Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a great holiday, for a lot of reasons. Of course, the most important thing about it is the remembrance of those who have served and are still serving so that we may live as free individuals. I always think about my great-grandfather (WWII), who is no longer with us. I appreciate the willingness of those who go and do things that most of us would not want to do.

I love this holiday, because it's almost always beautiful outside at this time of year. That means we can enjoy a couple of really awesome things: outdoor activities, such as swimming, and my dad's brisket!

Ahh...doesn't it look inviting?

Beef. You know you want it.

I decided it would be a nice day to wash my Suburban, and I thought the boys might like to help me out. I knew they really wouldn't be much help, but they would have fun playing in the water. This turned out to be a massive project. The fun thing about all this road contruction/repaving around town is you get tar, rocks and dirt stuck all over your car. Yeah, that stuff is like concrete; almost impossible to remove without dynamite and a jackhammer. My dad had the spray tar remover stuff, and it helped some, but I still bent back two fingernails and worked my right arm into a horrific state of soreness trying to restore my paint job. Ouch. My dad did take some cute pictures of my assistants!

Check out the matching Spiderman swim trunks.

Thanks, Grammy!

And it begins...

Look at that grin. He's having a blast.

Look at cute little Nick-Nick!

Oh, and there's Mommy, doing all the work.

No one cares about her, though. :)

After all the car-washing "fun" (ha!), we went and jumped in the pool. Much better. The boys love to swim, and it turns out that Zoe is quite the little waterbug herself!

 Splash, splash, splash!

I thought I was going to drown.

After lunch and nap time, we went over to the neighbor's house. They have peach trees, and they're so full of fruit that the branches are on the ground and breaking. The boys had been over there before to pick some, and they had a great time. My parents' neighbors let them know that they were more than welcome to come and get some more whenever they liked.

I think Nicholas was still a little sleepy.

He looks confused.

Ethan knew what to do.

Bringing home the haul with Granddad.

Our peck of picked peaches!

I don't know what we're going to do with all these. 

Peach pie, anyone?

It was fun, and now we have lots of fruit! We had a really good day, overall. The best part of it was getting to eat brisket for dinner. Yum!

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday weekend with family, friends and fun!