Memorial Day

Kids at the beach

 Thanks to my Dad who orchestrated and funded everything we had an awesome memorial day weekend.  We picked Brian & Katie (my brother's fiance) up from the airport late Thursday night so Jared and I stayed up way too late talking with them.  The next morning we appreciated their help getting kids to school.  After hanging out a little and packing up some food we decided to pick the kids up early from school and take a trip to the Beach.  Although we did eventually give up fighting the wind, it was fun to get out and about and brave the beach.  That night we had a yummy dinner, sent Brian & Katie out with Emma on a Trader Joe's run, then hosted my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin's family over for dessert so they could meet Katie as well.  Unfortunately, Emma was having a very rough night of constipation & teething combined so I did NOT get any pictures with that crew, but we were glad to have them over.

Brian & Katie at the beach

You might not be able to tell, but each of the kids was sobbing with fear of the ocean as I took this picture!

 Lucky for us, it was Katie's Birthday that Saturday so the girls helped me decorate the dining room with streamers, hang up the birthday banner, set out the VIP place setting and cook a yummy birthday breakfast.  We were so grateful to get to know Katie before she ventures off to Alaska for her summer job.  She and Brian were super patient and helpful with our crazy crew of kids and even helped me throughout the weekend as we drove up to Dixon without Jared to join the rest of the family and festivities.

Katie's Birthday breakfast

 We drove up to Dixon for the remainder of the extended weekend and had a great time meeting up with Nate & Tausha and Kelsey who drove in from Idaho.  I'll be honest, Nate came because the A's were playing the Giants for the "Battle of the Bay" and he wanted to hit up 3 games in 3 days, but lucky for us it coincided with a weekend that my Dad was turning 60 and that Brian & Katie were in town.  We had a birthday dinner/celebration for Katie one night, a birthday dinner/celebration for my Dad the next night and then Memorial day the following day so there was no lack of noise, fun and good food.  The kids were completely spoiled by everyone and luckily aunt Kelsey was able to get Emma down for bed since I had no luck with the other 3 (esp. Jonas).

Katie's Birthday dessert

Kelsey getting Emma down for naps

 It was so much fun to see Emma & Florin playing together (only 19 days apart in age) and Nate even orchestrated some baby sumo wrestling one night for all our entertainment :)  As we were driving up to my parent's house my kids were all arguing about who would get to hold baby Florin first and I think Lillian must have won out.  When she was holding Florin she got some really slobbery smooches from him that were too cute!

Florin & Emma "playing" together

Lillian holding Florin

 On Memorial Day we started out the day by going to the National Veterans Cemetery in Dixon for a patriotic program and salute to the colors.  I was so glad we could help the kids see the reason we had a day off of school, even though they were having trouble being quiet so Grandpa thankfully took them on a walk around the gravestones.   We knew it would be a good day since Lillian found a four leaf clover (maybe not technically a clover, but it had four leaves and sure looked like one), and uncle Nate found two lady bugs crawling on his leg. 

Lillian and her four leaf clover

Uncle Nate's Ladybug (one already climbed down)

Jocelyn & Lillian at cemetery

Grandpa's 60th birthday

Kids on Memorial Day

We really missed having Jared with us for the weekend but he was able to get some rest, accomplish some work and studied for the patent bar exam instead.  All of which were very MUCH needed.