Thursday, June 12, 2008

Memorial Day Weekend

I am finally getting a chance to write about our remarkable Memorial Day Weekend! We are well into June and it seems quite a time ago BUT I am getting myself caught up on these entries slowly but surely! Our computer has been having ISSUES and therefore I have to schedule in time to leave the house and go invade one of my parents' computers (thanks guys!) to fulfill my need for some quiet, reflective time in which to closely examine all the fun, cute and exciting parts of my day to day life. Without it, I fear I would become entirely too desperate housewife-ish. (Well, not in the Wisteria Lane sense, but my own version of it! Not pretty either...) So, thanks to my parents letting me use their computer and JC holding down the fort (you do such a good job, honey), I am catching up!

So, Memorial Day...

I have a feeling that, once down on paper (entered in cyber space - - same thing), it won't all sound as spectacular as it was but OH it was. It was just lots of little things. First of all, three day weekends are wonderful things. A three day weekend carries with it some kind of natural high as it approaches. A FOUR day weekend is that much better and that's what we had. JC doesn't work Fridays right now so the kids and I were pretty darn excited that he would be around for so much time. We don't tend to be without him a whole lot but it never does get old. So, it was the Thursday before and I had planned to meet my sister, Katie, at the mall with the kids and let them play (yes, I know, those play areas are probably so germ-ridden...I used to swear I would never let my kids play there. I can't explain what happened to change my mind but I think it had something to do with...um...survival.) Anyway, she called me and let me know that it was going to be like, 70 degrees that day and we should play at an outside park instead. Halleluia! We will take outside play whenever we can get it! So, we loaded up that morning and went to spend some time at the park with Aunt Katie and Grandma Trudie. We had so much fun and the weather was GORGEOUS. It started getting cloudy and everything. For anyone who doesn't live in Arizona or anywhere similar, this is another unexplainable natural high - - cloudy weather! Woohoo! So, park play was great.

That afternoon, the heavens opened and we got RAIN!!!! Hip-hip-hooray!!! I got the kids up early from their naps (yes, you heard me right. No, I would normally never even think of doing that. It was RAINING, people!) and we played outside some more! They loved it. Looking at the pictures I took, I had to laugh. We are such Arizonians. (??) My kids had on hats and jackets to keep them dry...and bare feet. Classic.





Yes, even the cat got to go outside. He's scared of the rain so I knew he woudn't run away. :)
Later in the day, JC had golfing plans with his buddy, Ben (hey, we have one of those...) and so, in an effort to enjoy the glories of the weather and keep the kids occupied for a while, I dressed them in their pajamas and piled them in the triple stroller for a stroll around the neighborhood. Usually a fun thing but not necessarily life changing but oh boy...this time, we got to see our neighbors' dog, Reggie (who the kids absolutely adore and include in their prayers daily...so cute), ran into a family from the ward out flying kites (which the kids find fascinating since we did it not too long ago), met a mom and her little boy on their walk and made a new friend, and saw our bishop and one of his counselors out on their Harleys which the kids thought was the coolest thing EVER. The counselor's wife is the nursery leader so when we stopped to talk to them the kids were so excited to see her and his bright green "momercycle" didn't hurt either! Along with all this fun stuff, the weather was to die for...it even started raining on us when we headed back home! Not sure Ben appreciated that on his baldish head but he had fun nonetheless! On top of all that, JC had a great time golfing at a new indoor place he discovered. Fun evening for all!
Friday morning, we were just hanging out and glorying in the weather, not sure what to do with ourselves and all of a sudden we decided to clean out our garage! I have NO idea where this came from and usually I have my whole 'to-do' list in my head and things are all in order and the garage was not the next project to be tackled which would usually prompt me to swear it off until the other projects ahead of it were squared away but apparently I am growing as a person and we were spontaneous! (Apparently I am NOT growing as a writer because that was definitely a run-on sentence in the worst way.) So, with the kids happy playing in the on-again off-again rain, running in and out of the garage as we worked, we cleaned the whole darn thing. There were boxes out there that we hadn't even unpacked since we moved to this house two years ago! Heck, there were boxes out there I hadn't unpacked since I moved from Queen Creek three years ago! So, anyway, needless to say, we worked very hard, found a lot of treasures (and a lot of trash) and at the end of the day...it felt GREAT. Maybe I'm alone in this but when you can look at your garage and run from wall to wall without tripping over boxes, knowing you could eat off the floor if you wanted to (never underestimate the joy in mopping your garage floor)...oh, it just doesn't get much better than that. Though, as an afterthought, I would not recommend doing the running I just talked about AFTER washing the floor, as Bethany tried this and got a very impressive bump on the back of her head...poor girl.
I feel like we did something on Saturday, but it's been a while so I guess I will skip it...hmmm...I apologize to anyone who that day involved. I'm sure it was very memorable...though, apparently not as much as cleaning the garage...haha, I am so ridiculous.
Anyway, the rest of the weekend was just lovely...the weather was so fantastic and I was dreading the return of the heat! Monday we went grocery shopping as a family and I made up some turkey burgers (Oprah's favorite things, summer addition...) which we took over to my parents' house. My dad grilled and we all "swam." Really, it was too cold!!! Most everyone piled in the hot tub but since the kids are scared of it, they stood on the steps of the big pool and we shivered while my siblings and husband had breath-holding contests. This disturbed the kids very much. It would get quiet and then..."Where DADDY??? Where DADDY???" and then that episode would end and I would hear one of them yell "Where MONICA??? Where MONICA???"...silence..."Where BONNIE??? Where BONNIE???"...silence... So, we didn't get a lot out of the actual swimming part of the get together other than a complex or two about going under the water but it's all good. We had a lot of fun just being with family and enjoying the last bit of our long weekend.
Speaking of long...
I'm out.

No comments: