memorial day weekend

For the first time in a lot of years, we didn't have a wedding on Memorial Day Weekend. So we packed up and headed to the river for a little extended weekend. Any and all time spent at the river is good for the soul. We are grateful for the time we are able to spend there. It wasn't particularly warm, but that didn't stop the kids in anyway. We rode bikes, put in the dock, played bad mitten and wiffle ball, swam, and ate great food. See what I mean?

According to my best math, these kids are third cousins. I grew up coming to the river with their parents. My mom grew up going to the river with their grandparents. That's pretty darn special for family to spend that many generations together. This tree fell down earlier in the week so they spent quite a bit of time playing, climbing and hanging out on this. Who knew a tree could be this much fun?

Ted was waiting for everyone to wake up one morning so he played a game of sorry by himself using all four colors.

What do you do at 7:30 am? Play badmitten. 

What do you do when it rains? Play badmitten.

They even made a tournament with a winners and losers bracket.

More playing on the tree.

Trying to make it look like the tree wasn't on the ground.

We had a little memorial service for Millie. We decided a long time ago that she would be buried at the river. So we took her ashes and buried her. My parents, Uncle Jim and Mayor John joined us.

Everyone said their favorite thing about Millie.

And then everyone shoveled some dirt.

It was nice and a little sad. But we're glad that we got to do that all together at her favorite place. (And ours too.)

An Amish guy came to check out the tree to see if they could use it for wood. I snapped this picture for Ben and Scott and reliving their glory days.

Sophie had two birthday cakes at the river. It was definitely a weekend celebration.

She opened her gifts on Sunday morning after breakfast. Her favorite was the Garmin activity tracker. She's killing everyone on steps and active minutes.

The guys put in the dock.

The kids waiting no-so-patiently.

And the rest of the spectators.

And convinced the kids that the water was warm. It definitely was NOT! The kids all jumped in together. You can't hear them over us laughing so hard, but they were screeching and yelling about how cold the water was!

The girls stayed in the longest and may or may not have regretted it!

Sophie made and iced her own cake. Ben gave her a lesson on icing the icing, not icing the cake.

Pat & Ted - I love their relationship!

It rained hard on Sunday night. So instead of a fire (huge bummer) we took a little field trip over to the All Stars in East Brady. Never a dull moment.

We didn't realize quite how much it rained until we got up Monday morning. Yikes! That the dock we put in the day before.

 

We had a great long weekend there. I'm always excited when we get an assignment at YL Camp in the summer. But one of the things I miss the most is not going here as much. I love that my kids love it here and I'm thankful for generations of family making incredible memories.