Memorial Day Celebrations

On Memorial Day, we woke up at Grandma Ann's house. We got ready and headed over to the Memorial Day celebration taking place in the park in Kampsville where my Grandma and Grandpa live. Grandpa served in the Korean War. He is part of the Legion post in Kampsville. He is also mayor of the town so we knew we needed to be there. Naturally we forgot that there is a ferry that connects the two sides of the river. So we were late. Like 10 minutes late. Oh Well.

 

We got to be there for it.

As we walked up, these lovely gentlemen were getting ready to shoot their guns.

Clearly Charlotte didn't like it.

My boys...

 

Small town USA saluting America.

This, my friends, is what it is all about.

This, my friends, is the area of the world that I want to raise my kids.

My Dad gave a speech about my friend Tyler that was injured in Iraq in 2004. It was such a good speech and made Dad and I cry. (Not shocking). I love Memorial Day. I love celebrating the lives of the men and women who have given their lives for our freedom. I love remembering them and their families that they left behind.

 

This is my Grandpa.

He is a hero.

These two have the same hair.

Kisses for Great Grandma.

These two are brothers.

They are both veterans.

Mom plays taps every year at the Memorial Day program.

 

Mom, Grandpa, Aunt Bev, Mom's two cousins, and Uncle Deener.

Uncle Deener and some of his grandkid crew :)

Charlotte was in rare form.

That usually happens on big weekends :)

This is such a good picture of these two.

I'm very proud of it.

After the steaming hot celebration in the park with bugs all over us and biting us, we headed to the American Legion hall and ate some delicious food.

Sweet Charlotte and Great Grandpa Redeye.

They were sharing secrets.

Hugs and kisses for Great Grandma.

After lunch we headed over to the swimming party at Aunt Diane's pool.

It's always a big party!

Such a fun family!

Katie is cool.

Charlotte sneaking a drink of my Moto soda.

Swimming with Daddy!!!

Liss and Kyla hanging in the pool!

Aunt Kathy isn't exactly a fish in the water but she jumped off of the diving board anyway :)

Gotta love her!!!

(We sent all of the boys down to help if she needed it.)

Didi bought all of the kids some sort of blue slushie things. They LOVED it.

Clearly Alana preferred other things.

A big blue mouth....

Kyla was down to business. She was determined to finish her slushie!

 

We had a great day at Aunt Diane's house. Mom and Dad ended up coming over to Aunt Diane's. Dad and Alex rode home together. Mom rode back to the villa with the kids and I. We spent the night at the villa and went to St. Louis the next day. We had such a great Memorial Day Weekend!

 

A big thanks to all of our family for the fun and thanks to my cousin Melia for taking our pictures on the farm.

Labor Day Weekend

I got home from Chicago around 10:30 am and we headed down to Grandma Ann's that afternoon after I showered and got the car reloaded. Alex headed down when he got off of work. We hung out at Grandma's house that night. It was a good time...like it always is :)

On Sunday afternoon we had Mallory's wedding shower. Melia did awesome job at planning it! (Mallory helped some.)  My cousin, Ryan, made the cakes. They were delicious!! They had tons of wines to sample, delicious food, and fun games.

I am so glad Mom was there to help with the kids. They just love to get into everything.

My kids love their food....

Charlotte and Kyla love each other :)

I would love to say that they sat like this for all of present time but that would be a lie.

Charlotte and Kyla loved helping Mallory with her gifts.

Mallory with her "blood" aunts on the Weber side.

Grandma Ann and Mallory

Sawyer loves to share his food:)

He loves his Aunt Didi.

Kyla loves shoes. LOVES THEM. She loves heels. She loves sparkles. She would go nuts in Mom's closet.

The Richard Weber girls :) (and baby Alana in Melia's belly)

Mallory and her bridal party.

After the shower, we headed out to Grandma's house. The boys had golfed and hung around the farm.

Sawyer was so happy to see his Papa.

Charlotte was so happy to see Wayne. She LOVES Wayne (or WEEN as she calls him)

This boy loves his trucks.

Eric got this four wheeler from someone for Wayne. Wayne isn't old enough to understand how it works so Charlotte took over.

And when she didn't feel like making it go, she had him push her. (She does this to him a lot.)

He is all boy too. He loves to "drive".

They got the hose out for some reason. Charlotte was chasing Wayne with it. I felt bad that she was doing it but he was laughing and acting like he liked it!

Eric and the babes.

She was a maniac on it. Kyla showed up to play as well. 

We went for a quick gator ride as the sun was setting.

This is God's country.

There is nothing like a Midwestern sunset.

Just beautiful.

We ate pizza and hung out and played for the remainder of the night.

The next day we had a cook out at Aunt Didi's house. We swam and spent the afternoon there.

Charlotte was IN A MOOD. Seriously in a mood. She got put into time out a few times. She didn't like anyone.

But she does always like Aunt Michelle, Kyla, and food.

Charlotte was begging Melissa for food.

Rich was doing his laps. Doesn't Aunt Didi and Uncle Grant's new pool liner look fabulous???

Kyla loves her "Bubby". 

Sawyer was a maniac in the water. He was blowing bubbles and everything.

Wayne loves the rocks. He loves to hold them, throw them, lick them. hang out with them. Charlotte use to be obsessed too. I wonder why?

He finally started to get used to his little floaty. He was really learning how to swim in it!!

Charlotte played for forever with Caleb.

No fear.

Charlotte looked at this picture and said Jake and Caleb's names. I love that she can't really see their faces but she knows it's them.

Another weekend spent hanging out and relaxing on the farm. we are so thankful we are close enough to spend so much time with family :) 

Happy Labor Day, y'all.