Memorial Day

So, do you remember how accomplished I felt at the beginning of the weekend? Well, we didn't do quite as much today. We started out by completely taking advantage that our little family was together and didn't have anything that we had to do today. Rachel woke up about 7 and we brought her into our bed, curled up with the Zoe and watched a little Sesame Street. We had a little breakfast and were back on the couch as a family watching The Cat in the Hat in no time. It was GREAT.

Dustin found some free tickets to the Salem Red Sox game in our Val-Pak, so we headed there for some entertainment. (It was a good cheap lunch since it was dollar day too!) Of course it was 90-something degrees, no shade, and very little breeze, so we only stayed about an hour, but it was still fun.

Rachel loved clapping when everyone else cheered, pointing to the balls (both the baseballs and the speakers hanging around the stadium).

Then we came home and cooled off in her little pool. I have to say, sticking your feet in a little water cools you off a lot!

Ready to go!

She loved splashing around!

Accomplishment

This weekend is a 4 day weekend for us! I really wish we could've had more snow days throughout the winter, but it was so nice not having to use our make up day on Friday! I have to admit... we were "those" parents on Friday though. You know, the ones who still took their kids to daycare and ran around to do some errands kid-free. I had a little bit of guilt, but it was so nice to take our time and not have a fussy-pants on our hands through a furniture store. Plus, it would have been a really tight fit in the car with a few of our purchases! And, Rachel really does enjoy playing with her friends.

Rachel's favorite purchase of ours... her new pool! It has already been a hot season, so we got her a little wading pool. We let her get in it while we were putting purchase #2 together. She splashed so much, even though the water was still really cold. I can't wait to let her really play in it!

My parents sent me money for patio furniture for my birthday. We just now got a chance to go and get it. (The box was much easier to fit in the car without a car seat in there!)

And finally...
Woo Hoo! Our new dining room table! (My Mother's day/every holiday coming up gift!) We had a hand-me-down table that we have been using since we got married. It was a very nice table and we really appreciated the table, but it was time for a new one. It is a few inches wider than our old one and the shape gives a lot more space, too. (The old one was oval and we had a hard time squishing more than 4 chairs around it) There is one more chair that it comes with, but there was a chip on one of the corners, so they're working on it for us.

I feel like we got so much done that I've been wanting to already, and the weekend is only half done! We did some other fun things too that will come in another post.

Band wife=Chaperone

Each Spring, Dustin takes his students on a long weekend trip. This is the first year that I've been able to go with him and I was so excited. I have to admit that I don't remember the bus being quite that uncomfortable though. (I guess I was in denial that the last time I was on a tour bus I was 8 years younger and had not had a child...)

We had a great time and were able to see a lot of really cool things. We left late Friday night, drove through the night to Memphis and spent the day seeing a lot of Elvis and Rock and Roll.

Graceland... not as big as what you would have thought.

The piano Elvis played the morning of the day he died.

Then we took the kids to Beale Street and we headed a few blocks down to see where the flooding had been. This is all the mud still caked on the sidewalk. The river is still really high on the Western side, but had obviously gone down where we were.

We got to take a tour of Sun Studio... where Elvis recorded his first song. It was also in the movie Walk the Line (there was a scene when Johnny Cash looks in and sees Elvis recording- yep, this was the place)

Then we toured the Gibson Guitar factory...

And the Rock n Soul museum.

Then we got to eat!

Then, we headed to Nashville to finally get some real sleep! It might have only been 6 hours, but they were good! Then up early and headed to Dollywood. We had a really good time there until about an hour and a half before we were set to leave. That is when I could have sworn that a hurricane hit. About half the kids made it to the exit... a few groups were stuck on the complete opposite side of the park when the monsoon struck. Thank goodness for cell phones- everyone was accounted for, just not with us. It wasn't too long before we were all on the bus and heading to the hotel before dinner.

We had a little health issue on the way to the hotel that resulted in Dustin spending the evening at the hospital with a student and her flying back to Roanoke, but she is doing better now. (It wasn't anything that was preventable- and we knew ahead of time that there was a slight possibility of it happening.)

The next morning we ended the trip the best possible way- an outlet mall! Dustin took off to do his thing and left the other 30-something female chaperone and myself to go where we wanted! The kids were excited because there was a Starbucks!
We got back early afternoon Monday and pretty much just crashed! I have to say that the kids were great! We had no problems out of any of them and got great compliments from hotel staff saying that it was very unusual for high schoolers to be so well behaved.

(By the way, Rachel and Zoe were at home with Dustin's parents who came up for the weekend. Thanks Grandma and Papa!)

Mother's Day

Ok, just a little late getting the Mother's Day post up- oh well, better late than never, right? I had a wonderful day that came at the perfect time. The week before was an extremely busy one when we really didn't get to spend much quality family time together. There were meetings and get-togethers every night!

So Dustin surprised me on Saturday morning and took me to IHOP for breakfast! Then he took me shopping to start looking for my present- a new dining room table! (We still haven't picked one out yet, but I'm enjoying looking!) Then we headed to the Strawberry Festival.

On Sunday we spent the afternoon going for a walk and spending time with Zoe since she had been a little neglected the week before.

The best Mother's Day gift!

Out with the other baby

Mom made a quick trip up this past weekend to spend some time with us. (we also had an event on Saturday that she helped us out with by keeping Rachel entertained)

Little Miss Nakey Pants

This is how we found Rachel on Saturday morning. It was shocking but really kind of funny at first. However, she has done this about 4 more times since then, 2 of which resulted in changing the sheet... On Sunday she looked at the nursery workers then pointed to her diaper after she had pooped.

We bought her a potty seat tonight.

Strawberry Festival

Saturday was Roanoke's Strawberry Festival. I had never been before because Dustin doesn't like strawberries. This year we (meaning I) decided to go! There were so many people there and we had a good time once we found a parking space.

Yummy!

Rachel and I met up with Lindsey and Layna and took a walk around while Dustin went home to get all of his photo gear to take senior pictures.

Sweet little friends!

Some random guy spoiling his little dog.

A friend of a friend's huge dog getting a little refreshment!

Small Group Picnic

I can't believe that our small group is "over" for the semester. We have life groups that change each semester, so as our schedules change, we can find groups that fit what we need. Each group is also specific to different topics, so this semester we had one focused on marriage, last semester I went to one that was all women, while Dustin went to a mountain bike group. Anyway... we have finished our series, so we decided to have a picnic at a local park so all the kids could play.

Some of our group- we had a lot of people there! So much fun!

A lot of our pastors came, too! I love the fact that they are involved and make it a point to come to events...

Or maybe they just wanted to have some free food! Yummy!

Rachel followed Charley around!

Sweet little Maddie

Jayanna being a little monkey!

Rachel on the big girl swing... she didn't last too much longer after this picture was taken, but she recovered well from the fall!

I can't wait for our next event with this awesome group!