Memorial Day Weekend!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  A special thank you to all of those serving in our armed forces.  My cousin and his wife are both in the military as well as a number of family friends who serve our country.  Thank you for all that you do for us!

We've had a fun, very full, long weekend!  I'm so thankful my company [usually] gives us an early release before a big holiday weekend. 

Friday I got off work at 2... okay didn't leave until 2:30 pm, but that's still way earlier than 5!  We had my little brother's high school graduation Baccalaureate Mass that evening, so instead of wrestling him throughout Mass, he went to our friend's house to hang with them and their little girls.  Mass was really nice for all of the graduates!  That evening we didn't get home until after 10... Jack luckily fell asleep on the way home, so it was straight into bed for him!  (See previous post on his new fight to go to sleep at night)

Saturday was a little more low key, but relatively productive!  We got some family time in that morning and, when Jack went down for a nap, I got to run a few errands while my amazing husband mowed grass and did some laundry!  I got to get a birthday gift for a party later that day, and had fun picking out items for my friend's baby shower gift!  Jack & I are going down in a week & a half to visit and attend her baby shower... she's planning on cloth diapering her little guy so it was a LOT of fun to buy for a new baby!  (That will have to be another post on what I chose to get her.)  Saturday evening, we attended the birthday party for the first of our "baby crew" who turned two!  (Baby crew = there are 4 of our friends' kids all born within 3-4 weeks of each other; 3 boys and 1 girl) It was a blast of course!  Jack had a cupcake and even "jumped" on their full-sized trampoline!

Jumping doesn't quite involve both feet off the ground at the same time, but it still got lots of giggles!

My son eating a cupcake... not only did he get icing on his face, but he smeared it up by his eyes using his hands.  Hence, why I had to take over holding the cupcake!

Sunday was my baby brother's high school graduation!  He's the 4th, and final, of all of us to have graduated from a Catholic high school!  I was the only one who attended public school during my K-12 education, simply because there wasn't a Catholic school in one town in which we lived.  A big thanks to my mom & dad for putting us all through Catholic schools... Matt and I hope to be able to share that experience with our children when they reach school age, because we both loved our Catholic school experiences!  It was really neat at the graduation to hear of the family who had their 11 or 12th (and youngest) child graduating Catholic school, for a grand total of 30 years of Catholic education amongst their kids!  Amazing!  But anyway, congrats to my baby brother on his high school graduation and good luck in college!  We all know you'll do great!  We went out to lunch to celebrate, and of course Jack wouldn't sit down at the table for more than 5 minutes, and even begged Daddy to do a few laps outside Olive Garden.  But he did ask the waitress for milk very politely by saying "malk peese"... who can resist that?

You can tell it was a hot couple of laps around Olive Garden... sucked about half of that milk down without taking his mouth off the straw!

Mommy got some snuggles with her baby boy that evening!  Is it just me or does my belly look huge in this picture?  Only about 18 & a half weeks along...

Today has been very full, and we did it by our choosing!  We went to the zoo for about an hour & a half this morning.  Yup, only an hour & a half, but we have passes and it was HOT.  This pregnant mama and her toddler got really hot, pretty quickly!  Oh well, that is why we'll always get passes to the zoo... no need to fit everything in during one visit!  After Jack's afternoon nap, we made an appearance at Matt's boss' annual Memorial Day cookout.  Jack and I went swimming... and he LOVED it!

Point to the (grizzly?) bear!  I love how close he can get to the animals at our zoo!

Enjoying the pool... the water was the perfect temperature for me!

Playing some pool basketball!  Much to Jack's disappointment, I could only life 30 pounds above my head a handful of times so he could put the ball through the hoop.

The conclusion after this weekend: it is going to be one fun summer!