Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a very busy day. We started out with our traditional breakfast of ziplock omelets at Aunt Lauralyn's house. It was just as tasty as always and lots of fun to visit and play with cousins that we only see twice a year. I think it's funny how the kids can pick up right were they left off playing last time and always have a good time together. Maddie, Jeni and cousin Madie really enjoyed having Bob swing them in the hammock.
The very low hanging hammock! Looks like fun to me!
Later on we went over to the Bountiful Cemetery with Steve and Sarah to visit Grandma Laura's grave. We had a few flowers and some pictures the girls had drawn that we left.I loved this picture that Jeni drew for Grandma. The picture is of Grandma Laura holding Jeni when she was 6 months old. It has been hanging on our fridge for a long time so Jeni took it down and drew a picture of it to leave at the grave site.Then we went over to Arlene's grave where the girls left more flowers and the pictures they had drawn for Grandma Moultrie. We admired the newly placed granite slab that had been put over the plots (while we wondered how they will put a far-off-in-the-future casket, or four, underneath it?) and we admired the beautiful temporary plaque that Dave made. The girls carefully spread flower petals that had fallen from the snowballs that Dee left all over the granite and then the kids played chase for a while. I wondered if that was appropriate but yet I'm sure if Arlene could see the kids she would want to see them running and playing instead of moping and crying. All though, after a while I did gathered the kids up and we made our way back to the car and let Bob have a few minutes alone with his mom.
Sometimes I enjoy walking around a cemetery. It's fun to see how old some of the graves are and to wonder about the lives of those buried there. Most of them where men and women who lived and loved, worked and played, celebrated and struggled and sometimes made the ulitmate sacrifice for our freedoms. What were they like? What is the history hiding underneath those headstones? It's always heart wrenching to see the graves of people who died way too young, especially babies, but it's tempered a little bit when you see how long most of the people buried there lived. Cemeteries can be interesting places to go.

After we finished at the cemetery we went swimming at the rec. center with Steve and Sarah for a while and then we finished off the day with a nice barbecue over at the Moultrie's. All in all it was a very nice day.

2 comments:

West Family said...

Your girls are so thoughtful. I love the picture Jeni drew. It also made me sad to think that Grandpa took snowballs from the yard to Grandma. Thanks for telling about that I might not have known his sweet thought. Glad you had a good day, it looks so sunny and warm---jealous!!!!

John + Bethany said...

It was good to see you guys at breakfast. We really need to get together with you guys more often (ie not just holidays and weddings).