Memorial Day 2014

First things first:

To my cousin Jeremy, my other family in service, my friends back at Scott AFB in Illinois, and to the ranks of men & women before and after them who have laid or are unconditionally laying down everything to serve our country, THANK YOU. Today is for YOU, your families and the service you give to the rest of us.

thank you. thank you, thank you, thank.. you.

Our little family started the morning off with breakfast out, since nobody felt much like cooking.

little toes by little flowers out to breakfast!

After breakfast, we took our time deciding what to do for the afternoon. With it being Memorial Day, the possibility of canoeing was immediately nixed once we realized the rest of the city was out on the same mission and rentals were booked through tomorrow for the most part. We defaulted to the boat, which seemed to be the best alternative.

Brittany, Chad and Kalyn met us at East Fork, where we loaded up, dropped in and prepared to haul out for a day on the water.

That went just fine until about 10 minutes into the outing, when a part on the boat prop broke and left us floating in the middle of a wake zone. It seemed like it may have been a sad, premature end to our efforts, but then I was reassured that my friends are a lot like me in the spirit of attaching to the bright side of even the most annoying circumstances.

So what did we do? Well, we tossed anchor and hung out! Sydni had a blast swimming, showing off her crazy fish-like skills to the rest of us, and of course got to practice her casting with the fishing pole that has been repaired since the little hiccup two days ago with Papppy.

We laughed, we swam, we ate lunch and hung out. For having zero horsepower to move us through the water, I'd have to say it was nothing but a fun time and I'm not complaining!

love those girls!!!

All good things eventually do end, and when it came time for us to haul in, we managed to flag down a passing boat and grab a tow for the short ride back to the dock.

womp womp womp... haha

favorite girls!! ♥

Well, boat.. it was a good start to the summer, and this is just a hiccup. It's the end of the night now, and Rob's already got a tentative plan built as to how he's going to fix it [one of the many things I love about him!].

Today wasn't wasted, at all. After we hauled off the lake, dropped Sydni off for her week away from our home and tied up our poor dead boat, we headed to Brittany's for the most delicious veggie burger I've ever had. That, plus friends and Brittany's adorable dog Daisy, proved to be the best unwind for the day.

c'mon, aunt kalyn... just a bite?!

Happy Memorial Day to you, your family, and most importantly to the service men and women who have rightfully earned the praise due their way. We salute you!!

xo | cmd

Family. Boating. Roasting!

My parents arrived, as promised this morning. We exchanged our usual hello's, which mainly included Sydni saying, "Nana! Look at ________!" a few hundred times within about five minutes. I love it. We helped them get settled in, and then started packing up for our day trip out to the lake.

We toted everything out to East Fork, somehow got my aquaphobic mom on a speedboat, and took off for a day on the water.

Yeah, it was a picture kind of day :)


mom & syd

^^ Look at my mom in her wayfarers! Haha. Freebie from the credit union, she told me, and really the perfect accessory for a boat trip. Love my mom (:

It wasn't long before we found a nice spot in a cove, where we ate our picnic lunch and started really enjoying the day. Sydni strapped on her lifejacket and hit the water right behind me. Swim time!

look at her go!!

thumbs up!

We floated and cruised, cruised and floated, and then rode up on one of the narrow strips of shore in one of the coves for some more fun in the shallows.

syd, dad & rob working on syd's fishing pole

syd finding good rocks for skipping!

nana & syd playing in the sand ♥♥

The day really was all about Sydni. She's like a fish when she's in the water, just as I was when I was little. It was tough telling this girl that it was time to go. I mean look at her! She looks like a little grown-up in the water....

little summer babe!

When it finally was time to head back, we of course let Sydni show Nana & Pappy how well she could drive her boat. She's a champ!

vroom vroom!

Fast forward through the trip back to the house, during which Sydni zonked out almost immediately; she got a healthy little snooze in before we were back at home and gearing up for round two.

Round 2 = Bonfire!
The only problem was.. we didn't have a fire pit.
I wanted a fire pit.

The best solution I could think of at that moment, was to make ... a fire pit.

SO, I DID. (:

boom. back yard fire pit.

I turned into a little sod farmer for about an hour, peeling the lawn up in a circle to form a little pit. We used the brick pavers we got from Jay & Trey's house to build a small outline, and while it's a bit lop-sided, we weren't going for an aesthetic accolade as much as functionality. Oh, and we didn't have sand or gravel at our immediate disposal, so yes, that's cat litter.

Rob fired up the grill, Mom and I skewered some chicken, Becky and Mike showed up with firewood, dad set up the chairs and coolers, and Sydni ran around with a headlamp attached to her head to occupy the dogs. Talk about teamwork (:

The sun eventually began to fade, our dinner plates were all empty, and it was time to get the real evening started with fire.


not too bad!

dad, mom, the dogs & a couple of my little pony characters

becky & sydni..
.. sydni's that blur of a headlamp running by ;)

S'mores.
It's not a family bonfire with smores. It's also not a real kick-off to Summer nights without smores. Becky got us started, using a peanut butter cup instead of the traditional Hershey bar.

nommmm!

Soon, we had a production line of smores lined up around the fire, a system in place, and seven sets of sticky fingers.

it's time for smores.
it's time for summer!

I could do this every weekend ♥

xo | cmd