turned 2 that Friday which made for a convenient cover-up. We spent part of our Friday traveling and shopping in Idaho Falls, and the rest in Poky. That night was Mara's party and she was so cute! She would open a present and then walk around and show everyone. Grandpa Murphy was her favorite person to show and in the one photo she is showing him the crazy purple ball that Eric and I gave to her (she picked it out in the store with us). Amber borrowed a large cupcake pan from a friend and Mara was in heaven-she really did eat quite a bit of it by shoving her face into it to get a bite...she was so cute I couldn't resist taking a photo of her saying "cheese". She has finally warmed up to Eric and his crazy antics, she even let him help her blow some bubbles...however, he ended up wearing some of it too. She is definitely full of spunk and one of my most favorite girlies in the whole world. One of my other favorites outdid her sister with the frosting mustache and made hers a full beard-haha, silly kiddos. The next day I did a little shopping and helped get everything ready for my mom's surprise birthday party. I think she was mostly surprised...but we did do it for my dad last year so she had an inkling. We made pasta (her favorite) with 3 sauce choices, and 3 meat choices (my first time ever cooking scallops) with cheesecake for desert...the only bummer was that my mom had a late lunch with my grandma who took her shopping so she didn't eat. However, it turned out really nice, and as you can tell we all had a great time with the vultures I borrowed from work (I found them when I was unpacking-along with all the 50th signs). Mara warmed up to them after awhile, but she was pretty freaked to start with. Eric entertained us with his Jungle Book impersonation-such a handsome goofball, but I'll keep him ;0)! I love the photo of my mom laughing at the card Jason and Amber gave her-seriously so funny! You open that sweet looking card to a photo of a shirtless man that sings "Happy Birthday" while laughing-he laughs because in order to get him to sing you have to 'tickle his abs'...one of the best birthday cards ever made! I love going back to see family, and although it always seems to be a whirlwind-I never regret going. There's just something about being home. I can't explain it, but it hits me every time we see the exit ramp. It reminds me of the song that says, "it feels like home to me"...not sure if you've heard it, but it sums up my feelings. I know someday that somewhere else will probably feel pretty close, and even though I don't want to come back and live there-I will never shake the feeling that it's home. Thanks to everyone-I love you all very much! And to my birthday girls-I hope your days were both amazing-love you!
A place to call home for all my friends!
Liz