Last weekend was super fun, but also quite exhausting. We headed out to my Mom's place for the weekend.

Rob was able to get a half day on Friday. So, when he got home from work we packed up and headed out. The drive to my Mom's place was fairly uneventful. At one point one of the roads we were travelling on was closed, but we were able to follow the detour signs and not have any problems. I think we got to her place between 5:30pm and 6:00pm.

We spent the night hanging out around her house and we ordered in pizza for dinner. Gabriel was in toddler TV heaven because she has Noggin, which is 24 hours of the shows he loves.

Saturday I had an appointment with Gary in town. Best tattoo guy EVER. Mom stayed at her place with Gabriel and Rob and I headed in to town. We got there early and so we stopped off at the Gold Room so that he could get some lunch. We got lucky and Kay was there so I got to talk to her for a bit and show her some recent pics of Gabriel from my digital camera. When it was time, Rob and I headed to the tattoo place.

Gary worked on making up the tattoo that I wanted and Rob headed down the street to a salon to see if he could get a haircut (they were able to take him on a walk in). I told Gary what I was thinking of getting and he was able to sketch out my idea perfectly on the first try. Rob got back to the tattoo place right when the stencil was on and he was about to start.

However, just a few minutes after getting back he needed to go outside for a few phone calls. I'm not posting the specifics, but let's just say there's been a lot of drama in his family recently.

Now, you might be wondering why I've been secretive about the design of this tattoo, well, that would be because my Mom reads the journal and I wanted the tattoo to be a surprise for her. It's a dove covered in paint splatters holding a paint brush in its mouth and has a "MOM" banner at the bottom. I'll try and post a pic at some point if possible.

Eventually Rob headed back to my Mom's place to get her and Gabriel. It took longer than expected and they didn't get back until around a half hour after the tattoo was done. I had wanted her to get there and see it before it was bandaged, however I lucked out and didn't bleed at all. So, it didn't need a bandage. Whew. She came into the store and I showed her the tattoo. She seemed very surprised and I don't think she had any idea that I was getting a tattoo for her. I think she liked it. The whole paint splatter and paint brush motif is because she's an artist.

Once again, Gary proved that he's without a doubt the best tattoo artist I have ever seen. It turned out fantastic!

After getting the tattoo we all headed into Dubuque and got Chinese food for dinner. Gabriel was surprisingly well behaved all through dinner. We then headed back to my Mom's place for the rest of the night.

Sunday before we headed out my Mom's friend PK stopped by. She ooohed and aahed over Gabriel and we ended up heading our around 2pm. We already knew about the detour on the way home, so it was smooth sailing.

When we got home, we made a run out to mail something out for my Mom and then grabbed some dinner and headed home for the night. We watched Dawn of the Dead on TV.

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