Memorial Day

I know that this might be silly, but I honestly just learned the distinction between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  I knew that they were both for people in the service but somebody who is in the service told me that it was one of their pet peeves when civilians (especially military personal) mix them up.  Memorial Day is to remember all the people who gave their lives in service and Veterans Day is to recognize all the people who completed their obligations and are still living.  So, there you go.  It's always nice to recognize and honor the people who fight for this country, but now we can honor them specially on their day.  :)






To a lot of people it means the day off and a long weekend... which, does happen for sure, but obviously isn't the main reason.  My sister came down because her kids didn't have school and she wanted to walk the trails with us.  She thought that it would be a good idea to break up the day and the mundane, but they didn't really want to go trail walking.  In fact, they didn't even know that they were so when we started doing it all they did was complain.  And complain.  And then complain some more.  I totally understood that it was pretty warm that day and that it was getting a little on the uncomfortable side, but I couldn't believe that they would be such big babies and whiners!  I mean, they are 12, 11, 10 and almost 8 and they complained and whined more than my 4, 3 and 1 year old did.  I was ready to leave them there!

Number 4 started actually crying saying that she wasn't going to make it and that she didn't know how much longer she could go on... seriously?  This was about half a mile into the walk... BTW.  Then, we got to the launch where we usually let the kids dip their feet and cool off so they enjoyed that part.  We told them where they could and shouldn't go but did number 4 listen?  Nope... and because she didn't she ended up with a leech on her foot.  Now, that, legitimately would cause me to freak out a little too, but Gaetan got it off and it was all good.  We eventually made it to the playground which is about a 1.5 miles and then we got complaints that it wasn't a good enough playground.  SERIOUSLY?!  I had no idea how they were going to make it back the other 1.5 miles.  And, definitely by that point, I honestly didn't care if they did.  Of course, I felt like a bad Aunt for thinking that... but... at the same time, it was how i felt.





They stayed for dinner and while I was making Holly's quinoa mexican dish number 2 came in and sneered at it and pretty much told me that he wasn't going to eat it and was upset that's what was for dinner.  Little did he know that I had made taco meat for him and his siblings because I knew that they would freak out if I fed them quinoa... even though Holly said that they would eat it (we know they wouldn't).  They had to get going someplace so they didn't stay long after dinner... which wasn't a bad thing.  I totally love hanging out with Holly but its hard because she doesn't discipline her kids and I don't want to step on toes, but we end up doing it and she doesn't seem to object... so...

It was an exhausting day, and despite them being boogers I did enjoy our time together.

JVG