Memorial Weekend

Reed Left on Thursday for UT where his brother got married (Congratulations Ben and Amanda, Reed said everything was beautiful and FUN!) so, the kids and I enjoyed the first part of the holiday weekend on our own. Luckily the weather was beautiful, so we get to do lots of fun things!

We started out at the zoo on Friday. Here the boys are watching the Siamang monkeys swing across on their ropes.

Here is Ella watching the birds. To be honest she is mostly watching her brothers. To her they are much more interesting than any animal in a cage.

Harley and the Tapier. A lot of times these guys are running  back and forth in their little area, but it was hot on Friday, so they were just resting in the shade.

Black bears

This one is of the Tigers. You can kind of sees one of them up at the top of the grass in the middle of the picture, but the other one is covered up by the glare. The boys wore their swimsuits so they could play in the fountains after we looked at the animal, but apparently even though the zoo closes at 5, they turn the fountains off at 4, so by the time we made it back around to the fountains they were off. Sorry boys!

We did follow a peacock around for a while. There are a bunch of them that just wonder around the zoo. Then in the goat pin there was a girl peacock, so this one jumped in and started showing off for her. 

Kason loved it. It was really pretty and big. But the whole thing terrified Harley. First it jumped up on the fence and at that point we were very close to it, so the sudden quick movement made Harley a little nervous and then it started squawking and all of the sudden opened its feathers. Harley started screaming and wouldn't' let go of me. Then Kason jumped on the fence to get a closer look and Harley was really worried for Kason. He kept yelling, "No brother, det down!" Poor Harley and his anxiety.

Saturday morning we had Tball. This is Kason and his little friend AJ.  I think the two of them do more messing around than playing TBall, but they are having fun, so that's what counts.

Ella and Harley enjoyed cheering on their brother

Kason thinks it's funny to get a "foul ball" which is when it just kind of falls off the tee instead of getting a real solid hit, so he will count, "1-2-3" then wind up and hit the ball really soft so it just barely falls off the tee. Then he looks at me and smiles like he is so hilarious. And he is! Go Nemos!

Then we headed out to the beach with some friends. The first thing we had to do was build a sand snowman. Kason saw this on Monkey George (I think) and was dying to give it a try.

We played in the sun, sand, and waves all day

with lots to do and lots of friends to play with, the kids lasted all afternoon! It was awesome! 

We even avoided any major sunburns. Well the kids did anyway, I got my back pretty good.

Kason and Gauge. Gauge is a year older than Kason, but they get along great. Kason LOVES Gauge.

Harley was more cautious about the big waves than Kason, so he spent most of his time playing in the sand.

He had somewhat of a hard time because he wanted to play with Kason, but is too little and mostly ended up getting yelled at for messing something up. Once again, poor Harley.

The waves were reportedly extra big due to a tropical storm moving up through Georgia (which we are enjoying thunderstorms from today). At first it made me really nervous to watch Kason get knocked down and under the water every time there was a wave, but he held his own and was really enjoying himself, so I eventually relaxed a little.

The boys thought it was fun to let the wave come in while they sat down and then try to stand up really fast before it crashed over their heads. Most of the time they got buried by the wave, but they still loved it.

Gotta love beach pictures! Great lighting, great scenery.

With Ella, we had to once again overcome the desire to eat the sand, but she eventually decided it was more fun to pick it up and drop it. And kick her feet in it. She did really well being at the beach all day, once again she is such a happy girl!

Reed joined us again late Sunday night/Early Monday morning. Memorial day we went to the annual Pig Pickin' at Sleepy Hole Park. Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures, but this was a highly anticipated event at our house. Kason especially was very interested in what a Pig Pickin' would be like. He even said at one point that he was really excited to, "see the big pig all dead!" So, Reed took him over to the pig first thing. It's a whole pig, so you can see its head and feet and everything. I'm not so sure it was quite as cool in person. Harley called it, "That gross thing." But man was it delicious!

After the Pig Pickin' we invited some friends over to Reed's Parent's house to go swimming. We had a great time enjoying the sun and good company. This is the only picture I got monday. Ella is hanging out in the kiddy pool. She really likes the water!

Today is rainy and dark and kind of boring with only laundry to do and Reed back at work all day. That's why one of my favorite quotes is, "God gave us memories that we might have roses in December" and might I add, "...Sunshine on cloudy days."