Memorial Day Memories

It was SO NICE to sleep in a little bit this morning, since we didn't have to go to work or school. We got up and I got busy making a pasta salad. Then at 11:00 we went to our ward's Memorial Day Commemoration. Luckily it quit raining long enough for us to have it outside at the pavilion. We sang the national anthem, the Scouts presented the flag, and we said the pledge of allegiance.

 Then Bro. W shared with us what Memorial Day is all about. It's about remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice of their lives in the military. He shared with us a touching story about a soldier he served w/ in Afghanistan who was killed. When taps was played, I couldn't keep the tears at bay. I'm so thankful that I get to live in the land of the free, BECAUSE of the brave.

 

After that moving tribute, we got to spend some time talking, socializing, and eating some good food. The kids were all enthralled w/ the smoke coming off of the homemade root beer. There was a ton of food b/c we had a few guys grilling hot dogs and hamburgers, and then ward members brought fruit, dessert, salads, chips, etc to share.

A few of the fun guys organized the kids into a game of kickball, which looked like a lot of fun. Poor Autumn had at least 8 chigger bites when we got home later from playing out in the grass. Unfortunately she's a chigger & mosquito magnet just like me.

 

 After that we came home, relaxed for a while, I made another pasta salad, and we went over to Nate & Riannon's. Liz & Liberty & Jacob came over and we had Ollie North chicken, pasta salad, watermelon, corn on the cob, and chips.

 

 The weather started to get bad w/ a big storm, so we eventually came inside and played a game of Mexican Train dominoes. Liz didn't like playing it, so we played a modified version where we played as many tiles as we could and as fast as we could. It was so much fun and was so crazy.

 

 Then Liz had us play a SUPER FUN game they played in Scouts. We split into boys vs. girls and each person got a straw and 2 Q-tips. We lined up on opposite sides of the living room and the point was to put your Q-tips in your straw and blow them over onto the opponent's side of the room. When any Q-tips were on your side of the room, you had to hurry and pick them up, load them into your straw, and shoot them back over onto the other side. We set a timer for 1 minute and whichever team had the most Q-tips on their side at the end of the one minute was the team that lost.

 

We had a BLAST and played it over and over to the point that we had to get new Q-tips b/c the ones we were using got so gross and nasty. I didn't realize what a workout it was, and we were all hot and sweaty by the time we were done.

 

Nate was crazy and decided he was just going to jump in the pool to cool off. The pool has been cold b/c the sun hasn't been out in a long time to heat it up, plus the rain has cooled it off. I was so hot that I didn't care, and jumped in fully clothed. Liz & Autumn were standing over by the pool talking to me and Nate pushed both of them in w/ their clothes on!!! We swam around for a few minutes but then had to get out b/c there were flashes of lighting in the distance. We sat outside and visited for a long time while our clothes dried off.

 

 Earlier in the day Karri had texted to say that Christine's birthday is coming up this week and that we should do something. It was decided that we would kidnap her and take her out for dessert. She's so stinkin' busy that this was the only way we could celebrate with her. Mary texted Christine's husband so he could let us in the house (and not shoot us when we came in wearing ski masks).

 

He let us in and we literally grabbed her out of bed (she was dressed and was just laying there watching TV), put a ski mask over her head backwards so she couldn't see, and took her out to the car. She was screaming like crazy and kept saying that she didn't have any shoes on! Once we got her in the car we took off her masks and ours and laughed and laughed and laughed.

 

 We took her to Cheesecake Factory and each got a delicious dessert. A group of waiters came over to sing to her, and there was a table of pilots behind us and they started singing along, too! It was awesome.

 

 I love these wonderful women soooooooooooooo much and am so blessed to have them  in my life. It was definitely a night to remember.