Aunt Cathy

My (Ashley here) aunt (my father's sister) passed away last week. It's times like these that make being so far away from family difficult. A lovely obituary along with comment contributions from those who knew Cathy can be found here. I didn't get to spend a ton of time with Aunt Cathy, but enough to know she loved her daughter and quilting. She also loved being a nurse. Being a fighter, she outlived her doctors' predictions for her life by about 4 & 1/2 years! She is definitely missed.

Photo from the last time I was with Cathy (Christmas 2012)

Top left:Patricia Eich and Mark Avery (Ashley's parents)

Top right: Mary Garrison (Mark's sister)

Bottom: Zack and Ashley Baldwin, Grandma Blanche Avery (Mark's mother), Cathy Lewis, David Avery

Mother's Day: Part Deux

So essentially this has nothing to do with Mother's Day, but was basically a much needed escape and what I had wanted to originally do last Sunday.

!!!SIX FLAGS!!!

We started off the day with Superman and then hopped over to Sky Screamer Backwards.

I took some video, but my phone and computer are not cooperating, I'll try again later.

 Then we got SOAKED on Bug's White Water Rapids!

 Note our visors....idk what Zack was thinking! ;)

If you squint you can see us in the front row of the leftmost picture

After trying to dry off a bit in the bathroom we decided to do Poltergeist.

Have you ever blacked out on a ride? Me neither....but I was milliseconds away from doing so!

CLICK HERE to see a video of the ride. Pay attention to how crazy fast it takes off. From the time the ride started to about the 40 second mark in the video I thought I was a goner, then there's a slight break in ride and my brain was like "oh, this isn't to infinity and beyond, we're good" and I was able to enjoy it. 

To finish off the day we road Scream, which is basically a grown up version of that frog hopper they have at Enchanted Forest.....but I'll be darned....at over 200 feet I SCREAMED when that thing dropped!

I wanted to ride Goliath or the Iron Rattler (or both!) while we were there, but we were pretty worn out, hungry, and Zack was sun burned from being outside yesterday (basketball shoot-out at work).

We chowed down at Olive Garden and then crawled into bed for a nice long nap! When I awoke I went for a late evening walk, watched some TV, and now it's past 1am. All in all, I'd say it was a pretty solid day of fun!

Also, here's my pretty flowers Z brought home the other day.

I love that he is always thinking of me! <3

Mother's Day Weekend

Thursday night I went to see Divergent with my friend Kerri and she informed me that Friday she was going downtown to finalize the adoption of their foster baby, Ray. I asked to tag along so I could turn in some paperwork for my job. Yes, I found a job! I'll be working as a "Recreation Specialist (Site Manager)" for the San Antonio Parks and Recreation's summer program. The true definition should be employee supervisor, money handler, food watcher, equipment manager and glorified babysitter. Anyway, Zack dropped me off at the Nelson's at 7:30 and we all hopped in the car to drop off Josh (their oldest son) at school and beat rush traffic downtown. Everything went smoothly and the office I had to walk to was literally only a block and a half away from the courthouse. Here's a picture of the courthouse, the cathedral next door, and Ray with his adoptive parents Cole and Kerri. They've been awesome friends to us, and it's been a great help learning about fostering to adopt since that may very well be our future.

My favorite photo :)

This guy was "JUST HERE FOR JESUS!" Amazing addition to a perfect day.

We're so happy for these guys! Later that evening I dropped off the photos at their place along with a bottle of "Sweet Baby Ray's" BBQ Sauce (get it?) and a little something for Mother's Day.

Saturday I attended a baptism for the newest members of our ward because I was asked to sing. It was actually the first I've attended since my own almost 6 years ago and I'm so glad I was able to participate. After the ceremony my friend Stephanie and I hit the mall in search of some new shoes for her swelling feet (pregnancy will do that to ya!). We ended up finding a pair and then went to Freddy's for a burger and custard, yum! Zack had spent the day helping a friend move and was tired, so after a nap we went on a date and had a fun little evening.

Zack and I had agreed to play hooky from church on Mother's Day. I wanted to go to Six Flags to totally keep my mind off things and finally use our passes, but Z thought it would be too crowded and to watch a movie instead. He gave me a lovely massage and then we went on a long walk on the green way. It was hot, but felt great.

When we got home we Skyped with our families, showered, and called it a day. I'm thankful we decided to take a day off from church. I was much happier spending time with my husband and relaxing rather than seeing all the mother's at church getting praised and honored making me feel like crap and unworthy. It was my third mother's day like this, and after having spent two the latter way, I think we will skip again in the future if we are still in this position.