Thanks Mom...I Love You!

This past weekend, to kick off our Spring Break vacation, I loaded up the van and headed south with my wife and 3 kids to visit Grandma and the gang.  Now, to give you an idea of how my family is situated, my Mom and her husband live approximately 1000 steps from my older brother and his family, another 500 steps from my twin brother and his family and about 1/2 mile from my older sister and her family.  Needless to say, our family is what you might call CLOSE!  Taking the trip down to the beach to spend the weekend is a wonderful opportunity for my children to see 10 of their cousins, their aunts and uncles and to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.  Our visit this year was great!  We spent four wonderful days hanging out with family, riding the ferry, visiting the Aquarium, fishing in the lake and sharing many meals together.  It is such a blessing as a father to see my kids enjoy the town in which I grew up.  I love those moments when I can share a bit of my childhood with my kids.  One of the biggest treats this year was the effort my Mom made to make healthy, whole grain snacks and fresh fruit available while we visited.  Now growing up, my family would not have been confused with health food activists.  Don't get me wrong, vegetables were readily available, but so were lots of sugary snacks, soft drinks and traditional "Southern Fried" fare.  Our culinary world was very typical of a 1980's southern family.  These days my Mom does a much better job of watching what she eats and prepares, but Sun Drop and other guilty pleasures are hard habits to break.  In the past I headed south with the knowledge that I would eat what was available and enjoy the company of my family, however, like I said earlier, Mom had a surprise in store.  This trip, we enjoyed grilled meats and veggies, whole wheat pasta, fresh fruit, multi-grain snacks, no sugar added ice cream cones (snack size), turkey bacon, roast with carrots and potatoes and many other wonderfully healthy treats.  The one time we did indulge in a guilty pleasure was on the final day of our visit when we went to lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant that serves exceptional cuisine.  I ordered my meal, consumed half of it, boxed the rest up and left it in the fridge when we headed home.  What a great trip and what a wonderfully caring and loving Mom I am so blessed to have.  Thanks Mom for the effort you make to provide me with healthy options that fit with my new life choice.  Thanks for always loving me with no strings attached and for being there to pick me up and dust me off when life threw me a challenge I found difficult to overcome.  Thanks for sharing movie nights, phone calls, tears, laughter, joy and sorrow over the years.  Thanks for being proud of me and the person I have become.  Thanks for helping make me the man I am today and thanks for being a shining example of the love of God here on earth.  You are...to borrow your favorite word....an "AWESOME" Mom and words cannot do justice to the love I feel for you in the depths of my soul.  I am so blessed to call you my Mom and so honored to call you my friend.  I LOVE YOU ALL THE WAY TO THE MOON AND BACK!