Picnic

Memorial Day-what a wonderful day. I think of all of my friends in the armed services and I feel that a simple "thank you" does not express my gratitude for their service and sacrifice for this country. I think about my Papa who is now resting with God, and my Uncle Bill and I am filled with pride in them and this country. What a great country this is!!To celebrate Memorial Day, our church went to a local park and had a great time. The kids played miniature golf, jumped in jump houses, and rode on various other rides throughout the park. We also indulged in a little bit of caramel kettle corn (notice I said CARAMEL corn, not just kettle corn. If you're going to eat the calories anyway, what does it hurt to drizzle it with a little caramel?) Anyway, here are some shots of the kids enjoying themselves.

Will walking the kids to some of the rides.
Eating lunch.
Yum! Strawberries!!

Oh, but have I mentioned the "lake"? Ya, this was fun....(ok, it was a little fun but only in the "it's-fun-because-the-kids-are-having-fun" kind of way). Rowing in a rowboat takes a lot of courage and strength anyway but when you throw in 1 terrified toddler (my Ty), 2 wanna-try-it-all kindergarteners, water that's only 3 feet deep but murkier than Loch Ness, oars that have no place to attach to the boat, and a woman (me) who outweighs all 3 aforementioned kiddos, and you've got a fun 20 minutes that reminded me a little bit of summer camp gone horribly wrong. Oh, here's the snapshot. I'm smiling because I haven't taken the oars yet to try to steer us into shore. *sigh* No, really, I did have a good time when I wasn't worrying about my kindergartener trying to lean over to touch the "water" or whatever it was.
So the park was fun. Didn't get much adult interaction but fun just the same. Funny how having 3 kids kind of puts a damper on your social life when you go to outdoor gatherings.

This next segment I'm so excited about. I finally got my rocks for the backyard! I won't mention, or maybe I will, that I've wanted them for about 4 years to complete the back corner and side yard. But they're here! The whole neighborhood knew that they were here too, thanks to the commotion that happened at about 7:30 in the morning. First of all, the delivery truck (roughly the size of a garbage truck) parked a few houses down in the wee 7:00 hour and chugged quite loudly before the driver shut it off. I winced at the noise but thought that was the end of it. Then came the forklift. For some unknown reason, forklifts are equipped with a strange, fire-alarm beeping sound that accompanies the reverse gear which is loud enough to wake the dead. Do we not SEE it backing up? Is there a reason we need to be warned of this? Then came the loudest sound of all, metal on metal when the forklift's arms slid underneath the metal bin of rocks. I'm hoping that the fact that we aren't usually the noise-makers in our neighborhood gave us a little bit of leeway when it came to the early morning wake-up-call.

Here is the before picture: I'll post the after picture soon. The kids enjoyed the rock pile. I didn't take the "after" shot of Lynnea when she was finished playing.