Memorial Day Memories

We enjoyed a great weekend at my parents' house for Memorial Day weekend. That seems to be a tradition for us. Our anniversary is always over that weekend, so it's nice to spend it there. We have built in babysitters! Thanks Mom and Dad!

This year we had a special afternoon at the Newcastle Cemetery visiting the graves of some of our relatives. I was really glad that we did it, not only to show our love and respect, but to teach our children about our family members that have died. At my dad's suggestion, the adults took turns sharing memories about each of them. The grandchildren were amazingly interested and attentive! My favorite was my brother's memory of our great-grandma Staples and how she would always tell him, "Kid, don't ever let them take your teeth!" She had false teeth (I guess they're called dentures, but that's what she always called them!) since she was in her 40s, and they weren't particularly good ones, so that was an important piece of advice from her!

We also enjoyed the fun activities that go along with visiting Grandma and Grandpa, one of which was fishing. Boy, was Coleman in heaven! Ellie really enjoyed herself too, but her favorite part was playing with the worms with Anson. Claire wasn't really interested, but she was excited for Coleman when he caught fish. I caught a couple too, but Coleman couldn't decide who "won" (I didn't know I was entering a contest when we started). He caught the most, with 3 fish, and I caught the biggest and the most variety, because I caught a perch and a bass, whereas he only caught perch. What a dilemma this was for him! He talked about it for a very long time.