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."

Happy Birthday to Me!

On May 19th I had another birthday! I have found that I sometimes have to do the math (you know, 2012-1984=?) to figure out my age. I always thought it was so weird when people would have to do that and now here I am, at only 28...um yeah...28 and I'm already doing it! Oh well, the joys of getting old :).

I had a great birthday celebration! We had a pool party and grilled and a chocolate cake!

Ella had fun hanging out in the pool. She really liked the floaty, I think she's going to be a little fish like Kason. And we found a cool little tree frog in the pool. The boys kept busy chasing it all over the yard.

We enjoyed dinner outside and then went inside for cake and presents. The boys really enjoyed helping out with the candles. Of course fire is fascinating to little (and big for that matter) boys in all it's forms. 

Chocolate cake is pretty interesting too

On Saturday I went and say the Avengers while Reed and the kids did some work on our yard. I really liked the movie and the break, even if I had to go all by myself, it was nice and calm and quiet, I hardly know the meaning of those words anymore. Thank you everyone for a wonderful Birthday!

Tennessee

We spent last week in Tennessee at my brother's house. My mom, dad and sister came out as well. We were busy and a little cramped, but we had a wonderful time! Jeff and Tammy are great hosts and the kids had a great time together. We took lots of pictures! Between three cameras there were over 2000 pictures taken! Here are just a few...

The boys were very excited when we started seeing "mountains". This is at a gas station in the Smokey Mountains. If they only knew,  these are just barely hills where I'm from.

We all traveled to Tennessee to meet the newest addition to the Bylund clan, Henery James Bylund. He was just a month old and very sweet. New babies are the best!

The first day we headed to the Grand Ole Opry Hotel. They have these huge indoor gardens with fountains and waterfalls and beautiful flowers and plants. We asked one of the gardeners about how they keep it so immaculate (no weeds anywhere, that's my kind of garden!), they said that because it's indoors they don't get any weeds. I'd like to bring in a couple of dandelions to blow all over the place, is that evil? 

Here are Eli and Kason at the hotel pretending to be statues. This is how we got them to stop and wait for us when they wanted to run ahead. Flowers are only interesting to preschoolers for so long I guess. 

Here's Harley and Meg enjoying the scenery from their plush double  stroller.  

We had in incident where Harley lost his shoe in the Koi pond. The fish when crazy -  like it was food and they were starving. We did end up getting it back and Harley was happy to know that his shoe had been "kissed" by all of those fish. We told him the fish kissed his shoe, because when someone said, "they are eating it!" He became very concerned for the welfare of his shoe. Not surprising considering Harley's obsession with shoes, the kid loves them!

That night we went to a very yummy BBQ place for dinner. They had these cheese cornbread muffins that were amazing! And best of all "Soooda" (as Harley calls it) or Rootbeer as it is more commonly known.

The next day we went to Cheekwood Gardens. It is a very cool place with lots of different gardens and it was a beautiful day to enjoy them. They were in the process of setting up a really cool treehouse exhibit. We were a little early for most of it, but they did have this one done.

Meg and Harley walking down the spiral staircase that lead up to the treehouse.

This was the first time since Jeff and Tammy moved to TN (at which point there were only 2) that all of the cousins have been together. Getting a picture was not easy, they each have a mind of their own. 

We took advantage of the beautiful scenery as well as Jeff and Tammy's nice camera and did some family pictures.

The sweet and goofy Kason Anthony

The funny and determined Harley James

The Happy and curious Ella Rebecca

The happy couple (By the time I realized Reed's are closed in this picture it was too late to change it. It takes so long to move the pictures to where you want them in Blogger....He looks handsome anyway ;).

Are next adventure was to a really cool urban park. 

The kids played in the fountains

Ella mostly sat in her stroller and looked cute in her swimsuit, and was very good at it! (Hmm...I don't know what happened to my other fountain picture, but like I said it takes way to long to add a picture where I want it and I have already spent way to long on this post... the natives are getting restless).

We also went to a farmers market that was downtown. The kids looked cute in their matching outfits (thanks Mom!)

Love that little scrunched face!

They had a fun concret sled that the kids (mostly the younger ones, and especially Meg) spent a lot of time on.

We even got mom to go for a ride.

They also had a rock wall that was fun, and surprisingly challenging for a children's playground.

Ella and Nana. It was fun for everyone to get to know Ella. When we were out at Christmas she was still a little baby, now she has so much more personality and is so cute and happy!

A rare picture of Harley and I together where Harley is not crying for his daddy. I guess TN was good for us :)

That night we went to Monell's. It's a family style, homemade, southern food, resturant. It was a lot of fun and very very good. I learned I really like corn pudding.

Good bye Tennessee! It was an awesome week. We really missed uncle Mike who couldn't get work off to come, but everyone there took part in some high quality fun and bonding. I learned a few things - number one that I wish we all lived closer together. I learned that I can get a good night's sleep on an air mattress. And by looking at these pictures I learned that I really need a haircut and to loose a couple of pounds - oh well. Thanks Jeff and Tammy and family for a wonderful vacation!

We got one group picture. Everyone together, but Mike... We missed you Mike!