Grains of Gratitude

We're here! Finally! We left Columbus, OH yesterday and arrived in MD last night. We're here for my sister's graduation. Can I just brag on my sister for a minute and tell you how proud of her I am? I just saw her sash for her graduation gown and all the pins on it. Besides all the athletic ones I saw a pin for Merit, Outstanding Athlete, President's Award for Academic Excellence, and Magnum Cum Laude! Wow! Way to go Kelly, we are so proud of you! Edited to add: I just found out during the awards ceremony she was also named the Top Female Athlete of the senior class!

I couldn't let Sunday go by without my gratitude post, and I have much to be grateful for this past week...so here goes...

1. Remember awhile ago I had my blog critiqued? Well I noticed Billy was having a contest to "Win $100 of Billy Mac's Money" and the drawing would be on Memorial Day. What the heck I thought, I'll go ahead and enter this. On Monday I was checking my email before we left and imagine my surprise (as I had forgotten all about the contest) when I saw the email saying I was the winner! I certainly wasn't expecting that I would win! What a great way to start out our vacation! Thanks again, Billy!

2. I'm grateful we were able to spend a couple nights with my in-laws on our trip out here, it gave us a little break in between this travelling! And we'll see them again on our way back.

3. I'm grateful for the IRL get-together we had in St Louis! It was so wonderful meeting so many great families I had "met" from the Trisomy 21 message board. Becky was such a great host having all of us over at their house for the BBQ.

4. We also had another IRL meeting...this time we met an online friend of my MIL's! We got to meet Kris before her and my MIL have even met in person :) She was on our way since we were going through Morgantown, WV so we stopped and met her and her husband. It was a nice break yesterday being able to get out and stretch at their place. They also grilled some hamburgers, brats, and kielbasa so we had a nice lunch before we got back on the road. She also sent us on our way with some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Thanks again, Kris, for your hospitality!

5. I'm grateful most of my mom's side of the family could be here too as we haven't seen them in a couple of years, it's nice for Kayla to see her great-grandparents and aunts/uncles again!

6. Last, but not least, I'm certainly grateful that we arrived here safely! It was a long trip, even longer for Kayla being stuck in a car seat, but we made it and she did pretty well all things considered! We had a nice drive, not too much construction, nor traffic (ok a little traffic when we hit the Beltway/495, but that's to be expected around here!) Kayla also did great with the bathroom breaks and having no accidents. She only cried "wolf" (p*ee p*ee) a couple of times, which was really just a ploy for us to stop and let her out of the car! LOL