Memorial Day Weekend!

How was Memorial Day weekend for you?  We don't have any special traditions for this holiday, but we should.  I am so thankful for the men and women who sacrificed their lives for my freedom.  Sometimes I think about how blessed I am to walk into a store by myself, with my purse showing and not feeling one bit scared.  I love this great country I live in! 

Pack meeting for May was a picnic in the park.  About 5 minutes before we left Lee saw a mouse in the laundry room.  Yuck.  I'll spare all the details, but finally I caught it by its tail with the bottom of Shanna's crutch (she has play crutches).  Cal put on a glove, grabbed the mouse and put it in this jar.  The kids released it at the park.  I had damaged the tail though.  I couldn't bear keeping the jar and lid and just threw them away.  On the way to the park though, I stopped at Martins and got a $25 gift card for the cub scouts!  I was able to use it right away on food for that night and the bill came to $6 after the gift card money!


For Memorial Day weekend we traveled to Iowa for my nephew Hyrum's baptism.  Normally we don't go this far for a baptism, but it fell on a long weekend and worked great.  We left Friday after work and drove through the night.  We arrived at our Iowa destination around 9:30am.  After freshening up, and a visit to a hobby store we headed to the baptism. Elden was supposed to be born within days of Hyrum, but Elden and my body had other plans.  Elden was not born the end of May but the first part of March.  Something that was special is my dad was asked to speak on the Holy Ghost and he shared stories about his dad, Elden Bartholomew.  So our Elden got to hear some stories about his great-grandpa Elden as a little boy.

All the ladies wore a teal-ish or black color.  Love it!  And it was so great that Shawna and Sam were there!  I had no idea they were coming up.  Loved seeing them.  Matt's mom came too--Hyrum's grandma.


More sibling time!  The best!






After the baptism and yummy lunch we headed to Chuck E Cheese's.  (I just had to google how to spell that....)  It was so fun!  I got cards for each of my kids to play games, but then Deb surprised Lee and I by giving us our own cards for games. 








Loved seeing the wise people get into it too.






We swam at Sam's hotel pool later (apparently the front desk gave an iffy answer as to if outside guests could swim there....I thought it was all cleared until I asked...)  After the pool we had pizza, a party and a movie!  The North Avenue Irregulars is super cute and fun.  Great family movie!  Sweet Emma was tuckered out.


Sunday we enjoyed church, each other's company, delish food and more visiting.  So, so fun.


Monday morning we headed to Backbone State park.  I want to go back there!  Deb brought a fun breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate.  Then we did a little hike.  We didn't have much time as we were headed to Stephanie's for dinner in Indiana, and then home.














An awesome ravine type area we got to hike down into.








Boomer is a favorite with my kids.  Well, Shanna, Haley and Elden.


We had an awesome time in Iowa, enjoyed a terrific dinner with Steph in Indiana (and riding in her "new" X1 SO FUN!) and arrived home at 5:09am Tuesday morning.  The drive home was terrific!  Even though we drove all night, it went smoothly for both of us. I think one thing that helped was the book Lee listened to, Boys in a Boat.  Highly recommend.  And highly recommend listening to it.  The reader was fantastic.  I will say there were a few swear words in there....maybe 4ish? It's about the journey of a rowing crew team making it to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.  I had read it before but then wanted to relisten to the rest of it with Lee on the trip.  It made me tear up at the end...all the hardships they went through, but how they each found acceptance and love. And what a crazy journey! Especially loved Joe Rantz's story.  It's a true story too, which was fun.  I want to buy it and edit it for Clark to read.

Back on the ranch....after our couple hours sleep in a bed, we got everyone out the door on time.  Lee and I went to the school that day for the million word club that Lee's business sponsored.  Every fifth grader who reads more than 1,000,000 words through AR (Accelerated Reading program...it keeps track of word count per book tested on) was awarded a limo ride and lunch.  Four kids did it!  Hopefully we can keep this going every year.  This was our first year sponsoring this, and the details finally came together just days before, but it worked out.


Yet another blessing of this country....Lee can run his business how he sees fit!  Happy Memorial Day!  We enjoyed squeezing in our first road trip of the summer!  (Though it's still technically spring, but who cares, right?!)