Making Memories With My Mom

Some of you know that I went home to Texas for a good chunk of this deployment. I left early August and intended to stay about 2 months. Well, 2 months turned into almost 4, and I ended up staying until Thanksgiving! I never anticipated spending so much time back home during deployment, but it honestly ended up being a Godsend. I was so distracted and constantly surrounded by people who love me. Not to mention, my twin sister popped out one cute kiddo that I have since become completely obsessed with. 

My mom flew to Virginia back in August to make the 20 hour drive to Texas with Jenny and me. That was her second time doing that drive with us, and I was so thankful. I was also 11 weeks pregnant, so kudos to my mom for listening to me whine approximately the whole time about how poorly I was feeling. My rockstar of a mom did the drive with me AGAIN the two days after Thanksgiving to make sure Jenny and I got back to Virginia safely and in one piece. This time, rather than being accompanied by 11 week pregnancy sickness, my mom got to hang out with 7 months pregnant have-to-pee-need-to-eat-all-the-time me. #blessher

20 hours in the car is a long time, but doing it with my mom is seriously so much fun. When you live far away from family, any time you get is a precious gift, and this road trip definitely gave us the gift of time! We pushed farther the first day and drove about 13 hours so that we would only have to do 7 the second day. We left on Black Friday and arrived Saturday afternoon, and we were so blessed with an easy trip and no traffic. Thankfully everyone was at the mall instead of on the road!

I give Jenny MVP for the trip. That's just not a fun 2 days for a pup, and she spent the majority of it doing this. I guess that's comfortable?

 My mom was able to stay with me for a couple of days in Virginia before heading back to Texas, and we had a full to-do list! We walked through what the nursery will look like, redecorated a few spots around the house, tested out gliders at Babies R Us, and online shopped our little hearts out (tis the season for Cyber Monday, yall). 

Since mom has lived in Texas her whole life, she's missed out on the beauty of a real Fall (I had too until the Navy sent us East!). One of my favorite parts of the trip was hearing her "ooh" and "aah" about the colors of the tree leaves. We made sure to do a few nature walks once we arrived in Virginia so she could really appreciate it! Jenny loved showing her Grammy around her neck of the woods!

Cheers to you, mom. The most selfless woman I know. I don't know what I would do without you!