I don't know about y'all, but this family just finished up the busiest past four days imaginable. I absolutely love Memorial weekend honoring all those that served and kicking off the unofficial start to the summer season. And after spending last year's Memorial weekend working on house projects, it was a-maz-ing getting away and visiting my family with warm temps and plenty of sunshine! It was perfect. And I'm already trying to relive the weekend in my head because I can't turn back time and do it all over again.
It's always a little chaotic the day we leave for trips as we try to pack, do laundry, do dishes, clean the house and make sure we're not forgetting anything. But we had a little wrench thrown into our normal leaving routine when we suspected that Linden could have an ear infection and we wanted to make sure that he got checked by the doctor before venturing 7 hours away on a holiday weekend. Let me tell you, I thought we were just being cautious and that Linden would actually be perfectly fine, but his doctor confirmed there were two big fat ear infections in that little boy. Seriously, so thankful we took him in and were able to get the meds he needed before heading off. It obviously made him feel a lot better as we ventured through the weekend.
We didn't take off until late evening on Friday which meant we rolled into my parents house well after midnight, so we chatted for a bit before catching a few hours of sleep. Saturday started all the fun activities. We spent the morning biking around town visiting great-grandmas and hitting up the park. Conner rode his own little bike 3.5 miles before deciding that he wanted to hitch a ride in the bike trailer with Linden.
After lunch and naps, we headed over to the zoo which actually is the boys' first visit to a zoo ever. In my head, I imagined it being fun and the boys being excited for the animals they see in books. In reality, the boys were running around like maniacs (Linden especially) and throwing some epic tantrums if you stop them from climbing through the fences to get closer to the animals.
The zoo also has this amazing cage that you can walk into and stand right in the middle with all of the parakeets. I also imagined that the boys would get a kick out of this. In reality, they could've cared less, but I loved it! To be honest, I think the only thing they were truly excited for chickens and goats. Go figure..
After we survived that trip ordeal, we left the boys with my parents and Joe and I used the evening to run errands and grab a bite to eat. It's amazing how much you can get accomplished when you don't have toddlers in tow. And it always amazes us when we can actually have a conversation with each other over supper instead of being interrupted every five words by a toddler screaming, asking questions, or boys fighting.
On Sunday morning, we took the boys on a walk with Papa and spent some time afterwards playing outside. We planned for dinner with my entire family in the late afternoon along with family photos at the park afterwards. Somehow I completely forgot to take photos of this amazing family time! And family pictures went as expected... the boys had meltdowns which is very standard for them whenever I pull my camera out for nice photos. We ended the evening with dessert on my parents' back patio as the kids blew off bedtimes and ran around chasing each other.
On Memorial Day, we headed out early to my sister's house to watch their town's memorial parade. It was so fun! Linden totally caught on to waving at the everyone in the parade, but instead of telling them "hi!" he just waved and yelled out "bye" to everyone passing by. This kid is too cute!! I can't handle it at times!
Linden crashed for a nap so we snatched Conner away to the pool. It's always fun watching that little water bug have a blast swimming. I'm still getting hit with waves of morning sickness from time to time, so I decided to sit out from swimming because of that. But I had fun watching from the pool deck soaking up some vitamin D.
We had a little bit of time before we were planning to hit the road and head home, so we decided on an early dinner of pizza with my parents. Literally, on the 5 minute drive to the restaurant, Conner passed out so hard from exhaustion. And since we couldn't wake him up, we just picked a table in the corner and laid him down on the floor to sleep away. Of course he finally woke up as we were carrying him back to the car and he wanted pizza.
After that, we loaded up, said our goodbyes, and made the journey back home. It was an amazing weekend, and I hope everyone else had an amazing weekend too.
Thanks to everyone who serves or has served and the families of those who serve. You're all appreciated so much!
