Memorial Weekend

Wow, what a great Memorial weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous all 4 days (I’m including Friday). It was quite the fun-filled weekend.

I spent most of Friday cleaning up around the house, but I snuck out in the afternoon to pick up Scott’s birthday present. I got him a Craftsman 10” table saw. The tricky part was hiding it from him all weekend until his birthday on Sunday – for this, I had our friends Steve & Phu hide it in their garage until I went to pick it up on Sunday. More on that later.

Scott’s mom came in about 8:30 or so on Friday night. We spent the evening chatting, and I got to bed at a reasonable hour because I had to get up very early the next morning to prepare for the cookout. I woke up around 6 and finished up the cleaning I didn’t get to on Friday, then started cooking. I fixed baked beans, Baked Spinach Fiesta dip, crab dip, pasta salad, chocolate éclair cake, and then had chips & salsa and some potato chips. My mom brought mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese as well as brownies and a cake. She probably brought more stuff than that! Mandy brought pasta salad, and a few people brought cookies and cakes. In addition to all that, we of course had hamburgers, hot dogs, and barbeque chicken legs. So we had a TON of food.

We had a great turnout – about 20-25 people. It started at noon and people stayed until about 3:30 or 4:00. We played ladder ball, bocci ball, & Frisbee. The firefighters on scene (Bobby & my cousin Scott) had to fish some of the balls from ladder ball out of the tree a couple times (see pic). The kids played on the jungle gym. The weather was great – about 70 degrees and breezy, so it wasn’t too hot at all. After everyone left, my immediate family had a relaxing evening hanging out around the house. It was a great day. The other pic is of my dad and Ryne playing ladder ball. Ryne called the red balls "Cherries". LOL.

On Sunday, my plan was to wake up early, go get Scott’s birthday present, and put it in the garage until it was time to open his presents. However, Scott foiled my plan by waking up early and going to Lowe’s to get some things to work around the house! So, once he left, his mom and I ran to get his gift, then took a quick stop by the grocery store, and ended up hiding his gift in the back of my car with a garbage bag over-top of it. He was still very much surprised when he found out what I’d gotten him. I think he was very happy with it! We spent Sunday afternoon riding around and stopping at a few stores with the family. Anne & Scotty left Sunday evening to go back home.

On Monday morning, Bonnie (Scott’s mom), Scott and I went to Panera for breakfast, then went by Lowe’s for a little bit. We bought some Gerber daisies to plant around the mailbox. After leaving there, we took Bonnie to the train station. The drive up to Ashland from our house is beautiful. Her train was about an hour late, so we were there until about noon. On the way back, we stopped at 2 nurseries that we saw on the way there, and I bought a BEAUTIFUL hanging plant of Petunias – they are a couple different shades of purple. It’s HUGE! We bought a deck hook, and hung it on the back deck. We spent the rest of Sunday working in the yard, cleaning out the gutters, and doing some planting. Overall, it was an excellent weekend. And now, back to the grindstone. :(