Memorial Day Weekend 2013

Disclaimer: I do apologize, but this post is super picture heavy! Proceed at your own risk.

This year for Memorial Day, the kids and I decided on a last minute trip to Idaho because A) we haven't been in a while and B) we had a long weekend and C) It was also Che's birthday and we wanted to be there to celebrate that with her. So, off we went, minus Devin, because our schedules are just insane right now and there is no way that he could have missed work all weekend long. I missed him A LOT on this trip. Single parenting is hard work, ya'll. And that was only for three days. Boy is having a husband around a nice thing! Anyway, we left Friday in the early afternoon and then basically all we did was party and party some more all weekend long.

Just had to add this picture-- Jace insisted that Mickey sit on my lap during our drive. That kid and his Mickey...seriously. He is the 6th member of our family for sure!

And now, broken down into individual events, here are some pictures:
Cemetary 1 visit: 
Saturday morning, we made our way to my Grandma's house where we met up with a bunch of other family members to go visit the family graves in Ashton. Don't be too alarmed that there are a lot of grave pictures to follow. We visited Linda, Nic, my great-uncle Harold, Lynn's first wife Kathy, and my great-grandparents in this cemetery.

Linda

Brad has her grave decorated so cute. He also comes and  gives her diet mountain dew with rabbit poop ice whenever he is in town and a box of her favorite candy. Such a good man. 

Keeping two 2-year-olds occupied in a cemetery is a real chore. There may or may not have been a few graves that they were jumping over and jumping on and flowers that they were smashing...Yikes.

Good thing we have an Uncle Lynn who is kind enough to help me with kids. My kids adore Uncle Lynn and so it was easy for them to go to him. 

Oh and don't mind the huge coats. I brought only shorts, tshirts, and sandals for my kids the whole weekend. How could I have forgotten about Idaho weather?!

She kept giving him kisses over and over. You can tell who she really likes because she will give them repeated kisses. I guess Uncle Lynn made the list.

Nic's grave

Avery cleaning her daddy's grave. I have some serious sadness about how many kids have lost a parent in our families.

Warm River: 

After our cemetery trip, we drove up the road a ways to a campground called Warm River, where we all froze and ate our picnic lunches. We also fed the huge fish some bread, which the kids loved.

Barb, Mason, Mari Ann, Ron, Lynn, and Doyle

Lynn, Doyle, and Grandma. I was happy to see my Grandma doing well as she had gallbladder surgery and hasn't been doing so hot. She seemed great to me though, so hopefully she is completely on the mend! 

Che', Landon, Flor, Avery, Cortney, and my mom

Feeding those massive and greedy fish some more bread

What a good uncle Uncle Ron is too..helping Jace get clear out there for a better view of the fish,

No trip to Ashton would be complete without some ice cream from the lovely hole-in-the wall grocery store. It was delish.

BBQ at Grandpa Dave's:
And I have a grand total of two pictures of this event. Fail. We went to my dad's house on Saturday night for a BBQ with Mikey and Lara, my dad, and he and Sharon's exchange student, Hannah. Sharon was out of town helping her son Brady move.

Hals just loves baby Claire. She loves to make her smile and laugh. 

Just because she is cute

Baseball with PoppE:
My mom's husband, Dave, otherwise known as PoppE, is so great with the kids. He took them outside one morning and showed Jace and Hallie how to hit the baseball. He even set up bases and let them play a mock game. It was so cute. Hallie actually got quite good at hitting the ball...who knew? Jace, not so much. Dave would just throw the ball and have it hit the bat and then count that as Jace's "hit." Fun.

Again the massive jackets because of my failure as a mother...

Who knows when this was, but from all the partying, Jace  fell asleep in the car far more often than normal.

BBQ/Birthday Party at Sue's: 

Sunday night, we had a BBQ and a birthday party for Che' at Sue's house. As always, it was a great time. It was fun to see my Uncle Judd as it has been since he was in the hospital down here that I have seen him. He is doing so well and it is amazing to see how he has returned to many aspects of his regular life. Miracles happen, people, miracles happen.

Here is our other miracle, sweet Charlie girl. This girl is so darn cute. I can't get enough of her. It is always fun to see all the kids, but because of what Charlie represents, I think it is always good for everyone to see her especially.

The kids were playing kickball with Landon and I do believe that the teams started out as Hudson and Jace against everyone else. Hmmm, I will let you guess how that went!

Yes, I know it is lovely. 

BBQ at Jennifer's:
Monday, for the actual Memorial Day, we went to Jennifer's house and had another BBQ! Man, do we know how to pack in the BBQ's! She had Chris's family there, plus my mom and Dave, Mikey and Lara. It was really fun to see everyone. Chris's sisters are super sweet to me and include me as if I am a sister-in-law too. They are so great. They were recently here in town for BYU's Women's Conference and invited me to go to dinner with them. That's how sweet they are. Anyway, I have no pictures of them, of course, but I do have a few other random ones. I will have to get some more from Jennifer later because I think she took a bunch. Mikey and I played catch for a while in the yard and that was fun since I do love baseball.

BFF's forever!

Hmm 1 out of 3 kids looking isn't too bad...ha.

Cute Brookie. She is getting so big. Not the best picture ever, but that's all I took, so here it is.

Cemetery #2 visit: 

We have so many family members who have passed away, but the nice thing is that they are all in two cemeteries basically. My mom's side are all in Ashton and my dad's side are all in the same place in I.F. So we stopped at this cemetery on the way out of town to come back home. We were able to visit my cousin Damien's grave, Chris's grave, my Grandpa Ed, and my uncles Josh, James, and Joe. Our family takes up a whole huge section of this cemetery. Sad. 

Josh's grave- this picture is upside down. Oops.

Our family plot in this cemetery. 

Whew. I think that sums up the weekend! We had such a great time. I have no pictures, but my favorite parts were staying up late and playing games with my siblings, mom, cousins, and aunts. We played once at Jennifer's house, once at my mom's, and once at Sue's. Game night every night. It's the best.