Lake Murray Memorial Day

According to Wikipedia, Memorial Day "was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War." (Other websites don't necessarily agree.) Regardless of its origins, I would like to start this post by saying how grateful I am to the men and women who have sacrificed everything for our country. I think that in many ways Memorial Day has just become a kick off to summer vacation, which is a bit sad.

We spent Memorial Day at Lake Murray. It has a nice long beach and the kids had a lot of fun. We forgot the camera and had to take all the pictures on David's cell phone. Baylie LOVES the water and wants to be in water all the time. She can't stop talking about when her cousins Lauryn and Clara come to visit and go to the beach, pool and lake with her.

Jalen loves the water, but he especially loves the sand. We can't get him to stop eating it.

After the lake, we went to Cold Stone where we cashed in a 2 for 1 coupon and got some ice cream. David couldn't feed Jalen fast enough to suit him.

Baylie loved her sprinkles.

Later we went to a neighborhood picnic. It was a great family day.

Pool Day

Our pool is officially open. For at least a month, Baylie has been asking every day if we could go swimming. Today she finally got her wish. She LOVES the water. I'm hoping that by the end of summer she'll be able to swim on her own without floaties.

Jalen wasn't too thrilled with the experience at first, but before long he loved it.

Can you bend spoons? (name the movie)

We plan on spending a lot of time at the pool this summer!

Can I Borrow a Pencil?

Zoo Day

I've blogged before about how much I love our zoo. It's even more fun now because Jalen can now run around without being stuck in the stroller. He's crazy about the carousel and loves to say "roar!".

He offered moral support to Baylie while she milked the cow with a new aquaintance.

He loved feeding the goats (he also liked their food). He stuck his fingers in their mouth even without food. He wasn't afraid at all.

He loved feeding the giraffe.

Did you know that flamingos have black wings??

They display them when they're fighting.

The bears were also wrestling today. I wasn't sure at one point if they were wrestling or mating, but I think they're both males, so we'll go with wrestling.

I just had to throw in these pictures of Baylie rockin' her fro. (She has a super ball in her mouth.)

This is to show how long her hair is.

I love my kids!

I Love This Face!

This is Jalen's cheesy face. It's also how he responds sometimes when you ask him where his eyes are. Usually his response is a little more normal.

Nose

Ears

Mouth

Eyes

Family of Finches

UPDATE: Two of our formerly empty nests now have five eggs each in them!

Some of you have followed this fascinating story on my facebook page. But I've decided to chronicle it here as well.

Not long after we hung up a Boston fern, a pair of finches set up home there.

They built a little nest. (In fact, before long we had two nests in the fern, and at least one nest in all our other hanging flower pots.)

Two eggs were laid in the nest, and then two more.

After a couple of weeks, the eggs were replaced by little fuzz balls with beaks.

We went to Utah for a couple of weeks. When we came back, I peeked in on our finches only to have them fly out of the nest. One flew right into the house. It banged into walls and windows until it was a little disoriented. I finally caught it and placed it back in the nest. You can tell it's a baby because it has extra down on its head and in its wings.

It's been fun to watch this whole process and to share it with Baylie. She wants to get the fern down every day to check on the nest.

Currently our porch is full of birds. I'm a little worried about what to do when the tomatoes ripen!

Survivor

My men survived the campout!

Jalen cried most of the way to the campground, but once there he was in heaven. He loved being outside and having other kids to play with (he was by far the youngest camper).

He and his daddy slept in a great big tent all by themselves and Jalen thought it was great. He has become a big watermelon fan.

The guys had a dip in the lake. We have to watch Jalen because he loves water and has no fear. I plan to spend a lot of time at the pool this year, so hopefully soon he'll be able to swim.

As for us girls, we went to a dance recital. I thought Baylie would get tired of it and want to go, but she loved every minute of it. I wish we could afford to put her in lessons. She eats it up.

Speaking of eating it up, we went to Baskin Robbins afterwards and she got bubblegum ice cream.

Then we headed home for a movie, manicures and pedicures. It was pretty peaceful around here with just the two of us. Baylie missed her daddy though. She didn't like that he wasn't sleeping at home.

Paparazzi and Paranoia

From time to time, strangers ask permission to take pictures of Baylie. Sometimes they don't ask, they just take them. Should this bother me? These people have ranged from high schoolers using cell phones at football games, to a Chinese tourist on the coast of Italy, to a mom at the zoo today. When people ask, I usually say it's okay, but then later I wonder if I should say no. It kind of creeps me out when people do it without asking. On the other hand, I remember one time at the Alamo I saw an adorable little boy in a big black cowboy hat and I took his picture - without permission. David thinks it's okay as long as Baylie isn't in a swimming suit or less and the person seems normal. What do you think? Would you let a stranger take a picture of your child?

On a completely different note, tonight is going to be David and Jalen's first father/son campout. I am really excited for them to have this "manly" time together and I have a fun evening planned with Baylie. However, I have to confess to being a little freaked out about letting my baby spend the night in the wild outdoors without me. Long time readers will know that I tend to think of the worst case scenario on a regular basis. For example, will David roll over and smother Jalen? Will Jalen get caught in the bottom of a sleeping bag and suffocate? Will he wander into the lake and drown? Will he get run over in the parking lot? Will he be attacked by bears or alligators? Will he wander off or get kidnapped? How will I keep myself from going crazy until they get back tomorrow morning?

I know it's horrible to even think these things, but I have a sick mind when it comes to this. It drives my dad crazy.

How Was Your Day?

I spent my morning evaluating my love/hate relationship with crafts...

... and tissues.

Mayhem, Mother's Day and Medicinal Marijuana

We recently returned from a fabulous trip to Las Vegas and Utah. Usually when we fly home, we only have a day or two and the time goes way too fast. This time, we had a week and a half. It was great and we all had a blast. I love my family more than anything.

Our first stop was Las Vegas for my nephew Cameron's baptism. He is such a great kid and was so excited to get baptized.

My childhood babysitter now lives in Vegas and came to the baptism. She is a crazy lady and it has been so fun to reconnect with her. I think we look the same age now. She has a business where she takes medicinal marijuana and cooks with it. It helps people (including her) who have prescriptions for marijuana take it without having to smoke it. It was fascinating to learn about her business. (Note: I'm not promoting it, so no need to comment on it.)

For her 55th birthday, she shaved her head. She wore a wig to the baptism because she didn't think it would be appropriate to show up bald.

But afterwards, she took it off!

The kids had a blast trying it on. Baylie looks like a mini Tina Turner.

Jalen looks like, well I'm not sure what he looks like, but he's still cute.

Baylie was in heaven having her little cousins Lauryn and Clara around 24/7.

Next we headed to Utah. My dad is retiring after more than 40 years as an educator. He has spent the past 10 years at Timpview High School in Provo. They threw a big retirement bash for him. My entire family except for one niece and a brother-in-law was able to be there.

It was gratifying to see him honored and appreciated by so many people. The faculty bought him a Frederic Remington sculpture of a cowboy. It was the perfect gift for him.

The kids were just excited to have balloons.

The other big event was the baptism of my nephew Kolton. He has always had a special relationship with his Uncle David so we were especially glad David could be there on Kolton's special day.

While in Utah, the little girls got to go to Aunt Bethany's fairy tale ballet class. When Aunt Bethany brought in these beautiful princess dresses, Baylie said "Oh......my......gosh!" She was in heaven dancing in her princess dress. These little girls are such good friends. It's going to be so much fun watching them grow up together.

Utah finally got some heat, so we broke out the sprinklers, slippery slide and kiddie pool.

All Jalen needed was a surfboard.

Somewhere in the middle of it all was Mother's Day. It was fun to spend it with my children and my mom.

As usual, we had a little adventure flying home since Baylie threw up on the plane, but other than that, it was pretty uneventful. It was great to be back in our own little apartment again. (Although the kids really miss having space to run and a backyard in which to run free.)

Once we got home, Jalen and David both shaved their heads (okay, I shaved them). I like bald heads, but David looks so much like his brother Isaac now that it's freaking me out a little.