Thursday

For Memorial Day weekend and to celebrate Mom's birthday, she came to Massachusetts from Michigan on Thursday, and Kate arrived from New York City. I picked Mom up from Logan (after a long traffic delay) on Thursday evening.

Friday

Mom and I had a wonderful day on Friday, walking my landlord's dog around Beverly, then heading to the mall for some air-conditioned respite from the warm temperatures to find her some adorable shoes and fabulous dresses for upcoming summer plans. We had a lot of fun, and she looked gorgeous. With the holiday weekend traffic, Kate's bus from NYC was going to be pretty late, so we decided to pack everything, pick her up in Boston, and head to Grandma's on Friday night.

Saturday

UB made Swedish pancakes at Kate's request for breakfast on Saturday morning before we headed to Easthampton to meet Auntie Kathy and Hannah for the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Festival. We spent a wonderful day watching the sheepdog trials and sheep judging, as well as oogling the locally produced yarn and roving. Surprisingly, I ran into my coworker, Ron, and his wife, who is also a woolcrafter and weaver. We purchased a gallon of local organic maple syrup for Grandma's birthday present. Inspired by the day, we headed to one of the best yarn stores in the area, WEBS, to buy sock yarn for Auntie Kathy and afghan yarn for Hannah. (Luckily I had the wherewithall not to bring my wallet into the store!) We headed back to Auntie Kathy's house, where she worked her physical therapy magic on Kate's hip—recovering from surgery and rehab—and Mom's shoulder. Jeremy arrived and we ordered a delicious sushi dinner, spoke with a newly engaged Jackie on the phone, then headed into Northampton to visit Hannah at work and have some ice cream.

Sunday

On Sunday morning, we slept in then got ready for a visit from Auntie Kathy's friends from Brookline. We met them and chatted for a bit before they headed out to lunch with Hannah. Mom, Kate, and I packed up our stuff and headed back to Grandma's for a delicious dinner—one of UB's specialties—mustard-and-ginger-glazed grilled salmon with corn-on-the-cob, beets, wilted greens, followed by berry cobbler and (for me) gluten-free Purple Velvet Torte (beet cake).

Monday

On Memorial Day, we woke for another round of Swedish pancakes. We helped UB transplant some of his potted herbs into the larger backyard garden, and Mom and I unearthed the rich compost soil. For a break, we visited with the 200-pound Mastiff "puppy" next door. Kate and I left that afternoon so she could catch her bus back to NYC. All in all, a fantastic and full weekend!