Memorial Day 2015

On Memorial Day, Aaron wond up early and drove a few of the young men from church to set up flags on 50 lawns in Bentonville as part of a boy scout fundraiser. 

When Aaron returned, he did some yardwork, and worked on scraping away the walkway of our never-ending peeled paint  disaster porch project. I took Reese and Quincy to visit Frances. 

Frances looked great and was in good spirits. The poster birthday card from the children was hanging on the wall, and she asked about our little boy. She wasn't having the most lucid day, but it was good to be with her nonetheless. 

We made a spur of the moment trip over to Lake Ann for some kayaking and tube floating. It was a bit stressful to take so many non-swimming children to the lake. Part of my anxiety is a recurring nightmare that one of my children is drowning: the van goes off the road into the flooded creek and I can't save everyone in time, bathtub, the ocean, or the neighbor's pool. Any form of water, really, and I have at least 2 a week and sit straight up in bed insisting Soren is in the pool. Aaron has gone outside in the middle of the night to assure me the gate is closed and locked multiple times. I was really proud of myself for not only going to the lake, but driving over a flooded bridge to get there, and enjoying myself once we arrived.  We were short one jacket and it stressed me out so I eventually took the little ones with me back home to pick up a third jacket and remind myself that all of the things I imagined could happen at the lake were pretty unlikely. It helped to have so many extra adults watching out for the children too.  Luckily, with the 3 middle kids in life jackets, I felt much better, and they each gained enough confidence to be a little independent as the afternoon went on. I think this summer will be a critical one for Corbin and Quincy being water safe without any help. 

They all piled on big red floated around. 

Some prefer to do their "floating" from the docks. ;)

This is a summer preview, right here. 

Valerie sent me some pics she took, too. I wish I had her talent for photography! 

What a fun day. 

Aaron bought me this hat in Florida. I love it, and I love how thoughtful he was to think to bring me something. 

Thanks Lake Ann. We met the Chandlers there and were later joined by Davis' and Blakes.  Seidels came too and we decided to BBQ and play games. The kids were in friend-abundance heaven. 

After the BBQ, kids played and watched a movie and we played two new-to-IG games, "Telestrations" and "That's it!" -a word guessing game I really liked. The night ended with an intense downpour toad strangling thunderstorm. "Free showers!" I declared, and sent the kids to school the next day with leftover lake hair. Because that's the kind of end-of-school- mom I am. No one really cares about cleanliness or cuteness the last week, right? Right.