Day 4-Your parents

My parentals!
These guys are so freaking awesome.  I'm not sure where to start.  What if I just tell you some crazy stories about my parents to tell you how freaking awesome they are.  And let's see how many times I can use the word "freaking"!

I could tell you about how my mom came with us to the hospital when I had baby M, even though I was being induced.  She slept in a chair, not a rocking chair, like a chair chair from about 2am-7am the day baby M was born.  I wasn't even in labor, I hadn't had any pitocin.  She was just there for support.
My dad was on-call that day, for us.  He brought my husband every meal so he didn't have to eat that nasty hospital food.

My dad has the funniest sense of humor.  And by funny, I mean probably offensive to most of the human race, but it's still funny.  When I was a kid, a telemarketer called and he asked them if they would please hold.  He put the phone in the garage and left it there.  Another time, while vacationing in Florida, where my dad grew up, we drove by a building that had half of a boat hanging out of it, as if a boat had crashed through the building.  My dad told us that he crashed the boat into the building.  I took a picture and brought it to school when I was Star of the Week to share with my class.  Well, sometime in my teens I came across that picture only to find the building was like a boat warehouse or something.  I totally believed my dad.  When I told him this story, he laughed.

My parents are the best grandparents to baby M.  They are always supportive and encouraging.  I'm sure sometimes they are thinking we are rookies at this whole parenthood thing, but they don't make us feel like it.  They're super helpful.

My dad used to always take us on bike rides around the neighborhood growing up.  I remember several weekends included riding our bikes as a family to Coco's for breakfast.  Again, so fun.

At the beach, my mom taught me everything I know about the ocean.  How to swim in it, avoid big scary waves, navigate a rip tide, how to not be scared when you can't feel the bottom or when you feel a fish swim nearby.

Growing up, my dad traveled a lot, but he would make these crazy schedule changes to make it home in time for our activities, like competitions, games, etc.  Anything important to us, he was there.

Right before I turned 18 (we're talking like weeks before) my parents asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday.  I told them that honestly I would just love to go to Yellowstone.  We went there on vacation a lot when I was a kid.  When I said that, I was dreaming.  There was no way we could just drop everything and go on vacation, that took time, money, and planning.  Seriously, I was dreaming.  Well guess what, we went to Yellowstone!  It snowed in the most northern part of the park on my birthday and I thought that was hilarious since my birthday is in late August.  It was so fun.  But do you see how awesome my parents are?

My parents are crazy awesome.  They are seriously the type of people that will give you the shirt off of their backs.  They're selfless and loving and funny.  My parents are great examples of parents, I hope we can be half as good as they are.