Memorial Day

My boys LOVE wearing their flag shirts and loved celebrating Memorial Day and the true meaning of that day.  Again, thanks to Miss Rachel and Jonathan we have a really clear reminder of what Memorial Day is all about.  Payton's comment on Memorial Day was that we celebrated for Soldiers like Miss Rachel's Soldier who died in a fight for us.  Talk about tears!  He asked me if all Soldiers died in fights...so, he's still a little confused but the fact that he can understand this day more than some adults who use it as just another day off of work and a good reason for a cookout makes this Mommy proud.  Nothing wrong with cookouts....just take the time to remember that the extra day off of work is for a greater reason!

Yes, I know we just celebrated Labor Day (I celebrated the day doing lots of extra labor....cleaning out our entire garage by taking EVERYTHING out of the garage, cleaning the garage, trashing, donating or re-arranging stuff, and then putting everything back in....7 hours later, we headed out for dinner because I couldn't find the energy to cook!).  So, yes, Labor Day has passed and July 4th was about 10 weeks ago.....I'm going even further back to Memorial Day. 

We enjoyed our Memorial Day weekend by staying here in Mt. Pleasant, putting all of our flags in our yard (which Payton and Owen loved helping me with!) and celebrating with friends.  We've been the host of the Memorial Day cookout for the past few years and this year we skipped out on the inviting and took up an invitation.

Owen found this great Mater bubble machine in the garage (his 1st birthday present from Payton) and LOVED running around with it!

 Our friend's Alex and Emily hosted the 2012 Memorial Day cookout.  We were happy to see so many of our friends there...even Gene and Rusty with sweet baby Nora who was just weeks old at the time!

Hugh, Julian and Graham

Ginny Cate, Jack, Payton, Lila, Owen

 An attempt at a group shot....I know Reese and Jack Jordan are missing from the shot so there were at least 2 more kids there!

Campbell, Holman, Payton, Hugh, Julian, John Warren, Lila, Owen, Ginny Cate, Graham, Jack, Drew

The big boys!

Liston, Jim, Seth, Chad, Rusty, Jeff and Alex

My thought is, if all the men are sitting where are all the kids and women?  I'm sure we were chatting away in the background while the kids were running wild!

Sweet little "O"

Thanks to the Shortridge's for hosting the gathering. It is times like these that I am so easily reminded of how lucky we are to live here....yes, we are far away from our family and don't have grandparents who can pick the kids up from daycare when we work late....but, we are surrounded by wonderful friends who share our beliefs and values and we are all raising our kids together in similar ways.  We are lucky to have such great friends and we look forward to many more gatherings like the one from Memorial Day!